A high number of Thai people like to spend more online time watching videos on YouTube than being on Facebook, if you are to go by the recent report on online behaviour of Thai people released by comScore. After YouTube and other Google properties, it is the Microsoft sites and Facebook where the online visitors like to go to the most in Thailand, the report showed. According to comScore, social networking represented the most-engaging online activity in Thailand. 96 percent spent time on social networks. In the month of February, it accounted for 29.8 percent of total time spent online. 9 out of 10 visitors were on Search/Navigation site, while portals and entertainment content reached the largest percentage of online visitors with 98 percent of the country’s web population visiting these categories during the month.
The report which tracked the online behaviour for the month of February 2012 says, “When looking at the top online categories by user engagement, social networking led all categories with 29.8 percent of all time spent online during the month, followed by entertainment sites, which accounted for 13.9 percent. Portals ranked third, accounting for 11.1 percent of minutes, while Instant Messengers (5.2 percent) and Email (3.9 percent) rounded out the top five.
In fact, Google sites which includes Google Search and other Google-owned entities such as YouTube.com, led as the top Internet property in Thailand. The properties got 9.3 million visitors in February, representing 95.7 percent of the total online population. Microsoft sites followed with 9.0 million visitors (92.6 percent reach), followed by Facebook.com with 8.6 million visitors (88.4 percent reach). Investment group MIH Limited, which acquired local site Sanook.com in 2010, was the fourth most-visited property in the country with 4.9 million visitors, while Internet Marketing Co. Ltd., which includes Bloggang.com and Pantip.com among other sites, secured the fifth position with 4.4 million visitors.
In February 2012, Thailand’s online population, defined as people age 6 and older that accessed the Internet from a home or work computer, reached nearly 9.8 million visitors. A visitor spent an average 27.4 hours online during the month, consuming an average of 2,845 pages of content. Interestingly, Thailand is home to one of the youngest online markets globally, with younger internet users accounting for a high percentage of the web population. In fact 74.7 percent of all internet users in Thailand were under the age of 35. comScore reports, “Users aged 15-24 accounted for 45.2 percent of visitors and those aged 25-34 represented 29.5 percent. Users aged 15-24 accounted for more than half of all online minutes (50.9 percent) as visitors in this age group averaged 31.7 hours online in February. Visitors aged 25-34 averaged 26 hours online, while those in the 35-44 age segment averaged 25.4 hours during the month.”