Malaysia – Social networking accounted for one third of all time spent online in Malaysia in August 2011, rating it as the top online activity for the market, a comScore report concluded.
In the past year, social networking has increased by five percentage points to 32.1% of all time spent online, comScore added.
Joe Nguyen, comScore vice president for Southeast Asia said “Social networking has become the central activity in Malaysians’ digital lives, accounting for 1 in every 3 minutes spent online.”
“Given its importance today, brands and marketers need to ensure that social media is addressed in their digital strategies – whether that means having a dedicated social media plan or simply monitoring consumer sentiment towards your brand.”
Other top categories by share of time spent online included Entertainment (11.5%) and Portals (11.0%). Instant messengers and email represented 5.3% and 4.2% of total time, respectively.
Online video viewing continued to be a growing activity in Malaysia with its audience growing to nearly 9.3 million viewers in August 2011, up 8% from the previous year. Growth in online video engagement was even more pronounced as average minutes per viewer increased 19% to 6.2 hours in the same period.
Google sites ranked as the top video property in Malaysia with 8.8 million viewers and 457 million videos during August 2011 driven largely by YouTube.com, which accounted for 99% of viewers.
Facebook.com ranked second with 4.1 million viewers watching a total of 30.5 million videos during the month, while Vevo saw nearly 3 million viewers watch 26.5 million videos ranking as the third largest online video property in Malaysia.
In August, more than 11 million people aged 15 and above accessed the Internet from a home or work location in Malaysia. Among this audience, 92.4% visited Google sites, which ranked as the top online property for the market with 10.4 million visitors.
Facebook.com ranked as the second most-visited property with nearly 9.9 million visitors, up 15% since the past year, as the social networking giant continues to attract more users.
Among local properties, Mudah.my ranked as the most visited site with 2.5 million visitors in August. Media Prima Group, which includes Hmetro.com.my (Harian Metro), Bharian.com.my (Berita Harian), Tonton.com.my and others, reached 2.2 million visitors.
Maybank Group drew nearly 1.9 million visitors in August 2011, growing 20% from the previous year with Malaysians continuing to adopt online banking.
By: Malati Siniah, Malaysia
