Filipinos outspend world on social media time, report says

Filipino internet users spend more time on social media and online video than those in any other market in the ranking, averaging 36 hours and 12 minutes per week, according to Digital 2027, the latest annual report from We Are Social and Meltwater.

That is nearly double the global average of 19 hours and 18 minutes per week, a figure that itself rose 3.8 percent over the past year.

Filipinos also lead the world in YouTube use, with 86.7 percent of internet users aged 16 and above saying they used the platform in the past month, against 56.2 percent globally.

Facebook reached 95.5 percent of Filipino internet users, tied for second place and well above the global figure of 58.1 percent.

TikTok use stands at 84.8 percent in the Philippines, second only to Nigeria and more than double the global figure of 36.1 percent, though the TikTok figures exclude China.

Filipino users are active across many platforms, using an average of 8.43 social platforms each month against 6.66 worldwide.

Filipinos are also early adopters of generative AI (Gen AI), with 54.6 percent saying they used ChatGPT in the past month against a global 34.7 percent, the sixth-highest share in the report.

Google Gemini was used by 40.3 percent of Filipino internet users, compared with 28.7 percent globally, while 94.4 percent say they use AI tools each month against 85.2 percent worldwide.

Table 1. Selected Asia-Pacific markets

Social media is the Filipino consumer’s main research tool for brands, with 77.5 percent using it to research products they are considering buying, against 69.2 percent globally.

By comparison, 42.3 percent of Filipino internet users use search engines for brand research, below the global 45.3 percent, and 23.8 percent use AI tools, below the global 26.0 percent.

Social media advertising and creators also carry more weight in the Philippines, where 45.9 percent discover brands through social media ads against 30.4 percent globally, and 42.5 percent follow influencers against 23.7 percent.

Online reach in the country is broad, with social media user identities equal to 80.3 percent of the Philippine population against 69.9 percent worldwide, and 81.3 percent of Filipinos using the internet against 73.9 percent globally.

Table 2. The Philippines compared with the world

THE GLOBAL PICTURE

Digital 2027 reveals major milestones in artificial intelligence and social media adoption, with more than a third of the global population now using Gen AI tools each month, and social media user identities climbing to nearly 70 percent of the world’s population.

The report also highlights a significant shift in online behaviour, pointing to a noticeable decline in traditional web traffic as users spend more time on social platforms, pivot to native mobile apps and embrace AI-powered platforms.

We Are Social is a socially-led creative agency, and Meltwater is a global provider of actionable intelligence for PR, communications and marketing teams.

Digital 2027 is part of the Global Digital Reports series, which DataReportal Chief Analyst Simon Kemp describes as the series’ biggest edition yet, fifteen years after the first report.

GEN AI ADOPTION ACCELERATES

The Digital 2027 analysis estimates that active users of Gen AI tools have grown to 3.24 billion, equivalent to 38.9 percent of the global population.

Active Gen AI users have increased by 57.2 percent over the past 12 months, adding 1.2 billion new users.

The report notes that these figures cover standalone Gen AI platforms only and do not count AI features built into other software or apps.

ChatGPT remains the Gen AI market leader, attracting twice as many monthly active users as its nearest rival.

However, platforms like Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude are making significant gains, with active users of Gemini’s mobile apps increasing fourfold over the past year, and its web user base now over 60 percent the size of ChatGPT’s.

SOCIAL MEDIA TIME, PLATFORM LOYALTY SURGES

Global social media user identities now stand at 5.81 billion, equivalent to 69.9 percent of the global population.

The global total increased by 2.7 percent over the past year, thanks to the addition of 151 million new user identities.

The report cautions that user identities may not represent unique individuals, since one person can hold several accounts.

Crucially for brands, consumers are spending ever more time on these networks.

The typical internet user has increased the time they spend on social media and online video platforms by 3.8 percent over the past year, reaching an average of 19 hours and 18 minutes per week.

When looking at where that attention goes, YouTube captured the greatest share of total global social media time, closely followed by WhatsApp and Instagram.

When measuring average time spent per active user, TikTok leads with 1 hour and 55 minutes per day.

Social networks remain a key destination of choice for commerce for younger demographics in particular: 46.9 percent of internet users aged 16 to 24 use platforms like Instagram and Facebook as their primary source of information when researching brands and potential purchases.

ONLINE HABITS SHIFT

Digital 2027 highlights how the rise of AI and native mobile apps is reshaping the traditional internet.

Across the world’s top 10,000 web domains, total monthly web traffic has declined by more than 10 percent since the public launch of ChatGPT, and the total time spent using the web has fallen by 11.2 percent in just the past 24 months.

However, despite AI’s impressive momentum, online adults are still 74 percent more likely to say they visit search engines when researching brands than they are to visit an AI platform, and AI isn’t the only reason web behaviours are evolving.

Digital 2027 is a comprehensive 900-page report covering the entire online ecosystem, featuring data from GWI, Similarweb, Statista, and more.

Other key highlights include the following.

A varied marketing mix: The typical online adult now relies on an average of 5.8 different channels to find new brands.

Global internet penetration: Internet users have reached 6.15 billion, meaning 73.9 percent of the global population is now online.

Channels with influence: Digital ad spend increased by 8.7 percent over the last year, with social media up 18 percent, and influencer ad spend increasing by 15 percent.

The ultimate web debate: Google search data confirms cats continue to rule the internet at the end of 2026, fetching 4.15 billion results compared to 4.02 billion for dogs.

Table 3. Global headline figures

 

WHAT THE BRANDS SAY

Suzie Shaw, We Are Social APAC CEO, said: “AI is changing how people discover brands, but social remains central to where people spend their time and form preferences.

“The conversations, recommendations and opinions people share online are increasingly informing the answers AI gives and the decisions people make. For brands, that changes the game. You can optimize what you publish, but you don’t control what people say about you. GEO makes the strength of your reputation and the communities you build more important than ever. The brands that win won’t just be the ones that appear in AI-generated answers, but the ones people are genuinely interested in, talking about and recommending in the first place,” Shaw adds.

GEO, or generative engine optimization, refers to shaping a brand’s presence so that it appears in answers produced by AI tools.

“Across APAC, where digital behaviours and platform preferences vary widely between markets, brands can no longer rely on a single channel to reach their audiences. With generative AI adoption surging nearly 60% in the last year, the customer journey is being rewritten in real time—changing how people discover information and evaluate brands,” said Mimrah Mahmood, Meltwater’s APAC Vice President of Enterprise Sales.

“To keep pace, marketers and communicators must pivot from siloed channel tracking to understanding their total brand footprint across news, social, search, and AI-powered environments. Because cultural context and language heavily shape how APAC audiences perceive brands, bringing together media, social, and AI intelligence is now essential for teams to spot emerging shifts and focus their efforts where it actually moves the needle,” Mahmood added.

The full report is available at https://wearesocial.com/digital-2027 and https://www.meltwater.com/en/global-digital-trends.