WhatsApp and Facebook dominate the social media landscape in middle-income nations
Across eight countries surveyed in Latin America, Africa and South Asia, a median of 73% of adults say they use WhatsApp and 62% say they use Facebook.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Across eight countries surveyed in Latin America, Africa and South Asia, a median of 73% of adults say they use WhatsApp and 62% say they use Facebook.
In most countries surveyed, around nine-in-ten or more adults are online. In South Korea, 99% of adults use the internet.
As people in advanced economies reach the upper bounds of internet penetration, the digital divide continues to narrow between wealthy and developing countries.
Many in Europe, the U.S., Canada, Australia and Japan do not report regularly visiting social media sites. But majorities in all of the 14 countries surveyed say they at least use the internet.
India and China have long had a competitive relationship and have emerged as major economic powers. But in the digital space, China has a clear advantage.
In each of 14 countries surveyed in 2016, nearly all people reported owning a mobile phone. But the shares who own a smartphone vary considerably.
As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, both economically and socially, technology adoption remains one of the defining factors in human progress. To that end, there has been a noticeable rise over the past two years in the percentage of people in the emerging and developing nations surveyed by Pew Research Center who say that they use the internet and own a smartphone.
In our survey of thousands of people across 32 emerging and developing nations, we found some notable data points that might have been lost in the fray.
While half of Indian internet users regularly access social media sites, such as Facebook or Twitter, only about a third of these users share views about politics on these social networks.
Within a remarkably short period of time, some developing nations are catching up to the U.S. in technology use.
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