What Social Medias Are Indonesians Using? (2014 Data)

The title is the most asked question by clients, and so far I have not found any data that could tell me what is the popular social media is in Indonesia. Each claims a stake of being the most, but is that true? So I set myself on a quest to find out.

First of all, please take note that I am not a researcher by profession, so the way I set out to find out the answers might not be up to standard by those who are in the research industry. I did a mix of qualitative and quantitative questionnaires that I setup using Survey Monkey and Google Forms, then advertise them online targeted to regional Indonesia to get people to fill out the survey. I also slipped in questionnaires during Focus Group Discussions that the company I work for conduct. In all, in the course between Q3- Q4 2014, I managed to gather 3891 survey results which then took me a good 2 months to sift through.

By the numbers, 372 respondents were 13-15, 560 were 16-18, 829 were 19-21, 922 were 22-24, and 1208 were 25-44. The respondents were from Java (79%), Sumatra (9%), Sulawesi (7%), and the rest of Indonesia (5%). The following is the result that I gathered, Blue and Pink represents the genders, and Youtube is not listed as we find that users of all ages actively uses the service.

Users 13-15
Facebook is dominant in both male and female, and so is Whatsapp usage. BBM is there as most users received handmedowns phones from their parents which are mostly Blackberries. Bee Talk has a presence in the female as during the time of the survey the brand was heavily advertising on TVC with local heart throbs. The boys were using it because the girls are there. Line is big with boys, but when asked, their answer was because of the games.

Users 16-18
Facebook is used less by both, the reasons are because their parents are on Facebook. Twitter and Line are on the rise. Line are used both for gaming and communicating, while Twitter is used to get the latest update for news and their idols. Bee Talk is here for the same reasons, which due to the heavy campaigns they had. Boys are early adapting Vine for the videos (not much on producing them), while the girls are into Snapchat for the secrecy. As for chatter, the boys rely on Whatsapp.

Users 19-21
We see a more diverse app usage on this age group. Facebook usage is slightly larger by females, though both claims to use facebook to see things people share and they often share things from other social medias to facebook. Both Line and Twitter are getting a larger usage by both. A new comer is Kakao Talk, but its due to the big campaign they had for discounts at hangout spots. Females using Kakao Talk more than the men. Another new comer is Path for the females and Instagram for the male. Snapchat is still dominantly used by females while Whatsapp is being used accordingly, but most of their conversations goes on with Line.

Users 22-24
The list of apps and social media used by this age group is actually the largest, but the list above is still the dominant ones. Linkedin is adopted more by males than females in this group most called First Jobbers. Facebook is respectively still there and is dominated mostly by females. The use of Line is growing smaller but still dominant in the female side. Though Kakao Talk is used by females of this age groups primarily for the promotions, Instagram is growing also, though most females use it to browse and shop rather than to post pictures. Path usage is growing larger in both groups though still dominated by females. BBM is still there as a remnant of Blacberry's past glory, most of using it because of established groups.

Users 25-44
Facebook is large in this group for both. The male age group doesn't give much of a reason why, but most female in the group claims that its more relaxed and easy to follow. This is probably why we see a huge drop in female Twitter usage in this group. Path is huge in the female group, it rising also in the male side, but we don't see Path in most of the respondents above 38. Whatsapp is also still dominant for messaging, where we find claims of being more easier to use, less heavy and can have more users in a group than blackberry. We can assume BBM conversion to Whatsapp is high here though some still use BBM, most hate it because it has more and more ads in it. Linkedin is equally use by both, though males have are more active at updating than females. Instagram is growing on both sides, and Vine is used by males, although its at its infancy in 2014. We see less apps used and more based on essential needs. Some jokes that its the age factor setting in.

So, this is the results of my personal findings for Social media usage in 2014, I hope they can be of use or at least be an insight. I'm already starting on my 2015 surveys, and from what I experience so far, most of it is much more different, especially with DubSmash being popularly used today.