Drawing on more data from our new GWI Brand report (you can download a free summary here), our post today focuses on the act of “liking” a brand at a national level.
Clearly, this is a behavior subject to substantial variation between countries. Keenest of all are internet users in the Philippines and Malaysia; more than 50% of online 16-64s said that they “liked” a brand last month. In fact, it’s in fast-growth internet markets generally where consumers are most enthusiastic about hitting the “like” button. It’s somewhat less popular in most of the mature nations – with Japanese and European internet users some of the least enthused of all.
This pattern is reflected in GWI’s social segmentation; online adults in places like Japan, Germany and Sweden are the most likely to be “passives” in terms of their networking behaviors (not really interacting with content or fellow contacts). In contrast, almost all networkers in many emerging internet nations are “sharers”.
All this helps to show why relatively low internet penetration rates in fast-growth markets should not be a barrier to digital investment.