PHL spends 54 hours weekly on online media, says report

A report by consumer intelligence firm Meltwater and creative agency We Are Social said that Filipinos spend an average of 54 hours per week on online media, significantly higher than the global average of 33 hours and 27 minutes.

“APAC remains one of the most dynamic digital regions in the world. Internet and social media usage in several markets consistently outpaces global averages,” Meltwater APAC Vice President Mimrah Mahmood said in a statement.

The firms’ Digital 2026 report ranked the country as the second-longest consumers of online media globally, with over 98 million internet users.

Of these internet users, 97.8% use a mobile phone to access online media.

“While user numbers continue to climb, how people spend their time is changing,” the firms said in a statement.

All sorts of video content (91.1%) are the most consumed media by internet users aged 16 and above globally, followed by social media (88.1%), short-form videos like TikTok (86.9%), television (85.5%), and media outlets (81.2%).

The report also noted that worldwide internet users spend an average of 4.21 days per week consuming social media. For video content, 4.15 days are spent on short-form videos, while long-form videos consume 3.28 days.

The online behavior of users around the globe is similar to how Filipinos spend their time on the Internet.

The report noted that internet users in the country spend over 20 hours watching online videos per week, making them the second highest globally.

YouTube is used by the majority of the country’s internet population for videos at 85%, while TikTok follows behind at 82.2%.

On average, Filipinos spend 5.22 days per week and 4.56 days per week watching both long and short online videos, respectively.

Apart from watching videos, 41.9% of Filipinos also use social media to discover brands, and 56.4% shop online each week.

“A majority of people in the country prefer shopping online over physical stores,” the firms said.

In terms of digital content, 67.1% of Filipino users pay for some form of content monthly, aligned with the global average of 67%.

Despite the active presence of Filipinos in the digital world, a separate report from the global connectivity intelligence firm Ookla ranked the Philippines as 66th for mobile internet speeds and 54th for fixed broadband as of August.

Ookla noted that the average download speed for mobile users in the country as of August is 59.64 megabytes per second (Mbps), and an upload speed of 8.58 Mbps. For fixed broadband, the average download speed reaches 105.17 Mbps, while upload speeds closely follow at 99.77 Mbps. — Almira Louise S. Martinez