Simon Kemp
Chief Analyst
DataReportal
Over the past twelve months, the
world’s digital behaviours have shown
some of the most profound changes
we’ve seen in years, even compared
with “the pandemic years”. And in
fact, our top story in this year’s report
doesn’t relate to digital growth, but
to an overall decline in the amount of
time that each individual spends using
the internet.
It’s important to stress that this decline
doesn’t indicate that the internet is
becoming less important in our lives,
however. Rather, it suggests that
people are becoming more purposeful
in their use of digital technologies,
and are prioritising the quality of
their connected experiences over the
quantity.
Despite the decline in overall time
spent, however, people are actually
spending more time than ever using
social media, and in stark contradiction
to the endless click-bait foretelling an
imminent “demise” of social media,
global user numbers continue to grow.
of these online behaviours to continue
evolving during the course of 2023.
Macroeconomic trends will likely have
the most widespread influence, but
the rise of technologies like generative
AI may also have a profound impact
on the ways we work, rest, and play
online.
If you’d like to explore a more detailed
analysis of this year’s numbers, you’ll
find my complete Digital 2023 review
in this article over on DataReportal, but
click on to the next page here to start
reading our biggest ever collection of
digital stats and trends.
But with that, I’d like to wish you the
very best of luck for your year in digital
in 2023 – here’s to more purposeful
and discerning success for all of us.
over the internet, more people than
ever are buying things online, and
we’re also using an ever wider range
of connected devices.
Mobile phones remain at the centre
of the world’s digital behaviours, with
the typical user now spending more
than five hours per day interacting with
their smartphone. However, computers
continue to play an essential role in
the world’s digital activities, and these
devices still account for more than half
of all connected time across countries
in Northern America and Western
Europe.
We’ve also seen some of the “hottest”
digital trends cool over recent months,
with rising economic challenges and
a series of scandals unwinding much
of the recent growth in areas such as
cryptocurrencies and NFTs.
But with the latest trends revealing
that internet users everywhere are
becoming more discerning in their use
of connected tech, we can expect all
We’ve seen some important revisions
in the advertising reach figures
published by individual platforms
though, so marketers will want to pay
close attention to the latest numbers,
to ensure they’re making the best
informed decisions. Moreover, we’ve
got some great insights into how the
audiences of each platform overlap, as
well as what people are actually doing
on these platforms.
For example, one of the most intriguing
stories in that data is how social
media’s role in search is evolving,
with ever more people turning to
social platforms to find information
and discover new things. There’s been
plenty of evolution in the world’s
broader search behaviours too, and
some of those changes may come as a
surprise.
The world isn’t just going online to find
information though, even if that remains
the primary reason why people use the
internet today. We’re also spending
more time than ever streaming content
THE CHANGING WORLD OF DIGITAL IN 2023
