New report reveals Kiwi’s online habits that defined 2020

New data from Hootsuite and We Are Social deep dives into the online behaviours that defined a turbulent 2020, in which Kiwi’s spent a cumulative 1.47 billion hours using mobile phones, 1 hour and 55 mins per day on social and downloaded 160 million apps in the year that challenged what New Zealanders knew as ‘normal’.

Key stats and trends from Hootsuite & We Are Social’s Digital 2021 Report:

Social yet socially distanced:

• The average Kiwi has 7.6 social media accounts, with YouTube taking the top spot as NZ’s favourite social media platform, having 86.7% of Kiwi’s logging on in the past month. Facebook closely followed at 83.5%, then Facebook Messenger (74.8%), Instagram (57%), Whatsapp (40%), Snapchat (32.8%) and LinkedIn (30.7%).
• New Zealanders spent the big bucks on apps in 2020, totalling $270 million to be exact! Disney+ topped the list for the app with the most consumer spend, followed by Tinder (#2), and the top ten including Google One (#3), Netflix (#4), Twitch (#7), and Headspace (#10).
• A true testament to the year that’s been, when looking the most downloaded apps of the year, TikTok reigned king, followed by Facebook (#2) and Zoom (#3).

Connected cabin-fever:

• New Zealanders spent an average 6 hrs 39 mins on the internet per day in 2020, 3 hrs and 8 mins watching television, 1 hr and 55 mins using social media and 1 hr and 20 mins listening to music streaming services.
• Kiwi’s loved their online news in 2020, with new websites leading the top sites for traffic volume, Stuff was the top news site, clocking up 35.9 million total visits throughout the year, closely followed by the NZ Herald with 31.2 million visits.
• What were Kiwi’s searching for? When diving into the most searched Google queries in 2020, Weather ranked #1, followed by News (#2), Stuff (#3), Facebook (#4), Google (#5), New Zealand (#6), Coronavirus (#7), Youtube (#8), Warehouse (#9) and Herald (#10).
• Google-y eyed? 99% of Kiwi’s have used a conventional search engine in the past month.
• What did we do in the year we were cooped up? 94.3% of Kiwi’s watched online videos, 65.7% listened to music streaming services, 36.5% watched vlogs and 34.8% listened to podcasts.
• Prioritising privacy and wellbeing: 1 in 4 kiwis tracked their screen time or app time limits in the past month, 40.2% expressed concern about how companies are using their personal data and 42.3% used ad blocking tools.

Online retail rockets:

• In a year most were bagging a bargain online, the value of New Zealand’s eCommerce market grew a massive 19.9%, with the average Kiwi spending $1,529 online in 2020.
• Showing the widespread online retail adoption, 88.4% of Kiwi’s searched for a product online in 2020, 71.7% visited an online retail store and 70.9% purchased a product online.
• Online food delivery services ate much of New Zealanders hard-earned cash, with 42% of Kiwi’s admitting to using them in the past month, and spending an average of $255 on them in the past year.

View the full report here.