A survey conducted by the Institute for Information Industry’s Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute (MIC) and released on Thursday showed that “stories” are the most liked kind of content on communications apps and social media.
In this context, “stories” refers to content on Instagram or Facebook that can only be viewed for 24 hours. They can appear in the form of short videoclips, graphics, pictures, text or a combination of these different elements.
After stories, which were preferred by 37 percent of respondents, videos clips came next with 34 percent, followed by live videos with 26.1 percent, text with 25.7 percent, and two-dimensional pictures, photos and graphs with 25 percent.
Photo: Reuters
The rankings and percentages of text and pictures fell from the previous year, the MIC said.
The survey showed that young people in the age brackets of 18 to 25 and 26 to 35 had a strong preference for “stories,” with 55 and 46 percent respectively.
A significant gap between the use of social media by different generations was also revealed in the survey.
The 18-to-25 age group used Instagram significantly more than other age groups, while more than 60 percent also frequently used YouTube and Instagram.
Facebook use was divided between those over and under the age of 35. Less than 60 percent of respondents between the ages of 18 and 35 used Facebook, compared to 75 percent among people aged 36 to 65.
Overall, the most commonly used social media platforms in Taiwan are Facebook (70 percent), YouTube (53 percent), Instagram (34 percent), PTT (11 percent) and Dcard (9 percent).
As to graphic and text advertisements on social media, more than half of Internet users said they preferred content that can be read within one minute.
They secondly preferred advertisements with fewer than 10 keywords, MIC industry analyst Hung Chi-ya (洪齊亞) said.
The reasons for using social media have changed, Hung said.
“Watching entertaining content” has replaced “following and interacting with friends and family” as the top reason.
The third-most cited reason, “obtaining news information,” also increased.
This indicates that the core function of social media has gradually transitioned from social interaction to comprehensive information access, Hung said.
As for communications applications, the top two used by Taiwanese users are Line (87 percent) and Messenger (24 percent), according to the MIC report.
These apps are increasingly evolving into tools for consumer activities, expanding their role beyond simple messaging, Hung said.
While the main use of these applications remains contacting friends and family (76 percent), that percentage fell from last year. Meanwhile, consumption-related functions, including mobile payment, receiving and browsing information, shopping, mobile membership and points collection, has increased, Hung said.
The report was conducted during the fourth quarter of last year, with 1,068 valid samples, a confidence level of 95 percent and a sampling error of 3 percentage points, the MIC said.
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