Philippines is the world's "most social nation" - software Opera Mini

This file photo shows the Facebook app icon on an iPhone. Facebook remains the most used social media site among American teens ages 13 to 17, according to a 2014 study from Pew Research Center. And, surprisingly, boys visit the site more often than girls. Aided hugely by smartphones and other mobile devices, 71 percent of teens surveyed said they use Facebook, with the same percentage saying they use more than one social network of seven options they were asked about. AP

PH ‘most social nation’–report

The Philippines is the world’s “most social nation” based on social media activity of Internet users, a report by software Opera Mini said on Thursday.

In its State of the Mobile Web Report, the browser software said Internet users in the Philippines have the highest social media activity worldwide.

“The Philippines used to be known as the text messaging capital of the world. Now, with easier Internet access and higher smartphone adoption, our findings indicate that the country has transformed into the most social nation,” the report said.

Opera Mini said social networking sites accounted for 86 percent of page views from its mobile browser users in the Philippines—the highest percentage among 50 countries.

The report attributed the growing social media activity in the country to the popularity of smartphones, saying half of Filipino mobile Web users use smartphones in surfing the Internet.

“With the unstoppable adoption of smartphones, people are spending more time accessing the Web on their mobile devices,” the report said. “The smartphone adoption rate in this country has grown from 41 percent to 55 percent over the past year.”

The browser software ranked Facebook, Google and YouTube as the top three most visited sites in the Philippines. Wikipedia, Yahoo, Twitter, Tumblr and WordPress also cracked the top 10.

The report also noted that local smartphone brands have been catching up with international brands in terms of consumer usage, increasing their share in the mobile phone market in the Philippines.

“A breakdown of the top 100 mobile devices preferred by Opera Mini users shows that Cherry Mobile has overtaken Samsung, with a 27 percent market share. Another local brand, MyPhone, has 8 percent,” it said. “The total market share of these two local smartphone brands is 35 percent, higher than Nokia’s 31 percent.” - INQUIRER