Malaysians are more into videos, Stories and messaging

The online community grew stronger over the decade as it becomes an essential tool of communication — both personal and business-wise. In 2019, Facebook revealed the top rising social trends across their platforms — videos, ephemeral sharing, and messaging; these trends continue to grow stronger this year.

Malaysia has a high rate of 88% of individuals owning smartphones in which 77.6% of them spend time on their phones streaming or downloading videos online. Not only has the rate of video consumption increased, but mobile video experiences are also no longer linear; on Facebook, there are two categories of video consumers — “on-the-go” and “captivated viewing”. The former category refers to shorter videos while the latter refers to longer videos that perhaps have more information and captures one’s attention.

Another trend that has started a while back and is still going strong is ephemeral sharing (read: Stories). Studies have shown that social media users have grown fond of sharing visuals instead of texts and feel safer in posting Stories as these posts will only last for 24 hours. It gives them the confidence in sharing more moments of their lives with others as these posts aren’t “permanent”.

Last but not least, online messaging has become the norm in society. People are now buying and selling items via conversations on social media platforms. This would’ve seemed impossible and raised a lot of concerns if it was 10 years back. Study shows that people in Asia-Pacific have a higher probability to message a business as compared to a global average. This is something business individuals should take note of as it can not only build brand loyalty, it can also expand the reach of the business to different markets.

Malaysians these days are all about immediacy and seamless connectivity, which is why business individuals need to step up and start exploring the online world and adapt to these trends to keep up with their customers.