1.
How audiences use technology and how it impacts consumers’ life
Federica Olivotto

2.
Introduction
In the following paragraphs I will illustrate how consumers use technology and its impact on their lives by
analyzing how the share of people who regularly has access to the internet has increased globally over the years,
what are the most used devices to navigate and its implications, how customers look for information online, I
will explore how online shopping has increased over the recent years and what are the preferred products added
to the basket and why people chose it over shopping on site, I will analyze video consumption and the main
consumers’ trend according to the mentioned areas.

3.
Access to the Internet
Figure 1 Roser M, Ritchie H and Ortiz-Ospina E., 2015, Broadband
subscriptions per 100 people, 1998 to 2019, graph
Figure 1 (Roser M, Ritchie H and Ortiz-
Ospina E., 2015) shows the share of
population of different areas of the
world using Internet. In 2018, people
who globally have access to Internet in
North America are 88,50%, 78,98% of
Europe & Central Asia and 65,90% of
Latin America and Caribbean areas.
The graphic also shows the trend over
the years: in 2000 43,88% of the North
American population had access to
Internet, 13,16% of Europeans and
5,61% of East Asia and Pacific. It is
evident that the share of people who
has access and use regularly internet
has been growing (Roser M, Ritchie H and Ortiz-Ospina E., 2015).

4.
Countries and mobile/broadband speed
The access to internet can happen via mobile phone or via broadband network (Visualcapitalist, 2021).
As figure 2 shows (Statista, 2022), the top 3 countries with the highest internet mobile speed are UAE, South
Corea and Quatar (Statista, 2022)
It is interesting noticing that high
share of internet access does not
implies necessarily a higher mobile
speed: countries which belongs to
areas where a lower share of
population using Internet may
benefit of a very high mobile speed.
Fastest mobile speed is linked to
investments (Visualcapitalist, 2021)
Figure 2 Statista, 2022, Countries with the fastest average mobile internet speeds as of October 2021, graph

5.
Figure 3 Cable, 2022, The fastest and slowest countries in the world for broadband speed, graph
Countries with the fastest broadband speed are Jersey, Liechtenstein and Iceland. These countries are small
and wealthy, therefore investments to improve the broad speed networks are probably more possible than
bigger countries or countries with less investment capabilities (Cable, 2022).
The countries whit the lowest internet speed are in the sub-Saharan Africa and Near East (Cable, 2022).. In this
case, low use of internet in Sub-Samarian Africa coincides with low broadband speed. From the data above, it
is advisable to believe that a slower internet connection may be one of the causes of a limited access to
internet.

6.
Digital devices used by audiences
According to a survey conducted in 2020 in the UK, 2,419 respondents declared that the most used devices to
access internet are their mobile phone, their laptop and Ipad/tablet (Statista, 2020). This data are confirmed by
Perficient (2021) which conducted a similar survey in the USA: in 2020, 61% visits of websites comes from mobile
phones - 55,79% in 2016 (Perficient 2017).
Figura 6 nd, Iphone
Figura 4 Nd, laptop, photo
Figure 5 Nd, Ipad, photo

7.
Time spent on a website in relation to the device
Thanks to figure 7 (Perficient, 2021), it is also interesting noticing that the amount of time spent on a website
changes according to the device used. The user spends more time on-line if navigating from a desktop and less
time with the mobile phone (Perficient, 2021). Marketers have to take into account this data because they
influence the purchase process, the length of a text or a video.
Figura 7 Perficient, 2021, Us vs. Global Average Time on Side in Seconds, graph

8.
Relation between content and device
As shown in figure 8 (Perficient, 2021),
the content searched on-line usually
implies the choice of a specific device:
mobile or desktop.
For example: news, shopping,
information about food and drink and
people and society are accessed with
mobile phone, while information related
to business and industry, computer and
electronics, job and education and
science are accessed with desktop
(Perficient, 2021).
Given that navigating with a desktop or
with a mobile is a different experience,
marketers should take into account the
contents and the sector when designing
a website or creating contents.
Figure 8 Perficient, 2021, Percentage of US and Global Desktop Visits in 2020, graph

9.
How customers search for information
Nowadays, customers are not only passive viewers of the advertisements, but they actively look for information
to start their purchase process.
81% of people ask information to friend and family before buying something, because they are looking for the
“social proof” to minimize mistakes (Oberlo, 2021).
89% of people use a search engine to research for information before buying a product (Vividfish, 2017 – UK
Government - 2017). Users also use:
• price comparison websites;
• marketplaces websites (e.g. Amazon);
• specialized websites (Booking.com);
• social networks;
• search directly in the company’s website (UK Government,
2017).
Reviews are also important to collect information and take a
decision: in the USA, 77% of on-line buyers take into account an
on-line review (like videos, see figure 9) to help them taking a
decision (Heliyon, 2020)
Figura 9 nd, youtube product review, photo

10.
What consumers buy online
According to a survey conducted in 2018, the
top-three products and services bought on-
line are:
• travel holiday accommodations;
• household goods;
• tickets for events.
According to the graphic (Figure 10,
Optimonster, 2022) is also evident that
woman are more interested in buying on-line
food, clothes books and medicines than men,
and men tend to buy on-line travel and holiday
accommodations, households goods, tickets,
films and music and computer/technologies
more than women (Optinmonster, 2022).
Figura 10 Optinmonster, 2022, Shopping on-line, Men vs Women, graph

11.
Shopping trend
Figure 11 (Oberlo, 2022) shows that the quantity of people who shop on line has almost doubled since 2014,
and 27.2% of the world’s population shop on-line (Oberlo, 2021).
Figure 11 Oberlo, 2022, How many people shop on line?, graph

12.
On-line shopping reasons
Younger people shop more on line than older people: 38% of online shoppers in the USA are aged below 35
(Oberlo, 2021). Considering that people research on-line before buying a product leads inevitably to more on-
line purchases than in store (Oberlo, 2021).
Indeed, figure 12 (Oberlo, 2022) sums up
the results the survey conducted by
Globalwebindex: users appreciate
shopping on line because:
- free delivery;
- discounts;
- review from other customers';
- easy return policies;
- easy/quick checkout processes
Oberlo, 2021).
Figure 12 Oberlo, 2022, Top Reasons People Shop On line (2020), graph

13.
Online video consumption
Figura 13 Limelight,2020, How many total hours of video content do you watch on line each week, graph
Figure 13 (Limelight, 2020) shows that video consumption is growing over the time: nearly 8hs a week is the
average time per week spent globally to watch video content. From to 2016 to 2020, the average h pw are
almost doubled across all ages (Limelight, 2021).

14.
On-line videos vs broadcast videos
In some countries, consumption of videos is higher than broadcasted videos, above for people aged between
18 and 45 ears old as shown in figure 14 (Limelight, 2020).
This demonstrates that on-line videos can represent an important marketing tool.
Figure 14 Limelight, 2020, How many total hours of video content do you watch online and on broadcast, cable or satellite TV each week, graph

15.
The most popular video contents
Services on-demand are the primary reason why users spend time watching videos, above all because of the
recent pandemic which forced us to spend more time at home than ever before. Other reasons for video
consuming are: social medias, watching news, sports, online chatting or video conferences and online learning
hours.
User-created videos are also an important content and YouTube platform still dominates over Facebook,
Instagram and TikTok (Limelight 2021).
Figura 15 Nd, Netflix, photo

16.
Videos for promotional purposes
Not only entertainment videos: people use videos to learn more about a particular product and/or service before
purchasing (Oberlo, 2021): 54% of consumers declared that they want to see more videos from a brand they
like.
This makes videos an important and powerful marketing tool for companies. 88% of video marketers are satisfied
with the ROI of their video marketing efforts on social media (Oberlo, 2021).
Figura 16 Oberlo, 2022, Demand for Video Content is Increasing, picture

17.
Consumer trends
• Subscription to on-demand services is very popular nowadays: in 2020, it was registered a global + 50%
subscriptions compared to 2018, among young people more than older people. This is due to the necessity
of spending more time at home due to the pandemic, beside the fact that the contents are interesting
(Limelight, 2020)
• The pandemic forced us at home and we are now more willing to buy on-line than in the past a variety of
products. Companies worked on trust fast and cheap deliveries and favorable return policies to foster
online shopping (Oberlo, 2021).
• The mobile is our primary device with which we access internet, therefore users prefer accessing to short
textual or video contents. Video is the preferred content over text, however people prefer watch less than
1 minute-long videos (Colormatics, 2020). Platform like Tik Tok which offer short videos are now very
popular: in 2020, Tik Tok saw an increase of user of 800% compared to 2018 (CNBC, 2020)
• after Google, YouTube is the second most popular search engine (Oberlo, 2022) and compared to 2017,
YouTube users almost doubled (Omnicoreagency, 2022). The research “how to” is increasing 70% year over
year (Oberlo, 2022). Users find videos about products uploaded by business (62% of business use YouTube)

18.
(Oberlo, 2022), and product reviews which are very accounted and help them to decide which product to
buy. Influencer play an important role in the market fostering or not the purchase: indeed, 8 out 10 people
declared that they purchased an item after a recommendation by an influencer (Oberlo, 2022)
• Booking an holiday and all relative services is easier than before thanks to platform like Booking, Air B&B,
Skyscanner which offer free cancellation on hotels, last minute offers, price comparison... These platforms
have revolutionized the purchase system related of tourism sector, dropping to 24% the share of people
who turn to agencies to book a holiday and/or related services (Condoferries, 2020), but the number of
people who buy a last minute stay increased: in the last 5 years, travel-related searches with terms like
“today” or “tonight” increased by 519% (Stratosjets, 2022)
• The blooming of the Internet of Things (IoT): the relation between machine-machine through the
interconnection among our devices and cars, home appliance, health trackers… (Pewresearch, 2017). In
2021, 10 billion IoT devices were active but over 25 billion are estimated to be by 2030 (Dataprot, 2022).

19.
Summary
To summarize, the share of people who now have access to the Internet is increasing year by year. This implies
a connection among devices and among people, with a high amount of data transferred through mobile and
broadband networks which are being constantly improved to grant a faster service, which is what consumers
expect. Given that consumers are getting used to spending more time at home than before, they are getting
used to benefitting from technology in order to have products delivered directly to their doors or watching
entertainment products without going to the cinema or theater and/or in some cases even preferring them to
broadcast programs. Purchased products are very diversified, and often they are added to the basket after
watching or reading a review by other buyers or influencers. And finally, given that the phone is the most used
device to navigate, short texts or short videos are the most successful contents. Videos, in any case, are the
preferred content and platforms dedicated to videos are registering an increase in numbers of subscriptions and
users. People prefer watching videos to get to know more about a product, and marketers have to take into
account these trends in order to offer appropriate contents, engage the potential customers and persuade them
to purchase.

20.
Reference List
Max Roser, Hannah Ritchie and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina (2015) - "Internet". Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from:
'https://ourworldindata.org/internet' [Online Resource] accessed on 25 February 2022
Entrepreneur, 2013, An Accelerated History of Internet Speed (Infographic), article available at https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228489
Gigabit internet, picture available at https://www.ncta.com/chart/the-path-gigabit-internet?share_redirect=%2Ftopics#colorbox=node-2775
Statista, 2022, Countries fastest average mobile internet speeds, available at https://www.statista.com/statistics/896768/countries-fastest-
average-mobile-internet-speeds/
Visualcapitalist, 2021, Mapped the fastest and slowest internet speeds in the world, article available at https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-
the-fastest-and-slowest-internet-speeds-in-the-world/
Cable, 2022, Worldwide Speed League, article available at https://www.cable.co.uk/broadband/speed/worldwide-speed-league/
Cable, 2022, The fastest and slowest countries in the world for broadband speed, graph available at
https://www.cable.co.uk/broadband/speed/worldwide-speed-league/
Perficient, 2017, mobile Vs desktop usage, article available at https://blogs.perficient.com/2017/04/05/mobile-vs-desktop-usage-mobile-grows-
but-desktop-still-a-big-player-in-2017/
Perficient, 2022, mobile vs desktop usage, article available at https://www.perficient.com/insights/research-hub/mobile-vs-desktop-usage
Statista, 2020, Which is the most important device you use to connect to the internet, at home or elsewhere?, statistic available at
https://www.statista.com/statistics/387447/consumer-electronic-devices-by-internet-access-in-the-uk/
Perficient, 2021, Us vs. Global Average Time on Side in Seconds, graph available at https://www.perficient.com/insights/research-hub/mobile-vs-
desktop-usage

21.
Perficient, 2021, Percentage of US and Global Desktop Visits in 2020, graph available at https://www.perficient.com/insights/research-
hub/mobile-vs-desktop-usage
Oberlo, 2021, 19 Powerful Ecommerce Statistics That Will Guide Your Strategy in 2021, article available at
https://www.oberlo.com/blog/ecommerce-statistics
Vividfish, 2017, 89% of customers' begin their buying process with a search engine source, article available at
https://www.vividfish.co.uk/blog/89-of-customers-begin-their-buying-process-with-a-search-engine-source-fleishman-hillard
UK Government, 2017, On-line search literature review April 2017, available at
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/607077/online-search-literature-review-7-
april-2017.pdf
Helyon, 2020, Customer review or influencer endorsement: which one influences purchase intention more?, article available at
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844020323860
Optinmonster, 2022, Conversion Rate Optimization Blog, article available at https://optinmonster.com/online-shopping-statistics/
Optinmonster, 2022, Shopping on-line, Men vs Women, graph available at https://optinmonster.com/online-shopping-statistics/
Oberlo, 2022, How many people shop on line?, graph available at https://www.oberlo.com/blog/ecommerce-statistics
Oberlo, 2022, Top Reasons People Shop On line (2020), graph https://www.oberlo.com/blog/ecommerce-statistics
Oberlo, 2022, Demand for Video Content is Increasing, picture https://www.oberlo.com/blog/ecommerce-statistics
Oberlo, 10 Video Marketing Statistics That you need to know in 2022, article available at https://www.oberlo.com/blog/video-marketing-statistics
Limelight,2020, How many total hours of video content do you watch on line each week, graph https://www.limelight.com/resources/market-
research/state-of-online-video-2020/#growing

22.
Colormatics, 2020, Short form video statistics and 2020 marketing trends, available at https://www.colormatics.com/article/short-form-video-
statistics-and-2020-marketing-trends/
CNBC, 2020, TikTok reveals detailed user numbers for the first time, available at https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/24/tiktok-reveals-us-global-user-
growth-numbers-for-first-time.html#:~:text=TikTok%20has%20about%20100%20million,million%20daily%20active%20U.S.%20users
Omnicoreagency, 2022, YouTube statistics, article avallable https://www.omnicoreagency.com/youtube-statistics/,
Oberlo, 2022, YouTube statistics, article available at https://www.oberlo.com/blog/youtube-statistics
Oberlo, 2022, Influencer marketing statistics, article available at https://www.oberlo.com/blog/influencer-marketing-statistics
Condor, 2020, Online Travel Booking - Statistics 2020-2021, article available at https://www.condorferries.co.uk/online-travel-booking-statistics
Stratosjets, 2022, Over 60 Online Travel Booking Statistics https://www.stratosjets.com/blog/online-travel-statistics/
Pewresearch, 2017, The Internet of Things Connectivity Binge: What are the implications?, article available at
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2017/06/06/the-internet-of-things-connectivity-binge-what-are-the-implications/
Dataprot, 2022, Internet of Things Statistics for 2022 – Taking things apart, article available at https://dataprot.net/statistics/iot-statistics/
Foto
Nd, Iphone, photo available at https://tecnofacile.com/migliori-smartphone-compatti/
Nd, Ipad, photo available at https://www.tomshw.it/smartphone/apple-ipad-2021-uscita-prezzo-specifiche/
Nd, Laptop, photo available at https://www.offerteshopping.it/laptop-notebook-modelli-differenze/
nd, youtube product review, photo https://www.internetvibes.net/2021/03/09/guide-to-starting-a-product-review-youtube-channel/
Nd, Netflix, photo available at https://www.pcprofessionale.it/news/hardware/facebook-portal-tv-arriva-netflix/