Despite Tiktok, Netflix and Co., the population uses TV and radio heavily
The IGEM Digimonitor shows that the “Corona effect” continues: As was the case in 2020, restrictions have led Swiss people to rely more on digital services. However, they still use TV and radio extensively and frequently—two-thirds listen to the radio or watch TV every day.
According to the Digimonitor published on Monday, the streaming provider Netflix has found half a million new users within a year. According to the annual study, it has 2.8 million users in Switzerland - Netflix thus reaches 42 percent of the population.
On YouTube, 4.6 million people (68 percent) click. Play Suisse, SRG's streaming service, reaches 690,000 people (10.2 percent). Disney+ is used by almost as many (650,000 or 9.7 percent).
However, the Digimonitor also shows that, despite this digitization push, traditional television still reaches significantly more viewers. 6.3 million or 94 percent of the population watch television, and despite cell phones, tablets and laptops, they prefer to do so on the tried-and-true TV set in the living room.
Growth in times of pandemic
One of the growth winners in 2021 is the Swiss payment app Twint. It is now used by 2.8 million people, or 42 percent of the population, to make contactless payments.
The app thus recorded over 1 million more users than in 2020. A year ago - in the wake of the pandemic and the hygiene bans - there had already been a strong increase.
Zoom and Microsoft Teams also recorded more than 1 million new users than a year earlier. These increases are also due to Corona effects; the tools for video conferencing are in high demand in times of home offices.
Facebook loses with the young
Social media platforms are popular in Switzerland regardless of the pandemic: 4.2 million people, or 71 percent of the population, now use one at least occasionally. Among 15- to 24-year-olds, the proportion is as high as 99 percent.
Facebook is still the biggest platform, with 3 million Swiss people on it. Among young people, however, it is losing ground and is no longer number 1. Among 15- to 24-year-olds, the video portal Tiktok is now ahead of Facebook for the first time.
Competition for Whatsapp
Among messenger services, Whatsapp remains the market leader by a wide margin. 5.6 million people, or 42 percent of the population, use it to send messages. However, the competitors are gaining ground: Telegram has 940,000 (14 percent), Signal 860,000 (12.9 percent) and the Swiss app Threema 710,000 (10.7 percent) at least occasional users.
According to Digimonitor, just under 30 percent of the population uses at least one of these alternative services. But even among people who have downloaded an alternative, Whatsapp still remains the main messenger.
The messenger service Telegram is used more in Ticino (17.4 percent) and in French-speaking Switzerland (16.2 percent) than in German-speaking Switzerland (13.1 percent). Threema, on the other hand, has almost only users in German-speaking Switzerland: 13.4 percent compared with 3.7 percent in French-speaking Switzerland and 3.4 percent in Ticino. Whatsapp is used heavily in all language regions.
The Digimonitor study is published annually by the electronic media interest group and Wemf AG für Werbemedienforschung. With the support of the Swiss Confederation, the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland has now also been surveyed for the first time. (SDA/swi)
