A new global study has placed Kenya at the top of the world when it comes to time spent on social media, highlighting the country’s strong online culture and active digital engagement.
The report by Players Time shows that social media has become a major part of daily life for many Kenyans, shaping how people communicate, share information, and follow trends.
According to the report released last week, the average Kenyan spends 5 hours and 10 minutes on social media every day, which is about 310 minutes. This is the highest average recorded among the countries studied.
The report notes that this figure is even higher than what is seen in major global economies such as the United States and China, despite their advanced technology sectors and large populations.
The Philippines ranked second, with users spending an average of 4 hours and 50 minutes per day, which translates to 290 minutes. Brazil and Nigeria shared the third position, with people in both countries spending about 4 hours and 9 minutes daily on social media platforms.
South Africa followed closely in fourth place, with an average usage time of 4 hours and 2 minutes per day.
In contrast, social media use was lower in some of the world’s most developed nations.
“The United States, home to several of the world’s leading social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp falls near the middle of the ranking, with an average daily usage of 2 hours and 52 minutes (172 minutes),” the report stated.
It further added that “China records lower daily engagement at 1 hour and 53 minutes (113 minutes), while Japan ranks last among the selected countries, with the lowest average daily usage at 1 hour and 6 minutes (66 minutes).”
Photo showing a group of people using there phones. Photo Courtesy: The Standard
The report also looked at the popularity of different platforms worldwide. Facebook remained the most used platform globally, with 3.07 billion monthly users. Instagram and WhatsApp followed closely, each recording about 3 billion monthly users.
YouTube and TikTok also had large audiences, with 2.58 billion and 1.99 billion monthly users respectively, most of them being young people.
Other platforms such as Telegram and Snapchat recorded more than 900 million users each month, while Pinterest, X, Threads, LinkedIn, and LMO had fewer than 600 million users monthly.
“While TikTok is relatively newer and smaller in reach than Facebook, for instance, it seems to be much more addictive, with younger generations, in particular, picking it as their favourite social media app,” the reports stated.
When it comes to daily usage time, “the Chinese short-form online video platform leads with an average time spent of 97 minutes per day, followed by YouTube at 85 minutes, Instagram at 73 minutes, and Facebook at 67 minutes,” it added.
The study also examined gender patterns on social media. Men made up 54.4 per cent of social media users and were more active on platforms focused on gaming and discussions such as Discord, X, and Reddit. Women were more active on visually focused platforms like Pinterest.
“In contrast, several social media networks emerge as more gender-balanced, with an almost even split between men and women on Snapchat (49% male/51% female) and Instagram and Telegram (each with 51% male versus 49% female users),” the report stated.