Digital Buyers in Germany Hang Back from Social Media
Facebook is in, other sites not so much
January 4, 2016
Most internet users in Germany use social networks, and juggernaut Facebook is popular in the country. But other sites are less widely used in Germany than in the nearby UK, for example.
Consumer delivery specialist Hermes and Q-Quiz Research found that aside from Facebook and YouTube, where usage rates among digital buyers in Germany were similar to those in the UK, buyers in Germany were just not that into many social sites.
Digital buyers in Germany where about half as likely to use Twitter or Pinterest as their UK counterparts, for example, and less than one-third as likely to use LinkedIn.
comScore research from August 2015 also points to higher social usage for sites other than Facebook in the UK than Germany. Seven in 10 UK internet users were Facebook and Facebook Messenger users, vs. 67% in Germany. But respondents in Germany were less than half as likely to use LinkedIn or Twitter.
According to the Office of Communications – UK (Ofcom), social network penetration in Germany is lower than that in the UK across age groups. Among 18- to 24-year-olds, for example, 80% use social networks in the UK vs. 74% in Germany. The differences were greater among older age groups.