An example is this: Until last year, Italy, Portugal, and Spain were three of the least developed ecommerce markets in Western Europe, per a Eurostat report from January 2020. But as of May 2020, 53% of internet users ages 18 to 75 in Portugal had made a digital purchase during lockdown, according to data from marketing agency MARCO.

Social time did climb YoY in several countries, including France, Portugal, and India. But these increases were often small. Moreover, time spent with social actually fell in Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, and the Philippines, to name a few.

By comparison, those shares in Portugal were 84.7% and 53.0%, respectively, and in Germany, they were 87.9% and 52.2%. Spain registered higher values for both devices, at 87.2% and 59.4%. UK internet users registered 92.6% smartphone penetration in H1 2019. This figure also fell below comparable values in Portugal (96.1%), Germany (93.6%) and Spain (97.2%).