Media consumption in Switzerland in 2020: what trend? and for which audience?

Since 2014 Digimonitor has been examining media and electronic device usage in Switzerland. The data is representative of the entire population of German and French-speaking Switzerland aged 15 and over, as offline users and people without a fixed network connection are also surveyed. The telephone survey was conducted from the beginning of April to the end of May 2020. Commissioned by IGEM (Interest Group for Electronic Media) and EMN, the Link Institute interviewed 1,759 people, of which 1,008 in German-speaking Switzerland and 751 in French-speaking Switzerland. The confidence interval is at most +/- 2.3 percentage points.

Swiss consumer trends in 2020

Teleworking: many more Swiss use smartphones and laptops The number of smartphone users in Switzerland has increased considerably in the last year. 600,000 people now use a smartphone. By 2020, 5.6 million people will have access to the internet anytime and anywhere with a smartphone (from 80% to 88% of the total population). In particular, the over-55 age group (from 54% to 71%) is increasingly using a smartphone, as are men (from 79% to 90%).

There has also been a significant increase in the use of laptops. Half a million Swiss men and women now use a laptop at least occasionally (from 4.3 to 4.8 million). In 2020, for the first time, more people (76%) will use a laptop than a desktop (69%). (Chart 2) Men (70-82%) and those over 55 (45-57%) are also the top laptop users.

Television: the most widespread screen The television set is and remains the most widely used electronic device in Switzerland. 92% of the total population sits in front of the “box” at least occasionally (5.9 million people). Radios are used by 82% of the population (5.2 million people). Almost half of the population (47%) also listens to the radio via other devices: via smartphone (24%), TV (24%), PC/laptop (20%) or tablet (4%).

One in twelve women and one in eight men wear them. Smartwatch wearership is increasing by 200,000 users.

Smartwatch: One in twelve women and one in eight men are wearing them Wearing a Smartwatch is increasing by 200’000 users. Today, nearly 700,000 people (11%) wear a smartwatch on their wrist. Only voice-activated speakers have not benefited from the boom in electronic devices. As in the previous year, less than 3% of the population speaks at least sometimes with a smart speaker like Amazon Echo, Google Home or Apple HomePod. This corresponds to only 160,000 people in Switzerland.

TikTok: strong growth among the younger generation In 2020, the Swiss seem to have more time for social media. All social media platforms are gaining new users. Facebook and Instagram are each attracting 350,000 new users. This means that Facebook is recovering from last year’s slump. With 3 million people, half of the total population (46%) now uses Facebook at least occasionally.

2.1 million people, or one-third (33%) of the population, are occasionally on Instagram.

2.1 million people, or one-third (33%) of the population, are occasionally on Instagram. Instagram is particularly popular with youth under 25: 82% of youth use Instagram, and only 34% use Facebook. (Figure 4) Indeed, unlike the general population, Facebook is losing ground among youth under 25. This age group is turning to the Chinese video portal TikTok. TikTok is currently the fastest growing video portal in Switzerland. The number of “TikTokers” has almost quintupled compared to the previous year. Of the 370,000 TikTok users in Switzerland, most are under 25, female and in education. One out of three women under 25 years old “tikTok” (34%). However, TikTok has not yet reached the total population: only 6% use TikTok from time to time.

Spotify: Young people are buying a subscription In one year, the music streaming service Spotify gained 300,000 new users. Older demographics in particular are discovering Spotify: half of the new users are over 55 years old. 2.0 million people now listen to music via Spotify at least occasionally, which corresponds to almost a third of the total population (31%). (Chart 1) Among young people aged 15-24, the proportion of Spotify users is more than twice as high: 64% of young Swiss listen to Spotify from time to time. Of the 2.0 million Spotify listeners, 800,000 use the free version and 1.2 million pay for Spotify. Users in the 20-30 age group in particular can afford the paid version of Spotify. Despite the streaming of music, radio remains popular in Switzerland. With 5.7 million people, radio has almost three times as many listeners as Spotify. Young people also listen to the radio a lot. More than 80% of people under the age of 25 listen to the radio, and not even half of them listen to it daily.

Spotify: Young people are buying a subscription In one year, music streaming service Spotify has gained 300,000 new users.

Article written by our colleagues at Cominmag