In 2023, Southeast Asia will remain a growth leader in digital users. Paradoxically, while its smartphone adoption will soon approach 90% among internet users, only slightly more than 60% of the population will be internet users this year.
Nearly 50% of social network users in Thailand will be TikTok users, giving the country the highest TikTok penetration in the world, according to our forecast. The US will rank second, with 45.3% of its social users on TikTok. We expect penetration in the US will be as high as 49.1% by the end of 2026.
Elon Musk鈥檚 reign over Twitter stirs chaos and user losses in Asia-Pacific. The region is propping up Facebook user growth that is flagging in most of the world. And TikTok is looming large among marketers as its popularity skyrockets.