This past week, an interesting report titled ‘Digital 2023: Thailand’ was published and revealed some interesting insights, trends, and data which illustrated the usage of digital devices and services among Thai individuals.

Here’s a breakdown of the key findings:

• As of January 2023, the number of internet users in Thailand is 61.21 million (85% of the total population)

• Facebook is used by 48.1 million people, YouTube has 43.9 million users (up 1.1 million since January 2022), Instagram has 17.3 million users, TikTok has 40.3 million users, LinkedIn has 4.1 million users, and Twitter has 14.6 million users

• 85.3% of people in Thailand have access to the internet

• Thai individuals spend an average of 8 hours and 6 minutes online per day

• The top 5 most visited websites are YouTube, Google, Facebook, and then two adult film sites

The report also noted many other interesting stats as far as high level demographics go, so if you’re interested in reading further, you can do so here.

Our Take

My key takeaway is this… social media rules in Thailand. It’s a bit of a sad-reality, but is noticeable on a daily basis and certainly backed up by these stats. It’s also one of the common denominators that comes up whenever I ask other expat friends what they don’t necessarily like about Thailand. Whether it’s a group of people glued to Tik Tok while blocking an entire sidewalk or a date checking Instagram every 5-minutes while out for dinner, it’s definitely something that I’ve noticed is extremely prevalent here. Probably even more so than my home Country of Canada.