Emerging markets to drive global social networking market revenue to 264 billion USD by 2024 – Frost & Sullivan

New study finds emerging markets are driving rapid social networking growth and a shift to live video and voice interaction

BEIJING, CHINA – Media OutReach -
10 May 2021 – Demand from young
populations in emerging markets is driving rapid global social
networking market growth and a concurrent shift to live video and voice
applications. These findings come from new research released by Frost &
Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company.

Frost & Sullivan’s
report, entitled Social Networking in Emerging Markets, finds that the global
live social market—which refers to social networking applications that focus on
live video and voice interaction—is expected to show a compound annual growth
rate (CAGR) of 26.6% to more than triple in size from 19.7 billion USD in 2019
to 64.1 billion USD in 2024. In the same period, live social revenue from
emerging markets is forecast show a significantly higher CAGR of 41.7% to rise
from 1.5 billion USD in 2019 to 8.6 billion USD in 2024.

Emerging markets drive substantial live social
market growth

Emerging markets in Southeast Asia, India,
Pakistan, the Middle East, and Africa are driving an increasingly large
proportion of this live social market growth. Young populations, rapid economic
growth, and advanced mobile internet technology rollout mean growth in these
markets is on track to significantly outpace the global average.

“We expected to find strong social networking
market growth in emerging markets, but were surprised to see how quickly the
contribution of these markets is increasing, particularly in the live social
space,” said Gabriel Lu, Partner at Frost & Sullivan. “The proportion of
global live social revenue arising from emerging markets is forecast to grow
from 7.6% in 2019 to 13.4% in 2024 as these markets account for a higher portion
of live social market growth. Apps such as Uplive and Bigo are increasingly
delivering products tailored to meet the needs of young users in emerging
markets.”

Whereas the global median age was 30.9 years
in 2019, Malaysia’s was 30.3 years, Indonesia’s was 29.7 years, India’s was
28.4 years, and the Philippines’ was just 25.7 years. Large population bases and high proportions
of younger generations in emerging markets jointly point to huge potential user
bases for social networking. The combined social networking user base in
emerging markets is approximately 1.6 billion, which is about 60% larger than
the user base in developed economies (the US and Western Europe).

This young population profile combines with
still spotty mobile internet coverage in many of these markets to represent
significant social media market growth potential, especially when compared to
relatively mature developed markets. For example, South Asia and Sub-Saharan
Africa alone account for approximately 67% of the world’s total population
without access to mobile broadband internet connections.

Live social dating market grows as culture and
technology evolves

Rapid live social market growth is not only
being felt in the live video and voice segments, but is also driving explosive
growth in the online dating market. The online dating market was worth 5.4
billion USD globally in 2019 and is forecast to show a CAGR of 23.8% to reach
15.7 billion USD by 2024.

Live social dating growth in emerging markets
is on track to far exceed that of developed markets. Emerging markets accounted
for just 11.1% of global online dating revenue in 2019, but above-average
growth means that they should account for 18.2% of revenue by 2024.

Gabriel explained, “Users in emerging markets
generally prefer face-to-face communication to traditional text messaging,
which still dominates most developed market dating apps. For example, cultural
and religious customs in some emerging markets might frown upon in-person
dating, leading young people to engage in relationships that are primarily or
entirely carried out via video and voice chat.”

Major live social dating segment players in
these markets include: Tinder, Badoo, Happn, Lamour, and Azar.

Strong demand drivers point to continued
growth in emerging markets

As young users increasingly demand video- or
voice-based live social networking, social and economic factors suggest that
emerging markets will continue to be the key drivers of global social
networking market growth. These factors include: young populations; rapid
economic growth; increasing internet penetration; mobile internet technology
upgrades; and growing willingness to pay for online services.