2012 Singapore Social Media Study by RockPublicity.com

THE
STATE
OF
SOCIAL
MEDIA

IN
SINGAPORE

THE
2012
ROCK
PUBLICITY
SINGAPORE
SOCIAL
MEDIA
STUDY

© 2012 ROCKPUBLICITY.COM – SOCIAL MEDIA CONSULTING

COPYRIGHT
NOTICE

This document is Copyright © 2012 ROCK PUBLICITY and Leon
Hill, All Rights Reserved. This document may be shared with
others for free providing it is not edited, modiﬁed or changed in any
way. This document may not be resold, republished, reproduced or
redistributed in any other way without express written permission
from ROCK PUBLICITY.

DISCLAIMER

While ROCK PUBLICITY invested a considerable amount of time,
energy and money, took the greatest care and attention (and some
may even say love) in creating this study and maintaining its
accuracy for your beneﬁt, we cannot guarantee data, information,
statistics or any other part of this study are 100% accurate.

LANGUAGES

Currently, the 2012 ROCK PUBLICITY Singapore Social Media
Study is only available in ENGLISH, though it is currently being
translated into MANDARIN CHINESE. To be advised of when the
translated version will be available, please email
contact@rockpublicity.com and we will alert you at the relevant
time.

SHARING
THIS
DOCUMENT

The 2012 ROCK PUBLICITY Singapore Social Media Study may
be shared with other people, within your company, within the
media and other organisations freely, providing it is kept wholly
intact and not split into parts, destroyed or disseminated.

CREDITS

You are free to use any data within this study, providing it is
credited to ROCK PUBLICITY if it is used in your own material.


DISCUSSING
THIS
STUDY

To further discuss any information in this study, or to ﬁnd
out how your company ﬁts in, please contact Leon Hill or
Jasmine Moore at ROCK PUBLICITY.

EMAIL
contact@rockpublicity.com
leon@rockpublicity.com

PHONE
(SINGAPORE
SKYPE
ID)
rockpublicity
(AUSTRALIA)
+61439
2222
05

TWITTER
@rockpublicity

WEB
http://rockpublicity.com/


TABLE
OF
CONTENTS

*

*

*
Contacting
ROCK
PUBLICITY

Our
Services

Introduction
to
the
2012
Singapore
Social
Media
Study

The
ROCK
PUBLICITY
DeKinition
of
Social
Media

Important
Note
on
Data
Collected

Executive
Summary
&
Overview

Data
on
the
2012
Singapore
Social
Media
Study

Basic
Data
on
Communications
in
Singapore

Social
Media
Statistics
for
Singapore

Consumer
Buying
&
Selling
via
Social
Media

Corporate
Social
Media
in
Singapore

The
Lighter
Side
of
Stats

Conclusions
Based
on
the
2012
Singapore
Social
Media
Study

Forecasts
for
Singapore’s
Social
Media
in
2013

Advice
for
Singaporean
Companies

More
Information
About
ROCK
PUBLICITY

Thanks
and
Credits


CONTACTING
ROCK
PUBLICITY

For anything relating to the 2012 ROCK PUBLICITY Singapore
Social Media Study, or advice relating to corporate social media,
you can get in touch with us, or our head consultant Leon Hill
using any of the following details.

EMAIL:
http://rockpublicity.com/contact
BLOG:
http://rockpublicity.com/blog
PHONE
(Singapore
Skype
ID
):
rockpublicity
PHONE
(Australia):
+61439 2222 05
EMAIL:
LINKEDIN:
http://www.linkedin.com/proﬁle/view?id=24222347
TWITTER:
http://twitter.com/rockpublicity

OUR
SERVICES

ROCK PUBLICITY deals almost exclusively with large companies,
corporate entities and government organisations. Large-scale
social media and real-time media is what we do best, so we stick
to it.

- Social Media Consulting
- Social Publicity
- Social ROCKstar Program
- Real-Time Sales Mastery
- Research & Insight

Find out more at: http://rockpublicity.com/

For corporate consulting, Leon will be in Singapore from
December 2012 through to May 2013 so may be available to work
with your company during that period, Please be aware we may
need several months notice for large contracts, however short
consulting contracts (~1 week long) are usually available given a
week or two notice, depending on client needs.

We look forward to working with you.


“If
you
can’t
explain
it
simply,
you
don’t
understand
it
well
enough.”

-‐
Albert
Einstein


INTRODUCTION
TO
THE
2012
SINGAPORE
SOCIAL

MEDIA
STUDY

-‐-‐

ROCKPUBLICITY.COM

-‐-‐


INTRODUCTION to the 2012 Singapore Social
Media Study
Hi, I’m Leon Hill and I am the Chief Consultant, founder and face
of ROCK PUBLICITY. Over the next few pages I’ll be introducing
you to the 2012 SINGAPORE SOCIAL MEDIA STUDY, some
deﬁnitions and information to help you understand the details
within the pages of this world-class survey.

While introductions aren’t always that important in documents or
books, I implore you not to skip the next few pages as you will
miss out a lot of detail in what makes this information so special.

To start with, what you’re about to read is the biggest study and
survey on social media in Singapore that has ever been
undertaken – this alone makes our 2012 study the best source
ever in history on understanding consumer and business use of
the platform in Singapore.

For me personally however, Singapore has always held a special
place in my heart as I’ve travelled there many times; it was actually
the very ﬁrst nation I ever visited outside my home country of
Australia (that is, if you don’t count a stop-over in the KL airport on
my way there). Combined with my passion for social media,
learning about the impact of the medium on Singapore has always
something I wanted to be a leader in. I also wrote a great deal of
my upcoming book Social Mind in Singapore and I plan to release
it there before the rest of the world.

However, as my company is planning quite a lot of business in
Singapore over the next two years, I decided in June that there
simply wasn’t enough data or understanding of Singapore’s social
media scene and digital communications environment. No matter
where I looked, I was met with incomplete or lacking information.

If we were going to provide our Singaporean corporate clients with
the absolute best service and results possible, we had to know
more.

The solution?


In June I decided we needed to not only fill in the gaps, but come
up with the most conclusive, detailed and complete set of data
surrounding social media and real-time Internet usage in
Singapore. After spending a couple of months formulating an
action plan with my team and an external research company, we
began work in August.

Over the next 95 days we surveyed tens of thousands of
Singaporean Internet users, collected data on hundreds of local
companies, calculated figures and forecasted as accurately as
possible what the future of the nation’s social media would be like.

I invested over $20,000 SGD per month in staff, data collection,
expertise and outside knowledge, as well as drawing on my years
of industry experience to make certain we were covering all bases
and extracting as much as we could, as accurately as we could.

And in early November 2012, I was satisfied we’d done absolutely
everything possible.

This is our first ever study of social media in Singapore, however I
know for a fact it’s the largest, most complete and most accurate
study of the way Singaporean people and companies use the
platform.

To give you some idea of how much blood, sweat and tears we
invested in our study on Singaporean social media, here are some
interesting facts about what went into it:

- 2,160 hours research over 95 days
- $63,118 SGD invested
- 51,750 Singaporeans surveyed
- 4 staff and 2 outside researchers used
- 217 Singapore-based companies studied
- 379 phone calls made
- 1,761 pages of raw data

As you can see, we really did our homework to create what you’ll
see in this 60-page report!


Whatever your role, whether social media junkie, tech
entrepreneur, business owner, statistics lover or corporate
marketing executive, you’ll get something from this study. More
than anything, it will give you the most definitive view on what the
social media and digital communications scene is like right now in
Singapore, as well as snapshot of how it will progress next year.

Like most our clients, if you have a role anywhere in the corporate
world in Singapore, the later parts of this study should especially
be of great interest to you. It’s towards the end of the study that we
uncover how the nations companies are using social media, how
they’re interacting with communities and how they’re driving sales.

However you find the study, I’d like to invite your comments on the
ROCK PUBLICITY blog, via Twitter, or directly via email. And if
you’re a company who would like to discuss any further how this
study affects your business in Singapore, myself or one of my staff
would love to chat to you further about this.

And finally, be sure to find out more about ROCK PUBLICITY after
the close of the study, as well as some interesting, amusing and
entertaining facts we came up with about Singaporeans when we
conducted our research.

From here, in all its magnificent glory, here you’ll find the 2012
ROCK PUBLICITY Singapore Social Media Study. I truly hope it
helps you create, nurture and grow a better online community in
Singapore.

Kindest Regards,

Leon Hill
Founder, Chief Consultant
ROCK PUBLICITY
http://rockpublicity.com/
FB: http://facebook.com/RockPublicity
TW: @rockpublicity


The ROCK PUBLICITY deﬁnition of Social Media
Although everyone is familiar with the term ‘Social Media’ and it’s
still the most widely-used name to describe the industry,
communications medium and platform, I don’t think it’s necessarily
an accurate title most of the time.

For us here at ROCK PUBLICITY, the term used by author David
Meerman-Scott who calls it ‘Real-Time Media’ is much more
accurate.

Sure, it’s still social, but ‘real-time’ describes the main beneﬁt of
social media much better. It really hammers home that your
company can track, listen, contribute to and start conversation with
people online immediately, as well as discover and act-on sales
opportunities online as they happen.

This is why we like ‘Real-Time Media’ much more. And although
we’ll continue to refer to ‘Social Media’ in this study as it’s still the
most common way of describing it, we’d like you to keep the ‘real-
time’ aspect of it in your mind at all times.


IMPORTANT NOTE ON DATA COLLECTED
PLEASE
NOTE:

1. All data was collected via our own and various external
sources, then cross-referenced, checked and confirmed by
outside researchers as best as possible. We maintained as
high a standard for accuracy as we possibly could, however
please keep in mind there is no way to be 100% certain
figures are exactly correct. In all cases they will be accurate
or extremely close to accurate, however please allow a
margin for error in each statistic.
2. Whenever an age group is expressed in this study, please be
aware we ONLY surveyed Singaporeans 15 years and above
when it came to age splits. No data relating to age splits of
users on social networks reflects the entire population of
Singapore, simply the group of Singaporeans of ages 15
years and above.
3. All numbers are expressed as a number with a single
decimal place. Figures have been rounded up or down to the
nearest 0.1 point.
4. All population figures were rounded up or down to the
nearest whole number. No population figures are expressed
as decimals.
5. This report is only available in ENGLISH at present, though
is currently being translated into MANDARIN CHINESE.
Please contact us at contact@rockpublicity.com to be alerted
when this translated version is available.
6. Population figures are based on the World Bank figure for
Singapore in December, 2011.


EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
&
OVERVIEW

-‐-‐

ROCKPUBLICITY.COM

-‐-‐


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The objective of the 2012 Singapore Social Media Study has been
to attain a comprehensive understanding of how consumers and
companies use social media in Singapore. The study was carried
out due to the lack of information available relating to social media
in Singapore, as a source of information for Singaporean
companies and to give ROCK PUBLICITY the most detailed view
possible on the SM environment in Singapore.

The study was based around two major fields:

1. General Internet and consumer social media usage in
Singapore, and;

2. The way companies in Singapore use social media to
communicate, interact with and sell to locals.

Within these fields, we focused on many key lines of inquiry
including:

• How frequently Singaporeans use social media and what
sites do they most regularly use,
• What devices locals use most frequently to access social
media,
• Singapore’s online buying habits and how social media fits
into this,
• How consumers in Singapore use social media as a tool for
research and review before buying products online,
• What local companies use social media for and how
effectively it’s being used,
• How social media use will grow in Singapore in 2013 and
beyond.

The study has been carried out over a period of 95 days, between
August and October 2012, by ROCK PUBLICITY and with the
assistance of a partner research organisation based in Singapore.
Specifically, we surveyed more than 50,000 Singaporean locals, as
well as 217 companies in various industries.


The present report draws upon the data collected during the period
of this study and is expressed as openly as possible, with our
comments based on industry experience, knowledge of the global
social media environment and current global trends, facts and
figures.

While the report can be considered as a stand-alone and
comprehensive look at the overall social media environment in
Singapore, it should be looked at as a complimentary part of a
more detailed research campaign into online interactions as a
whole in Singapore. Also, in the interest of maintaining the theme
of the report we have omitted more detailed and specific
information relating to specific industries specified in the report.

(NB: If your company fits within one of the researched industries
listed in the report, we request you contact us for further
information)

The research we conducted followed well-accepted approaches to
collecting data relating to online usage, as well as surveying a
large volume of people in order to attain their views on a certain
topic and their actions relating to specific activities.

In relation to attaining general data on Internet usage in Singapore,
as well as very basic social media statistics, we utilised several
reputable sources of information including the Singapore
Government Department of Statistics (http://singstat.gov.sg/) and
the World Bank (http://worldbank.org/) in order to maintain
accuracy to the best of our abilities.

In relation to attaining data on social media usage in Singapore,
we carried out thorough and detailed data collection by surveying
locals via the Internet, over a period of approximately three
months. In total we surveyed 51,750 Singaporean locals, however
data from 1,329 of these surveys was removed from the study and
not considered due to incomplete, duplicate or inaccurate
information.

In relation to attaining data on corporate and business social
media usage in Singapore, we collected data by individually


studying the social media presence of 217 Singapore-based
companies and the way they were using the medium, over a
period of around three months. Using basic social media
monitoring tools, we looked at things like how often these
companies were using social media sites like Twitter, Facebook
and online forums to communicate with Internet users, their
customers and potential new markets. We also analysed how they
were using these sites to promote and sell their products and how
often consumers were responding. The companies studied were
spread over several industries and included major names such as
SingTel, Singapore Airways and the Singapore Flyer.

Overall we learned much invaluable knowledge regarding the
social media landscape in Singapore,

• The nation’s consumers are extremely heavy users of social
media, both at home and on mobile devices. Not only are
they leaders in the Asian region as a whole, but in some
areas also global leaders. Most locals have accounts on
more than one social media site meaning the potential reach
for companies to target consumers via social media is
extremely high.
• Singaporeans are the highest smartphone users on the
planet per capita, as well as some of the highest tablet users.
This also reﬂects their online spending habits via mobile
devices.
• Singaporeans spend quite a large sum of money every year
online in general, but also directly through social media sites.
In total we estimate around one quarter of all online sales in
2012 had something to do with SM, for example being
directly referred from a relevant site
• While Internet and social media use in Singapore is
extremely high for consumers, this does not translate to
businesses. We found local companies do not frequent the
platform anywhere near as much as consumers and are
actually dangerously behind not just their Asian counterparts,
but a large portion of the developed world. Our belief is that
most of this is down to lack of training and education of
Singaporean companies, though possibly in a small part due
to complacency or seeing social media as not worthwhile.


• Due to the lack of corporate social media performance, the
satisfaction level of Singaporean consumers towards local
companies is quite low. This means that while businesses for
the most part aren’t using SM effectively or simply not at all,
their followers and customers are noticing this.
• Also because of poor social media performance by
companies, we found potential sales and revenue driven by
the medium reﬂected this. We estimate that while local
companies earned over $750 million (SGD) through SM in
2012, they missed out on a further $809 million (SGD) due to
lack of strategy, not knowing how to target and take
advantage of sales opportunities, ignoring communication by
community members and bad brand image.
• Social media usage with rise again noticeably in 2013;
however there are no indications that consumer or business
use will change much beyond increases in use. For local
companies this means further increases in sales, but also
sales losses if current social media practices (or lack thereof
in some cases) do not change.

To conclude, the study provides a deep insight into the overall
social media landscape of Singapore and how it is being used in
2012, as well as basics on where we expect it to go in 2013.

MAJOR FINDINGS and Overview
Overall, we found Singapore a paradox when it came to social
media in general. On the one hand, the nation leads Asia in terms
of social media usage and general tech-savviness across the
board, as well as owning some interesting stats such as being the
heaviest Facebook users in the world in terms of average use per
session.

Singaporeans are also some of the heaviest mobile users on
average in Asia and use social media on mobile devices more than
96% of the rest of the world. Also, Singaporeans buy more tablet
devices per capita than any other nation in Asia and lead the
region in social media use on these devices also. Singapore also
leads the world in smartphone use, per capita being the highest on
the planet.


Average online growth in the region is around 7%-13% for 2012 in
most areas of social media, from Internet use, to social media
growth and similar ﬁgures, which you’ll read about later in the
report. We forecast this growth should continue through 2013.

However, despite this apparent attraction to social media by users,
social media marketing and communication as a whole by
companies in Singapore is lagging behind the Western world and
is in the bottom 50% when compared to the rest of its Asian
counterparts who use similar sites.

In all, we found that Singaporean companies are either very slow
to take up using social media as a tool for advertising and
promotion, as well as customer relations and brand building. A
great number of the corporate businesses and brands in the
country had no real social media presence at all. Of the ones that
did, very few were doing anything that could be called proper
implementation.

Mostly we attribute this to lack of proper training and knowledge in
social media by local corporations, as well as Asia’s generally later
adoption of the medium than in the Western world. Though despite
this, we think some companies still simply don’t see the value in
social media as any kind of platform, or simple complacence.
In terms of driving sales online, again Singapore is extremely
advanced when compared not only to Asia, but a large portion of
the globe. And direct sales via social media are rapidly increasing,
as are consumers using the platform to ﬁnd out more about
products and services before buying.

Despite this, we found that Singaporean companies are actually
missing out on more sales than they’re making in social media, this
year totaling close to $1 billion, possibly more. Again, we believe
this is due to poor implementation, strategy and lack of knowledge.

From here we’re going to let the data and our commentary speak
for itself. Over the next 40 pages or so, you’ll be shown a better
picture of social media in Singapore than you’ve ever been offered
before.


DATA
ON
THE
2012
SINGAPORE
SOCIAL
MEDIA
STUDY

-‐-‐

ROCKPUBLICITY.COM

-‐-‐


BASIC DATA on Communications in Singapore
In this initial section, you’ll ﬁnd basic data on how Singaporeans
are using social media. This covers things like the ages of
population using it, penetration of people in the country who use it
regularly and everything in between. We recommend you use this
section to give yourself a better understanding of the social media
and basic online environment in Singapore, how many people are
in your target audience and other details like that.

STATS:

1. Singaporeans with household Internet access

2012:
80.8% of total population or 4,188,430 people

Around four-ﬁfths of Singaporeans have access to the Internet in
their home, totaling almost 4.3 million people.

2. Singaporeans who regularly use the Internet

2012:
4,032,919 people or 77.8% of total population.

This year, more than 4 million Singaporeans used the Internet
regularly, at least three times per week. This accounts for more
than three-quarters of every person in the country, which should
rise to well over 80% in 2013.

3. Singaporean daily Internet users

2012: 3,457,600 people or 84.7% of Internet users

Of Singaporeans with household Internet access, a massive
84.7%, or almost 3.5 million people, use the Internet on a daily
basis.

4. Time spent online per month


2012: 103.6 hours
2013: 110.1 hours

The average Internet user in the country spends just over 25 hours
online every single week, including Internet usage on mobile
phone devices and tablet computers. This makes Singaporeans
some of the heaviest users not just in Asia, but in the world as well.

5. Internet user age demographics for Singapore

15-‐24: 31.0%
25-‐34: 32.1%
35-‐44: 19.6%
45-‐54: 8.7%
55+:
8.6%

Almost two-thirds of all Singapore’s Internet users are aged
between 15-34, with the remainder

6. Internet user age split in Singapore

MALE: 50%
FEMALE: 50%

In Singapore, users are split by gender almost exactly. While this
never varies much from nation-to-nation, some countries like
Australia have a MALE/FEMALE split of 47/53, with Malaysia
being 53/47 percent respectively.

7. Blog reach in Singapore

2012:
57.6%
2013:
60.1% (Forecast)

Blogs in Singapore reached over 57% of the nation’s total
population this year, meaning people are extremely familiar and
comfortable in using this medium for ﬁnding information online.

8. Search engine market share in Singapore

GOOGLE:
82.2%


YAHOO:
15.9%
BING:
1.9%

These shares are based on both International .com as well as
local .sg domains of these search engines. While Google dropped
slightly over last year, it still holds the vast majority of the search
market share.

9. Mobile subscribers in Singapore

2012:
7.1 million
2013:
7.3 million

Although this ﬁgure is actually well over Singapore’s population, it
is accurate as it takes into account people who have more than
one mobile subscription service such as a mobile contract, prepaid
phone service and mobile data plan for a tablet device or similar.
While this will increase in 2013 further, we estimate it won’t be a
massive jump in terms of percentage.

10. Smartphone use in Singapore

2012: 3,685,611 people or 71.1% of total population

At present, more than 70% of all Singaporeans own a smartphone,
which is estimated to rise slightly in 2013. This smartphone
penetration of population is the highest anywhere in the world.

11. Tablet use in Singapore


As it stands now, around 40% of Singapore’s population own a
tablet device, accounting for more than 2 million people. This
should rise dramatically next year, accounting for over half the
nation’s people owning a device such as an iPad or Galaxy Tab.


SOCIAL MEDIA STATISTICS for Singapore
In this section you’ll discover specific social media statistics for
Singapore, including what sites users have accounts, how often
they’re using social media and how they’re interacting within their
own circle of influence.

STATS:

1. Singaporeans who regularly use social media

2012:
3,530,100 people or 68.1% of total population:
2013:
3,835,938 people or 74.0% of total population (Forecast)

In 2012, more than 3.5 million Singaporeans used social media on
a regular basis, at least once per week. This usage is well above
the average for the rest of Asia and very close to world averages in
developed nations. Based on growth trends, we estimate this will
rise sharply next year to 74% of total population.

2. Facebook users in Singapore

2012:
3,220,500 people or 62.2% of total population
2013:

Over 60% of all Singaporeans have used Facebook in 2012 and
this will rise next year to cover more than two-thirds of the
population.

3. Facebook penetration of population

TOTAL
POPULATION:
62.2%
ONLINE
POPULATION:
76.9%

Of people in Singapore with household Internet access, more than
three-quarters are Facebook users in 2012. This figure is the
leader in the region, making Singaporeans the most prolific
‘Facebook-ers’ in Asia.


4. Facebook usage in Singapore

2012:
19.6 hours active use per month
2013:
20.7 hours active use per month (Forecast)

2012:
47.5 hours logged in per month
2013:
50.1 hours logged in per month (Forecast)

Singaporeans spent almost 20 hours active on Facebook every
month, averaging out to 39.2 minutes browsing and posting on
Facebook every single day.

5. Facebook average session time

2012:
37.9 minutes per session
2013:
38.1 minutes per session (Forecast)

This is one of the most interesting statistics in social media in
Singapore; the average single session time for a Singaporean in
2012 was 37.9 minutes, meaning they spend more time per
session on the social networking site than any other country on the
planet. Proof they love social media, Facebook in particular.

6. Average number of status updates per month (per user)

2012:
18.7
2013:
20.3

The average Singaporean posts updates their Facebook status
around 19 times every month, which is around the world average.
This did not include comments on other people’s updates. An
interesting note is that some locals surveyed admitted to posting
up to 500 times in a single month in 2012.

7. Average number of Facebook friends

2012:
319.5
2013:
372.0 (Forecast)


Singaporeans are popular, on Facebook at least. The average

user has over 300 friends, which will rise dramatically next year as
growth trends continue.

8. Average Facebook ‘likes’ per month (per user)

2012:
37.0
2013:
39.1 (Forecast)

When it comes to ‘liking’ other people’s content on Facebook,
Singaporeans do this almost twice as much as they update their
statuses. With increased usage this trend will rise next year,
though not by a large margin.

9. Average Facebook shares per month (per user)

2012:
22.6
2013:
30.1 (Forecast)

Much higher than the world average by around 50%,
Singaporeans love sharing content on Facebook, from photos to
other people’s status updates. In 2013 this should continue to rise
further based on current trends, making Singapore’s Facebook
users some of the most proliﬁc sharers in the world.

10. Percentage of Singaporean Facebook users accessing the
site via mobile

2012:
64.4%
2013:
77.1% (Forecast)

Almost two-thirds of Singapore’s Facebook users accessed the
site using a mobile device this year, which includes mobile phones
and tablet devices. With Singapore’s intense growth in app usage
and the tablet market, this will increase considerably next year.

11. Twitter users in Singapore

2012:
2013:
2,790,500 people or 53.8% of total population (Forecast)


Almost half of the country’s total population have a Twitter account,
which is higher than the world average. Again, this will increase
next year to cover over 50% of Singapore’s people.

12. Twitter penetration of population

TOTAL
POPULATION:
49.4%
ONLINE
POPULATION:
61.2%

While less than half of the total population are on Twitter, the
micro-blogging site covers almost two-thirds of people will Internet
access at home.

13. Twitter usage in Singapore

2012:
7.7 hours active per month
2013:
9.1 hours active per month (Forecast)

2012:
2013:
44.0 hours logged in per month (Forecast)

While less than half of how often they use Facebook,
Singaporeans still use Twitter quite a lot, in fact more than the total
world average. They spent over 7 hours active on the site per
month tweeting and checking out other people’s updates, while
being logged in for an average of 40 hours per month. Based on
total usage as a city, Singapore ranks 11th in the world.

14. Average number of Twitter followers

2012:
147
2013:
177 (Forecast)

Around a quarter of Singaporeans had less than 20 followers,
however the average was raised by the percentage that had many
hundreds, or even thousands of followers. The average in SG is
147 followers per account.

15. Average number of tweets per month


2012:
77.0 per user
2013:
79.4 per user (Forecast)

The average Singaporean Twitter user tweets more than twice per
day, though a decent chunk of users posted only around once per
week. Many users had an average of around 20 tweets per day,
showing how active some of the nation’s account holders can be.

16. Average number of re-tweets per month

2012:
21.1 per user
2013:

While slightly lower with the world average when compared with
number of tweets, Singapore’s Twitter users re-tweet something on
average once every business day.

17. Average number of Twitter ‘favourites’ per month

2012:
15.6 per user
2013:

Similar though slightly lower than re-tweets, Singaporeans actually
favourite items on Twitter more than the rest of the world on
average. Based on current trends, this will increase quite
substantially in 2013.

18. Percentage of Singaporean Twitter users accessing the
site via mobile

2012:
59.9%
2013:
66.4% (Forecast)

Again this number is less than Facebook, though more than half of
the nation’s micro-bloggers accessed the site via a mobile device
this year.

19. YouTube users in Singapore

2012:
3,937,125 people or 76% of total population


2013:
4,251,898 people or 82% of total population

This ﬁgure took into account people in Singapore who watched at
least one video on YouTube in 2012. This was not only
Singaporeans who actually had a YouTube account.

20. YouTube users age split

15-‐24:
20.8%
25-‐34:
25.3%
35-‐44:
25.9%
45-‐54:
19.8%
55+:
8.2%

Of all Singapore’s YouTube users above the age of 15, this is how
numbers were split. Percentages are a fairly constant split until we
reach the over 55 age bracket, which accounts for less than half
the usage of each other age bracket.

21. YouTube usage in Singapore

2012:
Average 151 videos per user, per month
2013:
EST Average 176 videos per user, per month

2012:
Average 11.6 hours per month usage
2013:
EST Average 12.4 hours per month usage

Each YouTube user in Singapore watches around 5 videos every
single day on the site, which is similar to the global average. This
also means the nation’s online video viewers spend almost half a
full 24 hour day watching YouTube content every month.

22. Average minutes consumed on YouTube per month
(Singapore total)

2012:
695.0
2013:
744.6 (Forecast)

When split into minutes, this is Singapore’s average time spent
browsing and watching content on YouTube per person, every


month. In the next section you can ﬁnd out more on how this is
split over age groups in Singapore.

23. Average minutes consumed on YouTube per month (age
speciﬁc)

15-‐24:
1011.0
25-‐34:
603.3
35-‐44:
512.4
45-‐54:
647.6
55+:
700.8

When split into age brackets, the youngest and oldest
Singaporeans spent the most time on YouTube per month. These
usages dropped the closer age brackets got to the middle bracket
of 35-44, who used the site least frequently among the nation’s
users.

24. LinkedIn users in Singapore

2012:
522,030 or 10.1% of total population
2013:
630,266 or 12.2% of total population (Forecast)

1 in 10 Singaporeans have accounts on the world’s largest
business networking site, which means the nation’s social media
users care less about business networking than they do in terms of
pure social use, or as consumers.

25. LinkedIn penetration of population

TOTAL
POPULATION:
10.1% or 522,030 people
ONLINE
POPULATION:
12.5% or 522,030 people

Because of low initial number, the difference between penetration
of total and online population does not vary considerably, with
12.5% of Singapore’s total Internet users having an account on the
site.

26. LinkedIn usage in Singapore


2012:
2013:

2012:
2013:

The average LinkedIn user of Singapore spent much less time
than the average global user, though this will grow signiﬁcantly
next year.

27. Average number of LinkedIn Connections

2012:
72.2
2013:
90.3

An average user is connected with over 70 people on LinkedIn in
Singapore, however connection trends indicate much higher
growth in this area than with Facebook friends or Twitter followers,
which will make a noticeable difference in 2013.

28. Average number of LinkedIn updates per month

2012:
6.6
2013:
8.3

LinkedIn users are much more likely to browse other people’s
content than post their own status updates and Singapore follows
this global trend fairly closely. The nations members post only
around 1.5 times per week.

29. Average number of LinkedIn Groups user is member of

2012:
4.1
2013:
4.6

Quite similar to the global average, the average Singaporean on
LinkedIn is a member of around 4 groups.

30. Pinterest users in Singapore


2012:
96,750 or 1.7% of total population
2013:
197,772 or 3.8% of total population (Forecast)

Although growing extremely rapidly in popularity, only a tony
portion of Singaporeans have an account on Pinterest. This
accounts for less than 2% of the nation. Although reasonably new,
this should more than double next year.

31. Pinterest penetration of population

TOTAL
POPULATION:
1.7% or 96,750 people
ONLINE
POPULATION:

2.3% or 96,750 people

Due to the relative new presence of Pinterest globally, less than
2.5% of the nation’s online population are on the site.

32. Pinterest usage in Singapore

2012:
2013:

2012:
2103:

Singaporeans are slightly more active on Pinterest than they are
on LinkedIn, however at least this year they spent less time logged
in comparatively. In With the rapid growth of Pinterest, both of
these ﬁgures are looking to surpass LinkedIn next year.

33. Singapore’s multiple-network social media usage

1-‐3:
19.6% or 691,900 people
4-‐6:
41.3% or 1,457,931 people
7-‐9:
26.1% or 921,356 people
10+:
13.0% or 458,913 people

We surveyed Singaporeans who said they regularly used social
media how many accounts on different social networks they had.
Nearly half the population on social media had somewhere


between 4-6 accounts on social networks, with 13% having
accounts on more than 10 social sites.


Consumer BUYING & SELLING via Social Media
One of the main things we wanted to know was how Singaporeans
were using social media to buy and even sell things via the web
and social media in general. We found that most residents of the
nation were not only comfortable with buying and selling services
online, but on average bought something at least once per month.
Not only that, a large portion of social media users in Singapore
researched products and services online before buying.

STATS:

1. Singapore online sales

2012:
$3.1 billion SGD
2013:
$4.4 billion SGD (Forecast)

While worth only $1.1 billion SGD two years ago, the online sales
market has almost tripled since then to what will close the year at
$3.1 billion Singaporean dollars.

2. Spend on local vs. overseas websites

LOCAL:
37.4%
OVERSEAS:
62.6%

For most countries outside the USA, it’s often estimated the vast
percentage of online sales come from outside the country,
however we found that in 2012 almost 40% of all online sales were
generated via companies or websites based in Singapore.

3. Singaporeans who buy products/services online

2012:
3,614,615 or 69.7% of total population
2013:
3,907,399 or 75.4% of total population (Forecast)

Of the almost 4.2 million regular Internet users in Singapore, the
vast majority have bought at least once online this year – in total,
almost 70% of the country’s entre population. This should increase
dramatically in 2013 and we estimate next year three-quarters of


all Singaporeans will make a purchase online at some stage.

4. Number of online purchases per month

<1:
6.0%
1-‐2:
44.3%
3-‐5:
28.6%
6+:
21.1%

Of the nation’s population who bought online, nearly half bought at
least one item every single month on the Internet. There were only
6% of Singaporeans who stated they bought less than once per
month, with more than one-ﬁfth saying they bought six or more
times in the same period.

5. Average transaction per sale online

2012:
$101.34 SGD
2013:
$104.19 SGD (Forecast)

Singaporeans closely match other countries in terms of average
value of an online transaction, this year at just over $100 SGD per
sale. While this is slightly lower than countries like the USA and
UK, this will grow as a large percentage of Singaporeans said they
are would be more likely to increase online spending in 2013.

6. Percentage of online sales via mobile devices

2012:
26.2% or $812 million SGD
2013:
29.5% or $1.3 billion SGD (Forecast)

This year, more than a quarter of all online sales were made on
mobile devices, more than $800 million is total sales. This is a
notable increase on last year and a massive jump on the 5% share
mobile devices accounted for in 2010. While this growth will slow
slightly next year, it will still increase and it’s estimated almost 30%
of all online sales next year will be made on mobile devices.

7. Percentage of Singaporeans who use Internet banking


2012:
33.6%
2013:
35.1%

Almost one-third of all Singaporeans used online banking services
– either via home-based computer or mobile – in 2012. This is the
largest reach in Asia in terms of what percentage of the population
use Internet banking.

8. Mobile devices online sales percentage breakdown

SMARTPHONES:
71.0% or $576.5 million SGD
TABLET:
29.0% or $235.5 million SGD

While tablets are still rapidly growing in popularity, smartphones
like offerings from Apple, Samsung and Sony are still the most
popular portable devices for making purchases online by
Singaporeans at 71%. The remainder is made up of transactions
on devices like the Galaxy Note and iPad.

9. Singaporeans who bought via social media

2012:
24.3% of online buyers or 878,351 people
2013:
27.1% of online buyers or 1,058,905 people (Forecast)

Singaporeans are more than willing to buy products when referred
directly from social media, with almost a quarter of all people who
bought something online this year doing so as a direct result of
social media, by being directed via a link from a social site.
However, compared with countries like Australia and the UK this
ﬁgure is quite low, simply because of poor promotional practices by
the vast majority of Singaporean companies using social media.
It’s expected over 1 million people in Singapore will buy something
directly via social media in 2013.

10. Estimated sales via social media

2012:
$753.3 million SGD
2013:
$1.0 billion SGD (Forecast)
Over three-quarters of a billion dollars in sales were generated by
Singaporean businesses, as a direct result of consumers
purchasing via links on, or being referred by social media sites in


2012. Even if poor company online sales practices do not improve
in Singapore next year, this figure will dramatically increase in
2013 simply due to the large increase in general online sales and
purchasing trends.

11. Singaporeans who researched products/services via
Social Media before buying

ONLINE
POPULATION:
46.2% or 1,935,055 people
TOTAL
POPULATION:
37.3% or 1,935,055 people

Of people in Singapore who bought online this year, around 46%
said they used social media to discover more about a product or
service before placing an order. Specifically, purchasers searched
for companies via sites like Twitter and Facebook in order to find
out more before spending money, or uncover reviews by other
consumers.

12. Singaporeans researching via Social Media used the
following sites

FACEBOOK:
59.8%
TWITTER:
61.0%
YOUTUBE:
27.3%
LINKEDIN:
2.7%%
PINTEREST:
12.2%
FORUM:
42.3%
BLOG:
39.6%
OTHER:
67.6%

Surprisingly, Twitter was the highest-ranking site, with 61% of
Singaporeans who said they used social media for researching
products and services, saying they’d used the micro-blogging site
at one point in time to find out more. Usual obvious choice to find
out more about a company’s services, Facebook, came a close
second. A large portion of Singaporeans also said they used online
blogs and forums to research online before buying.

13. Online buyers who searched for coupons before
purchasing via the web


2012:
17.3% of online buyers or 625,328 people
2013:
21.1% of online buyers or 824,461 people (Forecast)

Over one-sixth of all online shoppers searched for some kind of
coupon on social media or the Internet before making a purchase
online. However, as we detailed later in the study, less than 0.5%
of companies using social media in Singapore were found to be
offering any kind of discount, special offers or coupons via social
media in order to help boost sales. This means that many
opportunities for increased revenue were being missed by SG
businesses.

14. People searching for coupons who used social media to
do so

2012:
81.7% or 510,893 people
2012:
86.6% or 713,983 people (Forecast)

Of the 17.3% of the online public in Singapore who searched the
Internet for coupons before making a web purchase, the vast
majority of these at some point used a social media site or tool to
do so. Over half a million Singaporeans searched social media for
online purchasing coupons this year, which should surge to well
over 700,000 in 2013.

15. Singaporeans who sold something online

2012:
31.1% of online population or 1,302,602 people
2013:
35.7% of online population or 1,495,270 people (Forecast)

In 2012, almost one-third of all Singaporeans with household
Internet access had something sold online, either themselves or by
a family member or friend. This was using any online means,
including online sales or community sites like eBay or Gumtree.

16. Singaporeans who sold something via social media

2012:
22.6% of online population or 946,585 people
2013:
24.9% of online population or 1,042,919 people (Forecast)


Of people with household Internet access in Singapore, more than
20% said they’d sold at least one item to someone via social
media, for example to a friend or family member on Facebook. As
social media use becomes more prevalent next year and more
people are using social portals to sell items, this is expected to
increase to almost a quarter of all online Singaporeans in 2013, or
over 1 million people.

17. Singaporeans who used social media to make a purchase
decision

2012:
51.2% of online buyers or 1,850,682 people
2013:
66.4% of online buyers or 2,594,512 people

Of all online buyers in Singapore this year, more than half said that
something they’d read on social media about a product, service or
company helped them to make a decision before choosing to buy
something. With the increased use of social media and how
Singaporeans are using it to buy, sell and make purchase
decisions, this will increase to two-thirds of the online buying
population next year.

18. Factors Singaporeans took into account when making
purchase decisions (using Social Media for research)

NEG-‐
FEEDBACK:
91.4%
POS+
FEEDBACK:
87.0%
LACK
OF
INFO:
46.6%

We asked thousands of Singaporeans what were key factors in
helping make them a purchase decision when it came to searching
for information via social media before buying. More than anything,
negative consumer feedback stood out, followed closely by
positive feedback. However, a large volume of people surveyed
also said lack of information or communication in social media
relating to a company or their products and services was also
something that mattered to them.


CORPORATE SOCIAL MEDIA in Singapore
As ROCK PUBLICITY deal exclusively in corporate, government
and big business social media consulting, of course we were
interested in how Singaporean companies were marketing,
promoting and communicating on the digital medium. It’s in this
section you’ll discover the paradox of social media in Singapore.
While the nation’s population are leaders in Asia and almost equal
in terms of social media use and knowledge, the companies of the
country are extremely far behind in taking advantage of real-time
media; companies here lag behind Malaysia, Hong Kong and the
Philippines.

STATS:

1. Number of companies studied

217

2. Notable companies included

Singapore Flyer, MasterCard Singapore, SingTel, Resorts World
Sentosa, Singapore Airlines, Hong Leong Bank, FlyScoot, MILO,
Starbucks, Marina Bay Sands, Changi Airport, Tiger Airways, Tiger
Beer, YourSingapore, KFC, M1, JetStar, McDonalds, OCBC, DBS
Bank, UOB, Far Eastern Bank, Subway, IKEA, Rafﬂes, Citibank.

3. Industries surveyed

TRAVEL/LEISURE:
26.6%
FOOD/DRINK:
26.5%
RETAIL:
17.3%
TECH:
15.6%
OTHER:
7.1%
BANKING/FINANCE:
4.6%
TELCO:
2.3%

Of the 217 companies we surveyed, most ﬁt within six industry
categories. Over 50% were in the TRAVEL/LEISURE and
FOOD/DRINK industries combined. The 17.3% in RETAIL made
up chain stores such as department stores, fashion outlets and


similar companies, with TECH being companies like Sony who
sold digital consumer products. BANKING/FINANCE made up
banks and credit card companies, with TELCO being entities like
SingTel and M1. Anything else went into the OTHER category.

4. Site usage by Singaporean companies

FACEBOOK:
82%
TWITTER:
69%
LINKEDIN:
51%
YOUTUBE:
22%
PINTEREST:
4%
OTHER:
37%

Of the companies surveyed in Singapore, the vast majority had
some Facebook presence (though not all regularly used it) and
well over 50% had an ofﬁcial Twitter account. However on most
other interactive portals this dropped sharply. One note was that
around half of all companies had some kind of ofﬁcial presence on
LinkedIn, which was well over the individual 1 in 10 Singaporeans
who had a personal account on the business-networking site. Also,
companies on average used Pinterest more than individuals,
though YouTube much less.

5. Number of social sites company had presence

10+:
12%
5-‐9:
13%
1-‐4:
48%
0:
22%

Here we asked companies how many social media sites they had
a presence on. While around half had a presence on a few of the
majors (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), very few branched out on
anything more than that. The most shocking fact is that almost a
quarter of all companies surveyed had no social media presence
at all, even on a single social networking site.

6. Frequency of posting to social media:


5+
TIMES
PER
DAY:
7%
2-‐4
TIMES
PER
DAY:
26%
ONCE
PER
DAY:
22%
LESS
THAN
ONCE
PER
DAY:
45%

Of the companies we surveyed that had a social presence, this is
how often we found they were posting to their social media
accounts on a daily basis. What’s scary is that even for those
businesses that did have a presence in social media, almost half
were still posting less than once per day.

7. Average time invested in social media marketing per day

10+
HOURS:
13.0%
5-‐9
HOURS:
25.5%
1-‐4
HOURS:
51.0%
LESS
THAN
1
HOUR:
9.5%

Whilst the vast majority of Singaporean businesses on social
media are doing some kind of social marketing on a daily basis,
most aren’t doing nearly enough. Only 39% are doing more than
the bare minimum, with more than half doing very little or almost
nothing on a daily basis.

8. Companies engaging followers

ENGAGING:
49.0%
NOT
ENGAGING:
51.0%

Here we looked at every company and found what percentage
were replying to, or communicating with their followers and fans
over a one-month period. This part only took into account
communication where the company was directly contacted via
social media ﬁrst, for example, when someone asked them a
question on Twitter. Keep in mind that only just over half of all
companies were doing this at all.


9. Companies ACTIVELY engaging followers

ACTIVELY
ENGAGING:
7.5%
NOT
ACTIVELY
ENGAGING:
92.5%

This is an important figure. While the previous statistic to this one
shows you what percentage of companies were doing some kind
of communicating or replying to their online communities, this is a
different figure altogether. Here we looked at what percentage of
Singaporean corporate entities were going out of their way to
address mentions about their business, or talk to consumers or
social media users, without being directly contacted first.

Only 7.5% of companies were doing things like addressing
indirectly-made complaints on Twitter, chatting to people when
their company name was mentioned or other activity like this.
Because all companies have the ability to see when they’re being
mentioned in social media, it’s unacceptable that 92.5% of
Singaporean companies were ignoring this completely.

10. Percentage of company posts that were sales related

MOSTLY
SALES/PROMOTIONAL: 46.0%
EVEN
BALANCE
OF
SALES/CONVERSATION: 39.3%
MOSTLY
CONVERSATION: 14.7%

Here we studied what was the predominant kind of post that
companies in Singapore were promoting to their communities –
either mostly sales and promotional content, mostly conversation
with their community, or an even balance of both.

Almost half of all the nation’s corporate social media accounts
were posting mostly promotional content, with only a small amount
of other communication to followers. Another 39.3% had a fairly
even mix of promotional content, as well as conversation building
with their communities.

However, for best results corporate entities should be
communicating mostly with people, with only a small percentage of
posts being totally promotional. We found only 14.7% of


Singaporean companies were posting in this manner via social
media.

11. Average delay in Twitter response

AVERAGE
RESPONSE
TIME:
17 hours 44 minutes 16 seconds
COMPANIES
RESPONDING
WITHIN
3
HOURS:
4.5%
COMPANIES
RESPONDING
WITHIN
1
HOUR:
<1.0%
DID
NOT
RESPOND
AT
ALL:
44.6%

ROCK PUBLICITY used several accounts to ask questions to
large companies relating to their products, services or support in
general in the attempt to see how long on average it took for a
company to reply to us, during business hours Monday-Friday.

To start with, more than 44% of Singaporean companies did not
reply to us at all; effectively we were totally and utterly ignored. Of
the remaining 56% that did, the average response time was
around 18 hours -- hardly what you’d call timely, especially on a
platform where it’s possible to discover a conversation and reply
within seconds. While some companies did respond very timely,
only around 5% in total got back to us within 3 hours. Several
companies regularly took up to 3 days to respond.

These negative response statistics are around 95% worse when
compared to responses by companies in countries like the United
States, Australia and Canada.

12. Average delay in Facebook response

AVERAGE
RESPONSE
TIME: 15 hours 12 minutes 03 seconds
COMPANIES
RESPONDING
WITHIN
3
HOURS: 6.3%
COMPANIES
RESPONDING
WITHIN
1
HOUR: 2.3%
DID
NOT
RESPOND
AT
ALL: 57.1%

Just like with the previous set of stats, we wanted to know what
company response times were on Facebook. While the average
response time was around 2.5 hours faster at 15h12m, as well as
more companies responding faster, in total more companies did
not respond at all. While only 44.6% of companies directly
contacted on Twitter didn’t reply at all, on Facebook this rose to a


staggering 57.1%. Meaning on this Facebook at least, most
consumers were being ignored by Singaporean companies.

Again we attempted to ask questions or for help on Singaporean
company official Facebook pages from Monday-Friday only.

13. Average number of negative mentions by industry per day

TELCO: 1,752.9
TECH: 468.7
TRAVEL/LEISURE: 355.5
BANKING/FINANCE: 312.1
RETAIL: 307.0
FOOD/DRINK: 177.0
OTHER: 41.4

Over a period of 30 days we used several pieces of social media
monitoring tools to see how many times companies were being
spoken of negatively by online communities.

Despite the fact that we only surveyed five companies in the
TELCO industry in Singapore (SingTel, Starhub and M1, Pacnet
and iCell), they alone averaged more than 1,700 negative
mentions in social media per day by Singaporeans. This was more
than all other industries surveyed combined. The TECH products
industry, while mentioned on social media almost as often as
TELCO companies, was mentioned negatively almost four times
less.

14. Customer satisfaction by industry

RETAIL: 64.4%
OTHER: 61.0%
TRAVEL/LEISURE: 55.3%
TECH: 50.1%
BANKING/FINANCE: 42.8%
FOOD/DRINK: 30.0%
TELCO: 22.2%

Here we asked Singaporeans whether they were satisfied with the
social media presence of companies they followed via social


media. The RETAIL industry in Singapore is most favored when it
comes to communicating with their communities online, followers
closely by companies in the OTHER and TRAVEL/LEISURE
industries. Again, TELCO performed the worst in this section, with
FOOD/DRINK and BANKING/FINANCE receiving mostly negative
reviews from the nation’s online population.

15. Sales opportunities per day

TELCO: 2991.6
TECH: 2,974.1
FOOD/DRINK: 2,570.5
TRAVEL/LEISURE: 2,116.0
BANKING/FINANCE: 1,444.2
RETAIL: 1,091.0
OTHER: 977.9

Here we used some very basic social media monitoring software to
uncover opportunities to make sales via social media in Singapore,
by companies in these industries. For example, we monitored for
certain keywords where people were chatting about a holiday or
something referencing an industry, where we believed a company
could start a conversation in order to sell to someone.

Technology industries were again leaders in this section and we
uncovered almost 3,000 opportunities to start sales conversations
with people via social media in both TECH and TELCO sectors.
FOOD/DRINK followed closely behind with over 2,500 potential
sales conversations per day in Singapore, TRAVEL/LEISURE
following with more than 2,100.

16. Sales opportunities per month

TECH: 89,748.0
TELCO: 89,223.0
FOOD/DRINK: 77,115.0
TRAVEL/LEISURE: 63,480.0
BANKING/FINANCE: 43,326.0
RETAIL: 32,730.0
OTHER: 29,337.0


With data pulled from the section above, we wanted to show you
how many opportunities for sales via social media were being
presented to Singaporean companies every month.

17. Sales opportunities missed per day

TECH: 99.3% or 2,953.3
BANKING/FINANCE: 99.1% or 1,431.2
FOOD/DRINK: 98.2% or 2524.2
TRAVEL/LEISURE: 96.0% or 2,031.4
RETAIL: 95.9% or 1,046.3
OTHER: 95.0% or 929.0
TELCO: 93.7% or 2803.1

Of the opportunities to make sales via social media we uncovered
per day, we wanted to know how many Singaporean companies
were actually taking advantage of them. The results we found were
staggering.

No industry we surveyed were taking advantage of more than 10%
of these opportunities, with the TELCO industry performing best –
but still missing out on over 93% of all potential sales
conversations on social media. Worst performers were TECH,
BANKING/FINANCE and FOOD/DRINK industries, all making use
of less than 2% of all sales conversations discovered.

18. Sales opportunities missed per month

TECH: 99.3% or 88,599.0
BANKING/FINANCE: 99.1% or 42,963.0
FOOD/DRINK: 98.2% or 75,726.0
TRAVEL/LEISURE: 96.0% or 60,943.0
RETAIL: 95.9% or 31,389.0
OTHER: 95.0% or 27,870.0
TELCO: 93.7% or 84,093

With data pulled from the section above, we multiplied daily ﬁgures
by 30 as we wanted to show you how many opportunities for sales
via social media were being missed my Singaporean companies
every single month.


19. Average sale amount per industry

BANKING/FINANCE: $314.9 SGD
TRAVEL/LEISURE: $249.4 SGD
TELCO: $201.6 SGD
TECH: $196.7 SGD
OTHER: $110.2 SGD
RETAIL: $31.1 SGD
FOOD/DRINK: $4.17 SGD

To find out how much money Singaporean companies were
potentially missing out on based on social media sales
opportunities not acted on, we had to find out the average
expected sale amount per industry.

TRAVEL/LEISURE and BANKING/FINANCE lead by a margin,
simply because of the potential dollar values involved. For
example, a customer buying a week-long hotel stay or flight, or a
bank converting over a new credit card customer. TECH and
TELCO were quite similar as both had some potentially high sales,
including mobile contracts or devices, computers and consumer
electronics. And expectedly, FOOD/DRINK came out bottom
because of low average single sales amounts.

20. Potential sales lost via social media per day

TECH: $580,914.6 SGD
TELCO: $565,105.0 SGD
TRAVEL/LEISURE: $506,631.2 SGD
BANKING/FINANCE: $450,684.9 SGD
OTHER: $102,375.8 SGD
RETAIL: $32,539.9 SGD
FOOD/DRINK: $10,525.9 SGD

Based on these industries average sale value and the figures we
found for missed sales opportunities, this is what we estimate
Singaporean companies are missing out on per day in social
media.
TECH, TELCO, BANKING/FINANCE and TRAVEL/LEISURE all
had reasonably similar figures, potentially missing out on between
$450K-$580K in sales every single day per industry. The


remaining industries – while having many missed opportunities as
well, did not achieve such high sales ﬁgures, simply due to low
average sale amounts.

While this accounts for total revenue potentially missed, these
huge daily numbers are simply a result of Singaporean companies
not actively searching for sales opportunities or conversations in
social media, either due to complacency, lack of training/
knowledge or low social media presence.

21. Potential sales lost via social media per month

TECH: $17.4 million SGD
TELCO: $17.0 million SGD
TRAVEL/LEISURE: $15.2 million SGD
BANKING/FINANCE: $13.5 million SGD
OTHER: $3.1 million SGD
RETAIL: $976,197 SGD
FOOD/DRINK: $315,777.0 SGD

To give you an idea on what these potential losses are per month,
we multiplied daily sales loss ﬁgures by 30.

TECH, TELCO and TRAVEL/LEISURE are estimated to all be
missing out on over $15 million SGD in potential sales per month
each, with the BANKING/FINANCE industry over $13 million SGD
per month.

22. Total potential sales loss in social media (monthly)

2012: $67.5 million SGD

By our estimated, research and study over the three months we
compiled the data in this report, we estimate Singaporean
companies are collectively missing out on $67.5 million in sales
every 30 days.

As stated before, it’s due to nothing more than a lack of training on
how to search for these opportunities via social media. Either that,


or companies are still complacent and don’t see the value of the
platform as a marketing tool.

If companies in Singapore don’t make a conscious effort to
become informed and to use social media effectively as a sales
tool, in 2013 this will increase with social media use and
purchasing to nearly $90 million SGD per month.

23. Total potential sales loss in social media (yearly)

2013: $1.1 billion SGD

When calculated over the year, Singaporean companies missed
out on a potential $809.9 million in sales generated via social
media in 2012. We estimate this is actually more than the nation’s
companies made for the year.

If social media use, sales trends and company actions continue
into 2013, Singaporean corporations will combined miss out on
over $1.1 billion SGD in sales next year. Again, this will be more
than we forecast they will earn in total using social and real-time
media.

The Lighter Side of Stats


This section was purely for fun and was our way of getting some
entertaining, shocking and funny answers out of the people we
surveyed in Singapore. Although these stats are accurate, they’re
deﬁnitely for fun and will probably NOT be able to be used in any
of your marketing campaigns!

39.0%
Singaporean social media users who said they access Facebook
or Twitter at least once a month while on the toilet.

21.7%
Percentage of Singaporean social media users who admitted
regretting posting something on social media while drunk

9.1%
Percentage of Singaporean social media users who said they
found a date, met a partner, or entered into a relationship due to
using social media in some way.

3,567
Number of Singaporeans who said they’d accidentally destroyed a
mobile device by dropping it into food or drink.

43.2%
Percentage of surveyed people who said they’d ‘stalked’ someone
on Facebook in order to ﬁnd out more information about them.

55.1%
Percentage of Singaporeans surveyed who said they’d taken a
photo of their food at least once and uploaded it onto a social
network

26,817 kg


The weight of ink and paper if every tweet by Singaporeans on
Twitter in 2012 were to be printed out. That equates to
approximately:

3
fully-loaded Apache Helicopters

12
standard empty 20’ shipping containers

23
Mini Cooper cars

4,500
long-tailed Macaques

44,700
serves of Singapore chilli crab

67,000
Singapore Slings

26%
Singaporeans surveyed who said they had sworn or used profanity
on social media.

17,456
The number of times on an average day that people in Singapore
mention something about food, or eating in general, on Twitter
alone. That’s one tweet on average every 5 seconds.

2,736,301,875
Minutes Singaporeans spend watching YouTube videos every
month. This equates to:

45,605,031 hours

1,900,210 days

271, 59
weeks
4

5,220
years


CONCLUSIONS
BASED
ON
THE
2012
SINGAPORE
SOCIAL
MEDIA
STUDY

-‐-‐

ROCKPUBLICITY.COM

-‐-‐


FORECASTS for Singapore’s Social Media in
2013
In many ways, forecasting social media in 2013 is an easy task
and a difﬁcult one at the same time.

Firstly, when it comes to consumer usage, Singapore will maintain
its stance as social media powerhouse and leader in the Asian
region. There is no doubt (especially now with the data we have in
this study) that Singaporeans know their social media, use it
heavily and will continue to do so.

In fact, based on growth trends, we see no Asian nation who will
be able to compete with Singapore’s social media usage per capita
going forward in 2013 and beyond.

Along with general consumer usage, consumer spending via the
Internet will grow steadily, though next year we will see major
increases in the way Singaporeans buy and sell directly via social
media, as well as increased use of coupons and researching
products and services via digital communications media. Per
capita, Singapore should maintain its place as one of the top
online and social media purchasing nations in Asia in 2013.

As people of the nation are the heaviest smartphone users in the
world, it’s expected social media use on mobile will retain
extremely high levels next year as well as beyond that and we see
a serious increase in social media application development, as
well as better global social media integration for mobile devices,
which will have a great impact on mobile users in Singapore.
Forecasting consumer social media is easy as we have so many
reliable trends and statistics to look upon in this area. However
where forecasting becomes a little more difﬁcult is in the area of
corporate social media usage, integration and sales.

As we’ve uncovered in this study, Singaporean companies are
very far behind the world average when it comes to social media,
in basically every single area from engagement to customer
service, sales to promotion and everything in between.


While we are seeing increases in the way local companies are
taking social media on board, it’s nowhere near at the rate
consumer use is growing. Nor does it look like it’s trying to close
the massive gap that separates the way Singaporeans are using
social media personally and for business.

Through 2013, more local companies will take social media on
board and increase their usage, however for the most part we
don’t see it at the level it should be. For example, we forecast that
only around 1-in-4 Singaporean nations who implement social
media next year will create proper strategies, customer service
techniques and methods of sales; for the vast majority, we still see
the “Oh, it’s just that social media stuff” mentality sticking, meaning
they’ll either not use it enough, or use it poorly.

While this is what we see happening mostly with Singaporean
companies in 2013, it will see a large opportunity for the
companies who do it right.

Next year will be the largest year on record for social media
adoption by Singaporean companies and because there is such a
large gap in the market in this ﬁeld, regardless of industry, product
or service, it will be extremely easy for local businesses to
increase their promotion and proﬁt heavily in online and social
media-based sales.

As there’s such a gaping hole in the corporate social media market
in Singapore at present, we forecast that the companies who do
begin implementing it correctly will be able to market, promote and
sell extremely easily, simply because of the lack of competition in
corporate social media. This will not necessarily last long as
eventually (possibly a year or three away) most companies, while
slow to adapt to social media, will eventually get on board.
However, as with anything in business it will provide an initial lead
for those who adopted earlier.

Whatever happens in the social media scene in Singapore
throughout 2013 and beyond that, there’s no doubt that the nation
is growing at a fast pace both for consumers and companies. And
while consumer growth is extremely stable and self-generating,
Singaporean companies will have to work to close the gap they’ve


created over the last few years due to a lack of knowledge, training
or simply being complacent.

* * *

ADVICE for Singaporean Companies
While the people of Singapore are not only leaders in the region
when it comes to social media understanding, usage and
engagement, we see from the data in this study that Singaporean
companies definitely are not.

Although companies in Asian nations as a whole are still not
utilising social media as effectively when compared to counterparts
in Western countries, Singapore should be comparatively similar,
due to how prevalent social media use is by the nation’s people.
However, that is simply not the case.

While no country can be considered perfect when it comes to
driving communication and sales via social media, we were quite
surprised actually how complacent businesses in Singapore seem
to be on the platform, when our findings were put in raw data form.
And nothing stood out more than how many opportunities for sales
were being missed by the nation’s companies on a daily basis, as
well as how blatantly some companies were ignoring direct public
communications and questions by their communities, fans and
followers.

As far as specifics on sales are concerned, our research puts lost
sales in social media in the realm of $809 million SGD. And if
Singaporean business don’t change their ways, this will rise to
over $1 billion or more next year. The problem isn’t that
opportunities for making sales aren’t there, simply that the nation’s
businesses aren’t doing anything to make them – either due to lack
of education, or laziness.

Companies in Singapore have a long way to go in order to get their
social media up to speed, to say the very least.


While we can never give any specific advice relating to any
individual companies until we assess their needs, we do have the
following to suggest most businesses in Singapore take on board,
especially going into 2013 and beyond.

Firstly, your company needs to understand the value of social
media. It isn’t just a platform where your customers can follow your
brand for more information; in our opinion, this is the way the vast
majority of Singaporean companies look at it.

Social media, while being an excellent tool for updating people
about company news, is so much more than that. It’s a medium
that allows you to find out every single conversation or comment
someone is making on the Internet about your industry, the
products you sell, your company and your competitors – all at the
very moment they happen.

You need to start looking at it as the only tool that can offer you the
ability to connect with people who are searching for what you sell
the moment they search for it, something to resolve any customer
issue the moment they make it public, as well as being able to
influence more people at one time to think differently about your
company.

In short, social media is the only thing that can offer your company
all this and it’s sad to see the vast majority of Singaporean
companies aren’t using it effectively, if at all.

For the companies who are heavily using social media, especially
as a tool for communicating with people and giving support, you
need to focus more on response times.

As we discovered in the study, it was taking the average company
somewhere between 15-17 hours to respond to a question via
social media, specifically on Facebook and Twitter. However even
worse was that around 50% of companies weren’t even
responding at all.

The first reason this isn’t anywhere near acceptable is that social
media offers you the ability to discover this communication
immediately; there is absolutely no reason your company (unless


under-staffed) should take this long to respond to a simple
customer question on a portal like Twitter. Secondly, it shows an
extreme lack of care for your customers, which is viewable by the
entire public.

And if you need any more convincing how bad this practice is, just
ask yourself this: how disappointed would you be with a company
if you asked them a simple, one-sentence question on social
media and didn’t get a response for hours. Or even worse, not at
all.

Next, your company needs to really grasp the concept of the
potential for an increased brand image and how you can truly get
your community not just to like your brand, but how you can use
this personal and mass-communications tool to generate extreme
brand loyalty and love for your products and services.

For example, when your company helps someone out online,
solves a problem, gives free advice or offers above-standard
service via social media – even if it’s only directed at one person –
the entire online community can see this. If you’re going out of
your way to show you care, thousands upon thousands of
Singapore’s Internet users will see this and start to see your brand
as a corporate entity who cares for people who buy from you.

While increased loyalty and brand image may not drive immediate
sales, any corporate marketing expert will know the better your
brand’s image, the more loyal your customers and the more love
they have for what your company does, then the easier it becomes
to sell anything. In fact, in some cases selling isn’t even required –
people will continue to buy your products and services because of
the way they perceive you.

Not only that, but social media offers your company the ability to
be seen as not just another boring corporate entity, but a brand
who does things differently and likes to have fun with their
community.

These principles work so well in social media that we base our
entire “Social ROCKstar” consulting program around them; how to


get people to fall in love with your brand because of how you’re
interacting with your community.

While these few nuggets of advice are only the tip of the iceberg, it
doesn’t begin to really show the extent of what Singaporean
companies aren’t getting right, or missing out on altogether. And if
almost $1 billion in lost revenues in social media doesn’t show you
the extent of the issue, not much will.

All-in-all, the biggest hurdle we see is the lack of faith in social
media’s value as a communications, marketing and brand-building
platform by companies in Singapore. And hopefully with the facts,
ﬁgures and data we’ve found in this study, the nation’s big
businesses will start to see what they’re missing out on.


MORE
INFORMATION
ABOUT
ROCK
PUBLICITY

-‐-‐

ROCKPUBLICITY.COM

-‐-‐


About ROCK PUBLICITY
Hi, my name is Leon Hill and to put it quite simply, I am ‘Rock
Publicity’.

Although we are a social marketing agency, apart from my small
team of accounting, marketing, support staff and my personal
assistant Jasmine, I’m effectively the only consultant, strategist
and advisor in the company. So despite my agency behind me, I’m
effectively a sole consultant and that’s the way I like things to be.

Over the years my work took me from working with SMEs to what
is now my specialty of corporate social media. These days, I work
almost exclusively with government agencies, large corporations
and entities similar to these. I’ve been lucky enough to call some of
the biggest names in the world my clients, including departments
of governments in over 20 countries.

On top of this I’ve worked with world-class musicians signed to
music labels such as EMI and Virgin Records, as well as TV stars
from shows such as Game of Thrones and CSI, to some of the
biggest sports stars in the world like American MLB players.

Although I live and run my business from Brisbane, Australia, I
travel quite regularly to Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and
recently the United Arab Emirates to consult with corporate clients;
Singapore by far being my favourite place on Earth.

My company specializes in large corporate social media, with over
70% of our clients reporting revenues of over $1 billion per annum.
We handle most areas of social media in this ﬁeld, however my
focuses have always been on creating brand loyalty and customer
retention through social media, creating new, interactive and
exciting brand images, as well as showing large companies how to
expose and, capitalise on every possible sales opportunity that
appears in real-time through excellent online monitoring.

Despite the ‘norm’ in the big-business world, I hate jargon. And by
that I mean being one of those people who insist on talking in


words like ‘leverage’, ‘engagement’, ‘vertical’ and other
unnecessary stuff like that. For me, simplicity is always key.

In my experience there is always an easier way of expressing
something (even in the sometimes dull world of big companies)
and most people in my industry that over-use terms or try to make
something sound more important than it is, are most of the time
using this tactic to make them sound more experienced than they
really are, or over-compensate for a lack of knowledge.

Whether it be with my clients, in my blog posts, books or reports, I
always make sure I’m making things as easy to understand as
possible – as if I’m writing for someone who has no initial
knowledge of the subject I’m talking about.

However above all this, my main goal in social media is to make it
as entertaining and interesting as possible, in whatever way I
possibly can. I ﬁnd most companies treat the platform as just
another means of advertising and don’t give their communities any
reason to ever come back to their pages, or talk about their brand
– in other words, they make things unbearably boring.

For any private, corporate or celebrity consulting inquiries, please
contact us using the details below.

CONTACTING
ROCK
PUBLICITY

For anything relating to the 2012 ROCK PUBLICITY Singapore
Social Media Study, or advice relating to corporate social media,
you can get in touch with us, or our head consultant Leon Hill
using any of the following details.

EMAIL:
http://rockpublicity.com/contact
BLOG:
http://rockpublicity.com/blog
PHONE
(Australia):
+61439 2222 05
PHONE
(Singapore
Skype
ID):
rockpublicity
EMAIL:
LINKEDIN:
http://www.linkedin.com/proﬁle/view?id=24222347
TWITTER:
http://twitter.com/rockpublicity
FACEBOOK: http://facebook.com/RockPublicity


* * *

THANKS and Credits
Most of the 2012 Singapore Social Media Study was completed by
ROCK PUBLICITY in-house, however there are a ton of people it
wouldn’t have been possible without the help of.

Firstly, we’d like to thank Dave Phua of Training Edge International
(http://trainingedgeasia.com/) for being such an incredible source
of help, advice and an amazing connector of people. You’ve
helped us out in such a short amount of time already, probably
more than you know!

To Brendan Yong at Demospin (http://demospin.com/), we’d like to
thank you for being a great partner to us and assisting with content
creation as well as some advice on Singapore. You’re always a
great help!

To our graphics expert Harris Moshin, thank you for being so
patient with us! As well as dealing with a heavy number of edits,
changes and alterations we always need in every design you do
for us (simply because of how often we seem to change our
minds!), we’d love your work simply due to how high-quality it
always is.

We’d like to thank David Alexander of Pixelloop (http://
pixelloop.org/) for being such a prompt, reliable and
knowledgeable web designer and coder. You always seem to be
there when we need you and we couldn’t be happier with
everything you do for us!

For providing data, we’d like to thank World Bank (http://
worldbank.org/), Singapore Department of Statistics (http://
singstat.org/), Internet World Stats (http://internetworldstats.com/)
and Paypal (http://paypal.com/) for their publicly-available and
detailed information that we used as a basis for being able to
create this study.


To Leon’s personal assistant Jasmine, thank you so much for the
endless coffee runs for all the staff and people who worked on this
study. We think that without you, we’d probably be huddled
underneath a desk somewhere sleeping because of so much
number-crunching!

And ﬁnally, we’d like to say thanks to the people and the nation of
Singapore. Without you this study wouldn’t be possible.

…and P.S. – thanks for the chilli crab!


THE 2012 SINGAPORE SOCIAL MEDIA STUDY

All material, data, statistics and information courtesy of
RockPublicity.com for the use and information of consumers and
companies in Singapore.

Copyright 2012, RockPublicity.com. All Rights Reserved.

-‐-‐

ROCKPUBLICITY.COM

-‐-‐


2012 Singapore Social Media Study by RockPublicity.com

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