SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — meltwatera global leader in social and media intelligence, and we are socialthe socially-led creative agency Digital 2023their latest annual report on social media and digital trends worldwide.

Digital 2023 shows that the typical internet user worldwide reduced their average daily internet usage by 20 minutes to 6 hours 37 minutes in the last twelve months, a reduction of almost 5 percent compared to the previous year. However, time spent on social platforms has increased to more than 2½ hours a day – 40 minutes more than time spent watching television and cable TV. Analysis of the data suggests that people are looking for more targeted internet usage, with an emphasis on quality over quantity. The daily usage rate is a return to 2019 levels before the COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on the world’s digital behavior.

The 465-page report also shows that social platforms are claiming an increasing share of global search activity. 16-34 year olds are now more likely to visit a social network when looking for information about brands than a search engine (48 percent vs. 45 percent), and half of social media users globally say they actively visit social platforms to learn more about brands and see their content. While the rise of TikTok search has already garnered media attention, the latest data suggests that Instagram is the preferred target of social media users for research.

The growing importance of social media is reflected in global ad spending, with social media ad investments more than doubling since the outbreak of COVID-19, reaching an estimated $226 billion in 2022.

Additional headlines in Digital 2023which addresses trends in social media, internet, mobile and e-commerce worldwide, include:

• Today there are 5.16 billion internet users and 4.76 billion social media users worldwide.
• The average daily mobile time has…