WhatsApp Usage Increased By 40% During The CO.VID-19 Pandemic

People are using social media more than ever due to the CO.VID-19 pandemic. As health organizations and governments require social distancing to limit the spread of the virus, people are going online to stay in touch with their friends and families. According to new data released by insights and consulting company Kantar, social apps are actually benefiting from this. A typical example is WhatsApp data usage.

A survey carried out between March 14 and March 24 involving 25,000 consumers across 30 markets reveals that WhatsApp appears to have gained the most from the pandemic. In total, the messaging platform has experienced a 40% rise in WhatsApp data usage. The growth rate has also gone up from 27 percent in the early days of the outbreak to 41 percent in the mid-phase. In countries where the pandemic has entered the later phase, WhatsApp usage has rocketed by 51 percent.

For some markets, the figure may be even more impressive. For instance, in Sapin, WhatsApp data usage has jumped by 76 percent.

For all messaging apps, the usage increase is the largest among people between 18 and 34 years old, according to the study. Besides, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp also experienced an increase of 40 percent or higher in usage in this age group.

Meanwhile, WeChat, Weibo, and Facebook are month the social platforms that gain during the epidemic. Kantar says that world-leading social network Facebook has seen a 37 percent growth in usage while the figure for Chinese social apps is 58 percent.

However, consumers revealed that they didn’t trust social networks for important news about CO.VID-19. They have more belief in government websites and national news channels, 48 percent and 58 percent of survey respondents, respectively. Consumers seem to think these are trustworthy news and info sources. Only 11 percent of responding consumers consider social platforms trustworthy in terms of critical news.

Apart from Kantar, Facebook has also shared its own data, in which it noted that over the past month, its messaging platforms' usage has risen by over 50 percent, including WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger together. The social giant also claimed a 70% growth across all apps since the disease broke out while group call total time, including Whatsapp call data usage, has gone up by over 1,000 percent over the past month.

Additionally, Facebook and Instagram Live views increased by 100% in a week’s time, according to Facebook.

These numbers come with no surprise as the pandemic is affecting people around the world seriously. Due to the rapid increase in cases, India has been put on full lockdown starting March 24, people are all staying home and turn to social and messaging platforms to communicate with their loved ones. Therefore, Whatsapp usage in India has increased; however, as the internet is slowing down across the country, Whatsapp video call data usage per minute may have been reduced and video quality may be lower.

While the company seems to benefit from Whatsapp data usage, it’s also making efforts to help us fight misinformation amid the CO.VID-19 outbreak by launching an information hub to provide accurate news, including a chatbot, and donating money to the global battle against the epidemic.

>>> WHO Now Uses WhatsApp To Provide Answers To COVID-19 Questions