Global digital transformation continues despite economic troubles and, according to PYMNTS’ Q3 2022 ConnectedEconomy™ (CE) Index, three ascendent areas dominated in the latest sounding.
This, as a measurement of the digital transformation of roughly 30,000 consumers in 11 countries found that streaming entertainment, travel-related activities, and messaging/communications logged the most substantial increases.
The study “How the World Does Digital: Different Paths to Digital Transformation,” the third-quarter 2022 edition, notes that consumer engagement with digital tools for travel and commuting rose by 3.2% in Q3.
“Consumers in all but three countries — France, the Netherlands and Brazil — conducted more digital activities, such as purchasing airfare online and researching travel information,” the study stated. “Fueling this increase was a 3.4% rise in the number of consumers participating in these activities and a 2.7% climb in the frequency of these actions.”
Online communications and messaging were also up in Q3, as overall engagement with messaging apps, social media and dating apps spiked by 2.2%.
This overall increase in the “communicate” pillar of the connected economy was driven by a 3.6% rise in the frequency of these activities “combined with a 1.4% uptick in participation drove this increase,” the study found. “Similarly, 2.8% more consumers use music streaming apps and did so 1% more frequently than in Q2.”
These three activities cross a few lines from accessing to transacting. For example, we categorize streaming use and communications as “access activities,” which are generally non-transactional, while travel-related engagement is a “transactional activity” as payment is directly involved more often than not.
Video streaming is the top Q3 connected activity across approximately 11,000 consumers surveyed as measured by PYMNTS’ CE Index — a trend that has held for several previous quarters as well.
The latest study noted that “video streaming captured more daily users than other digital activities we track, at 35%, followed by messaging at 29%, social media browsing at 29%, and streaming music at 26%, which maintain their position as the top four.”
Music streaming and wearable tech both experienced a 10% increase in Q3, as the use of traffic apps/websites saw an 8% rise and uploading social media content increased by 10%.
At the same time as entertainment, travel and communicating were on the rise, transactional activities decreased.
Per the study, “progress in activities that are ‘purpose-built’ to transact fell 0.2% relative to Q2. Of the 19 relevant activities we track — which relate to banking, shopping and paying for services — 12 slipped this quarter. This decline can be partly explained by consumers returning to shopping and paying in person in areas previously disrupted by the pandemic.”
Overall, the study found that “more consumers engage digitally with access activities. For instance, seven times more consumers are engaged daily in watching videos than shopping on a marketplace, and five times more consumers check their social media feeds daily than order food from delivery aggregators.”
This came amid a generally higher level of engagement across most of the 37 activities we monitor within the 10 pillars of the connected economy.
The Q3 study found that 65% of consumers across the 11 countries “conducted at least one of the 37 digital activities we track on a daily basis — a 0.9% increase from Q2 2022 — and 73% did so at least once weekly, up 0.7% from Q2. Monthly participation also rose, with 84% of respondents conducting at least one digital activity per month, 0.8% more than in Q2.”
The U.K., Spain, Singapore and the U.S. pulled ahead of other countries in the CE Index “in both monthly and daily participation rates.”
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