How many screens do Asians need? For many, four or more

ASIA-PACIFIC - Multi-device usage continues to accelerate in Asia, with the number of people interacting with four or more screens up 40 percent year-on-year, according to research from Appier, a Taiwanese AI analytics company.

The latest installment of the company’s ongoing study into cross-screen user behaviour shows that more than 30 percent of multi-device users across Asia now regularly use at least four screens, up from 22 percent last year.

Nearly 60 percent interact with at least three screens. This trend rose in six markets: Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, India, Japan and South Korea. Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore saw the rate of usage of four or more screens rise faster than that of three or more screens.

The research also found that more people interact differently with advertising depending on the screen it is served on; 72 percent said they respond “somewhat or completely differently” to ads on different screens, an increase of four percentage points on last year.

The markets where interaction varies the most depending on the device include Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Hong Kong, Japan and Australia show the least variation.

Across the region, PCs were found to generate 70 percent more web usage than smartphones, and are used on average three times as much as an individual smartphone for browsing. Men were shown to be more active than women in browsing the internet on PCs and smartphones, and in terms of app usage.

Appier advocates tailoring advertising to fit different formats. The research showed that cross-screen campaigns (work optimised for different devices) outperformed single-screen campaigns in terms of conversion by 67 percent in Japan and Korea, 16 percent in Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines, and 10 percent in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.

PCs and smartphones were shown to drive the most awareness and conversion. Over half of conversion paths end on a smartphone, a quarter on PCs and a fifth on tablets. In Japan, the majority of ecommerce purchases are made via mobile, in contrast to the rest of Asia, where PCs dominate.

Caroline Hsu, Appier’s chief marketing officer, said that marketers need to pay close attention to consumer preferences and habits in individual markets in terms of screen interaction. “This becomes important as the number of screens multiplies,” she said. “The more screens a user is engaged on, the more likely they are to convert.”

The report is based on analysis of user behaviour. Appier says its technology analysed one trillion data points of campaigns including ad requests, impressions clicks and conversions.