Recent Nielsen Survey classifies Malaysians to be entertainment and media addicts and also revealed the large divide between those in the East and the West.
MALAYSIA has emerged as the top 10 media consuming nation out of 52 countries surveyed by The Nielsen Company to unearth the entertainment technology ownership and usage habits of global citizens.
Malaysians especially have an enormous appetite when it comes to consuming digital media (any type of information stored in the computer, including data, voice and video), ranking fifth out of 52 countries.
They are also prolific and sophisticated users of the Internet, with 53 percent having streamed or played content such as full-length movies or movie clips, movie trailers/ads, TV shows or clips from TV shows, music videos or other audio tracks or files, short video clips or individual/amateur clips and videogames in the past month.
Meanwhile, 41 percent have downloaded the same variety of content from the Internet over the last month. This ranks Malaysia in seventh and ninth place respectively out of 52 countries when it comes to the frequency of streaming or playing and downloading entertainment content from the Internet. In fact, Malaysia took third placing globally in terms of those who spend over 20 hours a week watching streamed of downloaded content from the Internet.
The findings emerged from the entertainment portion of the biannual Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey, which reached 26,000 online users in September, including 500 Malaysians.
“Malaysians are real entertainment and technology junkies. They consume a copious amount of home entertainment, music, video games and digital media. These tech- savvy locals are also thoroughly hooked on the Internet, streaming and downloading digital media content on a regular basis,” said Paul Richmond, Managing Director, Consumer Group, Nielsen Malaysia. Out of the 52 countries surveyed, five from Asia-Pacific occupied spots in the top 10 list with the highest levels of usage across a range of media devices, with Philippines claiming the top spot.
The Nielsen study also yielded a sense of which media devices are most popular across the world. The desktop or laptop computer (PC) managed to edge out the television set, with 77% of respondents indicating they had used a PC during the past month, just ahead of 75% for TV. The CD player finished with 50%, followed by DVD (48%). Mobile phones without video or Web capabilities were used by 40%, while video-enabled phones finished with 30%.
In Malaysia, TV ownership of 89 percent is slightly ahead of PC, at 87 percent.