Into the future!

Publication date: 21 Jun 2023

The future belongs to short videos and video games, while Instagram* will soon leave the Russian Internet space. This is the data contained in a unique study conducted in June 2023 by Mediascope. This is the first time experts have assessed the interests and trends among the internet audience of 4 to 17 year olds. So why is that important right now?

According to “generation theory”, the formation of a person’s main values happens at the age of 5-7 years old. What is established at this age will influence a person’s life and preferences throughout his/her life. We covered this in more detail in the article “How to promote betting and gambling according to the theory of generations”. 

These children will soon grow up and become the target audience for online betting and gambling. How to work with them in the future, to catch their attention and produce effective creatives? 

Children, teenagers and the Internet: behavioural patterns

Kids between the ages of 4 and 5 use the internet (87%), with 53% accessing it every day. 35% of children in this age range already own a smartphone. 

92% of 14- to 17-year-olds have their own smartphone. Another 22% also have their own laptop and 34% have a tablet. The average daily time online is 6 hours and 20 minutes!

About 60% of 12- to 17-year-olds are familiar with VPNs, 11% of the 4- to 5-year-olds already know about it!

As many as 37% of 4- to 8-year-olds are able to pay for content online (they did it at least once by themselves or with the help of their parents) and 62% of 12–17-year-olds.

What are the things that currently attract a young audience, where do they spend most of their time and what kind of content do they prefer? 

The most popular video hosting service is YouTube.  Cartoons (77%), user-generated (bloggers) videos and clips (64%) along with movies (42%) are most popular among viewers from 4 to 17 years old. The least popular are news and reality (13% each) and talent shows (12%).

Interest in social networks and time spent therein is proportional to age. In the group of teenagers aged 12-17 years, there are 94% of those who use social networks at least once a month, while 25% spend in these networks more than 3 hours a day. In ages 9-11 years, 66% use social networks (and 8% spend more than 3 hours a day), compared with 25% in ages 4-8 years (only 1% spends more than three hours). 

TikTok is the most popular social network among children and teenagers, used by 43%. VKontakte comes second (41%), while Instagram* ranks third (13%). The Likee service is more favored by girls (15%, compared with only 7% for boys) and children aged 9 to 11 (19%, compared with 7% for Instagram).  

To attract the attention of the target audience, it is essential to be aware of their life goals and criteria for success. 

Among the outdated trends, 9- to 17-year-olds cited going to discos, playing board games, watching TV and listening to the radio.  Meanwhile, teenagers named going to coffee shops and shopping malls, spas, cinemas and dating as the most attractive leisure activities. Among the travel preferences are trips to Russia.  An interesting new leisure format is watching movies together with friends via video conferencing.

An interesting fact is that among the less interesting and “going away” trends, the young audience attributed cryptocurrencies, NFT and the social network Yappy. Things are less clear with Yappy (the network was launched about a year ago and never became popular), the unpopularity of cryptocurrencies and unique tokens experts associate with low awareness of the young audience.

25% of adolescents aged 12 to 17 are willing to work remotely. Only 15% see themselves in public service, 8% – in science (laboratory or science centre), 2% want to work as a salesperson.

33% of teenagers believe they will become CEOs in the future, while only 6% believe they will own a business and not work. Only 7% are prepared to take jobs where they are “told what to do”.

*The Instagram service is owned by the extremist Meta corporation and has been blocked in Russia by court order.

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