The State of Social Media in Suriname (2018)

jeanlucsr (62)in #socialmedia • 6 years ago

Every year I provide an update of the state of Social Media in Suriname. In Januari 2018, I published a video version of this year's research on @dtube. This is the full written version, including updates over the first half of 2018.

The State of Social Media in Suriname

To fully understand the state of social media in Suriname, there are several things to take into account. First, understanding the demographics and their use of internet and internet technology provides a great starting point to know how social media develops in our country. Secondly, all data used for the research is publicly available online. For that reason, results to this research are free and also available without collection of user data. Last but not least, additional non-statistical information has been added to this article to provide depth and better insights to understanding the social media landscape in Suriname. Below you will find out the current state of social media in Suriname, through ten mini-stories.

1. We are still far away from full internet connectivity

According to several sources, the population of Suriname amounts to a total of somewhere in between 550.000 and 580.000 inhabitants, with a small growth of 1-2% each year. As of June 2017, over 45% (260.000) of Suriname's population could also be found online. This would put Suriname outside of the top 150 countries with internet connection based on total internet users, but within the top 120 based on the percentage of population. While this isn’t necessarily a bad position, you can't call it great either. Suriname is listed below Trinidad & Tobago (69.1%) and Venezuela (57.9%), far behind The Netherlands (93.7%, Top 10 worldwide) and slightly ahead of Guyana, India and Cuba (30-40%). With the national telecommunication provider pushing for nationwide access to internet, it will be interesting to see how much the connectivity improves.

Interestingly, this is immediately where data becomes tricky. According to a 2018 research study by We Are Social and HootSuite, the amount of Internet users in Suriname is listed around 340.000, which is a lot more than the numbers listed by World Internet Stats, the International Communication Union, Internet Live Stats and the CIA World Factbook. All listed numbers between the 230.000 and 260.000 Internet Users in Suriname. This 80.000+ surplus can be explained in two ways. One, the numbers of users on most websites are outdated and Internet use in Suriname has grown considerably. Or second, the total of 340.000 is based on Social Media usage and based on the number of accounts instead of actual users, including duplicate and fake accounts, which leads to a slight overestimation of the actual numbers.

It however, is still worth noting that with even the most positive numbers available, while growing, less than 60% of Suriname is connected to the Internet.

2. Mobile rules the Social Media web, also in Suriname

It is no secret that mobile internet usage has become the way to go. Numerous sources claim that over 90% of all social media users worldwide use their phone to connect to their favorite social media platforms. Mobile phones also account for over 50% of worldwide web pages traffic. Just to imagine, this was less than 1% less than 10 years ago.

Over the past five years in Suriname, the amount of mobile subscriptions has been as high as 182% of the total population. That amounts to almost 2 mobile phone subscriptions per capita. Of course, in Suriname not all phones are smartphones and most of them have no internet access, but mobile internet clearly has the upper hand compared to fixed-line telephones or broadband internet, which are currently used by less than 20% of the total population. The rise of Social Media on mobile is also stimulated by provider based free internet options. As a result, over 90% of all social media users in Suriname use their mobile phone to connect as well.

3. The Surinamese news cycle still dominates browser traffic

According to Alexa data, the Top 10 most visited websites in Suriname based on browser data looks the same as last year. As noted last year, Alexa ranking only covers the last 90 days and can't fully cover mobile app traffic. Still, using this data provides us with the clearest overview of actual website browser usage in Suriname.
Alexa Top 10 Suriname.png

As none of the Top 10 ranked website should be a surprise and Instagram quietly lurks on the 11th spot, there are some notable rankings. While not in the Top 10, there are two gambling websites in the Top 20 and 3 banks in the Top 50. The most notable category however are the news websites, as there are 6 Surinamese news websites ranked in Alexa's top 50 visited websites in Suriname based on browser data.

The news cycle does attract a lot of attention when it comes to Surinamese browser traffic. According to Alexa, in Suriname, news websites like Starnieuws.com en DWTOnline.com are visited more frequently than Wikipedia.com. This does translate to Social Media to some extend, where news stories gain virality based on the topics and target audience. Social Media's biggest virality contributor? Facebook. Not surprisingly, the three biggest Facebook pages (based on following) in Suriname are all News pages.

4. Facebook has become mainstream

With over 330.000 locally registered accounts, Facebook is by far the biggest medium in Suriname. Suriname's biggest Facebook fanpage, Starnieuws, recently reached the 200.000 fans mark, with over 70% of their fans being Surinamese accounts. To illustrate this enormous growth, less than 6 years ago, TBL Cinemas became the first Surinamese Facebook page to reach 20.000 fans. This milestone has now been reach by hundreds of local companies and brands that are trying to reach their target audience. There are also local profiles of celebrities and social media influencers, the biggest having over 50.000 followers.

Aside from Facebook for Business, Facebook remains the most heavily used social media platform in Suriname with the main topics being: News, Politics, Complaints and as we call it in Suriname: Sma tori. With its share of social media drama, ranging from schools closing to garlic sauce, Facebook has cemented its place as the primary medium for spreading news (including fake news) and receiving a daily dose of entertainment. As a result of its size and impact on the community Facebook is now largely considered to be mainstream.
FB Stats 2018.png
In 2017, Facebook continued to grow with over 10% in new Surinamese accounts, a growth which is slowly continuing in 2018. Last year saw a steady growth of 55+ year old users, who are slowly adapting to the social media age. Notable however is that there is a decline of accounts for user under the age of 18, meaning that the stream of new teen users does not match the amount of youngsters turning 18 or those leaving the platform.

5. Dare to dream and get inspired

While Facebook has officially become mainstream and very dark at times, a large group of Surinamese social media users have found their way to Instagram. Instagram has silently grown to a community of 106.000 registered accounts in Suriname, making it the second largest channel based on user totals. Several Surinamese accounts have a following of above 100.000 on Instagram and due to the platform's nature (being less reliant on advertising for channel growth than Facebook), the amount of Surinamese accounts on Instagram with 100+k following might actually exceed the amount of Surinamese Facebook pages with a similar following. The biggest difference however is that these accounts are based on interest and have a much higher percentage of followers outside of Suriname, meaning going viral on Instagram often means going viral abroad, like Make Up artist Tanielle Seauw experienced in September 2017. The interest based character of Instagram makes it a totally different experience compared to Facebook, with stronger emphasis on high quality visuals and positive attitude.

Much like the rest of the world, Instagram in Suriname has become the place were young professionals share their dreams with the world, building their own personal following, as local businesses and brands try to play catch up by trying to create high value authentic content. While few brands have been able to truly differentiate their Facebook and Instagram content strategies, Influencer Marketing has become the way to creatively push your product towards your audience, without losing the authentic feel. 2018 therefore has seen an increase of brands using local creators and influencers to create branded content on the platform.
IG Stats 2018.png
Like big brother Facebook, Instagram has grown with over 10% in 2017 as well. And while Instagram is considered to target a younger audience (which it does, as 63% of all users is between age 18 and 34), like Facebook, Instagram in Suriname struggles to grow their teenage users. Also, the massive growth on Instagram of older users (35 and up) has halted after growing substantially in 2017.

With the two biggest Social Media Channels in Suriname (based on available data regarding registered users) both being part of Facebook Inc., the grip that Facebook has is very substantial. As Facebook has rolled out business options for Whatsapp, which a lot of Surinamese businesses and individuals rely on for their daily communication, this grip only seems to become stronger.

6. Competing for attention

There is however a growing competition for attention, especially among the younger demographics. As the past two paragraphs show us, neither Facebook nor Instagram has been able to attract and grow their teenage userbase. As a country that once percentage wise had the most teens active on Facebook (over 15% in 2015), Facebook has seen their teenage user numbers in Suriname dip over the past year. Shockingly, the hipper, younger and more dynamic Instagram has awaited the same fate.

Teens fleeing Facebook, their parents preferred social media platform, is not only a trend in Suriname, but currently happening all over the world. In the US, Snapchat is increasingly considered a much cooler app. Even though Facebook counterpunch to include Snapchat-like functions across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp put a serious dent into Snapchat's stock in 2017, the younger users have not massively moved back as would be expected.

Snapchat is still considered the alternative for youngsters under the age of 18 and the data backs it up. While advertising on Snapchat is made available for Suriname, local organizations can not yet actually target Surinamese users. To give an comparison however, other data can be used. In the Netherlands, Facebook (10Mln) and Instagram (6Mln) remain bigger platforms than Snapchat (4M users), but within the age range of 13-17 years old users, Snapchat has more users than Facebook and Instagram combined, as 25% of all Snapchat users in the Netherlands are under the age of 18. In Suriname's largest neighboring country, Brazil, the percentage of teenage users is even higher at 32%. This percentage beats out Instagram (6% of users in Brazil under the age of 18) and Facebook (6.5%) by a landslide.

While Snapchat Business tools and advertising are nowhere near as advanced as Facebook or even Instagram, it might actually be a blessing for users that are trying to get away from push marketing abuse by those websites to find personal conversations. Brands however, can still use Snapchat in more authentic and native ways to built their brand awareness in a way that other platforms can't.

7. The rise of video

Another development that has been coming on for quite some time now is video. While Snapchat and most other social media platform only allow children of ages 13 and above to register, pre-teens often use their parents phones to watch videos on apps like YouTube and Musical.ly.

Probably the biggest influence on the rise of video has come from the music scene. Not only do music artists account for 50% of the top 10 biggest Youtube channels (based on subscribers), 47 of the 50 most watched videos are music videos. In 2017, Chemelda Dielingen's medley video hit 1 million views on YouTube at a rapid pace. Views have amassed to around 3 million now, making it the second straight year that a Surinamese song got over 1 million, after Nisha Madaran achieved that succes in 2016. These however, are not the only cases. Multiple artists with ties to Suriname have shot their music videos in Suriname (often with a local crew) and have been viewed millions of times. When considering Surinamese artists that are recording and living abroad, like Kenny B, the list of Surinamese songs that have reached the 1 million view mark becomes seemingly endless. That music works on Youtube has also been proven by local band Freestyle, which now has over 60.000 subscribers, with their most popular video being viewed over 6.5 million times. Another interesting perk compared to other social media channels is that Youtube content tends to live on, meaning in 2018, many previously released videos are still crossing the 1 million mark.

Music artists aren't the only ones thriving on YouTube. Local comedian Huan Grantjie combined music with comedy and saw one of his parodies get viewed over 750.000 times. With his YouTube following surpassing his Instagram fanbase, he will be looking to become one of few local Youtube channels that has over 20.000 subscribers. When it comes to organizations and local brands, TV Show Tap A Bankstel is one of the few to have surpassed the 10.000 subscribers threshold as well, which has resulted in partnerships and interviews with relatively traditional organizations that have acknowledged the shows popularity with an audience they often fail to reach.

As you don't have to login to YouTube to watch most of their videos, getting country statistics of their user base is extremely difficult. As aforementioned numbers show, YouTube does top both Facebook and Instagram when it comes to browser traffic in Suriname. While YouTube channel owners get significant data from their subscribers, actual public user data however remains limited.

8. Getting professional

While Facebook, Instagram and YouTube often make the craziest of headlines, LinkedIn has quietly separated itself as the go-to platform for the professionals. With acquisitions as SlideShare and Lynda.com, it has made them an even stronger social media niche leader, doubling its total users in the past 5 years. As of March 2018, LinkedIn reached the 60.000 accounts mark in Suriname, growing over 10% since the start of last year.
LI stats 2018.png

While many large organizations in Suriname have a relatively big following on LinkedIn, this has grown quite organically and the platform is largely underused. Therefore, local organizations are slowly becoming aware of the opportunities of LinkedIn. Advertising in Suriname on LinkedIn however, remains quite expensive compared to advertising on other social media channels.

9. From the outside looking in

While the aforementioned social media platforms are considered the bigger social media platforms in Suriname, all with well over 50.000 users in Suriname, there are several more social media platforms/apps that have gained popularity or are silently popular in Suriname. For instance, several Surinamese youngsters are internationally famous on Musical.ly without their parents even knowing what the platform is about as in the past years, the app has been a hype among youngsters in Suriname. At the same time, some local companies are having succes on niche platforms like Pinterest, which goes relatively unnoticed.

Even though Twitter definitely has some limitations, it has seen a recent revival for those trying avoid being sucked up by the Facebook trifecta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp). The numbers however are somewhat confusing. When targeting on Suriname as a country Twitter has estimated its users in Suriname around 20.000 in 2016, 10.000 in 2017 and up to 40.000 - 60.000 in 2018. With this amount of discrepancy it becomes hard to compare it to other social media platforms, but Surinamese tweeps do actually engage on Twitter. And no, were are not just talking about people that automate their Instagram posts and blogs to be posted on Twitter.

10. The future of Social Media in Suriname

As the numbers suggest, Social Media in Suriname has come a long way. Less than 10 years ago it would have been unthinkable that companies would use Facebook as their primary medium for communications with clients. 10 years ago, Instagram did not even exist and neither did Snapchat. It will be interesting to see how local brands deal with generation Z aka generation swipe, that experiences social media a totally different way than generations before them. As video content and influencer marketing continue to grow, it will be interesting to see how not only the companies, but also the media and production companies adjust to the new rules of audience attention.

An interesting development is the role of social media in online marketing. Especially for sales minded organizations, getting 10.000 likes without actuals leads or intent to buy doesn't mean much. It will be interesting to see how local brands balance social media between a branding platform and a lead generation tool. Also interesting will be how to see how social media is integrated in the online sales funnel, integrating social media with email marketing, blogging, online advertising and SEO, and how they leverage their own website/online platform to enhance the customer experience.

Lastly, the tech vs. content discussions will continue. While part of the social media marketing world will continue to look how they can benefit van disruptive innovation and view social media as a technology that puts them in advantage against competitors, others will continue to focus on the importance of authentic content to better connect with their audience. In truth, this discussion will be taken even further, when considering that during communication failure, the platforms get blamed for human errors. It therefore will be interesting to so to what extend local organizations will be able to commit to the 'social' in social media.

#Lobi
@jeanlucsr