HCM City (VNA) - Smartphone ownership has continuedto grow in both urban and rural areas in Vietnam, according to the 2017 NielsenVietnam Smartphone Insights report.
The number of people using smartphones in major cities has surged to 84 percentout of the 95 percent of people using mobile phones, an increase of sixpercentage points from last year.
In secondary cities, 71 percent use smartphones out of 93 percent using mobilephones, a year-on-year growth of nine points.
In rural areas, it is 68 percent out of 89 percent.
“The rapid uptake of connected devices, especially smartphones and tablets, isinevitable in our country,” Doan Duy Khoa, director of Nielsen Vietnam’sdepartment of consumer insights, said in a release.
“This could correspond to the fact that smartphone brands are offeringconsumers abundant choices at affordable and reasonable prices.
“Another reason is that consumers are enjoying an improving standard of livingand expressing their desire for connectivity anywhere and anytime.”
Earlier this year Nielsen had conducted another study in co-operation withYounet Media to shed light on the evolving rural consumer trends.
It found that social media has emerged as a key platform for information,entertainment and keeping in touch with relatives, friends and children, with22.5 million Facebook users living in rural areas compared with 23.5 million inurban areas.
“This plays an instrumental role in media consumption shifting beyondtraditional media formats such as broadcast and cable TV, and also beyondtraditional time parts.
“For media owners and advertisers, it is becoming increasingly important tounderstand both urban and rural consumers’ viewing habits in order to deliverthe right content at the right time.”
The report, using online survey method, polled 1,882 frequent online users inmajor cities, 1,930 users in secondary cities and 2,027 users in rural areasaged 16 years or above.-VNA
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