Thailand crowned champion in online shopping

Thailand was titled a champion in purchasing items via online platforms last year, according to a report by creative agency We Are Social and consumer intelligence firm Meltwater.

The annual “Digital 2025” report indicated that Thai people spend five hours on mobile internet daily as of February this year, ranking fifth among mobile internet users in the world with an average usage of 3 hours and 46 minutes.

Meanwhile, 69.2% of Thai internet users preferred buying products and services via online platforms last year, compared to average global usage of 55.8%.

Thailand's advertising spending was ranked first in Southeast Asia and was among the top 10 in the world last year when compared to the country's GDP, the report said.

The report aims to show statistics, insights and trends related to digital transformation among users worldwide. 

“2025 looks set to be another bumper year in digital, with rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI), the evolving social media landscape, and broadening online behaviours all gearing up to reshape our connected lives over the coming months,” the report said.



The report indicated that 5.78 billion people use a mobile phone today, which equates to 70.5% of the world’s total population. Meanwhile, 5.56 billion people use the internet at the start of 2025, resulting in a penetration figure of 67.9%.

“Finding information” remains the single greatest motivation for going online at the start of 2025, with 62.8% of adult internet users stating that this is one of their main reasons for using the internet today,” the report said.

Though DeepSeek is making plenty of headlines around the world, ChatGPT still tops the AI leaderboard, with an average of 310 million unique monthly visitors between September and November last year.

ChatGPT was also one of the world’s most downloaded apps during that period, placing eighth in data.ai’s global ranking across all app categories, the report added.

(2025/02/07-00:00)