Three things businesses need to know about the digital consumption habits of Singaporeans
I Attributed to: Jaheer Abbas, Senior Director, SEA & India at Limelight Networks Adapted from: https://www. limelight.com/blog/state-ofdigital-lifestyles-2018/
t is no secret that we are becoming increasingly dependent on technology and our digital devices as a source of information, entertainment, and to simplify everyday tasks. Recently, Limelight Networks released its State of Digital Lifestyles 2018 report, based on market research conducted on 5,000 consumers in ten countries including Singapore, Malaysia and the United States. The report found more than half of Singaporeans surveyed said they could not go a day without their mobile phones, confirming many traits of local consumers’ dependence and usage of digital devices. As digital devices become a more integral part of our lives, expectations and frustrations continue to rise. Here are four things about the Singaporean consumer that businesses need to know in order to engage with them more effectively across multiple touch points. 1. Singaporeans are very technologically savvy, yet trust and security concerns deter adoption The adoption of digital assistants, such as Google Home and Amazon Echo, have been on the rise in Singapore, albeit in its early stages in Singapore. According to our findings, 14 per cent of Singaporean respondents own a digital assistant, five per cent below the global average of 19 per cent. The main hurdle to adoption is not the lack of availability or awareness of its benefits, but that consumer trust levels remain low - only 35 per cent of Singaporean consumers fully trust digital assistants to provide general information, and this figure gets even lower when it comes to trusting assistants for online shopping and home automation. Consumers are becoming increasingly conscious of the security of their online environments, and this translates into a rising demand for businesses they engage with to be sufficiently prepared to thwart attacks. Winning over and maintaining consumer trust is a constant challenge that businesses need to overcome. This is of key importance, not only for technology providers. In the age of growing cyberthreats, businesses need to diversify cybersecurity solutions to mitigate attacks of increased frequency, sophistication, and size. This could include adopting a multi-layered security approach and taking advantage of a Content Delivery Network (CDN) apart from having a cybersecurity solution to buffer volumetric attacks. Most importantly, these efforts will need to be communicated to customers to raise trust and eventually engagement levels
18 | Australian Cyber Security Magazine
2. Consumers get frustrated when they encounter disruptions in the digital experience We found that more than 92 per cent of Singaporeans find it frustrating to access digital content, especially when content stops playing and rebuffers, and when the experience is disrupted by errors. Younger consumers, in particular those between the ages of 18-45, expressed frustration in such scenarios. What this means for businesses is that they need to deliver consistent, high-quality viewing and content experiences with low buffer rates across multiple digital devices to provide the experience, consumers expect without the frustrations that cause them to abandon content. This can be mitigated by continuous monitoring of a user’s connection and optimising how content is delivered based on real-time analysis. The use of a CDN can also help ensure a high-quality experience and would be especially useful when businesses require broadcast quality content to be delivered across global reach and scale. 3. Singaporeans are among the least likely to pay for digital content, especially when it comes to movies and shows. According to the research, although consumer engagement with digital content is growing, most are unwilling to pay to access content. This is particularly true in Singapore, where consumers are among the least likely to pay for content, primarily because they remain unconvinced that paid content provides them with a far superior level of quality. With a multitude of options available to consumers when it comes to streaming services, focusing on the content offering alone is no longer enough. Businesses need to do more to improve the quality of content, and the overall user experience to stand out from the competition and compel consumers to opt-in to their content. Charting the way forward in digital for businesses In conclusion, it is now more important than ever for businesses to provide the best possible online experiences to meet the growing expectations of consumers. This includes providing quality content delivery across as many mobile devices as possible, whilst ensuring security, thereby encouraging consumer confidence and their affinity with the business.