Key facts about Japan Digital Landscape (updated Jan 2019)

Similar to the last post, this post updates key facts about Japan digital landscape using 2019 data points since the last one was back in 2017.

This post is part of the series about Japan that I have been writing in 2019. You can find other posts here:

8 key facts about Japan Mobile Game Industry (update Mar 2019)

8 key facts about Japan Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) landscape

1. While 2/3 of the Japanese population are mobile internet users, they still lags behind South Korea, the US, the UK

Mobile phone internet users (% of population) in Japan, South Korea, China, US, UK 2019 2020 v2

2. TV still commands the largest share of time spent on media in Japan and it is expected to continue in 2020

The total time spent with Media growth is relatively flat over the past couple of years and expected to continue tin 2020

Average Time Spent per Day with Media in Japan for digital tv print radio 2018 - 2020

3. Total media ad spend growth in Japan is stagnant at around 2.7% for 2019, the lowest amongst China, South Korea, the US and UK

Total media ad spend growth rate japan china korea us uk 2019 - 2022 v2

With the 2020 Olympics, the growth rate increased somewhat to 2.9%

The slow growth in total media ad spend is not surprising given the overall growth of Japan economy (around 1%), according to IMF graph below

japan economic growth 2014 - 2020

4. Digital ad spend continues to lead growth in ad spending in comparison to TV, Print, Radio, Magazine and Out of Home

Total Media Ad Spending Growth, by Media in japan 2018

With the 2020 Olympics, TV and Out of Home growth are expected to improve somewhat

5. Japan is on par with other large economies when it comes to digital buyer penetration and it is expected to remain relatively flat

digital buyer as percentage of population japan china south korea us uk 2019 2022

You may notice that China digital buyer penetration is relatively lower. Given China’s scale, this is not surprising. As a market, China e-commerce is larger than Japan, South Korea, the US and the UK combined.

retail ecommerce sales in japan china south korea us uk jan 2019
Line Users japan 2018 2022

From a traditional social network POV, Twitter dominates the market

Social Network Users, by Platform japan 2018

7. Japan ranks number 2 in the world in terms of mobile games revenue

top 5 countries in the world in terms of mobile game revenue

8. Japan is number 9 in the world for proximity mobile payment penetration

top 10 countries ranked by mobile payment penetration 2019

That’s it from me. If you have any questions, feel free to drop them below

Thanks,

Chandler

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