Filipinos still among top internet users in the world - 2025 report
In 1998, before the arrival of smartphones and social media platforms, Filipinos have developed a love for texting which used to be the only other “high-tech” feature in their mobile phones back then. In fact, the Philippines was considered to be the text messaging capital of the world, with an average of over 400 million text messages sent per day. One factor that contributes to this phenomenon is the affordability of text messaging in the Philippines. Compared to making a call, sending a text message is much cheaper and accessible to a wider population.
Today, with the availability of smartphones and social media platforms, Pinoys can do so much more with their fancy gadgets and engage more often in various online platforms. In fact, Meltwater and We Are Social released its “Digital 2025” report showing that Filipinos continue to dominate the internet, maintaining their rank among the world’s top users. The report focusing on social media and digital trends worldwide is released annually.
Filipinos, on average, spend eight hours and 52 minutes daily on the internet, latest insights showed. The figure is significantly higher than the global average of six hours and 38 minutes. The report said that most of this time on the internet is spent on mobile phones at five hours and 21 minutes. This figure is also ahead of the global average of three hours and 46 minutes. At the time of the report production, data indicated that there were 97.5 million internet users in the Philippines in January 2025.
Advisory firm Kepios also revealed that the number of internet users in the Philippines increased by 792,000 or 0.8% between January 2024 and January 2025. Filipinos were also among the top social media users worldwide, with Pinoys aged 16 and up spending three hours and 22 minutes on social media daily, placing fourth worldwide. Pinoy internet users also actively engage with an average of 8.36 platforms each month, making them second in the world for the highest number of social media platforms used.
Online reference library DataReportal said that there were 90.8 million active social media user identities in the Philippines in January 2025. The figure is equivalent to 78% of the country’s total population at the start of 2025. The country’s total population stood at 116 million in January 2025. Filipinos are also big on following influencers apart from being active social media users. At least 44.9% of Filipinos aged 16 and up follow influencers or other experts on social media, making the Philippines number one globally in this category.
According to the report, the following video-related figures exceed their global peers: Filipinos also ranked first in terms of watching online video content each week, with 97.6% of them engaging in this activity, significantly higher than the global average of 92%. Pinoys are ranked number one in watching vlogs (48.3%) and online music videos (72.3%), while they are number two in watching online videos as a source of learning (58.1%).
Reference: Pinoys remain among world’s most internet-savvy users — 2025 report
