Malaysians might be addicted to online content, but are they willing to pay?

Malaysians are least likely to pay for digital content, with 30.5% indicating they will pay for online access to newspapers and magazines, while 33.1% said they will pay for e-books. Meanwhile, 39.3% of Malaysians indicated they are willing to pay for movies or TV shows.Meanwhile, 25.5% of Singaporeans surveyed are willing to pay for online access to newspapers or magazines. On the other hand, Singaporeans were most willing to pay for video games (40.4%), followed by movies or TV shows (38.7%) and music (35.1%).On the other hand, consumers in South Korea, the UK and Germany are the most willing to pay for digital content. South Koreans were most willing to pay for access to music (68.6%), followed by movies or TV shows (61.0%) and video games (50.3%). Meanwhile, consumers in the UK were willing to pay for movies or TV shows (59.5%), followed by e-books 59.3%) and music (57.4%). The Germans were most willing to pay for e-books (59.0%), movies or TV shows (58.4%) and music (53.8%).This was according to The State of Digital Lifestyles 2018 report by Limelight Networks, which surveyed 5,000 consumers from 10 countries including Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and the UK.Despite Malaysians being unwilling to pay for digital content that cannot be accessed for free, close to two-thirds (65.7%) of them said they prefer reading newspapers and magazines online, while 21.9% said they download the content for offline reading. Like Malaysians, 64.9% of Singaporeans prefer reading newspapers and magazines online, with 17.5% of them downloading it for offline reading.Globally, less than a quarter of consumers surveyed purchase a physical newspaper or magazine, although almost 56% of Japanese still do.[gallery link="file" ids="227772,227771,227773,227774,227775"]The report listed newspapers or magazines as the content format that consumers are least likely to pay online access for. This is despite the fact that consumer engagement with digital content is growing. Meanwhile, movies and TV shows (48.9%) came out on top as the type of digital content that consumers surveyed are most willing to pay for.Consumers aged 26 to 35 years old were most likely to pay to access online content, such as movies or TV shows (56.1%), video games (52.7%), music (52.5%) and newspapers or magazines (36.1%). Whereas, those over 60 years old are least likely to pay.Malaysians are addicted to mobile phonesMalaysians topped the list (68.6%) for being unable to stop using their mobile phones. Meanwhile, 17.3% said they are able to stop using it for one day, while 9.3% said they can stop using their mobile phones for a week. The number was lesser for desktop and laptops, with 43.4% of Malaysians being unable to stay away from the device.Coming in third on the list were Singaporeans, with 58.0% indicating they are unable to stop using their mobile device. However, 23.8% said they are able to stop using it for a day, while 9.9% can resist using it for a week. When it came to usage of desktop and laptops, the number of Singaporeans being unable to stop using the device was 35.5%.[gallery link="file" ids="227778,227779,227776,227777"]Across the board, consumers ages 18 to 25 years old (50.2%) and 36 to 45 years old (50.8%) are would not be able to stop using their mobile phones, while those over 60 years old (36.2%) indicated the same. Meanwhile, women (51.6%) are more dependent on their mobile phones than men (44.0%).Computers, on the other hand, were more important to older consumers. Those over 60 years old (40.5%) were less willing to give up their computers compared to consumers ages 18 to 25 years old (24.8%) and 26 to 35 years old (29.5%). Also, women (30.8%) were more willing to stop using their computers than men (35.7%).(Photo courtesy: 123RF)