Thailand has just been bumped up to the top ten countries in the world who spend the most time watching YouTube videos, according to a recent announcement from Google Thailand.
Thanks to cheaper smart devices, the introduction of the 4G, and lost-cost mobile data plans, the amount of time Thais spend watching YouTube videos has increased compared to last year.
According to Pete Nunchanatanon, the head of marketing at Google Thailand, “Thais have watched 1.7 hours of video daily on YouTube this year, up from 1.1 hours last year.”
He added that 65 percent of YouTube watch time is spent on mobile devices alone.
Pete credited the young population of Thailand, saying that they’re the ones responsible for Thailand’s increased watch times.
The number of content creators in Thailand is slowly increasing as well. There are currently eight independent content creators in Thailand who have scored mass followings of over one million subscribers.
Pete predicts that there will be continued growth in Thailand’s digital ad spending, and the Digital Advertising Association (Thailand) predicts that YouTube’s digital ad revenue will reach THB1.66 billion by the end of 2016, up from last year’s THB1.59 billion.
The biggest spending sectors in digital advertising consist of travel, e-commerce, retail, and automotive.
Pete said that YouTube is also working with mobile operators in Thailand to make videos available offline, reported Bangkok Post.
Correction: The earlier version of this story said that Thailand was among the world’s top eight countries for time spent watching YouTube videos. Google Thailand disclosed that Thailand is actually in the top ten.
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