Consumers in Asia live in the mobile-first “micro-moment”

According to new research from Google’s Consumer Barometer, Asia no longer “goes online,” it lives online. More than any other region, Asia’s smartphone users are more apt to shop online, watch videos, and solve most problems with a smartphone, rather than a PC. These findings have big implications for brands and marketers.

Mary Meeker cites research showing that smartphone owners reach for their devices an estimated 150 times a day. Often it’s for basic tasks like checking the time, or seeing what friends are up to on social media. But then there are those moments that really matter: the I want-to-know, I-want-to-go, I want-to-do, and I want-to-buy moments.

We call these “micro-moments,” and they’re absolutely key to the Asian Internet. These are times when people need to learn, discover, watch, find, or buy something, and reflexively turn to the closest device—usually a smartphone—to act on that need. The brands that will win in this new era of fast choices are those that have given consumers a compelling reason to choose them here and now. Asia especially will be the proving ground for how brands fare on capturing hearts and minds on mobile.

Let’s dig a little deeper into the Consumer Barometer research. Here are our top five Asia trends:

Asia is a global leader in mobile

Asia has 5 out of the global top 10 markets when it comes to smartphone penetration, including Singapore (#2) at 88%, followed by South Korea (83%) and Hong Kong (79%)

Asia is a global leader in mobile. Asia has 5 out of the top 10 markets when it comes to smartphone penetration.

Mobile is Asia’s primary computing platform 

Most of the countries in the world where smartphone adoption is higher than PC adoption are in Asia. These include markets such as Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

More activities happen on smartphones in Asia than the West

Smartphone owners in Asia use their phones for searching, shopping, and maps more often than their Western counterparts. For instance, 31% of Thai smartphone owners shop on their phones — a rate far exceeding that of the US (10%) or UK (7%).

Asia has more I-want-to-do moments than the West

In the Philippines, 55% of smartphone users watch online videos to learn something new: everything from how to curl their hair, to fixing a bike, or baking a cake. That number is just 22% in the US.

Asia has more I-want-to-buy moments than the West 

In South Korea, 51% of online consumers compared products on a smartphone prior to a purchase, compared to 36% in the US.

For years, marketers have made predictions about the shift to mobile, but until now, it’s been hard to see what it might mean in practice. Finally, in Asia, we can see the implications of all the power that mobile has put in consumers’ pockets — and what this means for the mobile future that awaits the rest of the world.

Editor’s note: This is just a short sample of some of the insights from an article by Karim Temsamani, VP Google Asia Pacific, published on Asia-Pacific’s Think with Google site.