Digimonitor 2022: Significantly more use of e-banking and streaming services in Switzerland

Increased use of e-banking and streaming services but also extensive use of classic media, such as TV, radio and cinema: The annual Digimonitor study provides information about how people in Switzerland use various media in 2022.

Each year since 2014, the Interessengemeinschaft elektronische Medien (Interest Group for Electronic Media, or IGEM) and WEMF AG für Werbemedienforschung (WEMF AG for advertising media research) have conducted Digimonitor, a representative study of the entire Swiss population 15 years and older in German-speaking Switzerland and Romandy. LINK also carried out the study in 2022, with 1,842 people interviewed over the phone or online.

Classic channels are still in the lead, while social media services TikTok, Discord and LinkedIn are becoming more popular

Classic channels are popular in Switzerland: ninety-one percent of the population (5.9 million people) watch TV, 62% of those watch it every day. In Switzerland, streaming services are currently at an all-time high: with 400,000 new subscribers, Netflix broke through the 3-million barrier. However, 4.5 million people (70%) use YouTube to stream content. Play Suisse, the Swiss streaming product from SRG, has 1.1 million viewers (17%) while 1.0 million (16%) watch Disney+.

Radio (5.6 million listeners, 87% of the population) and digital news (5.0 million readers, 77% of the population) also remain popular. Consumers generally use both on a daily basis. In addition, 2.7 million people (41%) use a free login to access their digital news, 1.1 million (28%) pay for this access and 1.9 million (29%) do not use news services that require them to register their details.

With 170,000 new users, Instagram is edging closer to Facebook – 2.5 million people (39% of the population) use Instagram occasionally, while for Facebook this figure is still 2.8 million (44%). Since 2017, Instagram has been growing significantly more popular than Facebook among young people: Instagram has 610,000 users aged between 15 and 24 (83% of this age group), while Facebook now only has 200,000 (27%). Younger Swiss people also use Snapchat (70%), TikTok (43%), Pinterest and Discord (both 37%) more than Facebook (27%).

With 190,000 new users, TikTok is growing slightly faster than Instagram. While there are now 860,000 people in Switzerland (13% of the population) who use TikTok at least occasionally, LinkedIn registered 150,000 new users – 1.8 million (28% of the population) use LinkedIn now and then. Although the business platform is becoming increasingly popular among women, more than sixty percent of LinkedIn users are male. On the other hand, the growth in Discord users appears to be only amongst males: of the 90,000 new users, 85,000 are male. On the whole, 630,000 people (9.8% of the population) use Discord at least occasionally. Among the social media platforms, only Pinterest recorded a significant decrease in popularity – minus 130,000 users.

Cryptocurrencies – a male-dominated field, TWINT as the winner among mobile payment services

470,000 people (7.2% of the population) use a cryptocurrency; on average, the users are 33 years old and almost exclusively male. In particular, men aged between 20 and 40 and people with a higher income tend to use cryptocurrencies more.

3.7 million people (58% of the population) use mobile payments services, such as TWINT and Apple Pay or Google Pay, at least occasionally. Here, TWINT recorded the highest growth: in 2020, only 1.7 million people (27 %) used the app, most of them male. After a period of strong growth, TWINT now has a more balanced gender mix. In all population groups, with 3.4 million users (53%), it is more popular than Apple Pay with 570,000 users (8.9%) and Google Pay with 215,000 (3.3%) users.

You will find more insights and information about the Digimonitor study and the possibility to buy a license on the IGEM website.

An overview of the study

Method: online and phone survey conducted with the LINK panel

Population: 1,058 in German-speaking Switzerland, 784 in French-speaking Switzerland aged 15 and above (corresponds to MACH Basic 2022-1: universe of 6,457,182 people, restricted to private households and language-assimilated people)

Study period: start of April to mid-June 2022