Thai users top Asia and rank 2nd globally for TikTok use, says We Are Social

The country also ranked ninth worldwide in terms of advertising reach on the platform.

The latest Digital 2025: July Statshot report revealed that Southeast Asia accounts for nearly one-quarter of TikTok’s global advertising audience, making it the platform’s largest ad-viewer base.

Thailand has the world’s second-highest proportion of monthly active TikTok users, with over eight in ten internet users engaging with the platform each month — well above the global average of just three in ten.

Naiyen Wang, Southeast Asia managing director at We Are Social, said social media and influencer marketing play a pivotal role in the region, where consumers are highly active across multiple platforms for research and brand engagement.

What truly captures their attention is content that is humorous, entertaining, and has the potential to go viral. For marketers, this means shifting strategies away from hard selling towards creating content people genuinely enjoy and want to interact with, Wang said.

The data shows that internet users in Southeast Asia watch more online video content each week than the global average of 11 hours and 39 minutes. In the Philippines, users watch over 20 hours of video weekly, more than half of which consists of short-form clips such as TikToks and Reels.

YouTube remains the largest social media platform globally in terms of advertising audience size, with 2.54 billion monthly active users. Southeast Asians are among its most avid users, with countries from the region occupying half of the global top ten spots for monthly usage share. The Philippines (86.2%) and Vietnam (85%) lead the rankings.

More than one in five internet users in the region follow social media influencers and regularly watch influencer videos or vlogs weekly. In the Philippines, 43.5% follow influencers, and roughly half watch their content every week. 

Humorous, meme-based or viral videos are the second most popular form of online video globally — after music videos — among users aged 16 to 64. TikTok dominates in this category, with almost 80% of users engaging with the platform for such content.

Social media as a pathway to brand discovery

Social media plays a crucial role in the consumer journey. Over 80% of Vietnamese and Indonesian users research brands on social platforms, while more than 60% of Malaysians and Filipinos do the same, highlighting the platforms’ strong influence on purchasing decisions.

Instagram, TikTok and Facebook are the top global platforms for brand research, respectively. Facebook remains the leading source of social media-driven web traffic, accounting for over 70% of all referrals — a figure that surpasses 90% in Indonesia, underscoring its immense brand reach potential in the region.

Messaging platform preferences vary across Southeast Asia

Messaging app use differs by country. WhatsApp dominates in Malaysia (92%), Indonesia (91.3%) and Singapore (82.1%), while Messenger leads in the Philippines (93%), Thailand (78.3%) and Vietnam (76.3%). Southeast Asia also has the world’s highest Messenger ad audience share at 22.7%.

Telegram enjoys greater popularity in the region than globally. While only one-third of global internet users access it monthly, the figure approaches two-thirds in Malaysia and Indonesia, showing the diverse communication channels brands must consider when entering the Southeast Asian market.

Key highlights:

• Southeast Asians use more social platforms than the global average (6.84), with Malaysians leading globally at 8.42 platforms.
• Over half (51.4%) of Indonesian internet users are monthly X (formerly Twitter) users.
• Six in ten Vietnamese internet users have a strong interest in AI.
• Malaysia has the largest proportion of monthly ChatGPT users in Southeast Asia, with almost 40% of internet users accessing the generative AI platform.