Mobile video consumption habits of the modern Indonesian

On Device Research conducted a mobile survey in May 2014 among a representative sample of mobile internet users in Indonesia, with 820 people completing the questionnaire. The research goal was to understand people’s preferences when it comes to watching and sharing video on their mobile phones and to map people’s satisfaction with their mobile operator, typical data package sizes and how much people pay for their data. 

Here are some of the key findings:

• The mobile internet population in Indonesia is very young. Ninety-two per cent of respondents were in the 16- to 34-year-old age group.
• 58 per cent of respondents watch at least one video a day, and 82 per cent watch a video on their phone at least once a week. Only 4 per cent say they don’t watch any kind of video on their phones. This behaviour is consistent between customers of different mobile operators.
• YouTube has an absolute monopoly on mobile video: 96 per cent of respondents say they use YouTube to watch videos. The only other video services to cross the 5 per cent threshold are Mivo.tv and Vevo.
• 65 per cent of respondents share the videos they watch on mobile. Over half of those share those videos on Facebook.
• BBM is still popular - 20 per cent use it to share videos with their friends.
• Line, which has a big user base in Indonesia, is only used by 5 per cent to share videos, which is about the same as Path, a mobile social network which has lost popularity in the West.

The survey also assessed whether people choose between WiFi or data connection when watching videos. File size can have a significant impact on data package usage and the experience in poor reception areas.

• Only 18 per cent said they watch video exclusively when connected to the WiFi. This compares to 39 per cent who said they only use their network data connection while watching videos, pointing at a lack of access to WiFi networks.
• A follow up question to WiFi users revealed that speed and cost were the main reason for preferring it over mobile data connection. 1 in 5 said that lack of good data coverage plays an important role.


Surprisingly most people are either satisfied (50 per cent) or neutral (38 per cent) about the speed of their data connection.

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The majority of Indonesia mobile internet users have over 1Gb data they can use every month. 42 per cent have a data package of 2Gb or higher. Significantly more men have a large data package compared to women.

5 per cent don’t have a data plan and either use WiFi to go online or perhaps add data in small increments as an additional service.

Overall 86 per cent pay $8.40 or less for their data package, with 38 per cent paying less than $4.3 a month. Only 4 per cent pay more than $12.70 or Rp. 150,000 a month.