Filipinos play the most video games, according to the latest Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey, which was done in 52 countries.
The survey shows 49 percent of Filipino gamers prefer casual games such as Solitaire, Bejeweled or Diner Dash. Only 17 percent played interactive music and dance games, such as Guitar Hero and Dance Revolution.
When asked, Filipino respondents selected all or some of the gaming genres listed on the survey: adventure, with 45 percent; role-playing games, 38 percent; strategy-based games, 34 percent; races, 30 percent; shooter, fighting and educational games, 28 percent; and sports, 21 percent.
For gamers, about 27 percent of Filipinos said they used home video gaming consoles, while 31 percent used handheld video game consoles.
In general, Asians skip landlines in favor of wireless technology. The Philippines and other Asian countries are also more inclined to use next-generation devices, such as video-enabled handsets. Meanwhile, most western countries are heavy users of media hardware like DVD players and gaming consoles.
The biannual Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey was conducted from September to October 2008, with 26,202 respondents from Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America and the Middle East.
Media-savvy Filipinos
The Filipino online community is recognized as a collective media-savvy force and it is joined by China, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand in representing Asia in the top tier.
Brazil finished second to the Philippines in the overall media usage ranking, followed by United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and Russia.
Meanwhile, China, UAE, Pakistan and Hong Kong rounded out the top five behind the Philippines in the video game ranking. Surprisingly, the United States scored poorly in the overall media consumption ranking, finishing at 34th, and video game ranking at 27th.
Nielsen researchers also confirmed the Philippines? high media market in text messaging and social networking, accounting for one-fifth of Friendster?s global Web traffic. Despite lower broadband infrastructure compared to other Asian countries, the Philippines compensates through widespread presence of Internet cafés in the country.
Medium is the message
The survey also covered media devices that are mostly used for communication and entertainment across the world.
As a whole, desktop or laptop computer usage is slightly higher than television, with 77 percent of respondents indicating they had used a PC during the past month, compared to 75 percent for TV.
Filipinos, however, were found to be more hooked on TV (93 percent) than their PCs (86 percent).
Half of respondents still use CD players, followed by DVDs at 48 percent. But among Filipinos, the DVD player (79 percent) is more popular than the CD player (72 percent).
Meanwhile, there was a significant rise in the percentage of wireless devices users?a common trend among the countries surveyed?but not more than those with non-Web or -video capabilities.
Mobile phones without video or Web capabilities were used by 40 percent of respondents, while video-enabled phones accounted for 30 percent, led by Russia.
Seventy percent of Filipinos were found to use cell phones without video or Web capabilities.
The survey also showed how Blu-Ray DVD is faring in its early days in the global market. Norway scored highest, with 9 percent of respondents in that country saying they had used the device in the past month, while 6 percent of Filipino respondents here reported to have used Blu-Ray DVD.
Penetrating Asia
The research identified the factors responsible for wide media usage in many Asian countries, such as broad mobile use within public transportation, and government policies maximizing broadband access in China and Singapore.
Other professional insights have been suggested by researchers:
In more developed countries where Internet access is near universal, the sample is more of a natural representation of the general population, with both casual and heavy media users. Meanwhile, emerging economies with low Internet penetration statistically tend to skew toward heavy media users.
Age is another factor for emerging countries, with next-generation technology targeted for next-generation users. Survey showed that the average age of their online population is more than 10 years younger than in the West.
Countries with content piracy problems are likely to perform strongly on results for the survey, with no classification whether the respondents used legal or illegally obtained media. Western countries are ahead in streaming and downloading content, unlike oriental countries, such as China, with its own content distribution preference.
?Piracy has kept the cost of acquiring music down both on CDs and downloads,? said Klaas Hommez, Nielsen?s vice president for entertainment.
The study is from the entertainment portion of the biannual Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey. Rankings were computed by measuring a range of scores according to themes.
