Americans may not be as keen to share personal and other content online as citizens in other countries, suggests a survey from Ipsos OTX. The study asked respondents to identify how much they share online – including status updates, feelings, photos, videos, and links. Across the 24 countries tracked, an average of 24% said they’d best describe their amount of sharing as either “most things” or “everything.” But that figure dropped to just 15% among American respondents. By comparison, Saudi Arabians appear to not have much of a filter at all: 28% say they share everything and 33% most things. Half or more respondents in Indonesia and India also reported sharing at least most things online.
As the researchers note, the “more consumers share, the more opportunity a brand has to learn a lot about consumers and use what they learn to create messaging that is more likely to get liked, shared and re-posted.” And recent survey findings do indicate that 6 in 10 Americans aged 18-54 want companies to listen to what they say about them online.
Still, the Ipsos survey results indicate that Americans may be more private than others. Within the US, women (78%) are more likely than men (67%) to say they share at least some things online, and 18-35-year-olds are similarly more friendly to sharing than those aged 50-64 (82% vs. 62%).
Interestingly, tendency for online sharing tends to go up alongside education levels: 83% of Americans with high levels of education reported sharing at least some things online, compared to 65% of those with low educational attainment.
About the Data: The Ipsos data is based on a weighted sample size of 12,000, from an online survey conducted in late 2012 across 24 countries, with adults aged 18-64 in the US and Canada, and 16-64 in all other countries. The US data is based on a sample size of 500.
The countries reporting were: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the US.