Research indicates one in 10 elderly Asians has a VR headset



BANGKOK -- Elderly people in Asia are more ready and willing to embrace digital technology in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic than their Western counterparts, according to a report published by London-based market research firm Euromonitor International.


A growing number of senior citizens in Asia are turning to social media, online games and other internet services as they spend more time at home due to the pandemic, Euromonitor says in "Top 10 Global Consumer Trends 2022."


The report published earlier this week is based on a survey that found about half all respondents aged 60 or older living in the Asia-Pacific region use Twitter multiple times a day, compared with 28% in Europe and 36% in North America. Much the same is true with other social media.


Some 10% of elderly people surveyed in the region said they have virtual reality headsets, helping them explore the "metaverse," the expanding galaxy of online experiences touted as the next stage for the internet. The ratios for both North America and Europe are around 2%.


These data indicate Asian seniors are more tech-savvy than their peers in other parts of the world.

Pechara Voracharusrungsri, a 70-year-old woman living in Bangkok, told Nikkei Asia she uses Facebook or the LINE instant communication app for online shopping as much as twice a month. That's up from just using such tools to buy fruit a few times a year before the coronavirus emerged.


She recently turned to LINE to buy fruitcakes sold by a shop she had used before. She mostly uses social media to buy products from companies she trusts, such as an egg farm she came to know through a shopping center event. But she also goes online to search for new brands.

One factor behind the dramatic increase in digitally-enabled senior citizens, or "digital seniors," in Asia is large numbers of multigenerational families in the region.

U.N. statistics show that while the great majority of elderly people in Europe and North America live alone or only with their spouses, many Asian households contain two or more adult generations or a grandparent and at least one other generation.


As lockdowns and other restrictions due to the pandemic have increased time families spend together, many aged individuals in Asia have had more opportunity to learn how to use various apps, technologies and social media platforms from their grandchildren, who have grown up in an environment where being online is the norm.


Natasha Cazin, research consultant at Euromonitor, said, "Social media platforms, especially those that allow content owners to create their own community and post video content, such as YouTube, WeChat and Instagram, are expected to gain popularity among digital seniors in Asia in the foreseeable future."

Some of these digital-savvy seniors have even become influencers with the help of their children and grandchildren.


A couple in their 80s running a laundry in Taiwan boast some 660,000 followers for their Instagram account named "WANT SHOW as young." A photo showing them wearing clothes left unclaimed for years at their shop with a message "Don't forget to pick up your laundry" created an online buzz, attracting a flood of comments with some describing the pair as "stylish and cool."


Another aged influencer is Park Mak-rye, known as "Korea Grandma" on YouTube, who has 1.35 million subscribers to her channel.

And Asia's elderly population is set to keep growing fast. Euromonitor estimates the number of people aged 65 or older in the Asia-Pacific region will almost double during the period between 2021 and 2040 to reach 767 million.


As this new wave of digital seniors is expected to create dynamic change in how services are procured by and provided to aged consumers, businesses are racing to capitalize on the trend.


In October, Taobao, an online shopping platform owned and operated by Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group, started offering a "Senior Mode" webpage format featuring larger letter sizes and voice search. HKTV, a Hong Kong-based online shopping service, is offering apps designed for elderly people not accustomed to making purchases via the internet.


"The easy-to-use versions of both leading e-commerce applications are expected to drive e-commerce penetration among digital seniors in Asia," said Euromonitor's Cazin.


Meanwhile, 18% of the Asia-Pacific respondents in the Euromonitor survey said they plan to increase the number of streaming subscriptions they hold. The same percentage of those polled in the region said they plan to increase the number of social media networks they are "active on." Those ratios were far higher than in other regions.


The pandemic has expanded the ranks of older Asians comfortable using online services, and companies should rejig their business strategies to tap the spending power of this rising wave of digital seniors.


'Digital seniors' emerge in Asia amid pandemic, Euromonitor says -
Nikkei Asia