Digital 2026: Top digital and social media trends in Indonesia
Reports
Our latest report, Digital 2026: Indonesia, in partnership with Meltwater, reveals Indonesia’s key social media trends and online behaviours. Here are the top takeaways from the local report.
Social media continues to boom
Social media use in Indonesia has surged again this year. The number of social media user identities has grown 26% year-on-year, reaching 180 million — equivalent to 62.9% of the total population.
Social networks remain the most visited type of site or app, closely followed by chat and messaging platforms, underscoring how central social connection is to Indonesia’s online life.
A battle for attention
Indonesians are spending an incredible 21 hours and 50 minutes per week on social media, including online video viewing — that’s more than three hours every day.
Their time is spread across an average of 7.7 platforms each month, showing the fragmented yet highly engaged nature of Indonesia’s social ecosystem.
When it comes to usage, WhatsApp dominates as the most frequently used and most loved app, with nine in ten Indonesians active each month. TikTok and WhatsApp are almost tied for daily engagement, with users spending roughly 1 hour and 53 minutes on TikTok and 1 hour and 52 minutes on WhatsApp per day.
For deeper attention, YouTube leads with the longest average session duration at 16 minutes and 49 seconds, followed closely by SnackVideo at 15 minutes and 4 seconds.
Social as a driver of discovery
Social media isn’t just where Indonesians connect — it’s where they discover and decide.
While search engines still lead brand discovery (38.3%), social channels are close behind:
37.3% discover brands through social media ads, and
32.6% through social media comments.
Nearly a fifth of internet users say they clicked on a sponsored social post in the past month, while three in five Indonesians now use social media as their primary channel for researching brands online.
Social has truly become the new search.
ChatGPT leads the AI revolution
AI adoption is skyrocketing. More than a third of Indonesians use ChatGPT monthly, making it one of the country’s most visited platforms.
According to Similarweb, ChatGPT ranks as the fourth most visited website in Indonesia, while SEMrush places it eighth. It now accounts for a remarkable 80.6% of AI web traffic referrals, with Perplexity a distant second at 15.03%.
Social and influencer ad spend climbs higher
Indonesia’s digital economy shows no signs of slowing. The total estimated ad spend for 2025 is US$6.97 billion, up 5.3% year-on-year. Digital channels account for 52% of that spend — US$3.64 billion — an 8% increase from the previous year.
Social media advertising saw the largest growth, up 11.3% while influencer marketing rose an impressive 14.4% — proof of the growing power of creators in shaping culture and commerce.
A nation that’s social to its core
From chat apps to creators, streaming to shopping, social media continues to shape how Indonesians connect, consume, and create. As brands look to the future, Digital 2026: Indonesia offers one clear takeaway: success in this market starts — and scales — with social.
Interested in learning more? Check out the full Digital 2026: Indonesia report, our global report and other country reports here.
Reports
