WhatsApp, Yle Areena and Netflix dominate consumer online usage

83% of consumers use an instant messaging service on a weekly basis. The use of messaging apps is commonplace for many consumers, while the use of traditional text messaging has declined. Last year, however, there were still 743 million text messages sent from consumer subscriptions, or 145 per subscription. From 2014 to 2023, the number of text messages sent by consumers decreased by 72%. Over the same period, weekly use of instant messaging apps increased from 30% to over 80%. According to Statistics Finland, only 58% of consumers had a smartphone in 2014. By 2023, the smartphone had found its way into 90% of hands.

During the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, the use of online voice and video calls peaked, with more than half of consumers making these calls weekly during work or leisure. By the end of 2023, this figure had fallen to around 40%. During the pandemic, traditional call minutes also increased briefly but have since fallen again. "As leisure programmes and working life have returned to pre-pandemic levels, the need for video calls has decreased," says Senior Specialist Marja Heinonen.

In a 2023 consumer survey, Traficom surveyed for the first time which services consumers used to send instant messages and make internet calls. Meta's WhatsApp was by far the most popular in both services. Up to 81% of consumers use WhatsApp weekly to send messages and 34% use it weekly to make calls. Next in instant messaging were Instagram and Facebook Messenger, also by Meta. Second place in calls went to Microsoft Teams, which many people probably use on a weekly basis, at least at work. Meta's Facebook was among the most used services, including for phone calls.