YouTube Becomes the Most Informative Medium for Product Explanations

Many people admit to frequently searching for product information on social media before deciding to buy. This finding was reported by Jakpat (a polling agency) in a survey released on Friday, January 27th.

The majority of social media users were categorized by generation by Jakpat: Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X.

On a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), all three generations gave scores close to "strongly agree" that they search for product information on social media. Gen Z scored 4.50; Millennials 4.39; and Gen X 4.33.

Respondents were given specific social media options considered to provide the most information about products they would buy: YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

(Read also: Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X Agree on Smartphone Preference for Video Streaming)

Using a similar scale of 1 (not at all informative) to 5 (very informative), respondents rated YouTube 4.46; Instagram and TikTok both scored 4.29.

Twitter received a score of 4.06; Facebook 4.02; and LinkedIn 3.78.

"YouTube is the most informative social media platform for (explaining) products, according to users, followed by Instagram and TikTok," Jakpat wrote in its report.

Jakpat added that 9 out of 10 users felt that product information obtained from social media helped them decide whether or not to buy a product.

The survey on social media as a source of product information involved 3,720 respondents who answered questions online through the Jakpat mobile application. Data collection was conducted monthly throughout 2022. The margin of error is below 3%.

Jakpat did not define the differences between the three generations but grouped them by age. These included ages 15-19 (17% of respondents), 20-24 (19%), 25-29 (18%), 30-34 (16%), 35-39 (14%), and 40-45 (17%).

Of those ages, Gen Z comprised 54%, Millennials 36%, and Gen X 10%.

(Read also: India Has the Most YouTube Users in the World; Where Does Indonesia Rank?)