Our newsletterVendor reportGWI, 2026
“Social-first” Gen Z means different things by market: social shopping in Saudi Arabia, TikTok trends in Thailand, influencers in Japan
Engagement
| Market | Increase (%) |
|---|---|
| Saudi Arabia (Use social media to find products to purchase) | 21% |
| Thailand (Participated in a TikTok trend) | 84% |
| Japan (Follow celebrities or influencers on social media) | 223% |
Growth in Gen Z social-first food delivery behaviors by market
Growth in Gen Z social-first food delivery behaviors by market- Reader Note:
- Each market shows a different behavior among Gen Z food delivery users, indexed against the average person: Saudi Arabia +21% for using social media to find products to buy, Thailand +84% for taking part in a TikTok trend, Japan +223% for following celebrities or influencers. Because the behaviors differ, the three numbers should not be compared with each other. Source: GWI Core, GWI’s continuous online survey of 1M+ people a year in 53 markets; answers are self-reported, no sample sizes or fieldwork dates given.
- Evidence:
- Self-reported behaviour
- Vendor interest:
- Moderate — This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
- Sample:
- Continuous online survey research among individuals aged 16-64 (or 16+) in 53 markets worldwide; over 1 million respondents annually, with some additional topic-specific GWI studies and a US weekly study used where relevant.
Reader Note:
Evidence:
Vendor interest:
Sample:Good for
A rough sense of size and direction, and deciding what to look at first.
Not for
- Exact numbers, or saying that one thing caused another.
- This is an aggregated or average number that covers very different cases. Real results in a particular segment may differ.
- The source never says when this data was collected. It could be considerably older than the publication date suggests.
- The source never says how this number was measured.
- This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
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