Swiss are streaming more during pandemic according to a recent survey by independent online comparison service moneyland.ch. The survey of video and music streaming conducted in January 2021 shows that YouTube, Netflix and Spotify have been able to grow their competitive advantage even more thanks to the pandemic. Other streaming services like Disney+ and TikTok have also grown substantially.
The results show that the use of streaming services in Switzerland has increased once again including use of dominant service providers Netflix and Spotify. A high 89% of residents now use at least one of the 22 streaming services included in the survey.
The biggest winner over the past year is streaming giant YouTube with a gain of 10 percentage points (75% of residents use YouTube compared to 65% in 2020). Netflix follows closely with a gain of 9 percentage points (54% compared to 45% a year ago). Other winners include Amazon Prime Video (10% up from 7%) and Sky Sport (6% up from 4%).
Audio streaming service Spotify is now used by 44% of residents compared to 35% a year ago. Other winners include SoundCloud (11% up from 8%), Apple Music (16% up from 15%) and Deezer (6% up from 5%).
YouTube for audio streaming
62% of participants stated that they use YouTube to listen to music. Most do not use the paid YouTube Music service, but make use of classic YouTube video streaming to listen to audio.
As with video streaming, age plays a significant role in audio streaming with YouTube. 79% of young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 use YouTube to listen to music, compared to 68% of adults aged 26 to 49 and 49% of adults aged 50 to 74 years old.
Spotify is the most popular paid audio streaming service
Recent years have seen Spotify gain significant traction in the Swiss market. This year’s survey shows that 44% of residents use Spotify, compared to 35% a year ago and 20% three years ago. Spotify is especially popular among young adults. 78% of adults between the ages of 18 and 25 use Spotify, compared to 525 of adults aged 26 to 49 and 22% of adults aged 50 to 74.
Young adults more likely to stream and pay
89% of participants use at least one streaming service. 100% of participants in the 18-25-year-old age group use at least one streaming service. 96% of adults aged 26 to 49 use a streaming service, and 77% of adults aged 50 to 74 use at least one streaming audio or video streaming service.
Young adults are exceptionally willing to pay for streaming. 77% of participants between the ages of 18 and 25 pay for at least one streaming service, compared to 65% of adults aged 26 to 49 and 35% of adults aged 50 to 74.
More than half of residents pay for streaming
55% of participants pay for at least one streaming service. But there are huge differences between different streaming services.
Netflix has the most paying customers, with 39% of adult residents between the ages of 18 and 74 stating that they pay for Netflix subscriptions. Netflix is followed by Spotify (21%), Disney+ (8%), Apple Music (7%), Swisscom blue Max (6%) and Swisscom blue Sport (5%).
Swiss audio streaming hit parade
YouTube is the most widely-used audio streaming service in Switzerland, with 62% of participants using YouTube to listen to music. Most consumers use YouTube’s free video streaming service rather than the paid YouTube Music service to stream audio.
YouTube is followed by Spotify (44%), Apple Music (16%), SoundCloud (11%), Google Play (10%), Amazon (7%), Deezer (6%), TIDAL (3%), and Napster (2%).
You can find an interactive graphic of Swiss audio streaming survey results here.
The survey also has results relating to video streaming and the full report can be found here. An interactive graphic of Swiss video streaming survey results can be found here.
