Piper Sandler’s Annual ‘Taking Stock With Teens’ Survey

Notable results from Piper Sandler’s survey of over 9,000 U.S. teenagers:

  • 70% of teens have used Spotify over the last six months (up from 68%), with 46% of teens opting to subscribe/pay for Spotify (up from 44%)

  • TikTok improved slightly as the favorite social platform (38% share) by 80 bps vs. spring ’23. SNAP was No. 2 with 28% share, followed by Instagram (23%)

  • Teens spend 28.7% of daily video consumption on Netflix (-220 bps vs. spring ’23) and 29.1% on YouTube (+100 bps vs. spring ‘23)

  • 87% of teens own an iPhone; 88% expect an iPhone to be their next phone; 34% own an Apple Watch

The iPhone’s market share among U.S. teenagers has been remarkably high for as long as I can remember such surveys. Years ago, though, there was a split between how many teens actually had an iPhone vs. how many wanted one for their next phone. Now those numbers are effectively even. I suspect this is the primary driving force in the iPhone’s continuing market share growth in the U.S. It’s easy to think only short-term and believe that just about everyone who might ever get a phone already has one, but there are teenagers (and pre-teens) getting their first phone every day.

That teens spend slightly more time every day watching video on YouTube than on Netflix isn’t surprising, at least if you’ve observed any teens recently. But it’s rather remarkable given how different their business models are. Netflix spends a veritable fortune on new original content and old library content. YouTube content is mostly uploaded from users and content creators for free.

I’d be curious to know if there’s a noticeable split between which devices teens use to watch video on different services. Like, maybe YouTube viewing skews more toward watching on their iPhones, but Netflix on bigger-screen devices like laptops and iPads? TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram are surely viewed almost entirely on their iPhones.

★ Wednesday, 18 October 2023