How one percenters use the internet

To be in the top 1% - or at least to act like it - you need to have a Samsung, not an iPhone, prefer Google+ to LinkedIn and use the internet mostly for online banking and checking the weather, a new report has found.

Eight in 10 of the world's wealthiest own a smartphone, although just 71% use their phones for internet access, according to GlobalWebIndex's first quarterly audience report profiling the 1%.

Although smartphone ownership is below the global average, one percenters are 30% more likely than most to own a tablet, and three and a half times more likely to own a smart wristband. Samsung is the most popular provider of smartphones for the elite, accounting for 38%, compared with 26% who have iPhones and 19% who use a Sony handset.

Google's executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, is known to prefer using a BlackBerry, but he is in the minority, with just 6% of his peer group choosing the device, the least popular of all 10 options.

Despite the slight reluctance to use their phones to go online, the top 1% are internet-savvy, spending an average of 6.75 hours online each day - about half an hour more than the average person - and consuming about twice as much online TV and radio than the 99%.

Facebook is the most popular social network, although one percenters are more likely than most to post a negative comment about a product, ask questions on a company's Facebook page or unlike a brand on the social network.

Twitter and YouTube are the group's second and third favourite social networks, bumping Google+ down to fourth. The report said this was because a large number of the 1% lives in Japan and the US, where Google+ is not popular. LinkedIn, the social network for business professionals, ranked fifth.

GlobalWebIndex found that the wealthiest's favourite chat apps are WeChat (23%) - due to the percentile's large Chinese contingent - followed by Facebook Messenger (21%), Skype (18%) and WhatsApp (15%).

Despite all this, one percenters have a technophobic streak. Four in 10 said technology made life more complicated, and 28% said they didn't understand computers and new technology, both about 55% higher than the average person's response. Jason Mander, head of trends at GlobalWebIndex, attributed this in part "to the relatively old age profile of the top 1%".

GlobalWebIndex analysed the online behaviour of the wealthiest 842 individuals in its global survey of almost 84000 people. To qualify for the top percentile of this sample, respondents had to own at least one house outright and have additional savings or investments worth at least $1-million.