Millennials in Malaysia are no longer a generation in transition. They are working professionals, parents, decision makers, and household spenders. Their media behaviour reflects this shift clearly.
For marketers, this group matters because Millennials sit at the intersection of attention, purchasing power, and brand loyalty. They actively consume news, rely on media for entertainment and learning, and regularly encounter brands through platforms that influence their buying decisions.
In this article, we analyse how Malaysian Millennials consume media today using Vase.ai’s first-party survey data. Rather than listing platforms alone, we focus on behaviours that change how marketers plan media, shape creative, and influence purchase decisions.
This article highlights five insights only. The full dataset, including all survey questions, platform comparisons, and verbatims, is available inside the gated dashboard.
Here's What We'll Cover:
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About This Study
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🔒 Explore the Full Millennials Media Consumption Dashboard
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1. Facebook Leads How Millennials Keep Up With News and Current Events
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2. Entertainment Is Video First and Used for Mental Downtime
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3. Learning Platforms Reflect Career and Life Stage Priorities
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4. Millennials Discover New Brands Through Social Feeds
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5. Millennials Spend the Most Time on Facebook and What They Buy There
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Q&A: Millennial Media Consumption in Malaysia
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🔒 Go Deeper: Validate Your Media Consumption Assumptions
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Related Media Consumption Topics
About This Study
This analysis is based on Vase.ai’s Media Consumption Across Generations in Malaysia study.
- Total sample size: 962 qualified respondents
- Millennial sample: 363 Malaysians aged 29 to 44
- Geography: Malaysia
- Fieldwork period: Responses collected in 6 days
- Methodology: Online survey via Vase.ai’s proprietary panel
- Total survey questions: 24
This article highlights only 5 insights from the Millennial segment.
The full dataset, including all questions, cross-tabs, and verbatims, lives inside the dashboard.
🔒 Explore the Full Millennials Media Consumption Dashboard
The Media Consumption dashboard gives you direct access to:
- Platform usage: news, entertainment, learning, most-used platform, time spent
- Content engagement: content types, video length, reasons for use
- Advertising and purchase: ad attitudes, purchase influence, product categories, spend
- Trends and discovery: brand discovery channels, festive ad reactions, year-on-year change
Note: The dashboard is best viewed on laptop or desktop.
Inside, you can explore the full list of survey questions and filter the data by generation to focus specifically on Millennials, allowing you to see how each insight was collected and validated.
1. Facebook Leads How Millennials Keep Up With News and Current Events
🗣️ We Asked Malaysians Millennials:
“Which platforms do you use most often to keep up with news and current events?”
📊 What the data shows
When asked where they keep up with news and current events, Facebook is the most used platform among Millennials at 81%. TikTok follows at 61%, YouTube at 56%, and Instagram at 48%. Traditional news websites, radio, and television still play a role, but social platforms clearly dominate how Millennials stay informed.
🧠 Why this matters to marketers
For Millennials, news is embedded inside everyday social feeds, not actively sought from standalone publishers. This challenges the assumption that Millennials intentionally visit news sites to stay informed. Exposure to current events often happens alongside personal updates, entertainment, and brand content.
⚡ What marketers can do
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Prioritise Facebook for timely, news-adjacent messaging
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Design feed-native formats that fit naturally into scrolling behaviour
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Align content timing with moments when news is most likely to be encountered
2. Entertainment Is Video First and Used for Mental Downtime
🗣️ We Asked Malaysians Millennials:
“Which platforms do you use most often for fun and entertainment (videos, shows, memes, etc.)?”
📊 What the data shows
Millennial entertainment behaviour is led by YouTube (77%) and Facebook (73%), making them the most used platforms for fun and entertainment.
This video-led pattern is further reinforced by TikTok’s role in entertainment usage, indicating that entertainment consumption among Millennials is largely driven by video formats across platforms, even when those platforms also host other types of content.
🧠 Why this matters to marketers
Millennial entertainment behaviour is video-led across a small number of dominant platforms, with YouTube and Facebook accounting for the majority of entertainment usage.
Because these platforms play a central role in how Millennials consume entertainment content, brand messages are more likely to be encountered when they are delivered in formats that align with existing platform behaviour, rather than interrupting it.
⚡ What marketers can do
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Prioritise video formats when planning entertainment-led placements for Millennials
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Align creative execution to the norms of each platform, e.g. long-form videos on YouTube and short to mid-length videos on Facebook, rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach
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Focus on clarity and relevance so branded content integrates naturally into entertainment environments
3. Learning Platforms Reflect Career and Life Stage Priorities
🗣️ We Asked Malaysians Millennials:
“Which platforms do you use most often to learn new skills or knowledge?”
📊 What the data shows
YouTube is the primary learning platform for Millennials at 82%, with TikTok emerging as a strong secondary learning source at 63%.
The presence of both platforms indicates that learning among Millennials happens largely through video, across platforms that support different styles of video content.
🧠 Why this matters to marketers
Millennial learning behaviour is video-led across more than one platform, rather than concentrated in a single destination.
The fact that both YouTube and TikTok are commonly used for learning suggests that Millennials are open to engaging with learning content across different video environments, without one fully replacing the other. Written content appears to play a supporting role rather than acting as the primary learning format.
This framing reflects platform adoption, not assumptions about timing, intent, or content length.
⚡ What marketers can do
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Design longer-form explainers for YouTube
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Use short video for discovery and skill previews on TikTok
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Anchor learning content to real work or life problems
4. Millennials Discover New Brands Through Social Feeds
🗣️ We Asked Malaysians Millennials:
“Where do you usually come across new brands or products for the first time?”
📊 What the data shows
64% of Millennials discover new brands on TikTok, making it the leading platform for brand discovery. Other social platforms contribute, but discovery is clearly feed-driven rather than search-led.
🧠 Why this matters to marketers
Brand discovery for Millennials is passive and algorithm-led. Brands are surfaced while consuming content, not during deliberate research. Early relevance matters more than full information upfront.
⚡ What marketers can do
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Invest in feed-first creative optimised for discovery
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Lead with relevance in the first few seconds
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Design for curiosity, not full information upfront
5. Millennials Spend the Most Time on Facebook and What They Buy There
🗣️ We Asked Malaysians Millennials:
“Which types of products have you purchased after seeing them on your most-used platform?”
📊 What the data shows
29% of Millennials spend the most time on Facebook.
Among these Facebook-heavy Millennials, 53% say they have made a purchase after seeing something on Facebook, with fashion as the top purchased category at 64%.
This indicates that Facebook continues to be relevant for purchase behaviour among Millennials who spend the most time on the platform.
🧠 Why this matters to marketers
Although Facebook is not the primary platform for all Millennials, the data shows that for those who use it most, purchasing after exposure is relatively common. Fashion leads other categories, suggesting that Facebook remains effective for everyday, familiar purchase types within this group.
⚡ What marketers can do
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Include Facebook in Millennial-focused purchase planning, not just awareness
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Emphasise fashion and similar everyday categories that already show strong uptake
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Ensure products are easy to understand at a glance, as purchases follow exposure
Quick Q&A: Millennials’s Media Habits at a Glance
🔒 Go Deeper: Validate Your Media Assumptions
Want to explore every question and chart in detail?
This dashboard is based on Vase.ai’s survey of 962 Malaysians, including 363 Millennials, collected in 6 days. You can review the full question set and filter the data to focus specifically on Millennial media behaviour.
Note: The dashboard is best viewed on laptop or desktop.
Inside, you can explore the full list of survey questions and filter the data by generation to focus specifically on Millennials, allowing you to see how each insight was collected and validated.
Related Media Consumption Topics
