Are Webinars No Longer Being Listened To? The Reality of Commoditized Online Events: Nearly 70% Resort to 'Double-Speed' or 'Multitasking'

K-Sanbou Co., Ltd. (Location: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Kenji Shintani) conducted a survey on the "Actual Participation and Satisfaction Levels in Webinars," targeting business professionals in their 20s to 50s who have participated in a webinar within the past year.

Currently, many companies are actively hosting webinars for the purpose of lead generation and brand awareness. Because they offer easy online participation, the opportunities for business professionals to gather information and learn have expanded significantly.

On the other hand, with the increase in webinars, participation styles such as "multitasking while watching," "dropping out midway," and "watching archives at double speed" are believed to be becoming commonplace. While information can be gathered efficiently, there is a possibility that a certain number of cases exist where participants are not fully concentrating or where viewing remains entirely passive.

Therefore, K-Sanbou Co., Ltd., which operates "Sanbou Bar," conducted a survey on the "Actual Reality of Business Professionals' Participation in Webinars."

The survey was conducted via PRIZMA from April 30 to May 1, 2026, gathering responses from 1,003 monitors. According to the survey, the most common frequencies of participation were "Once a month (21.2%)" and "Once every 2-3 months (21.2%)." The primary trigger for participation was "Information from a community they belong to (44.5%)."

While expectations for attending were high for "Gathering information on the industry and market (41.8%)" and "Learning about the latest trends and success stories (33.1%)," the actual viewing style was predominantly "Watching while doing other tasks (36.7%)," followed by "Watching the archive at double speed (30.0%)."

Reasons for multitasking included "Being too busy with work to find time to concentrate on watching (46.5%)" and "Feeling no need to participate actively as there are no opportunities to be called upon to speak (44.8%)." Furthermore, common complaints were "A gap between expected and actual content (29.5%)" and "The content was too superficial to be applied to practical work (22.9%)." Regarding building new business connections through webinars, approximately half responded that it "almost never happens (28.%)". This highlights a significant challenge in current webinar formats.