Articles

2.3.2011 Europe sees digital surge

Consumers in Europe are increasingly engaged with social networks, web video and collective buying sites like Groupon, a study has revealed. Research firm comScore assessed evolving habitsin 18 regional markets, from France, Germany and Italy to Russia, Spain, Turkey and the UK. The average netizen dedicated 24.3 hours to the web a month, with the Netherlands posting 30.5 hours and the UK registering 30.4 hours. By contrast, Italy lodged 16 hours, falling to approximately 13 hours in Austria, considerably below the norm. More specifically, 47% of the European online audience fell within the 15-34 year old demographic, and the other 53% came in at a minimum 35 years old.

Currently, 91% of comScore's panel leverage search and navigation tools, and 84% have signed up to a social network, a 10.9 percentage point leap annually. Services like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn generated 22.8% of page views in 2010, and 40% of sessions included a visit to one such platform. These Web 2.0 offerings boasted the highest reach in Turkey, on 92.2%, followed by the UK's 87.9%, Finland's 86.5% and Norway's 85.6%. Elsewhere, Russia recorded a 21.5 point improvement, coming in at 16.6 points regarding Germany, and 16.3 points concerning Austria, although the latter country still yields the lowest penetration, on 74.5%.

Consumers between 15 and 34 years old made up 49.6% of the social network user base, hitting 51.7% for Facebook and 50.6% for Twitter, but only 35.6% covering LinkedIn. Facebook receives 230m visitors a month from the nations analysed, and accounts for 11.7% of the time individuals spend on the top 100 web platforms.

B.L. 2.3.2011