Briton web users spent 65 % more time online in April 2010 than they did three years ago, and the way in which this time has been allocated across different sectors has changed dramatically, according to a new survey by The UK Online Measurement Company (UKOM).
Britons spent 884 million hours online in April 2010, compared to 536 million hours in April 2007. Social networks and blogs accounted for almost 23% of UK internet time, drastic increase from 9% in April 2007.
In absolute terms, the time spent on social networks and blogs between April 2007 and April 2010 increased by 340% from 40 million hours to 176 million. Coupons/rewards (516%) and food and cooking (363%) sectors have also experienced larger relative growth in total time. IM’s share of UK internet time has fallen from 14% to 5 %, a relative drop of 66%, according to the report.
The most heavily used sectors, following social networks and blogs, are personal (non-work) email (7.2% share of time / 56 million hours) and online games (6.9% share / 53 million hours).
The online news sector has also seen strong growth with Britons now spending 212% more time on news sites (22 million hours in April 2010) than they did three years ago (7 million hours in April 2007). Consequently, news sites account for 2.8% of online time compared to 1.5% three years ago, a relative increase in share of 84%, the company said.
According to the report, Britons are spending 87% more time on general portals (such as Yahoo! and MSN) than three years ago, 31 million hours in April 2010 compared to 17 million three years ago. Consequently the Portals’ share of online time has increased relatively by 10% from 3.7 to 4%. The time spent on ‘search’ almost remained flat at 4% of the total UK internet time.
Alex Burmaster, speaking on behalf of UKOM, said: “Despite the large increase in the amount of time people spend online and the increasing proliferation of websites and online services, one thing has remained constant and that is the bulk of time accounted for by communicating, networking and playing games. These are the pillars on which the internet as a heavily used medium are built.”
