Nielsen Data Report: August 2013

According to data recently released by online measurement company Nielsen, August brought a small increase to the UK’s digital universe. A total of 40.9 million people across the country used the internet, translating to an insignificant rise of 112,000 users.

39.5 million of those accessed the internet through home and work locations at some point, with the 1.4 million overlap made of those who used mobile devices exclusively.

The socio-demographic profile was mostly made up of users who fall into the social grade B group – 30.2% of all those online in August belonged to the middle classes who are classified as intermediate managerial professionals. Social grade A – those in the upper echelons of society – were the smallest group at 7%.

Recently, the digital universe has become reflective of the real population, indicating that internet use has now penetrated all demographic corners. In August, 32% of those online were aged 50 plus and made up the biggest age group. 35 to 49 year olds were next, at 28%. This trend continued – the younger the age group, the smaller percentage they made up of the nation’s digital landscape.

Further breakdowns can be found using the Universe Profile report here.

Commerce

August brought another difficult month for the major online shopping sites as summer was in full swing.

Six out of the 10 most popular sites reported a loss over the month, with the Walmart-owned ASDA being hit the hardest. The umbrella site for such channels as ASDA Direct and ASDA Mobile  was down over half a million users month on month and fell one spot.

Despite this loss, the supermarket chain’s site still managed to attract 10% of the online universe, with a total of just under 4 million users.

Original internet mainstay eBay had the most to celebrate in the top ten (relatively speaking). The auction site’s extra 346,000 users since July was the biggest actual increase, representing a 2% rise.

For the second month in a row Gumtree saw a small increase in traffic. The classified website – which now operates across six countries – increased its audience by just 3% month on month and jumped up one place.

The UK’s most popular price comparison site, MoneySupermarket.com, jumped into the top ten, knocking out Groupon in the process (which fell in the rankings by a massive 40 overall places). It wasn’t all good news for the aggregated shopping site – a monthly audience of 2.4 million users was the result of slight loss of users since July.

Video

The most popular video streaming sites saw a reversal of fortune in August after a bumpy July. Five of the top six sites increased their audience over the month with YouTube witnessing the biggest growth. The Google-owned user generated service increased its traffic with over half a million new users in August. 19.7 million users over the month meant that YouTube managed to reach 48% of everyone online in the UK, while remaining the fifth most popular overall site.

BBC iPlayer continued to trail far behind its closest rival, with 4.8 million people accessing the catch-up service. While this represented a slight dip of -2%, time spent per person increased from 58 minutes to one hour and six minutes.

The other broadcasters’ catch-up offerings had mixed fortunes – Channel 4oD celebrated a 6% jump while ITV Player dropped down one place, losing 8% of its users month on month.

Machinima, the video network for gamers, saw its YouTube channel receive a shot in the arm and jumped up 27 overall spots. A 21% increase meant that 2.4 million viewers watched the video gaming/animation/film channel, although the average time spent per person saw a 10 second drop.

Vube, the video sharing site that actually pays out if a video is a hit, witnessed a dramatic fall, losing over 1 million users. The global platform for hopeful artists dropped five places in the Video category and 181 places overall.

The battle between OTT operators took another surprise turn as Netflix moved up two places (with help from a 15% increase in users) while LOVEFiLM.com fell down two places (102 overall), shedding 719,000 visitors in August.

Member Communities

There was more growth for the UK’s most popular member communities, with Blogger boasting the biggest actual rise. The Google-owned blogging service moved past the 7 million user mark by gaining over half a million user through August.

Though this was enough to keep Blogger in second place, it trailed far behind the UK’s most popular community site Facebook. The ever dominant social network was used by a whopping 23.6 million users, making it the third most popular site overall.

While most of the top sites added to their ranks throughout the month, professional networking tool LinkedIn dropped down a spot as a result of a 4% loss. This was enough to enable publishing platform WordPress.com to jump up one place.

Google+, the social arm of the omnipresent company, managed to attract 3.8 million users despite falling off most people’s radars since its launch.

Aggregator of gifs and buzz-worthy news BuzzFeed remained at the bottom end of the top ten and grew its audience by 18% month on month. In total 1.3 million users (a 3% share) visited the site and increased the time spent per person to 13 minutes each.

Further breakdowns and reports can found in MediaTel’s Online database.