UKOM comScore MMX – January 2016
The UK’s desktop-using online population remained steady at just under 45.8 million people in January 2016, with many sites seeing an increase in traffic after the traditional December slowdown.
25-34 years old accounted for 7.9 million users (17%) while 55 to 64 year olds came in with 6.3 million users (14%).
Breaking the data down by social grade shows that C1s, ‘the lower middle class’, account for the majority of users, with 13 million users, or 29% of all desktop users.
When looking at household income, households with a total income of £50,000 or more account for 31% of users (over 14 million users), with households in the £10,000 to £24,999 bracket coming in second with 22% (9.9 million users).
The smallest group going online during the first month of 2016 was also the smallest income group, with household pulling in under £10,000 per annum accounting for just 10%.
comScore subscribers can see further breakdowns in the monthly online users by demographic report.
Top newspaper brands
There was great news for the UK’s most popular newspaper brands, with all of the top ten sites celebrating a rise in traffic after December’s typical downturn in activity.
As usual, Mail Online remained the most visited online UK newspaper destination. After losing -8% of users in December, January saw the conservative site bounce back with growth of just under 13%.
This represents a month on month jump of over 1.4 million users, bringing the total for January to 11.9 million users, with male users accounting for the majority of visitors (52%) despite the heavy celebrity tabloid angle.
Left wing rival The Guardian remained in second place, with 2.9 million users less that Mail Online. Despite being bolsters by a 13% rise, The Guardian was still some way behind with a total of a little under 9 million visitors, with each of those on average spending 13 minutes and 7 seconds on the site, compared to Mail Online‘s 45 minutes and 9 seconds per person.
The biggest percentage increase belonged to Northern and Shell Media-owned site Express.co.uk, which increased its digital audience by 24%, jumping from 2.1 million visitors in December to just under 2.6 million.
| UK rank | Site | Jan 16 (000s) | Dec 15 (000s) | Change (000s) | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 38 | Mail Online / Daily Mail | 11,869,000 | 10,511,000 | 1,358,000 | 12.9 |
| 50 | The Guardian | 8,987,000 | 7,929,000 | 1,058,000 | 13.3 |
| 58 | Telegraph Media Group | 8,805,000 | 7,777,000 | 1,028,000 | 13.2 |
| 100 | Independent & Evening Standard (ESi Media) | 6,103,000 | 5,439,000 | 664,000 | 12.2 |
| 114 | Mirror Online | 5,493,000 | 4,830,000 | 663,000 | 13.7 |
| 190 | Newsquest Media Group | 3,875,000 | 3,468,000 | 407,000 | 11.7 |
| 236 | Johnston Press Plc | 3,226,000 | 2,938,000 | 288,000 | 9.8 |
| 317 | The Sun Online | 2,646,000 | 2,458,000 | 188,000 | 7.6 |
| 333 | EXPRESS.CO.UK | 2,592,000 | 2,089,000 | 503,000 | 24 |
| 338 | METRO.CO.UK | 2,527,000 | 2,195,000 | 332,000 | 15.2 |
Top social media brands
Facebook remained top of the social media pile, bringing in a total of 25.8 million desktop-using visitors, which was actually the only month on month loss in the top ten. Although the social network lost -1.1% it still boasted impressive user retention rates with each visitor spending, on average, six hours on the site.
Next up was Twitter with a massive 17 million users less than Facebook. In total, 8.8 million people accessed the micro blogging site from their desktop machines, representing a 19% reach. On average, each user had eight session over the month.
The biggest percentage increase belonged to photo blogging site Tumblr.com which jumped by 28% (1.1 million) to a total of 5.2 million visitors, while Blogger saw a small 2% increase and totalled at 6.7 million users for January.
| UK rank | Site | Jan-16 | Dec-15 | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 25,794,000 | 26,083,000 | -289,000 | -1.1 | |
| 56 | 8,813,000 | 8,616,000 | 197,000 | 2.3 | |
| 59 | 8,736,000 | 7,559,000 | 1,177,000 | 15.6 | |
| 83 | Blogger | 6,676,000 | 6,579,000 | 97,000 | 1.5 |
| 96 | BLOGSPOT.CO.UK | 6,245,000 | 6,039,000 | 206,000 | 3.4 |
| 120 | PINTEREST.COM | 5,343,000 | 4,745,000 | 598,000 | 12.6 |
| 129 | TUMBLR.COM | 5,218,000 | 4,084,000 | 1,134,000 | 27.8 |
| 152 | WORDPRESS.COM | 4,745,000 | 4,176,000 | 569,000 | 13.6 |
| 167 | Google+ | 4,412,000 | 4,032,000 | 380,000 | 9.4 |
| 228 | 3,293,000 | 3,208,000 | 85,000 | 2.6 |
Further breakdowns and reports can found in Mediatel’s Online database.
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