Ofcom: UK online sector revenue grows to £33.5bn in 2021
The latest Ofcom Online Nation report has found advertising made up 68% of UK online revenues in 2021.
This is compared to 63% the previous year, and 65% for the three years prior.
The report also found the UK online sector revenue grew 31% to £33.5bn in 2021, with subscriptions and transactions made up the remaining 15% and 16% of total online revenue.
Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft were the largest online companies by revenue with 54%, 18%, 8% and 1% respectively. This has changed from 58%, 20%, 7% and 2% in 2020.
In 2021, UK online advertising revenue growth was the highest in over a decade at 41%, reaching £23.5bn in 2021, up £6.8bn since 2020.
Whereas, in 2020 UK online advertising revenue growth was the lowest in over a decade at 7% because of the pandemic.
Alphabet and Meta sites and apps ‘near-universal use’
Ofcom found Alphabet and Meta-owned sites and apps were the most visited in the UK and used by almost all online adults.
Google reached 49.5 million adults in September with an average of 7 hours and 3 minutes spent per visitor over the course of the month.
Amazon-owned website and apps were visited by at least 90% of online adults in all four UK nations.
WhatsApp was the top-reaching app and was visited by 88% of UK online smartphone-using adults in September 2021.
However, on average among UK smartphone-owning adults who went online, Facebook had the most daily visitors at 61%, then WhatsApp at 50%, Instagram at 35% and Facebook Messenger at 27%.
One fifth of adults use all three Meta-owned communication services.
Instagram was more popular amongst 15- 24s, 60% of this category visited the app daily on average.
More than half of 15- 24s are using five social media platforms. In September 2021, 90% visited Instagram, 90% visited Facebook or Facebook Messenger, 70% visited Snapchat, 70% visited Twitter and 64% visited TikTok.
UK adult TikTok visitors spent 29 minutes per day on the platform in February 2022, almost as much as Facebook visitors spent on Facebook
Scams, fraud and misinformation
More than half UK internet users (62%) have come across at least one potential harm online in the last four weeks.
The most commonly experienced potential harms were scams, fraud and phishing but more than one fifth of UK internet users (22%) had encountered misinformation in the past four weeks.
UK internet users aged 18- 34 and those from an ethnic minority background were 65% and 85% more likely to say they had experienced at least on potential harm in the last week.
Women were more likely to be bothered or offended by their most recently experienced potential harm than men (41% vs 28%).
Women from a minority ethnic background were more likely than white women to have experienced at least one potential harm in the past four weeks (61% vs 67%).
However, the report found two thirds of UK internet users (67%) feel “the benefits of being online outweigh the risks”.
Younger adults, women and those from minority ethnic groups were more likely to believe the risks of being online outweighed the benefits.
Ofcom’s repot now had found 94% of UK households that had internet access.
UK smartphone use still growing
UK adults internet users spent on average three hours and 59 minutes online every day in September 2021, with 73% of that time on a smartphone.
One in five (20%) people only use a smartphone to go online, compared to one in ten (10%) last year.
Young adults, 18-24 year-olds in particular, spent the most time online at an average five hours and six minutes every day.
Ofcom revealed women spent more time online than men on average, four hours and 11 minutes compared to three hours and 26 minutes.
BBC most-visited news site
The BBC was the most-visited online news service across the UK, visited by 71% of UK online adults.
However, Ofcom noted three news websites that had high reach in UK regions: Wales Online (second most visited online news service in Wales), Belfast Live (second most-visited online news service in Northern Island) and the Daily Record (fourth moist-visited online news service in Scotland).
Most children found social media made them happy
More than half (58%) of UK children aged 3-15 use social media such as YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat and 59% said using social media, messaging sites and apps make them happy “all” or “most of the time”.
Even though most social media sites have an age limit of 13 for opening an account, four in 10 parents of 8- 12 year-olds said they would allow their child to use social media before they reaching that age.
However, nearly half of internet users aged 13 and over (47%) reported coming across a potential harm while using social media.
Gaming content watched on YouTube over Twitch
More than half (58%) of UK individuals between 13- 64 watch video-game related content with YouTube being the most popular platform, used by 74% of those who watch gaming content, followed by Twitch with 25%.