UKOM Data Report: March 2010

NIELSEN GLOBAL DATA PROCESSING PROBLEM: Data for the below report did not meet quality standards set by UKOM, and should be sourced as “Nielsen NetView” not “UKOM APS”. The affected MediaTel UKOM Data Reports, found in Newsline, dates from February to October 2010.

Nielsen and UKOM have rectified this fault and data has been re-issued and updated in the Online database which can be found by running reports here. Please contact your Nielsen client representative if you require further information.

The Google brand proved dominant over its competitors for another month, according to March data released by online measurement company UKOM.

Google had four entries in the top ten sites, including the video-streaming site YouTube. Coming in first and second place, Google and its search engine Google Search saw numbers rise by 5.5% and 5.7% respectively.

In this, the third set of data released by UKOM and collated by The Nielsen Company, most of the internet’s big names dominate the top fifty, featuring search engines, home pages, video and email services from Microsoft, Yahoo! and the BBC.

UKOM figures are available on MediaTel’s new online database and show comprehensive traffic data for over 10,000 sites, including unique audience, active reach and gender profile.

Within the overall top ten most popular sites, Google Maps saw the biggest jump PoP, with an 11.1% increase, followed by YouTube with 10.1%. All of the top ten sites gained in audience over the month of March, with Yahoo! and Google Maps both jumping one place. The ten most popular sites remain the same as February, despite some increasing in audience.

As usual Google was in the lead against other search engines, gaining 1.8 million users over the month. A unique audience of 33 million puts Google ahead of its closest rival Ask.com by around 25 million users. Ask.com jumped up two places and grew by almost one million over the month, an impressive PoP increase of 14.4%.

Despite the publicity surrounding its launch, Bing Web only grew by 2.2% on February and fell one place, to end up the fifth most popular search engine. BBC Search saw the biggest rise in users over the month jumping to one hundred and ninth place overall with a PoP rise of 22%.

YouTube saw viewers grow by 1 million over the month of March and it remains the most popular site for streaming videos. The BBC’s iPlayer came in second, seeing growth of just under 4%, although it has around 10 million less viewers than YouTube.

4oD lost 83,000 viewers and dropped twenty four places overall, although the Channel 4 catch-up service remained fifth most popular video site. The ITV Player grew by 6.5% over the month.

Despite a bad month in February, which saw most of the top ten social networking sites lose users month on month, March’s traffic data framed a much healthier picture. All of the top ten social sites saw an increase in audience, including Friends Reunited, reporting a huge rise of 27.3% PoP helping push Bebo into ninth place.

Facebook remained the most popular social site and the fourth most popular site overall. Blogger also saw a good month with a 16.7% increase since February and an actual change in unique audience of 1.2 million, helping it stay in second place.

BBC News continued its reign as the most viewed website for news and current affairs, with a unique audience of 10 million over the month of March, up 622,000. For the second month in a row, Mail Online was the most popular of the national newspaper sites, with a unique audience of 5.7 million. Guardian.co.uk saw a jump in users, landing behind Mail Online with a unique audience of 5.2 million.

Times Online saw a surge in traffic, reporting a month on month increase of 17.4%, helping it push past Sun Online and into seventh place. Trinity Mirror Nationals moved up eight places overall and made its way into the top ten news sites with a 12% increase over the month.