UKOM Data Report: June 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 UK’s online universe has seen a drop in size for the second month in a row. According to data released by UKOM, there were 38.4 million people online over the month of June, a drop of over 2 million people since April.
As the country was finally rewarded with some season-appropriate weather, the online universe continued to dwindle slightly – a trend that was reflected through individual websites. In June, all of the top ten brands saw a drop in their audiences month on month. Google continued to dominate as an online destination but lost a quarter of a million users. However, Wikipedia experienced the biggest drop in audience percentage, down 5.6%, with an audience of 14 million in June. The encyclopedic site, BBC and YouTube saw the biggest drop in actual users, meanwhile, with each brand losing around 830 thousand users over the month.
| UK Rank | Site | May-10 | Jun-10 | Actual Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 33,906,000 | 33,781,000 | -125,000 | -0.4 | |
| 2 | MSN/WindowsLive/Bing | 27,218,000 | 27,124,000 | -94,000 | -0.3 |
| 3 | 24,819,000 | 24,227,000 | -592,000 | -2.4 | |
| 4 | Yahoo! | 21,060,000 | 20,854,000 | -206,000 | -1.0 |
| 5 | BBC | 21,443,000 | 20,610,000 | -833,000 | -3.9 |
| 6 | eBay | 17,482,000 | 17,102,000 | -380,000 | -2.2 |
| 7 | Microsoft | 17,034,000 | 17,024,000 | -10,000 | -0.1 |
| 8 | YouTube | 17,434,000 | 16,604,000 | -830,000 | -4.8 |
| 9 | Amazon | 15,274,000 | 15,070,000 | -204,000 | -1.3 |
| 10 | Wikipedia | 14,928,000 | 14,098,000 | -830,000 | -5.6 |
Out of the top ten most popular search sites, only one enjoyed an increase in users during June. My Web Search remained in tenth place but only gained 13 thousand new users. Unsurprisingly, Goggle Search kept its place as the most popular online search function for the UK audience, followed by Google Image Search, which retained the same number of users as May. Ask.com suffered the biggest actual loss of just over a million users, leaving the site with an audience of 6.5 million, down 22.9% since UKOM first released data in January. BBC Search, meanwhile, has had a poor six months, losing 40% of users and seeing the biggest percentage loss over June, down 20.4%.
| UK Rank | Site | May-10 | Jun-10 | Actual Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Google Search | 32,431,000 | 31,892,000 | -539,000 | -1.7 |
| 15 | Google Image Search | 12,568,000 | 12,568,000 | 0 | 0.0 |
| 35 | Yahoo! Search | 7,254,000 | 7,127,000 | -127,000 | -1.8 |
| 38 | Ask.com | 7,569,000 | 6,505,000 | -1,064,000 | -14.1 |
| 39 | Bing Web | 6,719,000 | 6,495,000 | -224,000 | -3.3 |
| 87 | Google Product Search | 3,559,000 | 3,385,000 | -174,000 | -4.9 |
| 136 | BBC Search | 2,950,000 | 2,349,000 | -601,000 | -20.4 |
| 148 | alot | 2,598,000 | 2,220,000 | -378,000 | -14.5 |
| 159 | AOL Search | 2,319,000 | 2,132,000 | -187,000 | -8.1 |
| 181 | My Web Search | 1,930,000 | 1,943,000 | 13,000 | 0.7 |
The top ten video on demand sites fared better than the overall trend in June, with most sites actually gaining users. ITV Player had a fantastic month, seeing traffic rocket 37% to 1.8 million and moving up two places. BBC iPlayer lost half a million users in June but still remained the second most popular VoD service with an impressive audience of 6 million. Despite the universal take-up of the free service, the iPlayer has seen traffic fall slightly over the past six months, losing 15% since January. 4Od and MSN Video both fell one place, with MSN Video witnessing the biggest percentage loss of the top ten, down 10%.
| UK Rank | Site | May-10 | Jun-10 | Actual Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | YouTube | 17,434,000 | 16,604,000 | -830,000 | -4.8 |
| 42 | BBC iPlayer | 6,613,000 | 6,118,000 | -495,000 | -7.5 |
| 116 | Google Video | 2,613,000 | 2,750,000 | 137,000 | 5.2 |
| 197 | ITV Player | 1,317,000 | 1,809,000 | 492,000 | 37.4 |
| 213 | MSN Video | 1,893,000 | 1,694,000 | -199,000 | -10.5 |
| 250 | Channel 4oD | 1,403,000 | 1,467,000 | 64,000 | 4.6 |
| 507 | Dailymotion | 735,000 | 737,000 | 2,000 | 0.3 |
| 512 | Metacafe | 682,000 | 724,000 | 42,000 | 6.2 |
| 540 | Bing Video | 677,000 | 685,000 | 8,000 | 1.2 |
| 563 | Megavideos | 590,000 | 646,000 | 56,000 | 9.5 |
Facebook remained the fourth most popular online destination in the UK and the most popular social network throughout June. Despite being down 2.4% PoP, Facebook continued to display remarkable reach, attracting 63% of UK online users. However, social networking sites didn’t manage to escape the summer-time trend of ‘distracted users’ – all of the top ten sites saw their audiences decrease. Blogger was down by one million people, by far the biggest actual drop, translating to a 12% loss PoP. Six Apart lost a whopping 27% of users during the month but remained in tenth place.
| UK Rank | Site | May-10 | Jun-10 | Actual Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 24,819,000 | 24,227,000 | -592,000 | -2.4 | |
| 36 | Blogger | 8,086,000 | 7,046,000 | -1,040,000 | -12.9 |
| 76 | Twitter.com | 4,061,000 | 3,721,000 | -340,000 | -8.4 |
| 78 | BBC Communities | 3,714,000 | 3,583,000 | -131,000 | -3.5 |
| 88 | WordPress.com | 3,382,000 | 3,378,000 | -4,000 | -0.1 |
| 113 | Myspace.com | 3,191,000 | 2,762,000 | -429,000 | -13.4 |
| 158 | 2,216,000 | 2,135,000 | -81,000 | -3.7 | |
| 251 | Bebo | 1,573,000 | 1,465,000 | -108,000 | -6.9 |
| 264 | Friends Reunited | 1,642,000 | 1,412,000 | -230,000 | -14.0 |
| 335 | Six Apart TypePad | 1,561,000 | 1,131,000 | -430,000 | -27.5 |
BBC News was the biggest provider of news throughout the country in June as the World Cup dominated the headlines, but the site was also affected by audiences taking a step away from their computers during the warm summer month. BBC News saw 2 million users flee the website in June, which represents a 16% PoP loss. However, the remaining unique audience of 10.4 million was still laps ahead of its nearest competitor. Telegraph.co.uk was the most popular national newspaper website, pushing past MailOnline with an extra 333 thousand users. Guardian.co.uk was down 11% PoP but remained in fourth place.
| UK Rank | Site | May-10 | Jun-10 | Actual Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 | BBC News | 12,419,000 | 10,422,000 | -1,997,000 | -16.1 |
| 50 | Telegraph | 5,234,000 | 4,901,000 | -333,000 | -6.4 |
| 52 | MailOnline | 5,470,000 | 4,746,000 | -724,000 | -13.2 |
| 55 | Guardian.co.uk | 5,162,000 | 4,574,000 | -588,000 | -11.4 |
| 64 | Yahoo! News | 4,899,000 | 4,261,000 | -638,000 | -13.0 |
| 106 | The Sun | 2,959,000 | 2,906,000 | -53,000 | -1.8 |
| 125 | Google News | 2,746,000 | 2,505,000 | -241,000 | -8.8 |
| 128 | MSN News & Weather | 2,953,000 | 2,475,000 | -478,000 | -16.2 |
| 135 | Trinity Mirror Nationals | 2,495,000 | 2,375,000 | -120,000 | -4.8 |
| 139 | Times Online | 3,207,000 | 2,287,000 | -920,000 | -28.7 |
Despite the mutual loss between the news sites, there were numerous changes within the top ten. The Sun saw the smallest loss (-1.8% PoP), which was enough to see it move up one place. Despite shedding 120 thousand users, Trinity Mirror Nationals clawed its way into the top ten, from thirteenth position in May. The second biggest loss after BBC News was the newly rebranded TheTimes.co.uk. The News International site went behind a paywall in June, which resulted in a clear-out of casual readers. thetimes.co.uk lost a massive 29% of its online audience in June, moving it down to the tenth position. The Sunday Times, meanwhile, branched out with its own online identity, showing a unique audience of 228 thousand users and placing fifty-second in its category.