UKOM Data Report: May 2011

40.3 million people made up the UK’s oline universe in May, the third time in 2011 that unique users rose past the 40 million mark. The data, from online measurement company UKOM, shows no overall rise in users but top brands saw spikes in traffic over the month. Over the past year the online population of the UK has increased by 4%, with figures indicating that over-50s are the key drivers of growth.

Entertainment sites accounted for the vast majority of the top 500 with 22.4%. Entertainment is broken down into further sub categories including adult sites, humour, broadcast media and gambling with YouTube and iTunes among the highest ranking sites. Despite the popularity of Google, Facebook and Twitter Search Engines and Communities only accounted for 10% of sites, highlighting the dominance these brands have in the market.

Users aged 35 and upwards made up an impressive 49% of the total population in May with the 35-49 age bracket making up 28%. Those aged 50+ accounted for 31% of the online universe, an increase of 596,000 people year on year.

Brands

While the overall digital population in the UK remained static throughout the month, the majority of the top ten brands saw a boost in popularity, although MSN took a beating; down 550,000 users month on month. This was enough of a drop to see Facebook move up one place and become the second most popular online brand in the UK with a reach of 66.4% across the online population. May saw the social network’s unique audience rise by 183,000. Amazon remained the UK’s first destination for online shopping, gaining 461,000 users in May, helping the retail brand move up one place. Overall, Amazon was the ninth most popular site, with the majority of users aged 50 or above (51%). This increase in popularity saw the Microsoft brand slip down one place.

Newspapers

Throughout a month that witnessed celebrity injunctions, Bin Laden’s death and Middle East uprisings, all of the top ten newspaper sites witnessed a significant increase in traffic with MailOnline continuing its dominance of the online market. The average user spent half an hour on the site over five sessions in May. Guardian.co.uk jumped up to second place with a 23% increase month on month. An unique audience of over five million spent less time per person compared its more popular rival, with the Guardian’s users only spending fourteen minutes over four sessions on the news site. Associated’s METRO.co.uk saw the biggest percentage change with a massive 42% rise (a MoM increase of 412,000). The site proved more popular with men, with a 60/40 split between the sexes. Geo-targeted news also proved popular with Newsquest Local Media network gaining an audience of 664,000 and moved up two places.

Social Networks

Twitter sat at the epicentre of the media blackout that was the Giggs gagging order with users, existing and new, turning to the social networking site for a more transparent version of the news . Twitter saw over 1.5 million new users flock to the site in May as the service became synonymous with freedom of speech when the traditional press had been bound to silence. Although time and pages per person was down in May the unique audience totalled more than 6 million people. Facebook still remained significantly ahead of the competitors with 26.7 million people, a minimal increase of under 1%. Professionals across the UK brought the biggest percentage change of the top ten to LinkedIn, up 36% from the previous month. Users aged 35 and over made up the vast majority of users (77%).