UKOM Data Report: July 2011

The UK’s online population fell by 816,000 people in July as users continued to turn away from their computers during the summer months. According to data released by online measurement company UKOM, this small drop in traffic resulted in a total audience of 38.7 million.

Year on year the total audience has only dropped by 1%. As usual there were slightly more men than women online in July, with a 52/48 split between the sexes.

Categories

It may come as no surprise to most of us but the majority of sites visited by the UK are for recreational purposes. According to July’s data, entertainment sites account for one quarter of the top 10,000 sites viewed. Home & Fashion, which covers food, high street shops and real estate sites, was the second most popular category amounting to nearly 10% (994 sites).

Although the most popular brands, like Facebook, Google and MSN, fall into the Search Engines/Portals & Communities category, these actually only account for 6.5% of the top 10,000. Subscribers can run the UKOM Top Sites by Category report here.

Entertainment Breakdown

Making up 25% of the sites in the top 10,000, the Entertainment category features a broad mix of subcategories – the top twenty including sites that offer VoD, gambling, music-streaming and iTunes. Within Entertainment, Adult sites are by far the most popular – making up 28% (712 sites). YouTube sits at the top of the Entertainment category (with 18.7 million users) but Video/Movies sites only make up 8%.

Top Brands

Despite the overall loss in users in July, the top ten brands were mostly unaffected. Google remained the most popular online brand, bringing in just fewer than 33 million users (an active reach of 85%). Facebook also saw a slight month on month increase, bringing its audience up 437,000 to a total of 26.5 million users. Although pages viewed per person fell for the social network, down from 554 in June to 417 for July.

After losing 5% of its audience in June, Wikipedia saw the biggest increase out of the top ten in July – gaining 584,000 users. The online collaborative encyclopedia remained in 12th place overall. Retail giant Amazon fell down one place to tenth overall but actually increased its traffic in June (by only 1%).

Top Newspaper Sites

While the News of the World responded to the phone hacking scandal by printing its final edition on the 10th of July, the story continued to enthral the UK. All but one of the top ten newspaper sites saw an increase in users throughout the month, with only News International’s paid-for site The Times reporting a loss. Mail Online was once again the most popular newspaper site, increasing users by 6% and moving up two places overall. The site also had the biggest month on month increase, with 384,000 new users in July. Time spent per person also increased, by five minutes, and pages viewed rose to 35.

London Evening Standard witnessed the biggest percentage rise – up 28%. This translates to an increase of 152,000 users MoM, helping the site move up one place to 26th in the Current Affairs category.

Top Video Sites

ITV’s online catch-up service saw the biggest drop in users of the top ten video sites in June. ITV Player lost 392,000 users, a MoM decrease of 24%. However, the amount of time spent on the site actually increased – up nearly two minutes per person. BBC iPlayer remained the second most popular video site, increasing traffic by 260,000 users. Channel 4oD didn’t fare as well, losing 6% of its audience in July. blinkBox, the aggregated VoD service featuring free and paid for content, saw a jump in users of 20%, moving it up one place.

It was Vimeo, however, which displayed the biggest percentage jump MoM (an increase of 23%). The service, which offers premium independent content, was the third most popular video site with 1.9 million users in July. YouTube once again continued to be way ahead of the competition with 19 million users, a MoM increase of over half a million. The site, a mixture of user generated content with additional catch-up services, also increased it reach – currently standing at just under half of the UK’s online population.