According to data recently released by online measurement company Nielsen, the UK’s online universe grew slightly during October, resulting in a total of 41.6 million users. This is the highest volume of individuals to go online in the UK since April of this year.
So far, 2013 has seen the online population reach 41.4 million people each month on average, with people who fall into Social Grade B continually making up the largest demographic group. The intermediate managerial professionals make up 30% of the digital population, while the Grade E group (unemployed) account for 11.2%.
The country’s capital boasted the highest amount of internet users, with 18.5% of the digital population hailing from London. Reflecting the actual geographical make-up of the country, the next densely populated internet region was the Midlands, which documented 5.3 million users (12.8%).
Most Time Spent on Top 200 Sites
Out of the top 200 websites in the UK, Facebook was by far the biggest time thief, with the average time per person clocking in at seven hours and seven minutes. This is even more impressive when you consider the social network’s extremely high reach (56%), with 23.3 million users accessing the site in October.
The next two entries fall into the online gaming category, with King.com – home of addictive and colourful games such as Candy Crush – netting the second biggest amount of time in the top 200 with four hours and 30 minutes.
EA – Electronic Arts Online was up next, with the games developer hosting interactive Hasbro-branded board games and unique properties helping each of its 1.8 million users spend just over four hours on the site.
It wasn’t just social networking, videos of kittens and free gaming that sucked users in; three of the top ten sites were email services. While Outlook.com was by far the most popular option (10.7 million users), users only spent 2 hours on average on the site in October.
Surprisingly, AOL Email boasted the highest retention with three hours and 25 minutes, followed by Yahoo Mail and Google Gmail which both hovered around the two hour and 40 minute mark.
Overall, browser-based online game Tribal Wars boasted the most time spent, capturing the full attention of its very niche audience. In October, each user spent a whopping 35 hours and 50 minutes on the site but despite Tribal Wars‘ impressive power to make users stick around, the site only ranked at 2929th place overall and attracted a very small audience of 133,000 users.
| UK Rank | Site | Category | Time Per Person (hh:mm:ss) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Member Communities | 07:07:22 | |
| 94 | King.com | Online Games | 04:30:37 |
| 185 | EA – Electronic Arts Online | Online Games | 04:07:43 |
| 111 | Videolan | Software Manufacturers | 03:50:35 |
| 5 | YouTube | Videos/Movies | 03:49:28 |
| 149 | AOL Email | 03:25:34 | |
| 25 | Yahoo Mail | 02:49:27 | |
| 33 | Google Gmail | 02:45:24 | |
| 1 | General Interest Portals & Communities | 02:43:16 | |
| 10 | eBay | Classifieds/Auctions | 02:27:26 |
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings
Airlines
The most popular airline site suffered a small month on month loss (-3.5%) but easyJet held on to the top spot with ease, with 1.3 million UK users checking out the site. The month also saw flight comparison site SkyScanner see a massive 37% increase, helping it move up one place while knocking British Airways down a spot.
The flag-carrier airline landed in 330th overall position and suffered a month on month loss of 22.2% with a total of just over 1 million viewers visiting the site.
Luton-based airline Monarch and low cost rival Flybe both moved up one space, despite the former losing 30,000 users over the month.
Fly.com, another comparison site, landed in the top ten in October thanks to an impressive MoM jump of 76%. While this only translates to an increase of 119,000 actual users, it was enough to secure its place amongst its more poplar rivals.
| UK Rank | Site | Oct 13 (000s) | Sep 13 (000s) | Change (000s) | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 253 | easyJet | 1,340,000 | 1,388,000 | -48,000 | -3.5 |
| 288 | SkyScanner | 1,219,000 | 890,000 | 329,000 | 37.0 |
| 330 | British Airways | 1,071,000 | 1,377,000 | -306,000 | -22.2 |
| 425 | Ryanair.com | 856,000 | 809,000 | 47,000 | 5.8 |
| 641 | BAA | 594,000 | 732,000 | -138,000 | -18.9 |
| 761 | Flybe | 494,000 | 524,000 | -30,000 | -5.7 |
| 806 | Monarch | 466,000 | 445,000 | 21,000 | 4.7 |
| 812 | jet2.com | 464,000 | 596,000 | -132,000 | -22.1 |
| 1046 | Virgin Atlantic | 368,000 | 402,000 | -34,000 | -8.5 |
| 1415 | Fly.com | 275,000 | 156,000 | 119,000 | 76.3 |
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings
VODs
October was generally a good month for video on-demand providers with seven of the top ten enjoying a boost in activity. ITV Player witnessed the biggest positive jump, although the rise was hardly revolutionary. A 21% increase resulted in a total of 1.7 million individuals visiting the website, no doubt boosted by the arrival of Dowton Abbey‘s fourth series.
YouTube, as ever, remained top dog, swelling its users to 19.9 million individuals, accounting for 48% of all UK users over the month. Always popular, BBC iPlayer was up next with 5.2 million users thanks to an extra quarter of a million users using the service.
Other national broadcaster VOD services had mixed results with Channel 4oD gaining 269,000 more users, moving up one place and pushing Dailymotion down one spot. Sky Go once again attracted a very small amount of traffic to its online offering with a 6% drop bringing the total to 689,000 users.
Popular over-the-top streaming service Netflix managed to move up one position in the top ten (up 26 overall), thanks to a 13% rise. However time spent per person actually fell by 22 minutes to a total of two hours and six minutes. Main rival LOVEFiLM was affected in different ways – October brought a miniscule 3% rise for the Amazon-owned company and also saw the average time spent fall to 34 minutes.
| UK Rank | Site | Oct 13 (000s) | Sep 13 (000s) | Change (000s) | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | YouTube | 19,850 | 19,624 | 226 | 1.2 |
| 48 | BBC iPlayer | 5,122 | 4,867 | 255 | 5.2 |
| 151 | Machinima on YouTube | 2,209 | 2,236 | -27 | -1.2 |
| 166 | Channel 4oD | 2,023 | 1,754 | 269 | 15.3 |
| 192 | Dailymotion | 1,734 | 1,761 | -27 | -1.5 |
| 204 | ITV Player | 1,660 | 1,372 | 288 | 21.0 |
| 240 | Netflix | 1,408 | 1,245 | 163 | 13.1 |
| 256 | Vimeo | 1,333 | 1,248 | 85 | 6.8 |
| 317 | LOVEFiLM.com | 1,125 | 1,097 | 28 | 2.6 |
| 550 | Sky Go | 689 | 730 | -41 | -5.6 |
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings
Further breakdowns and reports can found in MediaTel’s Online database
