The UK’s desktop-only online population remained level in August 2015 with a total of 45.4 million individuals accessing the internet through PCs or laptops. The total audience has remained stationary after seeing a small rise in users in July 2015.
When looking at the online audience by age, 25 to 34 year olds account for the biggest group in august, with 17.4% (7.9 million) falling into that category. 34 to 44 year olds were the second biggest users, claiming 16.2% (7.4 million) of all those online.
The two oldest age brackets, 55 and upwards, surprisingly made up 22% of the total, accounting for 9.8 million users.
Top newspaper brands
Much like its print equivalent, Mail Online remained the most popular newsbrand in the UK and continued to beat its rivals despite a month on month fall of 157,000 users. A total of 11.6 million unique visitors viewed the site in August, representing 26% of the online population.
The DMGT-owned property managed to clock in, per person, an average of 47 minutes and 27 pages click, with Mail Online boasting 3.4 million more visitors than its closest rival.
Telegraph Media Group was in second place with 8,257,000 visitors, followed by The Guardian which pulled in 8,225,000 desktop users over the month. The Guardian site actually had the biggest actual loss in the top ten, down 580,000 users (-6.6%), and had an active reach of 18.1%.
Mirror Online‘s fortunes over August differed from most of its contemporaries as the Trinity Mirror site boosted its user base by 152,000 visitors.
The only other site in the top ten to see an increase in traffic was Johnston Press Plc which didn’t do quite so well with a smaller rise of 0.3% (11,000 visitors). The collection of regional newspaper sites, made up of Scotsman.com, SunderlandEcho.com and BlackpoolGazette.co.uk among others, pulled in 3.3 million visitors in total.
Metro.co.uk suffered the biggest percentage change, losing -11% of its audience in August, although this only represented a -279,000 user loss.
| UK rank | Site | Aug 15 (000s) | Jul 15 (000s) | Change (000s) | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43 | Mail Online / Daily Mail [P] | 11,636,000 | 11,793,000 | -157,000 | -1.3 |
| 64 | Telegraph Media Group [P] | 8,257,000 | 8,370,000 | -113,000 | -1.4 |
| 66 | The Guardian [P] | 8,225,000 | 8,805,000 | -580,000 | -6.6 |
| 125 | Independent & Evening Standard (ESi Media) [P] | 5,425,000 | 5,687,000 | -262,000 | -4.6 |
| 130 | Mirror Online [M] | 5,273,000 | 5,121,000 | 152,000 | 3.0 |
| 174 | Newsquest Media Group [M] | 4,069,000 | 4,085,000 | -16,000 | -0.4 |
| 238 | Johnston Press Plc [P] | 3,296,000 | 3,285,000 | 11,000 | 0.3 |
| 274 | Local World Sites [P] | 3,066,000 | 3,228,000 | -162,000 | -5.0 |
| 372 | EXPRESS.CO.UK [M] | 2,406,000 | 2,480,000 | -74,000 | -3.0 |
| 378 | METRO.CO.UK [M] | 2,384,000 | 2,663,000 | -279,000 | -10.5 |
Source: comScore MMX (desktop only) approved by UKOM
Top retail properties
August saw Amazon Sites remain, by far, the most popular retail destinations for desktop users in the UK. In total, 23.1 million visitors accessed the site, reaching over half (51%) of all those online that month.
Despite losing 152,000 users over the month, this actually represented a minute -0.7% decrease and kept the American-owned shopping service well ahead of the competition. On average, each visitor accessed Amazon Sites seven different times throughout August with each user spending a little over 40 minutes on the site.
Coming in second place, and 3.3 million visitors behind Amazon Sites, was the original auction site eBay. Over half of the top ten retails sites suffered a loss in August, with eBay taking the biggest actual hit.
Clocking in with 19.8 million visitors in August, this puts the site substantially ahead of the next most popular rival, despite a massive loss of -1.9 million visitors since July. Due to the nature of bidding, eBay actually defeated the reigning retail site in one particular way – each visitor spent on average a substantial one hour and 45 minutes on the site.
Home Retail Group, home of Argos and Homebase, came in third with a much lower figure than the top two retail destinations. After losing over half a million visitors, a total of 9.1 million accessed the online property, representing a 21% reach.
Wal-Mart, the American corporate overlord of ASDA, secured 4.5 million visitors with the group of sites, made up of Asda-travel.co.uk and Asda-photo.co.uk among others, displaying a 10% reach and an average of two sessions per person.
| UK rank | Site | Aug 15 (000s) | Jul 15 (000s) | Change (000s) | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Amazon Sites [P] | 23,111,000 | 23,263,000 | -152,000 | -0.7 |
| 18 | eBay [P] | 19,844,000 | 21,715,000 | -1,871,000 | -8.6 |
| 56 | Home Retail Group [P] | 9,136,000 | 9,684,000 | -548,000 | -5.7 |
| 59 | Tesco Stores [P] | 8,663,000 | 8,356,000 | 307,000 | 3.7 |
| 156 | Wal-Mart [P] | 4,535,000 | 4,876,000 | -341,000 | -7.0 |
| 162 | Dixons Retail Plc. [P] | 4,362,000 | 4,198,000 | 164,000 | 3.9 |
| 184 | John Lewis Partnership [P] | 3,966,000 | 4,323,000 | -357,000 | -8.3 |
| 205 | Marks&Spencer [P] | 3,699,000 | 3,854,000 | -155,000 | -4.0 |
| 249 | Shop Direct Group [P] | 3,195,000 | 3,178,000 | 17,000 | 0.5 |
| 263 | NEXT Group [P] | 3,135,000 | 2,879,000 | 256,000 | 8.9 |
Source: comScore MMX (desktop only) approved by UKOM
Further breakdowns and reports can found in Mediatel’s Online database.
comScore hierarchy levels: [P] Property – [M] Media Title – [C] Channel – [SC] Subchannel – [G] Group – [SG] Subgroup
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