UKOM comScore MMX – June 2015

June saw the UK’s digital (desktop only) population rise slightly to 45.4 million unique visitors, the highest figure reported so far this year.

According to UKOM-approved data released from comScore MMX, June’s total audience represents the second time in 2015 that the amount of people going online actually increased. Earlier this year, March reported a total of 45.1 million visitors, an amount which didn’t alter until this latest release.

The biggest age group online were the 25-34 year olds which represented 17% (7.9 million visitors) of all those accessing the internet through desktop computers in June, followed closely by 55-64 year olds who made up 13.6% (6.2 million).

The biggest social grade was those that fell into the C1 category, described by NRS as ‘junior managerial, administrative or professionals’, making up 28.5% of the online population.

comScore subscribers can see further breakdowns in the Monthly online users by demographic report.

Top Travel Properties

With the summer season already in full swing, it was no surprise to see six of the top ten travel properties suffer a fall in traffic. Worst hit was Priceline.com Incorporated, which includes Booking.com, Priceline.com and Rentalcars.com, amongst others, with the collection of familiar brands loosing -654,000 visitors (-9%) month on month.

Doing much better was June’s number one travel property TripAdvisor Inc., which is made up of a plethora of sites including the eponymous TripAdvisor.co.uk as well as HolidayLettings.co.uk and BookingBuddy.co.uk and attracted 3.9 million more visitors than its nearest competitor, Priceline.com Incorporated.

In total, a little under 11 million people visited the American-owned collection of sites from a desktop computer, resulting in 3% increase and representing 23% of June’s online audience.

The only airline to appear in the top ten was notorious Irish-owned Ryanair which continued to prove that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Even though the property only managed an active reach of 5.2%, a June total of 2.4 million visitors proved enough to defeat its rivals.

Top Health Properties

June once again saw the online property for the National Health Service, NHS Sites, once again come out on top, with a total of 7.7 million people visiting the group of sites throughout the month.

Including such individual sites as NHS.uk and NHS24.com, amongst others, NHS Sites enjoyed a 2% rise in traffic and managed to reach 17% of all those online via desktops.

While this meant that the property ranked at just 68^th overall, this proved to be much further ahead than the next collection of health sites.

The second most popular health destination was American brand WebMD Health, which describes itself as ‘the leading source for trustworthy and timely health and medical news’. Losing -47,000 visitors month on month lead to a total of 3.1 million users for June, 4.6 million less people than slightly more trustworthy NHS Sites.

The rest of the top 10 is littered with slightly more unreliable sources of personal medical advice, although charity Cancerreserach.co.uk features with 514,000 visitors while health insurance property BUPA Sites came in 10th with 442,000 visitors.

EMIS, formally known as Egton Medical Information Systems, witnessed a dramatic fall in June as the software company lost a massive -78% of its visitors month on month, leading to a total loss of 557,000 unique visitors.

Top Gambling Properties

In the intense arena of digital betting there was only one main contender as the home of the National Lottery, Camelot Group, raced ahead of the competition.

A total of 4.4 million unique visitors accessed the site through their desktops in June, a month on month rise of 412,000 visitors representing a 10% jump.

Not doing so well was the nation’s second online destination for a flutter, Ladbrokes Plc. Suffering a noticeable month on month loss of 1.5 million visitors, the property’s total was down to 1.7 million users, a massive drop of -47%.

Of course, the popularity of online gambling websites fluctuates wildly any given month due to specific promotions or high profile racing meetings, although Ladbrokes Plc was previously having a much more stable 2015 and averaged at 3.8 million visitors a month before June.

Doing much better was 32Red Plc, home of the British online casino, which boasted a massive 534% increase over June, going from 242,000 visitors in May to 1.5 million. Other well-known betting brands Paddy Power Plc and Betfred.com saw an increase of 48% and 26%, respectively, while William Hill fell by -10%.

Further breakdowns and reports can found in Mediatel’s Online database.

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