UKOM Data Report: May 2012

May saw the UK’s total online universe grow by over one million users, bringing the total to 42.3 million.

Work and home locations made up 40.6 million of these users, with the new hybrid data adding additional mobile users on to that total.

Brands

Nearly all of the top ten brands accomplished a surge in users in May, with YouTube displaying the biggest actual and PoP percentage gain. The Google-owned video site jumped by 2.5 million users and averaged 13 sessions per users, up from 12 in April.

Google continued to dominate the online landscape – gaining an extra 1.2 million users (+3.4% MoM). This means the search giant now reaches 87% of the UK’s online audience.

Bidding site eBay moved up one place and added over a million more users, totalling 19.5 million, pushing Microsoft down a place.

The only loss in the top ten belonged to BBC, which dropped down a place after losing a miniscule amount of traffic (-0.8%).

Newspaper Sites

MailOnline totalled just fewer than eight million unique visitors in May. The Associated Newspapers site saw the average time per person jump up to one hour from 48 minutes in April.

In second place was The Guardian, which saw the only major loss in the top ten. The site was down 131,000 users from April, though this only translates to a 2% loss.

It was the Telegraph website that saw the biggest actual growth throughout the month, with just under half a million more users visiting the site MoM, bringing the total amount to six million.

London Evening Standard recorded the biggest percentage change, increasing its traffic by 30% – a 157,000 rise in users. Unsurprisingly 46% of those who visit the online version of the Standard are in the London area, compared to the 21% of MailOnline readers from the same area.

May also saw the site for the Belfast Telegraph fall out of the top ten, replaced by the Daily Record, even though the Scottish site only saw a slight rise in traffic (+0.4%).

Top Sites by Time Per Person

The most popular site when looking at time spent per person is Tribal Wars, which moved up four places in May, with each visitor spending an average of 18 hours on the site, up from 16 hours in April.

The browser-based strategy game connects people from all over the world as they strive for power in the middle-ages set game. Just to add to the stereotype, the demographic breakdown of Tribal Wars clearly indicates that men favour spending lots of hours sitting on their own playing games. Male users make up just under 80% of those who visited the site in May. Nearly 40% of those who visited the site were aged 18-24.

Blizzard Entertainment, home of the infamous World of Warcraft, mirrors this trend, with male visitors making up 70% of the site’s traffic. This inclination changes with the nature of the site in question. IMVU is the third most popular site by time spent but holds a much more ‘casual’ angle than the top two entries. Instant Messaging Virtual Universe is a social chat network, featuring 3D avatars and would be considered slightly less geeky than those sites in the top two spots.

For sites that need to build up a dedicated fan base it is surprising that there are three new entries in the top ten. Grepolis, another multi-player strategy game, jumped in at number five, with users spending under 14 hours on the site each in May, up from five hours in April.

Social site Fabswingers.com jumped up from six hours per person in April to 13 hours in May, a MoM increase of 104%.

Weather

May toyed with the hopes of the nation as it brought the promise of a classic summer, only to treat us to all the rain we missed over the winter. Such unpredictable elements from the heavens had us obsessively checking the weather before we even left the house. The most trusted source of all things meteorological, BBC Weather, remained the first stop for online weather information. The site was visited by over six million users in May, each visiting an average of six times and reaching 15% of the online universe.

The BBC site is far ahead of its nearest competitor, with the second most popular weather site, Weather Channel Network, securing four million less users over the month. Netweather.tv saw the biggest jump in May, almost doubling its audience. The online home of Michael Fish attracted a 91% rise, with a total of 408,000 users.

While the weather at home is always a concern, it becomes a bit of an issue when holidays are booked and we are at the mercy of the foreign weather in a two week window.

Holiday-Weather.com, a site focusing on conditions in sunny climates, saw an impressive 32% jump, up to 645,000 users. It is interesting to note that while all of these sites effectively do the same thing, brand recognition and tailoring to a specific audience makes a big difference.