UKOM Data Report: November 2011

The online population of the UK dipped slightly in November, despite the expected rise in online shopping in the build up to Christmas.

Online users fell by 0.5% (-195,000) MoM, resulting in a total of 39.8 million people accessing the internet in the UK during the month. The online universe still shows sign of growth though, with an increase 2% of total users compared to the same time last year.

Brands

Users held back from updating their statuses and ‘Googling’ as they hit the internet with a sense of purpose in November. The top three search portals and Facebook all saw a decline in users with Amazon reaping the benefits. 21.8 million people visited Amazon in the run-up to the Christmas month. This means that 55% of all UK users that were online in November visited the site, with each of them spending an average of 33 minutes on Amazon.

The retailing giant’s huge spike in popularity came at the cost of Google, Bing and Yahoo! – which all lost under half a million users MoM. Yahoo! saw the biggest actual loss over the month, with traffic down by 488,000 users (-2.4%).

The original auction site eBay saw the second biggest actual change in November, gaining an extra 668,000 users (up by almost 4%).

Retail

The term Black Friday would make most people want to stay indoors in the safety of our own homes and avoid the shopping centres and high streets. And it would seem that more and more of us are all too happy to make our lives a little easier and browse for gifts virtually. Cyber Monday followed Black Friday in late November signalling a deadline in online shopping for most users. All but three of the retail sites in the top 100 gained users compared to the same period last year.

Amazon led the way, gaining almost 1.5 million users YoY. eBay, while still very popular among online bargain hunters, lost 674,000 users YoY (-3.7%). However, the biggest actual loss across the year was witnessed by Play.com, down just under one million users. The Jersey-based retailer’s popularity fell by nearly 17% compared to November 2010.

iTunes saw the biggest percentage increase – up by 16.4% YoY.

Newspapers

The UK’s online newspapers escaped any major dramatic shake-ups in November, with all but one site in the top ten seeing a small increase in traffic. MailOnline continued to be the most popular online paper, raking in a total of 7.2 million users over the month.

The Independent gained the most users MoM with a 37% increase, helping it to move up one spot. However, London Evening Standard saw the biggest percentage increase out of the top ten, up 40%.

The Times lost 34% of users in November (a loss of 346,000 people).