How all UK Internet time is spent provides an excellent overall picture from which to develop a more focused strategy in regards to targeting consumers online.
Despite the current fixation with how to advertise successfully in social networking and video media, together they still only account for around as much time as the most engaging UK Internet sector – Instant Messaging. IM accounts for 12% of all UK Internet time or, if one condensed all UK Internet time into one hour, seven minutes of it would be spent instant messaging.
By Alex Burmaster, European Internet Analyst, Nielsen Online
So, how would the rest of this typical ‘UK Internet hour’ be spent? After spending seven minutes instant messaging, the next five and a half minutes would be spent across social networking and blogging – as 9% of all UK Internet time is spent in ‘Member Community’ sites. Around four and a half minutes would then be spent emailing, as this accounts for 7% of all UK Internet time followed by almost four minutes playing online games (accounts for 6%).
Search, ‘Classifieds/Auctions’ (the latter pretty much eBay) and ‘Software Manufacturers’ (dominated by Windows Media Player) would each account for around two and a half minutes - 4% of all UK Internet time. Around two minutes (3% of all UK Internet time) would be spent in each of the traditional, general, portal sector and the ‘Videos/Movies’ sector.
These ten sectors account for 57% of all UK Internet time (or 34 minutes in the typical ‘UK Internet hour’) with the other 43% of time being shared across the 75 other sectors Nielsen Online covers. This, if anyone needed reminding, shows how incredibly fractured Internet consumption is. More importantly, it highlights that one is not just competing with media within your own sector but all forms of online media represent a challenge to people spending time on your own offering.
How all UK Internet time is spent
| Rank | Leading sector by total UK Internet time | % of all UK Internet time | AKA: if all UK Internet time was condensed into an hour, how many minutes would be spent there* |
| 1 | Instant Messaging | 12% | 7 minutes |
| 2 | Member Communities | 9% | 5 ½ mins |
| 3 | 7% | 4 ½ mins | |
| 4 | Online Games | 6% | 4 mins |
| 5 | Search | 4% | 2 ¾ mins |
| 6 | Classifieds/Auctions | 4% | 2 ½ mins |
| 7 | Software Manufacturers | 4% | 2 ½ mins |
| 8 | Multi-category Entertainment | 4% | 2 ¼ mins |
| 9 | General Interest Portals & Communities | 3% | 2 mins |
| 10 | Videos/Movies | 3% | 1 ¾ mins |
| - | Other | 43% | 26 mins |
By Alex Burmaster, European Internet Analyst, Nielsen Online
