Mediaboss Marketing

NEW YORK, April 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --Experian Marketing Services, a global provider of integrated consumer insight, targeting and cross channel marketing, reveals that if the time spent on the Internet for personal computers was distilled into an hour then 27 percent of it would be spent on social networking and forums across US, UK and Australia in 2012. In the US, 16 minutes out of every hour online is spent on social networking and forums, nine minutes on entertainment sites and five minutes shopping.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130416/LA95321-INFO)

Global comparison In the UK 13 minutes out of every hour online is spent on social networking and forums, nine minutes on entertainment sites and six minutes shopping. Australian Internet users spend 14 minutes on social sites, nine on entertainment and four minutes shopping online.

Across all three markets, time spent shopping online grew year-on-year, but the UK market emerged as having the most prolific online shoppers, spending proportionally more time on retail websites than online users in the US or Australia. UK Internet users spent 10 percent of all time online shopping in 2012, compared to nine percent in the US and six percent in Australia. This was in part due to a bumper Christmas season in the UK where 370 million hours were spent shopping online, 24 percent higher than the monthly average.

Consumption of news content also increased across all three markets with Australian users emerging as the most voracious consumers of news online. Six percent of all time spent online in Australia in 2012 was on a news website, compared to five percent in the UK and four percent in the US.

Meanwhile, the time spent on social media proportionate to other online activities declined across all three regions. The US, which has been the most dominant market for social media consumption in the last three years dropped from 30 percent of all time spent online to 27 percent. In Australia time spent on social dropped from 27 percent to 24 percent while in the UK it dipped from 25 percent to 22 percent year-over-year. This highlights the rise in access via 3G and 4G networks as consumers spend increasingly more time online while on the move.

Average time spent in 2012 by market

UK

US

AU

See original here:
Experian Marketing Services Reveals 27 Percent Of Time Spent Online Is On Social Networking In 2012

Summary: If broken down into an hour, analysts found social networking would have accounted for 27 percent of online activity during that time frame last year.

Turns out that social networking was the most popular online activity in 2012, soundly trouncing email, news and shopping (among other activities) when it comes to time consumption.

Experian Marketing Services has just published a report breaking down time consumption rates for the most common online activites across personal computers and mobile devices in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

If broken down into an hour, analysts found social networking would have accounted for 27 percent of online activity on PCs during that time frame last year.

For the U.S. alone, the number is actually closer to 16 minutes out of every hour online for social networking and forums, followed by nine minutes on entertainment sites and five minutes dedicated to shopping.

Email and business trailed those more consumer-friendly activities at three minutes a piece.

While this news might be slightly troubling for employers, Bill Tancer, general manager of global research for Experian Marketing Services, described in the report about the opportunity (and challenge) this presents for digital marketers.

Understanding consumer behavior across channels is more important than ever as more visits are being made on the move, particularly among social networking and email. With smart phones and tablets becoming more powerful, our data clearly indicates the difference between mobile and traditional desktop usage further enabling the always on consumer mentality. Marketers need to understand these differences, as well as regionally, to ensure campaigns can be tailored for better and more effective engagement.

However, there are a few important items to point out. First, analysts found that time spent on social media in these three markets still declined by single digit percentage points from the previous year.

More importantly, the situation is very different for mobile.

Read more:
Study: Social trumped email, news in time spent online in 2012

In 2012, Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks and forums, accounted for 22 per cent of time online at the computer, compared to 25 per cent in 2011, the tracking firm Experian said.

Entertainment services, such as YouTube and the BBC iPlayer, meanwhile expanded to occupy 15 per cent of time online last year, compared to 13 per cent the previous year.

News websites also benefited and attracted 5 per cent of attention, compared to four per cent a year earlier.

James Murray, digital marketing manager at Experian, said some of the trends could be attributed to increasing rates of mobile internet access via smartphones and tablets. As well as social networking, email services took up less time on computers, with people able to quickly manage their accounts on the hoof. Experian's data does not includetime spent on the internet via 3G and 4G.

Consumers are changing the way they interact online and the rise of 3G and now 4G mobile internet access means more visits are being made on the move, particularly in social and email, said Murray.

Facebook is mounting a major push in the mobile market in a bid to ensure it maintains its members' attention as they increasingly access their accounts away from their computers. It recently introduced Facebook Home, software designed to turn Android handsets into "Facebook phones", for instance.

Compared to Americans and Australians, the figures show Britons are keen online shoppers. Retail websites enjoyed 10 per cent of time online in the UK, versus nine per cent in the United States and six per cent in Australia.

In Britain and the United States, adult websites and pornography accounted for four per cent of time online, the same as in 2011.

The data were gathered using an analytics tool that monitors the online activity of 25 million users worldwide.

Read the original:
Proportion of time spent on social media slips

There has been a noticeable drop-off in time spent with desktop social services in the U.S., the U.K., and Australia, according to Experian.

Perhaps there is such a thing as too much Facebook.

In 2012, U.S. consumers on personal computers spent about 27 percent of their Internet time with social networking sites and forums, or 16 minutes for every hour, according to data from Experian Marketing Services.

Though that's an alarming finding for some, the figure, which doesn't reflect mobile browsing, is actually down 3 percentage points from the previous year. In 2011, social networking in the U.S. peaked at 30 percent of all time spent online, according to Experian.

Experian reveals that if the time spent on the Internet on personal computers was distilled into an hour, then 27 percent of it -- 16 minutes -- would be spent on social networking and forums across the U.S., the U.K., and Australia in 2012.

U.S. consumers are not alone in their adjusted ways. The time spent on social media proportionate to other activities also declined in the U.K. and Australia, Experian found. In Australia, online social time dipped from 27 percent to 24 percent year-over-year. In the U.K., social dropped off from 25 percent to 22 percent during the one-year period. Consumers seemed to fill the void by spending more time shopping and reading news, two categories that grew in terms of time spent online in 2012 across all three markets.

In the age of social apps, Experian's findings seem a bit perplexing. Are we expanding our horizons a tad more? Or maybe our favorite social services are just pointing us to more news and shopping sites, which, if true, would be a juicy development for e-commerce companies and marketers. Either way, it's important to keep in mind that this particular data set is specific to personal computers and does not reflect social-networking trends on mobile.

When it comes to mobile, consumers in the U.S. spent about 15 percent of their time using social applications during the first quarter of 2013. The only thing more popular than this category of connection apps, according to Experience, was e-mail, which accounted for 23 percent of time spent on mobile during the quarter.

See the rest here:
Social networking on desktops may have peaked in 2012, Experian finds

There has been a noticeable drop-off in time spent with desktop social services in the U.S., the U.K., and Australia, according to Experian.

Perhaps there is such a thing as too much Facebook.

In 2012, U.S. consumers on personal computers spent about 27 percent of their Internet time with social networking sites and forums, or 16 minutes for every hour, according to data from Experian Marketing Services.

Though that's an alarming finding for some, the figure, which doesn't reflect mobile browsing, is actually down 3 percentage points from the previous year. In 2011, social networking in the U.S. peaked at 30 percent of all time spent online, according to Experian.

Experian reveals that if the time spent on the Internet on personal computers was distilled into an hour, then 27 percent of it -- 16 minutes -- would be spent on social networking and forums across the U.S., the U.K., and Australia in 2012.

U.S. consumers are not alone in their adjusted ways. The time spent on social media proportionate to other activities also declined in the U.K. and Australia, Experian found. In Australia, online social time dipped from 27 percent to 24 percent year-over-year. In the U.K., social dropped off from 25 percent to 22 percent during the one-year period. Consumers seemed to fill the void by spending more time shopping and reading news, two categories that grew in terms of time spent online in 2012 across all three markets.

In the age of social apps, Experian's findings seem a bit perplexing. Are we expanding our horizons a tad more? Or maybe our favorite social services are just pointing us to more news and shopping sites, which, if true, would be a juicy development for e-commerce companies and marketers. Either way, it's important to keep in mind that this particular data set is specific to personal computers and does not reflect social-networking trends on mobile.

When it comes to mobile, consumers in the U.S. spent about 15 percent of their time using social applications during the first quarter of 2013. The only thing more popular than this category of connection apps, according to Experience, was e-mail, which accounted for 23 percent of time spent on mobile during the quarter.

Continued here:
Social networking on desktops peaked in 2012, Experian finds