I just read a ComScore Research Brief that stated that the World Internet Audience grew by 10% from a year ago; that's quite significant. Here's why:
- I have seen increases in Web Traffic to some of my clients' websites from a year ago (January - January) even when nothing significant changed on the site.
- The behavior of the newer Internet Audience for Paid and Organic Search might be different than people who have been online for several years; this could make it more important to consider how sites appear to audiences in general (not just demographics, geodemographics, but also expectation of the visitors will differ based on how long they've been on the Web).
Here's the results of the study from ComScore:
Top 15 Countries by Internet Penetration /Unique Visitors Age 15+* / January 2007 vs. January 2006 / Total Worldwide – All Locations / Source: comScore World Metrix
Jan-06
(000)
Jan-07 (000)
Percentage Change
Worldwide
676,878
746,934
10%
United States 150,897
153,447
2%
China 72,408
86,757
20%
Japan 51,450
53,670
4%
Germany 31,209
32,192
3%
United Kingdom 29,773
30,072
1%
South Korea 24,297
26,350
8%
France 23,712
24,560
4%
India 15,867
21,107
33%
Canada 18,332
20,392
11%
Italy 15,987
18,106
13%
Brazil 12,845
14,964
16%
Spain 12,206
12,710
4%
Russian Federation 10,471
12,707
21%
Netherlands 10,772
11,077
3%
Mexico 8,624
10,149
18%
* Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.
In the United States, there was close to 3 million more online audience this year than last, while in China there was 14 million more! Overall, Worldwide - 70 million more people are online this year over last year.
And where are they going? Maybe some of them are on your site.
What about the quality of those visitors (a subjective value) and the amount of time visitors spend online? It's not really China or the US that leads here, it's Canada, Isreal and South Korea! For example, the average Canadian spends 10 hours a week online.
yle="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Arial">Top 10 Countries by Average Monthly Hours Online per Unique Visitor
Broadband vs. Narrowband / Among Visitors Age 15+* / January 2007 / Total Worldwide – All Locations / Source: comScore World Metrix
Average Monthly Hours Online
Unique Visitors Rank
Among All Users
Among Broadband Users
Among Narrowband Users
Canada
9
39.6
41.3
14.2
Israel
28
37.4
38.8
10.9
South Korea
6
34.0
36.1
N/A**
United States
1
31.6
37.2
13.5
United Kingdom
5
31.2
35.6
7.5
Chile
20
30.9
38.6
yle="border-right: windowtext 1pt solid; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top: medium none; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-bottom: 0in; border-left: medium none; width: 1in; padding-top: 0in; border-bottom: windowtext 1pt solid; height: 12.5pt"> 12.6
Brazil
11
30.2
38.5
17.0
Finland
30
28.7
34.2
N/A**
Spain
12
27.9
33.4
9.1
Sweden
21
27.5
31.4
9.7
* Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs. ** Level of narrowband penetration extremely low, therefore an accurate reportable estimate is not available
Surprisingly, where people spend their time the most ends up being Microsoft Properties (which aren't broken down); I might ask myself if studies like this support the idea of just having more sites and services out there for people to go to.
But the numbers are not cumulative - and honestly, I don't understand why Microsoft comes up over Yahoo!, who has so many properties (websites and services…that you'd think they'd be number one).
Top 15 Online Properties Worldwide, Among Visitors Age 15+* / January 2007 / Total Worldwide – All Locations Source: comScore World Metrix
Unique Visitors
(000)
Worldwide Total
746,934
Microsoft Sites
510,320
Google Sites
502,464
Yahoo! Sites
467,832
Time Warner Network
262,413
eBay
248,854
Wikipedia Sites
189,003
Amazon Sites
149,817
Fox Interactive Media
139,821
CNET Networks
118,717
Apple Computer, Inc.
116,520
Ask Network
108,870
Adobe Sites
101,810
Lycos, Inc.
90,208
Viacom Digital
76,389
New York Times
Digital72,180
Excludes traffic from public computers such as internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.
