According to a new research carried out by the UK Online Measurement company (UKOM) British web users are spending 65% more time online in comparison to statistics taken 3 years ago. The majority of this time is being spent on social networks or blogs, these accounts for nearly a quarter of users’ time online.
According to UKOM the average internet surfer spends 22 hours and 15 minutes online every month. One of the main victims of this boom in social networking has been instant messaging (IM). Three years ago 14% of online time was spent using instant messaging, however this year it has dropped substantially to 5%.
Email, however that was also predicted to suffer as more and more people are using Facebook and its competitors, is still doing well and accounts for 7.2% of time, and increase on the 6.5% three years ago.
It is clear to see that networking, communication and playing games remain the most popular activities that are carried out online.
Alex Burnmaster, a spokesman for UKOM explained, “These are the pillars on which the internet is built.”
Classified advertising and auctions are creeping up too, accounting for 4.7% of online time. And Online News has almost doubled with it accounting for 2.8% compared to 1.5% three years ago.
The table below outlines 2010’s findings:
Activity Percentage
Social networks/blogs 22.7%
E-mail 7.2%
Games 6.9%
Instant Messaging 4.9%
Classified/Auctions 4.7%
Portals 4%
Search 4%
Software info/products 3.4%
News 2.8%
Adult 2.7%
Source: UKOM
