Ofcom Communications Market Report Released

Ofcom releases its 7th Communications Report

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/market-data-research/market-data/communications-market-reports/cmr10/internet-web/

Some interesting facts about the use of technology:

Broadband take-up has now reached 71 per cent.
Some 37 per cent of over 55s use email each day and 47 per cent use it weekly.
Social networking accounts for nearly a quarter of all time spent on the internet.
The average Facebook user spent 6.5 hours on the site during May 2010.
Usage of instant messaging declined from 14 per cent to 5 per cent.

UK
Industry metrics and summary

Social networking

Over 60% of 15-34 year olds access social networking sites on the internet at home
Facebook makes the largest contribution to the growing popularity of social networking
Social networking now accounts for a quarter of all time spent online
Facebook users spend more time social networking than users of other sites
A fifth of 16-24s time spent social networking is on mobile devices
Online and web-based advertising
Online advertising expenditure continued to grow through the economic downturn
Paid-for search now accounts for 6 of every 10 of online ad spend
Mobile advertising shows signs of growth...
...although revenues remain small

Internet take-up, by platform

Two-thirds of households with fixed connections use a WiFi network
Consumers are accessing the internet across more and more devices
Nearly a quarter of adults use their mobile phones to access data services
but some are not confident in using the web on their mobile
The demographics of internet access
Younger people are more likely to use the internet for leisure pursuits while older internet users tend to focus on functional activities
Nearly nine in ten internet users feel confident online
Internet audiences are highest around the Christmas period
The online audience is maturing as internet take-up among older people rises faster than among other age groups
Younger people make up a greater proportion of female internet users than of male internet users
The active online universe shows a skew towards ABC1 users
Internet users in Lancashire spend the most time using an internet-enabled computer

Internet use and consumption

Users aged 55+ are much more likely to use the internet for only a few activities
Consumers are increasingly using the internet to shop and save money
Online media content: playing games online is now as popular as downloading music and video
Search and communities is the most popular category of website
Google, Microsoft and Facebook are the most popular internet brands
The same top ten sites are popular across all age groups, differing only in order
Windows Live Messenger is the most popular internet application
Googles image search saw its reach grow by a third over the past year
Facebook is the most popular search term on Google
Consumers hold a range of views on the accuracy and impartiality of search engine results and some are indifferent

Mobile internet use

Facebook accounts for 45% of total time spent using the mobile internet
User-generated content
Apart from photo sharing and social networking, most internet users have little interest in UGC
User-generated content activities by age
Audiences for many user-generated content sites continue to grow
UGC sites
Concerns about the internet
Internet users are more likely than non-users to have concerns about the internet