Some data on Internet user behaviour

The standard web data sheets dedicated to brand managers show the regular suspects: how many users, how many page views, how long were the user visits and so on; how many click-troughs if we are speaking of a banner campaign. But, as someone perhaps said, everything is relative; comparing the user base growth in the last three years period against itself or the Internet user growth (country speaking, worldwide speaking, on age base speaking, etc...) for instance, could bring to very contradictory conclusions. Nevertheless, the real unasked question is: how is my preferred user spending his time on Internet? not which sites is he visiting in order to plan and run an ad campaign but what is he doing on line all the time long.

We are speaking of hour(s)/day Internet usage against seconds/day corporate web site frequentation. With the development of unbundling media and social networking, the Internet
time per user will growth steady but the fraction dedicated to the corporate web sites visit will be still reduced.

On this subject, a very interesting survey, called Digital
Life Digital World, has been conducted by TNS. The authors say: “we try to capture how the internet fits into the lives of residents from sixteen countries across the world. How digital are their lives? How do they use the internet? Is a digital life the same as a social life or does a social life today require a complementary digital life? This study takes a comprehensive look at these issues and offers answers to these questions.” This survey shows some strong trends in Internet usage. According to the report “we spend a third of out leisure time using the internet”, and we are doing it because is fun and social; while people see internet as a medium for sending and receiving messagges, between the first five activities people are doing online, three “are related to information gathering (looking up news and weather, and using search engine to find information)”. Social media and social networking have a central role in internet life of users. The importance of this role will increase in the future following the actual trend.