Nielsen: Americans Spend Nearly a Quarter of Their Online Time on Social Networking Sites; Online Gaming Overtakes Email

Americans spend nearly a quarter of their time online on social networking sites and blogs, up from 15.8 percent just a year ago (43 percent increase) according to new research released today from The Nielsen Company. The research, entitled What Americans Do Online, revealed that Americans spend a third their online time (36 percent) communicating and networking across social networks, blogs, personal email and instant messaging. 

Additional findings include:

·         Online games overtook personal email to become the second most heavily used activity behind social networks - accounting for 10 percent of all US Internet time. Email dropped from 11.5 percent of time to 8.3 percent.

·         Of the most heavily-used sectors, videos/movies was the only other to experience a significant growth in share of US activity online. Its share of activity grew relatively by 12 percent from 3.5 to 3.9 percent.  June 2010 was a major milestone for US online video as the number of videos streamed passed the 10 billion mark. The average American consumer streaming online video spent 3 hours 15 minutes doing so during the month.

·         Despite some predictions otherwise, the rise of social networking hasn't pushed email and instant messaging into obscurity just yet. Although both saw double-digit declines in share of time, email remains as the third heaviest activity online (8.3 percent share of time) while instant messaging is fifth, accounting for four percent of Americans online time.

·         Although the major portals also experienced a double digit decline in share, they remained as the fourth heaviest activity, accounting for 4.4 percent of US time online.

"Despite the almost unlimited nature of what you can do on the web, 40 percent of US online time is spent on just three activities - social networking, playing games and emailing leaving a whole lot of other sectors fighting for a declining share of the online pie," said Nielsen analyst Dave Martin.

Email Remains Top on Mobile Internet Activities

The way US consumers spend their Internet time on their mobile phones paints a slightly different picture to that of Internet use from computers. In a Nielsen survey of mobile web users, there is a double-digit (28 percent) rise in the prevalence of social networking behavior, but the dominance of email activity on mobile devices continue with an increase from 37.4 percent to 41.6 percent of US mobile Internet time.

Portals remain as the second heaviest activity on mobile Internet (11.6 percent share of time), despite their double digit decline and social networking's rise to account for 10.5 percent share means the gap is much smaller than a year ago (14.3 percent vs. 8.3 percent).

Other mobile Internet activities seeing significant growth include music and video/movies, both seeing 20 percent plus increases in share of activity year over year. As these destinations gain share, it's at the cost of other content consumption - both news/current events and sports destinations saw more than a 20 percent drop in share of US mobile Internet time.

"Although we see similar characteristics amongst pc and mobile internet use, the way their activity is allocated is still pretty contrasting, added Martin.  While convergence will continue, the unique characteristics of computers and mobiles, both in their features and when and where they are used mean that mobile Internet behavior mirroring its PC counterpart is still some way off."

Charts (below and attached)

Methodology

‘All' Internet figures are for June 2010/June 2009 and refer to Internet activity on PCs and laptops from home and work locations only. The figures come from the measured/metered behavior of Nielsen's panel of PC/laptop users.

Mobile Internet figures are for May 2010/May 2009 and refer to Internet activity on mobile phones only. The figures come from the self-reported behavior of Nielsen's panel of mobile phone users.

About The Nielsen Company

The Nielsen Company is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence, mobile measurement, trade shows and related assets. The privately held company is active in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA. For more information, please visit, www.nielsen.com.