Briton Is Most Digitally Engaged Nation In Europe

Believe it or not, our country is a champion in terms of time spent online and we are more digitally engaged than any other European nation, according to an interesting snippet from a new study from ComScore.

According to ComScore’s research, titled 2013 UK Digital Future In Focus, Britons spent 37 hours on average on the Internet in December 2012, the highest of all of the 18 EU markets analysed. This is about 10 hours over the continent’s average of 26.9 hours. The UK is also the country leading the switch from PCs to tablets and smartphones for going online.

Almost a third of Internet usage is driven by the growing adoption of mobile devices, Mike Read, managing director for ComScore in the UK, commented. At present, two in three Britons have a smartphone or another Internet-enabled device that gives them the opportunity to access the web on the go, he added.

The number of Britons that surfed the web via a desktop computer went up by 5% year-on-year to 44.8 million in December. ComScore found that Google remained the top search engine, capturing 91% of the market, but also noticed a trend towards using unpopular search hubs such as Amazon and eBay for running product queries.

Facebook maintained its top position on the social media front, attracting the largest number of unique users in the last month of 2012. Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest and Goodreads are gaining speed as well, enjoying robust growth throughout the year on both PCs and mobile devices.

The report also highlighted once again the increasing popularity of e-commerce, with nine out of ten Internet users now shopping via their PCs and one in five buying products on their smartphones.