UKOM Unveils First Figures on Britons’ Online Activities

The UK Online Measurement Company (UKOM) published its first detailed figures on UK Internet users’ online behavior on May 19, 2010. The data relates to usage in April.

UKOM, launched earlier this year, was set up to deliver a common currency of information about Internet audiences in the UK, comparable to offline metrics such as the TV audience figures from the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB). This will enable marketers and media planners to assess more clearly the targeted reach and frequency achieved by digital ads, and should help preserve the positive momentum of online ad spending in the UK—up 5.7% in 2009, according to the Advertising Association and the World Advertising Research Center.

The scheme has had overwhelming buy-in from agencies, publishers and other industry firms, according to UKOM, although its software product and user interface will not be finalized until the second half of this year.

The first raft of UKOM results indicated that UK Web users spent 884 million hours online in April 2010—65% more than in April 2007. Almost 23% of that time was apparently spent on social networks and blogs, with the number of hours rising from 40 million to 176 million in three years.

The next most popular categories after social networks and blogs were personal e-mail (56 million hours in April 2010) and online games (53 million hours).

Portals, often thought to be in permanent decline, put in a surprisingly good showing; UKOM found that UK Web users spent 31 million hours on sites such as Yahoo! and MSN in April 2010.