UK Digital Market Overview April 2014

Your monthly snapshot of digital audience trends

Here is a brief summary of some of the key topics covered in this report:

Overall audiences across all platforms were relatively static in terms of month-on-month performance with 48.1m people accessing the Internet.

• Across all platforms, only Google, Amazon and Facebook maintained top 5 positions.
• In Mobile, eBay and Wikimedia Sites attained their highest positions on any platform, and Sky made their only top 10 appearance, suggesting that consumer behaviour responds to the convenience provided by apps.

February’s audience group in profile were adults 18-24 and revealed a wide and perhaps not obvious selection of interests.

• At the younger end of the age band, we found the more predictable topics as users planned for their next steps led by Education, including such destinations as TheStudentRoom, UCAS and AQA (education charity).
• Career and Development sites also scored highly, with Indeed and Stepstone being the top two entities, perhaps reflecting the users in the older end of the age band who are seeking a fresh challenge still relatively new into the year.
• The data reflected that even within a tight age band there is great diversity and by probing a little deeper a more effective route to communicate with the group may be revealed.

In terms of audience behaviour online, the multi-platform view is confirming what many suspected. Tablets were one of the top gifts over the Christmas period, and the increase in ownership volume is now becoming apparent in terms of how users access the Internet.

• eBay (+32%), Apple (+23%) and BBC (+18%) experienced double-digit month-on-month growth in audiences accessing from Mobile/Tablet only.
• In one sector, Online Travel Agents, we found further evidence of the shifting consumer access pattern, whilst the Total Digital Population increased 2.6% in the six months to February, Mobile/Tablet only access increased 10% (against PC-only access remaining static at -0.3%).

Vevo maintained their number one position in video, with only Warner vfp being new to the top 10 replacing Rumblefish