Nielsen study: Social media and games, main activities online for americans
According to a recently published Nielsen study, Americans spend 25% of their online time on social networking sites and blogs, up from 15.8% a year ago. The study showed that they spend a third their online time (36 percent) communicating and networking across social networks, blogs, personal email and instant messaging.
| Top 10 Sectors by Share of U.S. Internet Time | ||||
| RANK | Category | Share of Time June 2010 |
Share of Time June 2009 |
% Change in Share of Time |
| 1 | Social Networks | 22.7% | 15.8% | 43% |
| 2 | Online Games | 10.2% | 9.3% | 10% |
| 3 | 8.3% | 11.5% | -28% | |
| 4 | Portals | 4.4% | 5.5% | -19% |
| 5 | Instant Messaging | 4.0% | 4.7% | -15% |
| 6 | Videos/Movies | 3.9% | 3.5% | 12% |
| 7 | Search | 3.5% | 3.4% | 1% |
| 8 | Software Manufacturers | 3.3% | 3.3% | 0% |
| 9 | Multi-category Entertainment | 2.8% | 3.0% | -7% |
| 10 | Classifieds/Auctions | 2.7% | 2.7% | -2% |
| Other | 34.3% | 37.3% | -8% | |
| Source: The Nielsen Company | ||||
From an entire hour, the Americans spend 13’36’’ on social networks and blogs, 6’6’’ playing games, 5’ taking care of their e-mails, 2’36’’ visiting portals, 2’24’’ using instant messenger services, 2’18’’ watching videos or movies, 2’6’ searching, 2’ getting software information, 1’42’’ accesing multi-category entertainment, 1’36’’ consulting classifieds or auctions and 20’36’’ doing other online activities.
In millions of hours, Americans spend 906 hours on social networks / blogs, 407 hours playing games, 329 hours writing and reading e-mails, 176 hours accessing portals, 160 hours using instant messaging services, 156 hrs watching movies / videos, 138 hrs searching, 131 hrs looking for software info, 111 hrs accesing multi-category entertainment, 107 hrs on classifieds and auctions.
According to the study, online games overtook personal email and become the second most heavily used activity behind social networks – accounting for 10 percent of all U.S. Internet time. On the other hand, emails usage dropped with 3%, from 11.5% to 8.3%.
Of the most heavily-used sectors, videos/movies was the only other to experience a significant growth in share of U.S. activity online. June 2010 was a major milestone for U.S. 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.
The way U.S. consumers spend their Internet time on their mobile phones paints a slightly different picture to that of Internet use from computers, the Nielsen survey of mobile web users registering a double-digit (28 percent) rise in the prevalence of social networking behavior.