Surprising Internet Usage Statistics
- According to comScore Media Matrix, 19.2
million Internet users from home and 7.9 million Internet users from work
went online to personals sites in December 2002, with the at-work users
accounting for 35% of the time spent on such sites (Source: eMarketer).
- According to an Arbitron report, 74% of
online radio listening occurs between 5am and 5pm weekdays, while only 14%
occurs on the weekend (Source: Streaming
Media World).
- U.S. businesses spent $2.6 billion to clean
up the Code Red virus alone (Source: Computerworld).
- In a study commissioned by the FBI, 78% of
surveyed companies reported that employees had abused Internet privileges,
such as downloading pornography or pirated software (Source: Computerworld).
- More than 72 percent of Internet users do
more than just surf the Web. Popular Internet activities include instant
messaging, downloading music, and watching video clips (Source: Nielsen//NetRatings).
- A report by the National Research Council
estimates that there are between 2 million and 8 million subscribers to
pornography Web sites, and that they paid between $40 and $100 for a year,
for a total of approximately $800 million in 2002 (Source: CBS
MarketWatch).
- A survey conducted on behalf of start-up Open
Orchard, funded by British Telecom, found that Internet misuse is costing
Britain's small businesses almost £1.5 billion per year (Source: BBC
News).
- According to data from OneStat.com,
15.34 percent of worldwide Internet traffic occurs on Monday, making Monday
the most popular day to go online. Saturday and Sunday account for the least
amount of Internet traffic (Source: NUA
Internet Surveys).
- Jupiter Media Metrix estimates that online
pornography revenues in the US will grow from $230 million in 2001 to $400
million by 2006 (Source: eMarketer).
- By 2006, Jupiter Media Metrix predicts that
revenues from online music, games and audio-visual entertainment will far
outweigh revenue from online porn (Source: eMarketer).
- According to digital ad and media agency
Avenue A, at-work Internet users spend 46% more time (or 1.4 more hours per
day) viewing online media than watching TV (Source: AdAge.com).
- A new survey from the Benchmark Group found
that 23 percent of French employees use the Internet at work for more than
an hour per day for personal reasons (NUA
Internet Surveys).
- A survey of 212 companies by the law firm
KLegal and Personnel Magazine found that email and Internet abuse top the
list of causes for disciplinary action in the UK (NUA
Internet Surveys).
- The research group Datamonitor
forecasts that the online gaming market will grow from $670 million in 2002
to $2.9 billion in 2005. While the largest market for online gaming is
currently South Korea, the United States will bring in the most online
gaming revenue by 2005 (NUA
Internet Surveys).
- According to a study by the Consumer
Electronics Association (CEA), 22% of US consumers shop online from work in
2002, compared with only 12% in 1999. A quarter of those who shop online at
the office claim they do so because of the faster connection speed (Source: eMarketer).
- A study conducted by the Department for Trade
and Industry's annual Information Security Breaches showed that 48% of large
companies blame their worst security incident on employees. By contrast, the
2001 edition of the survey showed that 75% of those questioned named
external hackers and criminals as the biggest threat to security (Source: BBC
News).
- According to Jupiter
Media Metrix, approximately 40.6 million people in the United States, 36
percent of all Internet users, visited an adult content site in February,
2002. This is greater than the total visitors to an online auction site in
the same period (as reported in Yahoo
Finance).
- The number of Internet sessions per month,
page views per month, and time spent per month all increased by 14% during
2001 (Nielsen//NetRatings
Year in Review Report 2001).
- There were a total of 22 million unique users
of streaming media in the workplace in October and November 2001, up by
11.3% over the previous year (Nielsen//NetRatings
Year in Review Report 2001).
- According to Nielsen//NetRatings,
the most addictive Web categories among home and work users are Finance
& Investment, News & Information, Family & Lifestyles, Search
Engines/Portals & Communities, and Travel, with Finance sites being the
"stickiest." The Finance sites that keep visitors the longest are
online trading and banking sites. In January 2002 alone, these financial
sites were visited by 51.6 million unique individuals (44 percent of the
active Web population) for an average of 21 minutes per visit.
- As of January 2002, approximately 55 million
American adults go online from work, up from 43 million in March 2000.
Fifty-five percent of those with Internet access at work went online on a
typical day in 2001, compared to 50% in 2000, and many were going online
more frequently throughout the day than they had in 2001 (Pew
Internet & American Life).
- Americans are spending more time surfing at
work and less time surfing at home. In a typical day in 2001, 54% of adults
went online only from home, down from 59% in 2000. But the percentage who go
online only from work increased in the same time period from 18% to 21% (Pew
Internet & American Life).
- A research report published by the Informa
Media Group estimates that worldwide revenue from e-gambling will climb
to $14.5 billion by 2006 (eMarketer).
- A study by the Online
Publishing Association found that at-work Internet users spend more time
per day on the Internet than watching TV (34% vs. 30%).
- In 2001, 60.7% of employees surveyed said
they visit Web sites or surf for personal use at work (up from 50.7% in
2000) (UCLA
study on Internet/E-Mail use).
- The number one reason employees give for the
Internet causing them to be being less productive at work is the time they
spend surfing sites that are unrelated to work. (UCLA
study on Internet/E-Mail use).
- Thirty-two percent of those who bought
holiday gifts online in 2001 did at least some of their holiday shopping
from work, up from 26% in 2000 (Pew
Internet & American Life).
- According to a recent Jupiter
Media Metrix report, the at-work usage of standalone media players in
the US increased by 34.9% between January 2000 and January 2001, from 11.6
million to 15.7 million users.
- The No. 1 search term used at search engine
sites is the word "sex," according to Alexa
Research. Users searched for "sex" more than other terms such
as "games," "travel," "music,"
"jokes," "cars," "weather," "health"
and "jobs" combined. The study also found that
"pornography/porno" was the fourth-most searched for subject.
- Secret monitoring by the U.S. Treasury
Department of Internet use among Internal Revenue Service employees found
that activities such as personal e-mail, online chats, shopping and checking
personal finances and stocks accounted for 51 percent of employees' time
spent online. The top non-work Web activity favored by IRS employees was
going to financial sites. Chat and email ran a close second, followed by
miscellaneous activities (which included visiting adult sites), search
requests, and looking at or downloading streaming media (reported in the Chicago
Tribune and Business 2.0).
- IWon was the domain most visited by at-work
surfers, with an average of about 16 visits per at-work surfer per month,
according to Nielsen//NetRatings data for January 2001. Surfers at this
sweepstakes/portal, on average, looked at 210 pages and spent more than an
hour and 40 minutes at the site during the month (reported in Business
2.0).
- Users of online auctioneer eBay Inc. at work
spent 157 minutes at the site in January compared with 126 minutes while at
home. Long a favorite among at-work surfers, eBay ranked 7th among the
most-visited sites for at-work surfers. However, eBay ranks first in terms
of average pages per person and time spent per month, at almost 300 pages
and two hours per person. (Nielsen//NetRatings,
as reported by Reuters and Business
2.0).
- Napster music swapping software was found on
about 20% of over 15,000 work PCs examined (eMarketer.com)
- Internet streaming media is beginning to
gush, and the market for servers capable of delivering video and audio will
likely double between now and 2005, according to a study by the Cahners
In-Stat group. (eMarketer.com)
- 28% of those who made gift purchases did so
from their offices or cubicles (Pew
Internet & American Life Project).
- 32% of those who have Internet access at work
used the Internet while on the job to buy holiday gifts, while only 24% of
Internet users as a whole purchased gifts online. This suggests that people
are taking advantage of fast connections at work (Pew
Internet & American Life Project).
- Workers spend an average of 21 hours online
at the office vs. an average of 9.5 hours at home (Nielsen/Net
Ratings).
- 70% of all Internet porn traffic occurs
during the 9-to-5 workday (SexTracker).
- Employees earning $75,000 to $100,000
annually are twice as likely to download pornography at work than those
earning less than $35,000 (eMarketer.com)
- 32.6% of workers have no specific objective
when they surf the Internet (eMarketer.com).
- One in five men and one in eight women
admitted using their work computers as their primary lifeline to access
sexual explicit material online (MSNBC).
- 78% of Canadians with Internet access at work
have used the Internet for personal reasons, and personal usage accounts for
26% of web surfing time at work (Source: Angus
Reid)
- At-work use of the Internet closely matches
home use. Of those who use the Internet both at work and at home, 45% say
they send personal e-mail more often at work than at home, 33% say they read
the daily news more often at work than at home, 31% gather local information
more often at work than at home, 31% investigate travel arrangements more
often at work than at home, 24% visit sites related to hobbies more often at
work than at home, and 24% participate in contests and sweepstakes more
often at work than at home (Jupiter
Communications).
- Popular sites that are not always
work-related attract many visitors during the work hours. Expedia.com gets
47% of its traffic during the workday, while Travelocity, MSNBC, iWon, and
Weather.com reported receiving 46%, 42%, 42%, and 41% of their total visits
during working hours (Jupiter
Communications).
- In a survey of Internet sites, the majority
reported that traffic to their site is heaviest during work hours. 14%
reported that traffic was highest from 7am to 10am, 24% stated it was
highest from 10 am to 2pm, 24% from 2pm to 5 pm, 20% from 5pm to 8pm, and
18% from 8pm to 7am (Jupiter
Communications).
- The top pay-to-surf site, MyPoints.com,
receives 37% of their traffic during the work day (Jupiter
Communications).
- U.S. Internet users at work spend over twice
as much time online as home surfers even though they make up less than half
the cyber population, according to new data. (Nielsen//NetRatings,
as reported by Reuters).
- News sites reached 35.5 percent more users at
work than at home and work users also spent 68 percent longer online. (Nielsen//NetRatings,
as reported by Reuters).
- Finance sites reached over 30 percent more
work users who spent nearly double the amount of time -- an average of 33
minutes per month -- online than home users. (Nielsen//NetRatings,
as reported by Reuters).
- The work user will keep closer tabs on the
markets throughout the day while they're open. (Nielsen//NetRatings,
as reported by Reuters).
- 36% more users at work surfed news and
information sites than at home, spending 68% more time on them (Nielsen//Net
Ratings).
- 31% more users at work surfed finance sites
than at home, spending 102% more time on these sites (Nielsen//Net
Ratings).
- Shopping sites reached 18% more Internet
users within the workplace than at home (Nielsen//Net
Ratings).
- CNNfn had four times the reach in the
workplace than its reach to home users (Nielsen//Net
Ratings).
- Work users went online on average 41 times a
day, compared to 18 times a day among home users (Nielsen//Net
Ratings).
- Web users at the office take advantage of
high-speed connections to access broadband entertainment sites such as
Broadcast.com and MP3 more frequently than at home (Nielsen//Net
Ratings).
- Surfers access news, information and finance
sites much more frequently during the workday than at night so that they can
keep up with breaking news or the markets (Nielsen//Net
Ratings).
- Online shopping is dominated by Amazon.com
and eBay both at home and at the office. Only 5.7 million workers visit eBay,
compared with 21.5 million for the most-visited site, Yahoo. But eBay
visitors stay at the auction site the longest, almost three hours (Nielsen//Net
Ratings).
- During work hours: 9% of employees earning
under $35K surf the Net for a new job, while 11% of workers earning $75K to
$100K do the same (Greenfield
Online).
- Charles Schwab reveals that 72% of its
customers plan to buy or sell mutual funds over the next six months, and 92%
plan to do so online during work hours.
- 82% of U.S. business executives surveyed by
the consulting firm Dataquest (a division of the Gartner Group) believe
Internet use should be monitored at their companies (InformationWeek
Online).
- 31.2% of employees feel it is appropriate to
surf non-work-related sites up to 30 minutes a day, 14.8% said up to 1 hour
is appropriate, and 9% said over an hour, while only 26.6% of employers feel
it is appropriate for employees to surf non-work-related sites up to 30
minutes, 8.6% said up to 1 hour, and 4.2% said over an hour (Vault.com
survey).
- 37.1% of employees said they surf the Web
constantly at work, 31.9% said a few times a day, 21.3% said a few times a
week, and only 9.7% said never (Vault.com
survey).
- 28.83% said that their employer had caught
them surfing non-work-related sites, although 54% of employers said that
they have caught an employee surfing non-work-related sites at work (Vault.com
survey).
- 24.3% of employees said they take
precautionary measures to avoid detection (Vault.com
survey).
- 56.5% of employees feel that surfing the Net
or sending non-work-related e-mails decreases productivity, and 31% of
employers said that they restrict employee Internet/e-mail usage (Vault.com
survey).
- The cost to businesses from Internet
broadcasts of the October 1998 Starr report was in excess of $450 million (ZDNet).
- More than half of all requests on search
engines are "adult-oriented" (United Adult Sites).
- The top 3 word searches on the Internet: 1)
sex; 2) mp3; 3) hotmail (Wordtracker.com).
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