France

The sixth edition of the "Mediascope Europe" report by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA) noted that Internet users in France are more likely than other Europeans to be online every day. Two-thirds (67%) of respondents in France told the EIAA that they used the Web daily, compared with the European average of 55%. Moreover, 29% of internet users in the country said they were online more than 16 hours each week.

A recent online poll by TNS Global also pointed out the vital role the Web now plays in French life. TNS quizzed more than 27,500 adults ages 18 to 55, in 16 countries, for its "Digital World, Digital Life" report. Nine countries in Europe (including France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the UK) and several in Asia (China, Japan, South Korea) were surveyed, along with the US, Australia and Canada. Internet users in France spent 28% of their leisure time online, according to the study-the same proportion as in the UK and Canada. The US posted a slightly higher average (30%), while Web users in China took the trophy, with an astonishing 44% of leisure time going to the Internet.

A degree of Internet dependence is also taking hold in France, said TNS. Survey respondents were asked to rate, on a scale from 1 to 10, how much it would affect their personal lives if their Web access failed. The average impact score in France was 6.9-the highest registered in any European country.

After a relatively slow start, the French e-commerce market is taking off in a big way too. In 2008, Germany posted the highest proportion of online buyers in Europe, with 73%, but TNS found that France was above the average, with 58% of respondents buying goods or services online. (eMarketer, February 2009)

Search Engine and Searches

9 out of 10 visits to websites initiated from search engines came from Google (90.6%) in March 2010 in France, according to Médiamétrie-eStat. Bing arrived in 2^nd position, accounting for 3.3% of visits ; followed by Yahoo! (1.6%) and Orange (1.1%).

In the last 6 months (since September 2009), Bing has enjoyed the most increase, winning 0.8% of market share.  (Classement CybereStat - March 2010 - Médiamétrie-eStat, April 2010)

29 million internet users in France conducted searches on search engines in February 2010, according to Médiamétrie. They conducted on average 76 searches each. (Médiamétrie, March 2010)

Google France was the most visited website in France during the week ending 30/01/10, picking up 10.38% of all French internet visits - equivalent to 1 in every 10, according to Hitwise. Two other Google-owned properties also appeared in the list of the 10 most visited websites in France during the same week: YouTube at number 4 and Google.com at number 7.

Top 10 websites in France, ranked by market share of French internet visits, week ending 30/01/10:
1. Google France (10.38%)
2. Facebook (6.83%)
3. Windows Live Mail (3.20%)
4. YouTube (2.37%)
5. Orange France Webmail (1.96%)
6. Orange France (1.88%)
7. Google (1.73%)
8. Sykrock (1.43%)
9. Leboncoin.fr (1.26%)
10. MSN France (1.01%)

Facebook is the second most visited website in France, accounting for 6.83% of all French Internet visits during the week ending 30/01/10. The site accounted for just under half of all French visits to social networks over the same period, picking up over twice as many visits as second placed YouTube.

Search Engines are the most visited category of website in France, accounting for 14.27% of all French internet visits during the week ending 30/01/10. Social networks and Forums rank second, picking up 12.85% of French internet visits - more than the 10.61% the industry accounts for in the UK. Shopping and Classifieds websites, on the other hand, account for a higher percentage of Internet visits in the UK (8.74%) than in France (8.44%).

France and the UK have very similar sized internet populations, so it is interesting to compare the different ways in which the web is used in the two countries. In France, more online time is spent on communication and entertainment than in the UK, with Entertainment websites and Webmail services also picking up a higher proportion of visits. On the other hand, people in the UK are more likely to use the internet to make transactions and look for information. News and Media, Sports, Travel, and Education websites all account for a higher proportion of Internet visits in the UK than in France. (Hitwise United Kingdom Newsletter - February 2010) 

35% of French internet users claim to have viewed a video online in the last 30 days, according to Ipsos Profiling 2009. This activity is among the top 10 online activities in the country. Users viewing online videos are more likely to be young (36% are under 25, vs 23% of total internet users in the country) and to go online more often than the average (63% go online several time a day, vs 52%). (Ipsos, October 2009)

27.1 million French internet users viewed a video online in January 2009, up 16% versus the previous year, according to comScore.

Driven by the popularity of YouTube.com (which accounted for 97% of all videos viewed), Google Sites grew 25% versus a year ago to further solidify its position as the leading online video viewing property in France, attracting 15.2  million viewers in January 2009. French video site Dailymotion.com ranked second with 11.5 million viewers, up 14% versus year ago, followed by Microsoft Sites (5 million viewers), Groupe TF1 (4.8 million viewers) and Orange Sites (4.4 million viewers). Each of the top ten online video properties achieved positive growth during the past year, with four out of ten more than doubling their video-viewing audience.

Top French online video properties ranked by total unique viewers, January 2009 (Total France - age 15+, home & work locations):
- Total internet: total audience: 27,074,000 (+ 16% compared to January 2008)
- Google Sites: 15,166,000 (+25%)
- Dailymotion.com: 11,478,000 (+14%)
- Microsoft Sites: 4,972,000 (+19%)
- Groupe TF1: 4,795,000 (+13%)
- Orange Sites: 4,370,000 (+204%)
- France Televisions Interactive : 3,378,000 (+228%)
- AOL LLC : 3,320,000 (+105%)
- AlloCine Sites : 2,680,000 (+18%)
- Kewego : 2,591,000 (+24%)
- Megavideo.com: 2,362,000 (+213%) 

The 27.1 million online video viewers in France watched a total of 2.5 billion videos in January, an average of 92.9 videos per viewer, or approximately three videos per day.  Google Sites led the pack with 31% of all videos viewed, followed by Dailymotion.com (9.8%) Megavideo.com (2.8%) and AOL LLC (2.7%).

Other notable findings from January 2009 include:
- 78.4% of the total French Internet audience viewed online video.
- The total French online video viewing audience watched a combined 180 million hours of video content.
- 14.9 million viewers watched 756 million videos on YouTube.com (51 videos per viewer).
- The average online video duration was 4.3 minutes.
- Based on a three-month average ending January 2009, 3.9 million mobile phone subscribers, of which 39% were younger than 25 years of age, used their phone to watch any kind of TV or video in France.
(comScore, March 2009)