Sweden

There were 8,397,900 internet users in Sweden (representing 92.4% of the population) in June 2011, according to Internet World Stats. (Internet World Stats, August 2011)

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Of Europe's 372 million unique visitors, Sweden accounted for 6.2 million unique visitors during August 2011, according to comScore. Users in Sweden spent an average of 24.0 hours online in the past month, consuming 2,406 pages online. (comScore, October 2011)

 

UGC and Social Media

Over 90% of all young people between ages 16 and 24 in Sweden take part in social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter, according to Statistics Sweden. Young men and women take part to nearly the same extent, 93% of the women and 95% of the men.

The percentage of those who take part in social network sites decreases relatively with increasing age.  In most of the age groups, women take part to a greater degree than men.  The difference is largest in the 45-54 age group, where 52% of the women take part in social network sites, while only 30% of the men do so. In the oldest age group of 65-74, 14% take part. Only a slightly higher percentage of women take part than men do in this age group.

Regarding professional network sites such as LinkedIn, a higher percentage of men than women take part. 10% of all people aged 16-74 take part in professional networks. 7% of the women and 14% of the men take part. (Statistics Sweden, October 2011)

 

eCommerce

Roughly 6 out of 10 Swedes ordered goods or services over the Internet from Swedish suppliers during the period April 2010-March 2011, according to Statistics Sweden. Women and men buy from Swedish suppliers to the same extent, but it is more common for men to shop online outside of Sweden.

In total, 21% of the men ordered goods or services from suppliers in other EU countries, and 14% ordered from suppliers outside of the EU. Among women the corresponding figures were 11 and 6% respectively. (Statistics Sweden, October 2011) 

Online travel market

Travel planning

@Sweden hands over the official Swedish Twitter account to one of its citizens for a week. The social public engagement project, called Curators of Sweden, was devised by the Swedish Institute and VisitSweden, both part of NSU, the National Board for the promotion of Sweden.

Thomas Brühl, CEO of the country's tourism agency VisitSweden who has been updating the account since January 2009 believes that no one owns the brand of Sweden more than its people. With this initiative VisitSweden lets them show their Sweden to the world.

The core vision of the project, of course, is to promote Sweden and engage the world in a contemporary view of its people. The site explains that in an age of mass communication and increasing globalization, a country depends largely on how it is perceived abroad...Sweden's development and future prosperity depend on strong relations with the outside world and a more active exchange with other countries in many areas. Using Twitter, the expectation is that the curators will paint a picture of Sweden, different to that usually obtained through traditional media.

The discussion generated made @Sweden one of the top trending tweet streams with thousands of comments and a 50% increase in followers in two days. (brandchannel, December 2011)

Travel booking

Of people aged 16-74 in Sweden, 25% bought or ordered holiday accommodation and 33% bought or ordered other travel arrangements (transport tickets, car rentals) over the internet during the period April 2009 - March 2010. (Statistics Sweden, October 2010)

 

The percentage of Swedes having mobile broadband connections at home has increased sharply over the last two years. In 2008 every tenth person had access to mobile broadband in the home, while in 2010 more than every fourth person had access.

The most common form of internet connection in Swedish homes is still via fixed broadband connection through the telephone network,  DSL. However, DSL connections are decreasing and instead, connections via 3G or 4G as well as fixed connections via cable TV and fibre are increasing.

About half of Swedish individuals aged 16 - 74 have DSL as connection form to the internet in the home.  Roughly one fourth have connections via 3G/4G and nearly one third via other fast connections such as cable TV or fibre.

Since 2005 DSL has been the most common connection form in Swedish homes and the proportion was increasing steadily up until 2009. 2010 is the first year that the proportion with DSL connections is decreasing. (Statistics Sweden, January 2011)