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Usage Patterns
| Total Online Population (000's) in 2009 | 25,086 |
| Percentage of Population Online in 2009 | 74.9% |
Demographics
There were 25,086,000 internet users in Switzerland (representing 74.9% of the population) in December 2009, according to Internet World Stats. This was up by 97.5% compared to 2000. (Internet World Stats, April 2010)
In Canada, almost 70% of the population is online in 2009 (a higher percentage than in the US), according to a survey by Microsoft Canada and OTX Research, carried out in June and July 2009. The country also boasts some of the world's most active internet users, who spent 42 hours and more online in one month alone. The survey aimed to monitor changes in Canadians' attitudes and actions online since the first "Context Matters" study, commissioned by Microsoft in 2007. The results revealed a complex behavioural picture. According to the survey, every device, from desktop PC to MP3 player, was used at some point to go online.
People are connecting via the internet using more devices than we would automatically assume, according to Microsoft Canada. For example, netbooks are really allowing people ‘Internet everywhere,' beyond what the laptop offered. Game consoles are also providing online access, which opens up another interesting perspective. Yet each type of device was used even more often for non-internet activities. Communication (both online and offline) played a big role in the activity logs for most devices. But respondents also used the Web for other, noncommunication purposes, such as research or playing games.
Internet users in Canada using selected consumer electronic devices to use the internet, June-July 2009 (% of time spent with device):
- Desktop PC: 25% (use the internet for non-communication) / 15% (communicate via the internet)
- Laptop: 23% / 14%
- Netbook: 31% / 13%
- Smartphone: 4% / 7%
- Mobile phone: 2% / 2%
- MP3/MP4 player: 5% / 4%
- Video game console: 20% / 1%
- Video game handheld console: 32% / 4%
The survey also reported some significant shifts in Canadians' motivations for using the Web.
As in 2007, communication was the main reason for going online, cited by 51% of all respondents. But this motivation was stronger among women than men-a trend also noted consistently by researchers in the US. Moreover, the number of women who mentioned communication as a key driver of Web use had risen 8% since 2007 (among men, the increase was just 1%). Even greater gains were evident in the 16-to-24 age group, where the number going online to communicate had risen 14% in two years.
Entertainment was a much bigger motivating factor in 2009 than in 2007. Web users ages 16 to 24 were a bellwether here too; 29% of respondents in this group said they went online to be entertained-up almost one-quarter since 2007.
E-commerce fell marginally as a reason to go online, probably because the recession has squeezed consumer budgets. Content creation also dropped slightly in popularity. This is somewhat surprising, given the explosion in social networking and widespread press coverage of user-generated content, but more plausible when we consider that this research was conducted in June and July-the best months to enjoy outdoor activities in most regions of Canada.
But the biggest shift was in the status of information as a reason to access the Internet. Except in the 25-to-34 age group, survey respondents said they were now less likely than in 2007 to go online to inform themselves. (eMarketer, November 2009)
The weekly internet usage of online Canadians has moved ahead of the number of hours spent watching television, according to the latest Inter@ctive Reid Report by Ipsos Reid that tracks online Canadians usage of the internet. This is a first since the start of their tracking research.
Overall, online Canadians are now spending more than 18 hours a week online, compared to 16.9 hours watching television. Internet usage is up from 14.9 hours last year. The number of hours watching television also experienced an increase in the last year, rising from 15.8 hours. Other media, such as newspapers, radio and magazines have all remained relatively stable in the last year.
Interestingly, males are spending significantly more time online than females (20 hours compared to 16). Also of interest is the minimal gap between age groups - on average, 18-34 year olds are spending 20 hours a week online, compared to 18 hours for those over the age of 35. (Ipsos, March 2010)
More than 69% of the population is online in Canada in 2009, according to eMarketer. This compares with less than 65% in the US.
Internet users and penetration in Canada, 2008-2013:
- 2008: 22.6 million (68.1% of the population)
- 2009: 23.4 million (69.2%)
- 2010: 24.1 million (70.9%)
- 2011: 24.8 million (71.9%)
- 2012: 25.4 million (74.1%)
- 2013: 25.9 million (74.9%)
A large part of the personal time internet users in Canada spend online is taken up with e-mail and instant messaging (IM). Two-thirds of the Web users polled said they checked their e-mail often during an average day, and 95% checked at least once a day. In addition, over one-third of respondents used IM several times a day. (eMarketer, March 2009)
Digital Media
Online Canadians have reported a significant decline in the number of weekly emails received, according to the latest Ipsos Interactive Reid Report. The average number of email received in the past week (including spam) has declined by 35% from 198 in late 2008 to 129 today.
Generally, 18-34 year olds do everything more online than their older counterparts. However, this age group now receives the fewest emails each week with an average of 116. Those respondents with high school educations or less also receive significantly fewer emails each week.
One of the reasons that email usage may have declined so dramatically are emerging communications platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and various Instant Messengers. In fact, Facebook users send an average of 16 messages inside of that platform each week. Those using MSN Messenger or Blackberry Messenger are sending even more messages on a weekly basis.
Interestingly, there are some demographic and gender differences by communications platform. Facebook tends to be used more often by females and those with lower household incomes. Twitter, MSN Messenger and Blackberry Messenger tend to be used more frequently by males. MSN Messenger is used more frequently by those aged 18-34, while Blackberry is used more by males aged 35-54, and those with higher household incomes.
(Ipsos, June 2010)
21 million Canadians viewed more than 3.1 billion videos online during February 2009, according to comScore. The average Canadian online video viewer spent 10 hours viewing videos in February, up 53% from their average viewing time the previous year. Canada's high broadband penetration and tech savvy Internet users make it an optimal environment for online video to flourish, according to comScore.
Google Sites led as the most popular video destination in February with more than 1.6 billion videos viewed (52% share of all videos), and YouTube.com (owned by Google) accounting for nearly 99% of videos viewed at the property. Microsoft Sites ranked as the second most popular video destination with 55.6 million videos viewed (1.8% share), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 45.7 million videos (1.5% share).
More than 21 million Canadian viewers (or 88%) of the total Canadian internet population, watched an average of 147 videos per viewer in February. Google Sites attracted the most viewers with 18.2 million watching an average of 89 videos per viewer during the month. Microsoft Sites drew 7.1 million viewers, while Facebook ranked third with 5.8 million viewers.
Nearly 88% of the total Canadian Web population (or more than 21 million people) viewed online video in February, the highest penetration of the five countries currently reported by comScore Video Metrix (France 82%, Germany 82%, UK 81%, US 76%). The average online video viewer in Canada watched 605 minutes of video in the month, the largest amount of time of the five countries reported by comScore Video Metrix (UK 540 minutes, Germany 466 minutes, France 390 minutes, US 312 minutes). (comScore, April 2009)
A new study released by Ipsos Reid, has found that online Canadians are multi-tasking for almost one-half of the time they spend on the internet.
On average, online Canadians spend almost equal amounts of time on the internet and watching television - approximately 15 hours each. Both measures remain essentially unchanged from early 2007. Online Canadians spend an additional 10 hours each week listening to the radio, while only 3 hours - or less than 30 minutes a day - reading the newspaper.
The ‘net generation' - those that have grown up with technology - should be of particular concern to advertisers and traditional media. This segment of the population is spending significantly more time online and significantly less time watching television than their older counterparts. Those aged 18-34 are spending 18.4 hours online each week, compared to 13.6 hours and 14.2 hours for those aged 35-54 and those aged 55+, respectively. Further evidence as to some of the struggles being faced by traditional media companies in the internet age: 40% of online Canadians do not read magazines, 19% do not read a newspaper and 15% do not listen to the radio. (Ipsos, January 2009)
Search Engines and Searches
Experian Hitwise revealed the top search engines in Canada for the 12 weeks ending May 22 2010, by volume of searches.
Top search engines for the industry "All Categories" in Canada, ranked by volume of searches for the 12 weeks ending May 22 2010 by % of visits:
1. www.google.ca: 76.63%
2. www.bing.com: 6.80%
3. ca.search.yahoo.com: 5.03%
4. www.google.com: 4.81%
5. www.ask.com: 3.99%
Top search engines for the industry "Computers and Internet - Search Engines" in Canada, ranked by visits for the week ending May 22 2010:
1. Google Canada: 64.51%
2. Google: 11.57%
3. Bing: 8.64%
4. Yahoo! Canada Search: 3.49%
5. Ask: 3.19%
6. Yahoo! Search: 1.27%
7. msn Video: 0.76%
8. Sympatico Bing Search: 0.52%
9. mywebsearch: 0.47%
10. Google France: 0.41%
(Experian Hitwise, May 2010)
An average of 70% of Canadian searches were ‘successful' in the 12 weeks ending June 27, 2009 (average of all search engines), according to Hitwise Canada Search Report. A successful search is defined as one where the consumer leaves the search engine after performing a search. This means that nearly a third (30%) of searchers were forced to conduct a fresh search to find relevant results. (Hitwise North America Newsletter - August 2009, August 2009)
Access
Over eight in ten Canadians (82%) now have internet access at home, according to a study released by Ipsos Reid examining Online Trends and Activities. This represents a 6% increase from Q2, 2008 and a 4% increase from Q4, 2008.
Even in difficult economic times, Canadians understand that having internet access is essential in today's society, according to Ipsos Reid. Internet access is critical to finding employment, it can be used to save money, for paying bills, finding deals, and as a form of entertainment. It has become so important to the lives of Canadians, that in some areas of the country, internet access is almost identical to home telephone access.
The study found that access at home is almost universal for those under 55 years of age as 89% of those aged 18 to 34 and 87% of those aged 35 to 54 have internet access at home. In comparison, only 69% of those aged 55+ have access at home. Ipsos Reid indicates that the older generation is the fastest growing segment of online users, quickly catching up to the younger generations in their adoption of the internet. By comparison, in Q1, 2006 only one-half (57%) of those aged 55+ had internet access.
Dial-up access is in the last stages of use as only 8% of internet-enabled Canadians access the internet through this method, while about eight in ten are using some form of high speed access. Interestingly, there has also been a rise in the last 18 months of an ‘other' category - widely suspected to be Mobile Broadband Sticks, Netbooks and Smartphone users.
For the survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 1,002 adult Canadians was interviewed by telephone from July 6-10, 2009. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within ± 3.1% points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult population of Canada been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure that the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to Census data. (Ipsos Reid, October 2009)
Last Updated on Friday, 02 July 2010 16:23
