How America spends its time on the Internet in 2010

First it was email. Then there were the online videos. Now it’s social networking sites that dominate most of the time most Americans spend online. Online gaming was second, accounting for 50% less time spent online than social media. According to the Neilsen survey, on average, Americans spend about a third of their time online communicating and networking through social media, blogs, personal email and instant messaging. Forty percent of US computer users’ time online is spent primarily on just three activities: social media, gaming, and email.

The top 10 US internet time sectors by rank and share are:
1.Social Networks 22.7%
2. Online games 10.2%
3. Email 8.3%
4. Portals 4.4%
5. Instant Messaging 4.0%
6. Videos/Movies 3.9%
7. Search 3.5%
8. Software manufacturing. 3.3%
9. Multi-category entertainment 2.8%
10. Classifieds/Auction 2.7%
34.3%

All categories showed a higher proportion of time spent over the past year, except portals, instant messaging, and email. By 2010, online gaming exceeded personal email engagement as did online videos and movies. During June, more than 10 billion videos were streamed to Internet users. On average, Americans spend 3 hours and 15 minutes a month watching videos online.

It is interesting to note that the time of Internet use on the mobile phone is significantly different from the use of the personal computer. Among mobile phone users, email remains the number one most used sector, accounting for 41.6% of Internet time. This is an increase from 37.4% in 2009. The second most used sector among mobile internet users is portals, with social networks and blogs accounting for just 10.5%.

The popularity of Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites will continue to grow as Americans continue to reach out and connect with family and friends through these mediums. Businesses have also found that social media is a great way to communicate and target their marketing message. Therefore, future share percentages over time are further forecast to continue to increase for this sector.

On the downside, portal companies like MSN and Yahoo are having a tough time and need to start rethinking their marketing approach and appeal if they are to recapture their lost ship of visitors and restore their popularity.

Neilsen’s report offers some interesting information, however, it lacks some key factors of Internet usage time, such as how they reached their conclusion. Pornography, one of the biggest factors on the Internet, is not mentioned at all. There is no statement about how they measured or tracked user actions to determine user time or what criteria were used to determine the average American user.

Without such relevant criteria, it is difficult to determine the validity of their findings. However, from a marketer’s point of view, this data could prove useful when setting up future campaigns.