The average Briton spends one in every 12 waking minute online,
racking up around 43 hours of web activity each month. This is almost
double the time spent online in 2010, where the monthly average was 22
hours.
This increase has been matched by efforts from the
advertising industry to keep us well supplied with ads when browsing the
web: companies spent £3.04 billion in the first half of 2013 delivering
adverts to mobile devices and PCs.
Averaged across the
46.1 million internet users in the UK, this meant that over the first 6
months of 2013 companies spend £66 per head supplying us with adverts.
Spending
on mobile ads experienced a noticeable boom, up 127% from the first
half of 2012 to the first half of 2013 to hit a grand total of £429.2
million.
Analysts suggest that this is due to high
numbers of smartphone ownership (over two-thirds of the population or 68
per cent of us has one) and the rise of faster mobile data.
The
introduction of 4G networks in the UK has seen the spend on video
advertising for mobiles shoot up 1,260%, from £1.7 million in the first
half of 2012 to £23.0 million in the first half of 2013.
The
research from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC also looked
at exactly what online activities attracted consumers most, with
entertainment being the largest single draw, accounting for 22 per cent
of online activity. This was followed by time spent on social networks
and blogs.
Commenting on the findings, Tim Elkington,
Director of Research & Strategy at the Internet Advertising Bureau ,
said: “Nothing illustrates the internet as an entertainment platform
better than the fact that over one in five minutes online is accounted
for by entertainment, and that advertisers spent almost 1,300% more on
mobile video than a year ago.”
“With smartphone
penetration crossing the two-thirds landmark and the successful roll out
of 4G, 2013 could be the year when advertising spend on mobile crosses
the £1 billion threshold,” said Elkington.
