Time spent increases if access to website is direct

While referrals from Facebook and other sites outpace direct visits to news websites, the engagement factor is much higher for direct visitors, according to a study by comScore and Pew.  Facebook sends half of all Buzzfeed’s visits, while direct visits account for one-fourth of the site’s visits. However, the number of minutes spent by direct users is more than double that of referred visitors, while the number of pages per visitor for direct access is six times that of referred visitors. The number of visits per month is more than double for direct access users as well.

Meanwhile, Yahoo! has a similar story, but not as dramatic. Direct visitors outpace referred visitors two to one in minutes per visit, while pages per visitor and number of visits per month is more than double with direct access users.

World Newsmedia Network has published Global Digital Media Trendbook each year since 2006. The 2014 trendbook contains 500 data sets and 230 pages of analysis about digital media usage and revenue patterns, including this data set. To download the GDMT free executive summary, go to www.wnmn.org

Instagram, Reddit are fastest growing social media

Instagram has the fastest growing social network membership in the world by far, surging 23 percent between Q2 2013 and Q4 2013, with an estimated 90.8 million users. Following Instagram for the fastest growing social media sites are content sharing site Reddit, 13 percent; career networking site LinkedIn, 9 percent; Chinese multi-blogging site Sina Weibo, 9 percent (outside of China); and corporate social media company Yammer, 8 percent, according to GWI.

GWI did not include China in the social media in part of the study. “The global charts featured in this report exclude data for China; this is due to the sheer scale of the Chinese market, which can distort global figures, as well as the widespread usage of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and Proxy Servers within the country – a trend which makes it difficult to display social networking data in a way which is comparable with other markets,” the market research firm explained.

World Newsmedia Network has published Global Digital Media Trendbook each year since 2006. The 2014 trendbook contains 500 data sets and 230 pages of analysis about digital media usage and revenue patterns, including this data set. To download the GDMT free executive summary, go to www.wnmn.org

UK Twitter uses surging: Study

Twitter use and penetration is set to surge in the UK, according to eMarketer. Year-over-year, double-digit growth will continue through this year, followed by slow and steady growth until 2018. The number of UK Twitter users is expected to nearly double from 2012 to 2018, from 8.9 million to 17.1 million, according to eMarketer.

Almost half (47.1 percent) of social network users will use Twitter from any device at least once per month by 2018, from less than one-third (30.9 percent) in 2012.

World Newsmedia Network has published Global Digital Media Trendbook each year since 2006. The 2014 trendbook contains 500 data sets and 230 pages of analysis about digital media usage and revenue patterns, including this data set. To download the GDMT free executive summary, go to www.wnmn.org

The Millennials social media opportunity

Targeting the Millennials generation is the next big opportunity for media companies. As targeting audiences becomes more ubiquitous across digital media channels, media companies are identifying targeting strategies in order to build audiences now and for the future. One such target is the largest and most economically powerful generational group: the Millennials. In 2015, Millennials, otherwise known as Generation Y or echo boomers, are ages 20 to 36.

The most powerful ways to reach Millennials are through social media, and through digital media with strong social media components. However, it is imperative that publishers speak to the millennial audience in a profoundly different way than older generational groups.

Millennials have a much different view on the credibility of news coverage compared to older generations. According to a 2013 study by Telefonica and the Financial Times, Millennials are three or four times more likely to identify the Internet and social media news sources as more credible than printed newspapers and magazines, depending on the region of the world where they live. Further, Millennials were two or three times more likely to identify Internet and social media news sources as more credible than television news sources, according to the study.

Millennials’ media consumption patterns have been studied as early as 2006, when Pew researchers Lee Rainie and John Horrigan published “When Facing Tough Decision, 60 Million Americans Now Seek the Internet’s Help: The Internet’s Growing Role in Life’s Major Moments.”

“Compared to their elders, they are more likely to turn to digital media first when researching a topic for school or personal use, to read news on the Internet than in a printed newspaper; and to use online social network tools to meet friends and to find information. In other words, the primary sources of information in their world are often (although not exclusively) digital, which is quite different from any generation prior,” the research explains.

The early Pew research suggests the digital native mindset of Millennials has had a deep impact on perceptions of news credibility. “As the first generation to grow up with interactive digital media, Millennials are comfortable with collaborating and sharing information, and do so “in ways that allow them to act quickly and without top-down direction.”

World Newsmedia Network has published Global Digital Media Trendbook each year since 2006. The 2014 trendbook contains 500 data sets and 230 pages of analysis about digital media usage and revenue patterns, including this data set. To download the GDMT free executive summary, go to www.wnmn.org

Facebook is No. 1 social media site, followed by China’s QQ, QZone

Global Web Index’s “We Are Social” study also explored the number of social media and messenger/chat app users around the world.  The No. 1 social media worldwide continues to be Facebook, with 1.2 billion users, followed by QQ, a social messaging site China, with 816 million, and QZone, a social network in China, with 632 million users. The WhatsApp messenger, purchased this year by Facebook, has about 400 million users, while Google+ has about 300 million users.

World Newsmedia Network has published Global Digital Media Trendbook each year since 2006. The 2014 trendbook contains 500 data sets and 230 pages of analysis about digital media usage and revenue patterns, including this data set. To download the GDMT free executive summary, go to www.wnmn.org

Online TV programs dominate U.S. video landscape

Daily time spent on video in the United States can be broken down into four categories: non-professional videos such as user-generated video, professional video, online movies and TV programs online, according to a GfK and Interactive Advertising Bureau study in 2014.

The largest growth of video viewing in time spent online per day by U.S. adults ages 18 to 64 include TV programs, whose viewership has grown from 3 minutes to 9 minutes per day on average, from 2010 to 2013, followed by online movies, which have grown from 2 minutes to 7 minutes time spent on average per day, from 2010 to 2013. Professional and non-professional video usage have remained steady, with each growing only one percentage point from 2010 to 2013, according to the study.

World Newsmedia Network has published Global Digital Media Trendbook each year since 2006. The 2014 trendbook contains 500 data sets and 230 pages of analysis about digital media usage and revenue patterns, including this data set. To download the GDMT free executive summary, go to www.wnmn.org

While 14.1 percent of the overall UK population used Twitter in 2012, almost double (25.8 percent) are expected to use Twitter monthly by 2018.

The eMarketer has explored UK Twitter user growth and share by age. According to the study, the oldest age groups are projected to be the fastest growing. Those in the 55 to 64 age bracket and the 65+ age group saw a triple-digit growth from 2011 to 2012 (115.1 percent and 139.9 percent, respectively), and will see steady, double-digit growth until 2018.

Meanwhile, the 18-to 34-year-old age group represents the highest share of Twitter users in the UK from 2012 to 2018, with 18 to 26 percent growth during that period. Over time, the oldest and youngest groups are expected to steal only slivers of share from the 18-to 34-year-olds.

World Newsmedia Network has published Global Digital Media Trendbook each year since 2006. The 2014 trendbook contains 500 data sets and 230 pages of analysis about digital media usage and revenue patterns, including this data set. To download the GDMT free executive summary, go to www.wnmn.org

Impact of personal technology on economic opportunity

When faced with a tradeoff between privacy and national security, developing world and developed world respondents are somewhat in sync, according to the Microsoft-World Economic Forum study. Sixty-one percent of those from developed countries believe they shouldn’t have to trade privacy for national security, while 49 percent of those in developing countries agreed. However, respondents from developing countries were more likely to say it makes sense to trade some privacy for national security, especially in India, where 80 percent of the respondents said so.

World Newsmedia Network has published Global Digital Media Trendbook each year since 2006. The 2014 trendbook contains 500 data sets and 230 pages of analysis about digital media usage and revenue patterns, including this data set. To download the GDMT free executive summary, go to www.wnmn.org