How is the increase in Internet consumption affecting the world we live in? Brits are spending more and more time online. Large audiences spend up to 30 hours a week on the Internet, according to a uSwitch.com report.

The report showed that, on average, we spend 2 hours online for work and 3 hours for leisure every day, with about 3 hours per day on weekends browsing to keep us entertained. Online usage is increasing in the younger age groups, with people aged 18-24 spending 45 hours a week online.

The way we access the Internet is also changing. The growth of the mobile Internet, due to more sophisticated 3G mobile phones, is increasing the amount of time spent online. Users have more options to access the web from portable devices wherever they are.

Faster connection speeds and greater broadband coverage in Britain mean that broadband use at home continues to rise as well. Ofcom’s research into broadband speeds in Britain found that average UK broadband speeds in April 2009 were 4.1 Mbit/s and that 70% of broadband users receive average speeds. of more than 2 Mbit/s. Higher connection speeds allow for faster loading times and the ability to stream higher-quality content, such as HD videos.

The effect on ad spend

The increasing amount of time spent online is having an impact on where advertisers spend their marketing budgets. Online ad spending has now surpassed television. Increasingly, brand name advertisers are realizing the potential of the Internet as a means of reaching mass audiences.

Big brands like Kellogg’s are realizing the potential audiences it can bring online. Kellogg’s spent £58m on TV advertising between August 2008 and July 2009 and only spent just over £300k online. But this is about to change with the appointment of dedicated digital positions to devise strategy for 2010. This indicates that large advertisers are now attuned to the benefits that online customer communications can bring to a brand.

Kellogg’s seemingly late embrace of Internet ad spending is not surprising, as FMCG brands have generally found it difficult to embrace the digital landscape. This is because they have failed to understand how it can fit in with their overall marketing strategy. But the UK’s majority adoption of moving online means advertisers need to be where the audience is.

The convergence of TV and Online

More and more people in the UK are consuming television online. Catch-up TV became popular in 2008, thanks to BBC iPlayer and 4OD. Figures from Ofcom’s latest annual communications market report show that 23% of households say they watch programs online. This increases to 33% in people aged 15-24.

There are two ways to watch TV online via streaming or download. If you’re streaming, you’re watching directly from the station, just like traditional TV. Programs can often be paused and renewed (unless they are “active”), but they are not saved to your computer. Downloaded shows are saved to your computer’s hard drive and can be viewed whenever you like, though many have digital rights management (DRM) protection that blocks them after a set period of time to prevent you from viewing them again.

Is TV consumption likely to move solely online? This may happen in the future if more programs are broadcast exclusively online, as in the case of England’s World Cup qualifier against Ukraine, which, for the first time in early October 2009, was broadcast online without television coverage. The cost to watch the match started at £4.99 before 8 October and increased to £11.99 until the day of the match.

General consumer feedback was that this was too expensive for a match and alienated spectators and fans from pubs with slow internet connections. But there will undoubtedly be more events in the future that are not broadcast on TV and are only broadcast on the Internet.

The growth of social networks

Social media is huge in the UK with Facebook being the clear market leader accounting for 1 in 7 UK pageviews. Facebook is the second most visited site in the UK after Google, but is the undisputed leader in terms of page views due to the sticking of the site with more page views than Google, eBay UK and YouTube combined.

The success of Facebook is staggering, with an 86% increase in visits in the last 12 months. Despite recently losing press coverage to Twitter, it remains the most popular social network, accounting for almost half of all social media activity that takes place online, with no sign of slowing its growth. Social media isn’t just for a young audience, the fastest growth was in the 35-54 age group during the first quarter of this year.

Children and their time online

Most children are totally comfortable using the Internet, as they don’t know a world without it. A report from the London School of Economics found the following about Internet use by children aged 9-19. Children are very comfortable using the Internet with 40% using the Internet daily. Although time spent online tends to be shorter than with adults, 19% spend up to 10% and 48% spend between 10 minutes and an hour. The activities they carry out on the Internet, ordered by popularity, are:

• Get information about things other than school work (94%)
• Help with school work (90%)
• Send and receive emails (72%)
• Play online games (70%)
• Send and receive instant messages (55%)
• Download music (45%)
• Seek information about careers and higher education (44%)
• Search for information and buy online (40%)
• Read the news (26%)
• Chat rooms (21%)

I have no doubt that Internet usage will continue to grow over time. Our children use it from a young age, creating a generation of people who are comfortable doing a variety of tasks online, from entertainment to shopping. Continued improvement in Internet access lowers the barriers to entry, and increasing technologies that use the Internet to make certain tasks easier and faster will help continue the growing expansion of the Internet.