UKOM comScore MMX – March 2016
After February brought a jump of almost 800,000 users, March saw the UK’s desktop-using online population remain steady. A total of 46,533,000 people accessed the internet throughout the month, with the gender split working out as 51% of users male and 49% female.
The majority of those online throughout March came from households of two people (32%) followed by a household of four, which accounted for 22%. The smallest online household group in the UK was homes with just one occupant, which came in at 10%.
comScore subscribers can see further breakdowns in the monthly online users by demographic report.
Top newspaper brands
Mail Online continued to be the number one online newspaper destination for the UK’s desktop-based users, totalling at 10.8 million unique visitors despite a month on month fall of -1.5%.
The DMG Media-owned site boasted a 23% reach across all those online, with each user accessing Mail Online for an average of 43 minutes throughout the month.
News UK’s Sun Online celebrated the biggest percentage increase, up by 17.6%, which translates to an additional 471,000 users. Mirror Online netted the biggest actual increase, rising by nearly half a million users (9.7%) while Telegraph Media Group suffered the biggest actual loss, down by 289,000 (-3.5%) in March.
| UK rank | Site | Mar 16 (000s) | Feb 16 (000s) | Change (000s) | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 41 | Mail Online / Daily Mail [P] | 10,785,000 | 10,946,000 | -161,000 | -1.5 |
| 58 | The Guardian [P] | 8,568,000 | 8,340,000 | 228,000 | 2.7 |
| 65 | Telegraph Media Group [P] | 7,951,000 | 8,240,000 | -289,000 | -3.5 |
| 108 | Independent & Evening Standard (ESi Media) [P] | 5,593,000 | 5,467,000 | 126,000 | 2.3 |
| 123 | Mirror Online [M] | 5,229,000 | 4,765,000 | 464,000 | 9.7 |
| 183 | Newsquest Media Group [M] | 3,865,000 | 3,808,000 | 57,000 | 1.5 |
| 243 | The Sun Online [M] | 3,143,000 | 2,672,000 | 471,000 | 17.6 |
| 258 | Johnston Press Plc [P] | 2,961,000 | 2,948,000 | 13,000 | 0.4 |
| 299 | EXPRESS.CO.UK [M] | 2,629,000 | 2,305,000 | 324,000 | 14.1 |
| 346 | METRO.CO.UK [M] | 2,274,000 | 2,254,000 | 20,000 | 0.9 |
Top retail properties
American digital retail giant Amazon continued to soar head and shoulders above its rivals in the UK, with 24.2 million desktop-based users visiting the site, putting it ahead of its closest competitor, eBay, by over 6 million visitors.
This month on month increase of 9% translated to an increase of over 2 million visitors for Amazon, resulting in an impressive 52% reach while each user had an average of 7 sessions each.
While not as noticeable, another American company had a percentage increase over March with Wal-Mart, the multinational owner of Asda seeing an 18% rise, resulting in 4.5 million visitors.
Sainsburys managed to secure an 18.9% rise but this only translates to a jump of 401,000 users while Tesco Stores was the only site in the top ten to see a fall, down just -0.6% (-43,000 users) resulting in a total of 7.3 million visitors.
| UK rank | Site | Mar 16 (000s) | Feb 16 (000s) | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Amazon Sites [P] | 24,189,000 | 22,148,000 | 2,041,000 | 9.2 |
| 22 | eBay [P] | 18,140,000 | 17,342,000 | 798,000 | 4.6 |
| 63 | Home Retail Group [P] | 8,064,000 | 7,594,000 | 470,000 | 6.2 |
| 73 | Tesco Stores [P] | 7,289,000 | 7,332,000 | -43,000 | -0.6 |
| 159 | Wal-Mart [P] | 4,525,000 | 3,846,000 | 679,000 | 17.7 |
| 180 | John Lewis Partnership [P] | 3,949,000 | 3,619,000 | 330,000 | 9.1 |
| 181 | Dixons Retail Plc. [P] | 3,948,000 | 3,823,000 | 125,000 | 3.3 |
| 193 | Marks&Spencer [P] | 3,742,000 | 3,316,000 | 426,000 | 12.8 |
| 221 | NEXT Group [P] | 3,383,000 | 3,058,000 | 325,000 | 10.6 |
| 319 | Sainsburys [P] | 2,522,000 | 2,121,000 | 401,000 | 18.9 |
Further breakdowns and reports can found in Mediatel’s Online database.
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