Digital Europe – the latest figures


In 1996, 66% of the world's internet audience was based in the US.  By 2012 87% of the world's internet audience was based outside the US.  Europe is now the world's second largest internet audience (after Asia Pacific) with 27% of the total, putting on 7% growth in the last year.In its latest report (Europe Digital Future in Focus) ComScore analyses the latest European statistics and trends.Key findingsThe internet

  • There are 408 million internet users in Europe
  • Russia accounts for 15% of all of Europe's internet users
  • Italy (17%) and Russia (15%) have the fastest growth
  • Once again, the UK leads the way in user engagement with an average of just over 37 hours per user per month
Mobile and tablets
  • There are 241 million mobile devices in Europe
  • At the end of 2012 all EU5 countries had crossed the 50% smartphone penetration milestone
    • Of the EU5 countries, Germany has the most mobile devices, followed by:
      • UK
      • Italy
      • France
      • Spain
      • Almost one third of UK page views are made via mobiles or tablets
        • The European average is 20%
        • The most popular smartphone activities are:
          • Accessing personal email
          • Weather reports
          • Social networking
          • Instant messaging services
          • Search
Mobile videoThe EU5 has seen rapid growth in the last 12 months
  • Mobile video has grown 162%
  • PC video grew by 5%
Search
  • Google sites account for 86% of Europe's search engine market
  • The figures show that users are not simply using search engines - they are searching within sites such as Facebook, eBay and Amazon too
Shopping and banking
  • 146 million Europeans visited comparison shopping sites
  • The Netherlands lead the way in internet banking - 66% of all internet users accessed online banking sites.  Only 18.8% of those in Switzerland did so
NewspapersTaking the UK as a case study, the report looks at increased reach for newspapers via video and mobile.
  • The Sun has increased its reach by 16.9%
  • The Mail Online has increased its reach by 11%
The report also features country scorecards outlining:
  • Top 20 internet sites for each country
  • Top news/information sites
  • Top retail sites
  • Top online banking sites
For more information, see the comScore website.