Analyst Speak: Retail and news, not social media or entertainment, drive Brits online

30 July 2009

The Global Web Index powered by Lightspeed Research canvassed UK internet users to understand their motivations for going online. The results were pretty clear: internet use remains task based. The top three drivers were researching products, researching how to do things and news. These were top regardless of age or gender, showing the importance of companies managing their reputations online and their presence in search.

Despite mass-market video platforms and the increasingly professional video, entertainment isn’t a top driver for people to go online. We have some way to go before the web can claim the mantle from TV, and that may require its repackaging to be more like TV.

The top social driver is to stay in touch with friends. Less important is the desire to keep others up to date, followed by sharing opinions, meeting new people and sharing content. The majority of users just want to connect in a relatively simple way. Twitter and blogging are tools of the digital literati, at least for now.

There are interesting differences in drivers by gender and age. Women are more likely to want to stay in touch with friends — 49% state it as very important versus 27% of men. But there’s no difference by age. What does vary is the need to keep friends up to date with their lives: 27% of 18-34-year-olds stated this as an important driver, but just 14% of those over 55. Similarly, 13% of 18-34-year-olds said sharing content was important, but only 3% of over-55s agreed. For sharing opinion, 16% of all age groups considered the web important.

The model of social media involvement, with passive consumption of video and blogs leading the way, then social networking and more involved forms of content creation and sharing, such as blogging, may have peaked in mass-market take-up.

The Global Web Index shows that for most people in the UK, the web is about enhancing existing contacts, not building a new network. For the online professional this isn’t just nice to know, it shows how to get users to interact and contribute to your site or campaign. If you’re targeting a younger audience, content sharing and contribution will work, while an older audience must be oriented around opinions.