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| Internet Primetime - June 2009 |
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| This study breaks down the hourly specificities of web traffic on weekdays (Monday to Friday) in 10 Europeans countries for June 2009. It enables to highlight and compare behavior related to habits and culture proper to each country. |
| Cross section: |
- Study carried out from June 1 to June 30, 2009
- Cross section of 14,825 websites audited
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| In Portugal, internet users are night owls, in Switzerland, they surf early in the internet |
The graph below allows us to estimate the hourly distribution of web visits during a day in June 2009 on websites in 10 Europeans countries, using a heat map representation (hot and cold zones). We choose to present you data for June in order to restrict seasonal specificities.
This graph enables us to draw rapid conclusions and identify the main trends of hourly traffic distribution of each country. Thus, in Norway, Sweden and particularly in Switzerland, websites registered, on average, a visit share higher than those in other countries at 7 am. Conversely, between midnight and 1 am, websites in Portugal, Spain and Norway registered a visit share more important than elsewhere.
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| Each country has its own specificities… |
The graphs below show the hourly traffic distribution, on an average on websites, during a typical day in June 2009 (without weekend days) for each of the 10 countries studied.
It allows us to draw the following conclusions:
- In Switzerland, between 7 am and 10 am, Swiss websites registered, on average, 15.3% of daily against 6.4% traffic, as for websites in Portugal (8.4% in Spain).
- Between 7 am and noon, Swiss websites registered the highest traffic share (30.1%), followed by Swedish websites with 26.9%. During the same time slot, Spanish websites generated 21.0% of traffic, Portuguese websites 18.9 %.
- Lunch time breaks in Norway, Poland, Germany and United Kingdom do not have an impact on the volume of traffic on websites in these countries. In contrast, we can observe an off-peak traffic on Portuguese websites between 1 pm and 2 pm. In the Netherlands, Sweden, France and Switzerland, we observe an off-peak traffic between noon and 1 pm. On Spanish websites, an off-peak traffic is obvious between 2 pm and 4 pm.
- Between 2 pm and 4 pm, Spanish websites registered 10.8% of traffic, Portuguese websites 14.3%.
- Portuguese people seem to spend a lot of time on the internet during the evening. In Portugal, websites registered on average 18.6% of daily traffic on the time slots midnight - 2 am and 10 pm - midnight. Over these 4 hours, websites registered: 16.5% of traffic in Norway, 11.4% in Germany, 9.2% in Switzerland.
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| Obvious differences between neighbouring countries |
The curve below presents an average of hourly traffic distribution on websites on weekdays (Monday to Friday) for June 2009. It concentrates on Spanish, French, Dutch and Swiss specificities and reveals also a number of interesting facts mentioned above:
- An off-peak traffic between 1 pm and 4 pm in Spain
- An off-peak traffic between 12 noon and 1 pm in France
- An off-peak traffic between 9 pm and 10 pm in Netherlands
- The day starts earlier and faster in Switzerland
The observations above lead to a simple conclusion: the hours of internet connection differ from one country to another.
This conclusion may be explained by cultural differences. They appear in particular in rhythms of life and work and affect the internet users’ behavior. Nordic people spend the afternoon doing sportive and cultural activities and undock in great numbers from 3 pm on; Spanish people connect less to the internet from 2 pm to 4 pm at lunchtime; while Swiss people rise early and Portuguese people are behave more likely as night owls.
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Methodology:
In this study, the objective is to present indicators of hourly distribution.
For each country, we analyze the consultation of a website whose traffic is mainly generated in the country studied. For each websites, the hourly distribution considers only visits coming from the country associated.
As the study concerns weekdays, only data for “Monday”, “Tuesday”, “Wednesday”, “Thursday”, and “Friday” are being taken into account. So that the indicator won’t be appreciable to the structure of the study period (July 2009: 4 Monday, 5 Tuesday …), the days influence is homogenized.
We calculate an average hourly distribution of weekdays per website.
For each country, the average of hourly distribution of websites studied corresponds to the indicator of hourly distribution, “weekday”, of this country.
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