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Hand sanitiser, dried pasta and toilet roll have all flown off the shelves as the coronavirus crisis has spread across the west.
But it is not just supermarket trolleys that people are filling. Web services are in demand from internet users under lockdown, whether they are seeking virtual happy hours via Zoom or entertainment in the form of Tiger King on Netflix.
Media analytics group ComScore estimates that our online traffic, measured by unique page views, has jumped about 20 per cent on average across key markets in Europe and the US.
And as stay-at-home orders have forced lifestyles to change, so too have our online behaviour. Views of local news have surged after a turbulent period for the industry, and streaming is more popular than ever. But for some sectors — travel, tickets and sports sites — traffic is dwindling.
We reveal the latest internet habits during the pandemic.
News
Large national publishers continue to attract the most readership, especially in Italy and Spain — among the worst affected countries in Europe from the virus — as readers strive to keep up to speed.
But it is the troubled local news industry, squeezed in recent years by the shift to digital advertising, that has won the largest gains in traffic.
Many regional news sites entered the traffic measurement site Alexa’s top 50 list for Italy after the March 9 lockdown. Sites run by Spain’s Grupo Joly, the publishing company, saw a 76 per cent increase in time spent on their pages from February to March, as readers sought details on how the crisis was affecting their neighbourhood.
Patch.com, a US local news platform, ranked in the country’s top 50 sites on March 24 — just a few days after many areas issued Covid-19 related travel restrictions — and had climbed to 31 three weeks later.
But there are signs already of readers becoming tired of the relentless news articles with dips in viewership across the board.
“One month into the lockdown (give or take a few weeks, depending on the country), the novelty of “the new normal” seems to have worn off, and we may be seeing signs of fatigue”, Comscore’s Alex Gevers, a senior Corporate Marketing Manager, wrote in a blog note.
Social
Social media has been boosted by the crisis, as internet users look to socialise or pass the time. Facebook said that total messaging in the countries hardest hit by the virus increased by more than 50 per cent in March. Italy, in particular, reported a rise in activity, including a 1,000 per cent rise in group video chats. Meanwhile, Twitter said in March that it had seen an 8 per cent lift in the number of daily average users that it can generate revenue from in recent weeks.
Topping all of these is video conferencing group Zoom, which has shot from relative obscurity to become one of the most popular lockdown apps. Daily users have soared from about 10m in December to 300m, helping lift its share price by almost 150 per cent since January.
Another obvious winner in the lockdown economy has been video streaming sites. At the beginning of April, Disney+ said it had reached 50m paid subscribers globally — just five months after its US debut, and weeks after its European launch. Meanwhile, Netflix reported a surge in subscribers — 16m new users — in its latest quarter. Its popular docu-series Tiger King was streamed to an estimated 64m households within the first four weeks of its release on March 20.
Tickets, sports and travel
But other websites have suffered. The suspension of sport has hit sports websites, with ESPN moving from within the US top 20 rank at the start of the year to outside the top 50 by mid-April, according to Alexa. Sites dealing with activities outside the home, like ticket retail and travel, have also seen a sharp drop in visits.
Whether it’s uploading crazy dance videos on TikTok, checking the twists and turns of stock markets or just looking for a distraction, the longer-term implications of the lockdown on our internet habits are hard to call.
What is clear is that people are filling the gap left from live events with apps and video communications and the internet has become a larger part of our world, as Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings said on a call this week. “The thing we are certain of is the internet is growing. It’s a bigger part of people’s lives, thankfully, and the people want entertainment.”
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