Spend triple time on the internet? FU!

Beverley Head
Monday, 12 April 2010 12:18

Business IT - Technology

Australians with Facebook accounts spend more than three times as many hours on the internet as people who don't use the social networking site - and make starkly different use of their time online, suggesting the internet is dividing into two camps.

A new survey by market research firm Nielsen has uncovered two sorts of internet users - Facebook Users (FUs) and Non Facebook Users (NFUs) - with radically different online habits.

The FUs for example typically spend as much time on Facebook as the NFUs spend on the internet in total. FUs also see the internet as a venue for entertainment where the NFUs view it as a place to get things done - booking flights, or checking facts.

Mark Higginson, director of analytics for Nielsen's online division said that this research had been pioneered in Australia, but that the company now planned to run similar studies internationally. He said that Australia had been the logical place to kick off the programme as Australians 'spend more time on social networks than (people in) the other territories we track.

'Australia is switched onto Facebook like no-one else,' said Higginson. Repeating the survey in other markets would demonstrate if FUs' enthusiasm for all things online was an international, or purely Australian, phenomenon.

For online advertisers - particularly content providers who want to charge for online content - the research provides important insights according to Higginson.

'Advertisers need to ask 'who do I want to reach?' and then to understand that there are potentially two different groups out there. If they are non Facebook users then they are very functionally led, so you probably wouldn't go on Facebook with that content.'