Canadian internet users continue to lead the pack in sites visits and time spent online, according to ComScore‘s 2014 Canada Digital Future in Focus report.
The report aggregates year-end 2013 data from ComScore’s various digital measurement products, including Media Metrix and MobiLens.
Of the 10 countries ComScore says have the most active online citizens, Canadians visit more sites in a month – 88, on average – than any other group. And our average time spent online is 34.6 hours per month, outranked only by the U.S. and U.K.
Canadians are also the world’s top desktop search engine users, performing on average 139.8 searches per month, compared to 127.8 in the U.K. and 108.9 in the U.S.
Notably, total online time was down 17% from 2012, suggesting Canadians are spending more of their online time on mobile devices. It may also suggest that Canada currently leads in online engagement because other markets, like Germany and Japan, have shifted much more of their time and pageviews to mobile.
Though ComScore does not yet measure time spent on mobile, IAB Canada estimates that it is now comparable to time spent on PC. ComScore plans to introduce its mobile measurement panel in Canada this year.
Display ad traffic reaches 615 billion impressions
Of the more than 615 billion display impressions delivered to Canadians in 2013, the largest share came from social media publishers (36%), followed by entertainment sites (18%) and web portals like Yahoo.ca and MSN.ca (12%). The biggest buyers of display inventory were finance, retail and consumer goods. The largest single display advertiser was American Express, followed by P&G, Microsoft and GM. A bit of a surprise was Netflix, which came in fifth.
Overall ad quality, though improving, was still disappointing: less than half of display ads were viewable (44.4%); an even smaller number were verified as being served to the targeted audience segment (41.1%); and a quarter were served in non-brand safe environments (24.7%).
Canadians also showed a world-leading appetite for online video, with 74% of the population watching video on PC, compared to 63% in the U.S. Canadian video watchers are watching an average of 29.5 hours of video online every month, compared to 20.6 hours for U.S. watchers. However, it should be noted that ComScore’s estimates of online video consumption differ substantially from competitor Nielsen’s more conservative estimates.
75% of mobile subscribers have smartphones
According to ComScore MobiLens data, the number of mobile subscribers grew 5% in 2013, to 23.2 million (67% of the population). Of mobile subscribers, 75% now how a smartphone, compared to 62% in 2012. This matches estimates from Google that more than half of the Canadian population own smartphones.
In the battle for market share, both Google Android and Apple iOS gained ground in 2013, though Google continues to dominate with 44% of the market compared to apple’s 35%. Gains came at the expense of Blackberry, which fell from a 20% to 15% share.
To read the full report, see ComScore’s Digital Future in Focus.
