Europeans online longer, more often than Americans

Marketers with a good online presence will likely benefit from European users. According to a new study, Europeans go online more often and stay online for longer periods of time than Americans.

by Kristina Knight

comScore researchers studied users from 16 different European nations and found that on an average April day, 122 million European residents over the age of 15 were online; in America only 114 million residents were online. Europeans accessed the Internet, both at home or at work, an average of 16 days in April and spent around 24 hours surfing the Web. More than 2,600 pages were viewed from European computers.

Users in The Netherlands and Scandinavian countries are online the most, with between 68% and 83% of the entire populations using the Internet. Germany, however, has the most people online with just over 32.5 million people using the Internet. The UK is the most active online population base with 21 million users accessing the Internet 21 days each month and an average visit time of 34 hours for the month of April.

For marketers wanting to gain access to European consumers, this is a very revealing study. It appears as if European consumers are not only going online but they are relatively comfortable in an online environment. This makes them great potential online clients, whether e-tailers, B2B groups or information hubs appeal to them.