Australians – world’s biggest users of social media

Australians are the world’s most prolific users of social media according to new data from the Nielsen Company.

From statistics published recently via social media release (SMR) on nielsenwire.  Nielsen, the global marketing statistics firm carried out an international comparison which resulted in suggestions that Australians spend an average of six hours and 52 minutes per month on social media sites – well ahead of the US, which has the next largest social media usage at six hours and nine minutes per month.

The reach of social media in Australia is also large, with Nielsen estimating a unique reach of 9.9m Australians per month use social media. Although that figure should be treated with caution as double counting of users at home and at work is an issue with these current surveys – it still signals that a large proportion of our country’s 22m population is engaging with social media.

Average time spend (h:m:s) on social media each month:

1. Australia – 6:52:28
2. United States -6:09:13
3. United Kingdom – 6:07:54
4. Italy – 6:00:07
5. Spain – 5:30:55
6. Brazil – 4:33:10
7. Germany – 4:11:45
8. France – 4:04:39
9. Switzerland – 3:54:34
10. Japan – 2:50:21

A year ago, According to Nielsen, in December 2009  the global average in the countries it surveyed was five and a half hours per consumer using social media, making it the single most consuming online category, followed by online games and instant messaging. Social media’s usage was up 82% on the same time a year previously again in 2008, with more than 300m social media users worldwide. Facebook was the biggest driver, followed by Twitter, Nielsen said.

When narrowed by individual country – with 142.1 million unique visitors – the United States had the largest number of social media and blog users in December 2009, followed by Japan, which had 46.6 million unique visitors during the month. Australia led in average time per person spent, with the average Australian spending nearly 7 hours on social media sites in December. The United States and the United Kingdom came in a close second and third, with 6 hours and 9 minutes and 6 hours and 8 minutes, respectively.

Go Australia, Goooo – the social media!!

It’s fun, informative, convenient and practical after all and everybody’s doing it!

** Global data takes into account the following countries: U.S., U.K., Australia, Brazil, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain and Italy

By christopher dusseldorp

creative director | copywriter

christopher copywriter