Country people spend more time online
Hitwise UK produced some research at the back of last year that broke down Internet use in the UK by city, county and region.
I’m not sure if you’ll be surprised by this – I certainly was – but the data indicates that people living in the country spend more time online than their urban counterparts. The activities that they out-participate city dwellers in are online shopping and social networking.
I had always made the assumption that people living in cities would spend more time online. First of all, I thought that ‘new’ things came to cities first, and whilst the Internet isn’t new then at least urban people would have had a head start in all things ‘online’. Also people living in cities are exposed to a lot more advertising (free newspapers, public transport, outdoor). And since advertising is often packed with technology – the UK’s biggest advertisers are often technology companies such as telecoms giants – that this would drive greater use. Then last of all is the physical reality of getting a broadband connection. If you live in the city you’ve got the option of adsl, fibre, free wi-fi or 3G, Not many rural places can boast all of those.
Hitwise analysed user behaviour for a four week period and found that city populations were least likely to visit an online retailer, whilst those in Wales and the South West showed the greatest propensity. And when it came to social networking, London was the most under-represented. The keenest social networkers were residents of Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland.
On reflection, this sort-of fits. People living in cities live right by shops, so why bother shopping online? And in living in proximity to so many people, maybe they’re less keen to socialise online too? There’s no doubt that city people keep longer work hours, so maybe it just comes down to a plain old lack of time.
What does this research mean if you’re building a website? Well I’m not sure I can find anything for you. I would love to be able to deliver an easy conclusion; for example, make your shopping site appeal to the sensibilities of a villager. But what are those sensibilities? I’m sure I could only come up with a few stereotypes.
Of course, whilst the urban population might be under represented as website visitors, they still outnumber rural dwellers by a huge margin. So like it or not: your website visitors will still most likely be living in a town or city.
Are you just targeting one or other group? How has that influenced your web design? Leave us a comment below.