According to a new report by comScore, Internet users in Singapore spend half of their time online using social and entertainment websites. This is the first public report of online usage in Singapore. It includes a ranking of the most “engaging and visited Internet site categories and properties, based on the comScore World Metrix service, and the top search properties, based on the comScore qSearch service.
One of the most notable aspects of the report is that people in Singapore spend more time sending instant messages. In fact, instant messaging has the largest share of Singaporeans’ time spent online.
According to the report, in “February 2009, more than 2.5 million people in Singapore age 15 and older accessed the Internet from home and work locations, consuming an average of 1,785 pages of content and accessing the Internet an average of 21 hours per person.”
comScore goes on to say that “Internet users in Singapore averaged 21 hours online per visitor during February, with online communication, entertainment, and social networking topping the list of how users were most likely to spend their time. Highlighting the particular significance of online communication in Singapore, Instant Messaging captured 24 percent of total minutes, making it the leading activity, while Web-based email accounted for 6 percent.
Singaporeans spent 14 percent of their online time at the Entertainment category, which includes popular Web brands like YouTube and MediaCorp, while social networking accounted for 8 percent.”
Top Site Categories in Singapore Based on Time Spent February 2009
Total Singapore Internet Audience*, Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations
Source: comScore World Metrix
Share (%) of Total
Minutes Spent Online
Total Internet 100.0%
Instant Messengers 24.2%
Entertainment 13.8%
Social Networking 8.0%
e-mail 5.7%
Online Gaming 2.4%
Search/Navigation 2.3%
Blogs 2.1%
Business/Finance 1.9%
Community 1.5%
News/Information 1.3%
All Other Categories 37.0%
* Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.
comScore says that “Google Sites ranked as the most visited Internet property in Singapore with 2 million visitors in February 2009, reaching nearly 80 percent of the online population. Microsoft Sites followed in second with 1.9 million visitors (77 percent reach), while Yahoo! Sites ranked third with 1.8 million visitors (70 percent reach).
Social networking sites also made an appearance in the ranking, including Facebook.com, which reached more than 1 million visitors and ranked as the fourth most visited property in February, and Friendster.com, which ranked sixth with 838,000 visitors.”
Top Internet Properties in Singapore Based on Unique Visitors
February 2009
Total Singapore Internet Audience*, Age 15+ - Home & Work
Locations
Source: comScore World Metrix
Total Unique
Visitors (000) % Reach
Total Internet 2,523 100.0%
Google Sites 2,009 79.6%
Microsoft Sites 1,929 76.5%
Yahoo! Sites 1,757 69.7%
Facebook.com 1,128 44.7%
Wikimedia Foundation
Sites 848 33.6%
Friendster.com 838 33.2%
CBS Interactive 529 21.0%
Apple Inc. 515 20.4%
Ask Network 510 20.2%
WordPress 475 18.8%
* Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or
access from mobile phones or PDAs.
According to comScore qSearch, “221 million searches were conducted in Singapore in February, a 43-percent increase versus year ago. Google Sites led the search market with 146 million searches conducted (66 percent search market share), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 39 million searches (17 percent) and Baidu.com Inc. with 8 million searches (4 percent). Google searchers were also the most prolific with an average of 74 search queries per searcher during the month.”
Top Search Properties in Singapore by Query Volume
February 2009
Total Singapore Internet Audience*, Age 15+ - Home & Work
Locations
Source: comScore qSearch
Searches
Searches Per Share of
(MM) Searcher Searches
Total Internet 221 100.6 100.0%
Google Sites 146 74.0 66.0%
Yahoo! Sites 39 27.8 17.4%
Baidu.com Inc. 8 29.2 3.8%
Microsoft Sites 5 7.4 2.5%
Ask Network 5 9.2 2.2%
Sohu.com Inc. 5 24.2 2.1%
FACEBOOK.COM 4 8.0 1.9%
FRIENDSTER.COM 3 6.6 1.3%
Wikimedia Foundation Sites 1 5.0 0.6%
eBay 1 8.6 0.5%
* Excludes searches from public computers such as Internet cafes or access
from mobile phones or PDAs.
