The Netherlands and France Have the Highest Penetration of Online Banking Users in Europe

*comScore Releases Overview of European Internet Usage for December 2011*

LONDON, UK, 16 February 2012 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an overview of internet usage in Europe, showing 381.5 million unique visitors went online in December 2011 for an average of 27.5 hours per person. This release highlights internet usage in 49 European markets aggregated into the European region and provides individual reporting on 18 markets. Amongst its findings, the study also shows that online banking reached 66.3 percent of the internet audience in the Netherlands, making it the top market in Europe for sites such as ING Group.

2 out of 3 Internet Users Accessed Online Banking Sites in the Netherlands
Online banking sites reached 66.3 percent of the total internet audience in the Netherlands, the highest penetration of all markets in Europe. In fact, the Netherlands was not only the top market in Europe but also amongst all global markets. France ranked second with 59.9 percent of the internet audience accessing sites such as Crédit Agricole and Société Générale. Swedish internet users were also avid online bankers (55.9 percent reach), placing the country third by online banking penetration in Europe.

*Amongst the 18 European markets that we report on individually

147.5 million European internet users visited online banking sites in December, representing 38.7 percent of the total internet audience. In addition to the Netherlands having the highest online banking penetration, Dutch bank ING Group ranked as the leading online banking property in Europe, attracting 11.2 million unique visitors during the month. Ranking as a close second was the online property for French bank Crédit Agricole with 10.7 million unique visitors. Lloyds Banking Group rounded up the top three with 9.4 million Europeans visitors during the month.

Fastest Growing Properties in Europe
The growth of Russian social network Fotostrana.ru which belongs to the Hamborner Holdings property, made it the fastest growing property (up 52 percent) from November to December, followed by software company Opera Software (up 36 percent). In terms of the most popular sites in Europe, Google Sites continued to rank first with 350.2 million unique visitors. Facebook, which ranked third in audience size with 258.1 million visitors, had the highest overall engagement at 93.3 billion minutes spent on the site in total. Interestingly, Vkontakte had the highest average user engagement at 7.9 hours per visitor during the month.

* Amongst the top 100 online properties

European Internet Usage by Country
Below is a snapshot of European internet usage in the 18 reportable markets for which comScore provides individual reporting. The Russian internet audience continued to be the largest audience by users in Europe with nearly 53.3 million users accessing the internet in December 2011. The UK continued to show the highest engagement, with users spending an average of 35.6 hours online during the month. Turkey overtook the Netherlands to rank second for engagement with users spending an average of 33.7 hours online during the month.

*Source: comScore