Web video more popular than shopping

Online video and social networking have become the activities of choice for surfers at the expense of online shopping. According to figures from web-monitoring firm Hitwise, 8.6 per cent of all UK internet visits went to online retail websites and 9.8 per cent to social-networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter in March 2009. But these figures have turned on their head since March 2008. Online retailers accounted for 9.7 per cent of all UK internet visits, and social networks 8.2 per cent last year, said Hitwise. "The growth of social networking, online video and the continuing popularity of news websites has meant that an increasing proportion of consumer's online time in the UK has been devoted to online media," commented Robin Goad, Hitwise's Director of Research. Goad put the change in our surfing habits down in part to the current economic conditions. Online discount codes: Save money online "Historically this has gone hand in hand with the growth of online retail, but over the last 3 months online retailers seem to be really suffering from the economic downturn for the first time," he said.