Europe Online: The three screens that will dominate according to Microsoft

Here are Microsoft’s latest predictions and highlights regarding the online’s current growth trends:

• Almost 50% of Europeans now have an internet connection

• 9 hours per week spent on the web in 2008, up 27% from 2004 – more time than people spent reading print media, watching movies or playing video games

• North South divide in Europe: Nordic countries have an internet penetration rate of 76% on average, compared to 45% in Southern Europe

• Internet consumption set to overtake traditional TV in June 2010 – 2.5 days per month spent on internet versus 2 days on traditional TV: but does not signify decline in TV- simply a shift in how it is consumed

• Online video established as most popular online audiovisual entertainment application, with more than 1 in 4 (28%) Europeans and over 300 million people worldwide watching short or full-length videos on the internet

• PC and mobile growing in popularity as alternative screens for TV and digital content: as users increasingly access the internet through IPTV, games consoles and mobile phones, so the time spent on the internet using a PC will drop from 95% today to 50% over the next 5 years

Internet usage keeps increasing worldwide and the number of people logging on is greater as is the amount of time spent online. Microsoft predicts that by 2010, the Internet will overtake traditional TV as the most used form of media. It’s important to mention, however, that this does not signify the decline in TV but the way in which people are experiencing viewing TV content.

And this leads directly to the meaning of the phrase ‘the three screens that will dominate’: TV, PC and mobile. It is due to this increase in Internet usage that people are spending more and more time viewing both broadband content as well as live and recorded TV through alternative channels.

Broadband penetration and providers offering high-speed access to the Net, have also given way to the rise of online cosumption and if we refer back to our 5th pointer in the introduction, online video is becoming one of the most popular forms of viewing entertaining with 1 in 4 or 28% of Europeans watching short or full-length videos.

There is no doubt corporate branding is as important in relation to the Internet as in all other walks of life, and the continued growth and geographic spread of the Internet is obviously important as the figures relating to e-commerce are themselves interesting.

The value of the Internet lies no longer in its use as a giant online mall but as a massive information highway where the exchange of information and feedback is free.