Study: internet nearly twice as influential as television in Germany, France and UK

Written on June 30, 2008 – 4:04 pm
Robin Wauters, Next web enthusiast & Plugg organizer

Colour me unsurprised: the internet has almost double the influence of television in consumer decision-making in the UK, Germany and France, according to the Digital Influence Index (DII), a study of media consumption and online behaviors conducted by Fleishman-Hillard and Harris Interactive.

In all three countries, the internet ranks as the most influential medium among internet users, with index scores of 44% in the UK, 45% in Germany, and 46% in France. That translates into roughly twice the influence of the second-strongest channel, television, and about eight times the influence of traditional printed media.

Consumers in all three countries are more likely to seek others’ opinions, through social media and product-rating sites, for making personal decisions. In contrast, they use company-controlled sources when making transactional decisions on commoditized items, such as utilities or airline tickets.

Other findings: while consumers see the clear benefits of the internet on their lives, they continue to have concerns about internet safety and the trustworthiness of some online information. In the UK, for example, 66% of online consumers say the internet helps them make better decisions, but just 28% trust the information companies provide on the internet.

The research also confirms some clichés: the French are the most engaged in digital communications, with two-thirds of web users owning a webcam and three-fourths using IM. UK consumers are the most likely to have created an online profile site on a social networking page, and Germans are more likely to have used the internet for research.

Fleishman-Hillard, working cooperation with Harris Interactive, interviewed nearly 5,000 internet users in the UK, Germany and France. The survey was designed to measure media-consumption patterns, internet behaviour and attitudes, and online social networking involvement, as well as to assess the internet’s influence on specific decisions.

Via MarketingCharts.
(The chart embedded above is a courtesy of Fleishman-Hillard and Harris Interactive.)

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influence, internet, media consumption, research, study, tv

About the author: Robin Wauters is a Belgium-based social media consultant, startup advisor, blogger, entrepreneur, Twitter fanatic, conference organizer and allround web addict. Between trying out just about every new web application that gets in his sight, he advises local startups like ContactOffice, Oxynade and Yuntaa. And when he's not busy trying to keep tabs with what's going on in the virtualization & cloud computing industry as managing editor of Virtualization.com, he's probably working on the organization of Plugg, an annual celebration of European web entrepreneurship.

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7 comments/trackbacks to “Study: internet nearly twice as influential as television in Germany, France and UK”

Jul 4, 2008: 研究指出:在英國、法國和德國網路對消費者的影響力將近電視的兩倍 - MMDays
[...] via:TheNextWeb [...]

By Dirk Olbertz on Jun 30, 2008

What a stupid survey! Of course the internet got such a big share, when you base your survey on internet users only.

Guess how it looked, if you would focus on newspaper or magazin readers, or people who spent most of their time in front on the TV?

[Reply]
By Robin Wauters on Jun 30, 2008

Hi Dirk,

Yes … but no. Think about it. Surveyed internet users are more likely to have consumed TV, radio and printed media in the past, before the web was around, or are still doing so. Why wouldn’t they be representative with regards to their view on the influence these media have on them, just because they were surveyed on the net?

[Reply]
By Marco on Jul 1, 2008

The article points to the speed at which the internet has transformed life at the turn of the millennium. However, some
saw this trend 10 years ago (giving rise to the tech bubble, many would argue), while others are content to read the surveys. The question today is this: Who is willing to bet on the mobile phone ranking higher than TV by 2015? I predict emerging markets will pull adoption.

[Reply]
By Siddharth Surana on Jul 1, 2008

The report does highlight a few points, but as dirk stated you can’t base it on 100% net audience. Need a fair and unbiased universe.

That said, report was still insightful.

[Reply]
By Robin Wauters on Jul 1, 2008

@Marco: I agree, but I’d argue that a number of trendwatchers have been proclaiming mobile usage would overtake the web since 2002 as well and it hasn’t happened.

@Siddharth: I’m sorry, but I don’t see it that way. What’s a “100% net audience”? I’d say the surveyees are exactly the kind of people who can compare media because they consume (or have consumed) others as well. People who’ve never been on the web would probably not claim the internet is more influential than tv, duh. You could argue that the numbers get skewed a little, but calling it fair and unbiased is … well, unfair.

[Reply]
By Siddharth Surana on Jul 1, 2008

Probably.. and in the countries the survey was done would only have a handful of people who do not use the internet.

It might sound unfair to you, but I would like the survey to have similar percentage on non-net users so that whatever skew it might have had (negligible in most cases) would be corrected.

[Reply]

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