The data relates to the U.K., although it is applicable to most high-income countries. The metrics are compiled by the communications industry regulator Ofcom. The headline figure is that British subjects are now spending more than a quarter of their days online with services such as Zoom seeing large growth (fuelled by the COVID-19 lockdown). In fact, adults are now spending a record four hours each day online (on average). One driver for this is with the increase in video calls and other forms of digital communication.
The data has been looked at further by analysts at Uswitch. The researchers have analysed Google search data for 20 apps between 1st April and 31st May, 2020, in order to reveal the nations most-used online services contributing to this large growth.
This reveals that the UK’s most searched for apps during lockdown are, together with the year-on-year percentage increases:
1. Zoom (up 1040 percent)
2. Google Hangouts (up 186 percent)
3. Facetime (up 176 percent)
4. Skype (up 120 percent)
5. My5 (up 103 percent)
6. GeForce NOW (up 83 percent)
7. Hulu (up 49 percent)
8. All4 (up 46 percent)
9. Apple TV (up 44 percent)
10. Disney Plus (up 20 percent)
Data relating to Zoom, which tops the list, showed how the communications software grew from 659,000 UK adults to reach 13 million adults over the same period. One reason for this could be efficiency. By using just 0.54GB per hour, Zoom is also one of the least bandwidth-hungry apps. Out of all the video-calling apps, Google Hangouts uses the most bandwidth – 0.70GB per hour.
The Bandwidth Britain Report further revealed that 35 percent of broadband users in the UK complained about slower Internet speeds during lockdown.
