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Hitwise Intelligence - James Murray - UK

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8 Internet Predictions for 2012

December 21, 2011

With New Year fast approaching it’s time to look ahead to 2012. What does online hold in store for the year ahead? We’ve put together our top predictions for 2012.

1. Entertainment will be the most visited online category of the year as TV, movies and games become more dependent on online as a distribution channel.

2. Facebook will continue to dominate social media with over 50% market share of visits to all social networks. The UK’s most popular social network will reach a new milestone in 2012 with over 500 million hours spent on the site in a single month from UK Internet users.

3. Social media will have a greater impact on traffic to transactional websites than ever before. In 2012 between 50-60 per cent of all traffic leaving social media websites will go to transactional websites up from 43 per cent in 2010 and 49 per cent in 2011.

4. Online video will continue to grow as a channel with YouTube leading the way for video consumption. At some point during 2012 online video will pass the 1 billion visits per month milestone.

5. Department stores will increase their influence in online shopping accounting for 25% of all visits to online retailers as consumers move towards more one-stop-shops in their online shopping habits. John Lewis, Debenhams, House of Fraser and Amazon will lead the growth of this category.

6. Consumers will be bargain-hunting for online discounts more than ever before. Visits to Rewards and Directories websites (our collective term for voucher sites, cashback sites, group buying sites etc) will see 10 per cent growth during 2012 as consumers look for the best deals online.

7. 2012 brings a feast of sporting events with the London Olympics, Wimbledon and Euro 2012 all taking place this summer. 650 million visits will go to sporting websites in July 2012, the biggest ever month for this industry online.

8. Two growing trends in travel for 2012 will be glamping and Balkan holidays. Glamorous camping ‘glamping’ searches were up 90% in 2011 and look set to be a more mainstream holiday option in 2012. The Balkans are also flying up our hot destinations list as a trendy and affordable alternative to the Mediterranean in particular Bulgaria, Kosovo and Albania.