The coronavirus emergency has led Italians to spend more time online, especially on news sites, whose use has doubled in recent weeks. According to data provided by Audiweb, which examined the online audience between 2 and 22 March, the time spent on the web grew by 61% from 16 to 22 March, the week in which online news brands did record a + 96%, after the + 102% scored between 9 and 15 March.
On a demographic level, the increase in time spent on news sites involved both women (+ 101%) and men (+ 91%) aged 13 and over. Looking at the age groups, the greatest contribution to growth came from 45-54 year olds (+ 118%), and from 55-64 year olds (+ 114%) and from 25-34 year olds (+ 110%). The increase was 66% for 13-17 year olds, 60% for 18-24 year olds and 65% for over 65 year olds. Going into the details of the categories of sites detected, it emerged that in the first two weeks analyzed (from 2 to 15 March) the curve of the interest of the online population was mainly directed towards information.
Subsequently, we moved from the pursuit of authoritative and timely information on the government provisions communicated on several occasions, to the organization and management of recreational, service, or learning and study activities in the last week of detection, between 16 and March 22. The interest of users begins to grow more towards the offer of useful content to spend time at home, between work or activities of different nature. The increase for the Home & Fashion category was therefore strong (+ 114%), driven by the offer of brands grouped in the Food & Cooking sub-category. The Family & Lifestyles category also increased (+ 23%), and Entertainment (+ 31%) which brings together entertainment videos, online radios and infotainment content for the female audience.
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