The Netherlands leads Europe in online visit frequency

Dutch internet users also exhibit strong engagement with an average of 31.9 hours per visitor spent online in September 2010. Users spent most of their time on Portals (7.2 hours), followed by Instant Messaging (6.9 hours), Social Networking (3.5 hours) and E-Mail (3.1 hours).

Dutch internet users are most frequent website visitors in Europe

European internet users age 15 years and older accessed the internet on average 58.9 times in September 2010. The Netherlands ranked highest in Europe with 78.2 visits per visitor, nearly 20 more visits per month higher than the European average. The UK ranked second with 71.3 visits per visitor, followed by France (68.4 visits per visitor) and Spain (63.7 visits per visitor).

*comScore reportable universe for some European countries is internet users age 15+. To make sure all countries are comparable the country ranking is based on a 15+ universe.
**Excludes visits from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

Dutch audience spent most time on portals

The 11.9 million internet users in the Netherlands age 6 or older spent an average of 31.9 hours online in September 2010, with the Web portals category, which includes Microsoft, Yahoo! and AOL, leading the way at 7.2 hours. Instant messengers ranked second with an average of 6.9 hours per user, followed by social networking sites, such as Hyves, Facebook and Twitter, at 3.5 hours per visitors in September. Dutch internet users spent more time on social networks than on e-mail, multimedia, online gaming, auctions or classifieds sites.

*Excludes visits from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

"The Dutch are rather sophisticated internet users, as evidenced by their high frequency of usage and engagement with a variety of different online content," said Wolf Allisat, comScore EVP for International Markets. "With comScore's recent acquisition of Dutch company Nedstat, we look forward to providing even greater insights into the behaviour of online consumers in this important market."