Canadians no longer the biggest web addict, report shows

Canadians have lost the dubious distinction of spending the most time online, according to a new report by the measurement firm comScore.

The average Canadian internet user was online for 41.3 hours per month in the fourth quarter of last year, down from 45.3 hours in 2011 and 43.5 hours in 2010.

That still ranked second among the countries that comScore tracks, only behind U.S. users, who logged 43 hours online each month.

But Canadian web surfers were first when it came to the average number of web pages viewed each month at 3,731, an average of more than 120 per day.

The report also noted that of the 25.5 million internet users in Canada, nearly 100 per cent were online every day. Only half a per cent fell into the category of using the internet monthly rather than daily.

Canadians also ranked second globally — behind the U.K. this time — for online video viewing. The average user watched 291 videos a month spanning 24.8 hours.

More mobile users

ComScore found the mobile market grew by 10 per cent in Canada in 2012, adding about two million customers, to hit just over 22 million. Smartphone ownership grew 17 percentage points to represent 62 per cent of the market.

As of December, Google Android had 40 per cent of Canada's smartphone market, followed by Apple with 35 per cent, Research in Motion with 20 per cent, and Microsoft and Symbian with two per cent each.

While Facebook is far and away the largest social network in Canada and Twitter is second, followed closely by LinkedIn, the image sharing site Pinterest had the most growth in 2012, surging in audience by 792 per cent.

Social networking on smartphones grew significantly in 2012, with 56 per cent more users accessing a social media site or reading blogs on their device compared to the previous year.

Of those users, 58 per cent said they were on social media sites with their smartphone almost every day and 25 per cent said at least once a week.

E-commerce and online banking

Online shopping was up by 10 per cent in sales in 2012, up to $22 million, and up 17 per cent in transactions, topping 105,000, comScore reported.

Visits to retail websites were up by nine per cent, with users surfing to Amazon, Apple, Kijiji, Best Buy and Walmart the most.

Online banking was up by five per cent with nearly 16 million Canadians accessing a banking site monthly. About 33 per cent of smartphone owners used their device for mobile banking, up from 29 per cent in 2011.