January 2023 data shows Australians spent on average 107 hours online
6 March 2023 – Ipsos iris, Australia’s new digital audience measurement currency endorsed by the IAB, launches today, providing accurate data about the 21 million Australians aged 14+ who access a wide variety of digital content and services across Smartphone, PC/Laptop and Tablet devices.
Ipsos iris is an independent source of truth for the media industry providing a level playing field for comparison of audience reach and characteristics and supporting the $14.2 billion Australian online advertising market*. The January 2023 data shows that Australians spent on average 107 hours online on a PC/laptop, smartphone, or tablet device.
The most popular online categories by total audience size in January include social networking (20.9 million), search (20.9 million), technology (20.8 million), retail & commerce (20.6 million) and entertainment (20.5 million).
Almost 20.3 million Australians spent on average more than six hours visiting online news sites and apps in January, which rose to 11 hours among those aged 55-64. The News category includes audience and time spent online on both general news and broader news content including weather, and sport, lifestyle, entertainment, and business news.
General news is the most popular news sub-category reaching 19.2 million Australians in January and weather had the highest time spent with almost four hours per person. The reporting of news brands also includes the audience of media owner content distributed on platforms such as Google AMP, Facebook, and Apple News.
Ipsos iris provides accuracy in solving cross-device deduplication, the biggest challenge in measuring online audiences, using a single-source multi-device panel measuring activity on 8,000 smartphone, PC, laptop and tablet devices. Smartphones led digital consumption with 19.2 million Australians spending on average 82 hours online. In addition, 14.1 million Australians accessed PC/laptops spending an average of 32 minutes online and 3.6 million were on tablets spending on average 61 hours online.
In demographics, 25- to 39- year olds remain the largest age group online at 26% share of audience. The highest average time per person spent online is amongst the 55- to 64-year-old age group, spending on average 116 hours online in January.
Later this year CTV audience currency integration from a data partnership with OzTAM will provide total unduplicated digital audience currency data for CTV, smartphones, tablets, and computers.
Ipsos ANZ CEO, Simon Wake, said: “Ipsos iris brings a new standard of measurement to the industry that has been built in conjunction with the IAB. Ipsos iris delivers accuracy in cross device usage and audience duplication, as well as new insights into younger audiences on mobile devices. All Ipsos clients will benefit from our deep understanding of the digital behaviour of Australians.”
IAB CEO, Gai Le Roy, said: “The launch of Ipsos iris today is the culmination of significant collaboration across the industry to provide robust digital audience content measurement that will continue to evolve with the changing media, consumer, and technology landscape. Ipsos iris provides inclusive, independent, and transparent data for advertiser and agencies to confidently plan digital media investment and new ways for media owners to differentiate their inventory. Ipsos iris also provides a pathway to cross-platform and cross-media measurement solutions for the industry into the future.”
Endorsed by UKOM, Ipsos iris has been the digital audience currency in the UK since 2021 and it was recently announced the endorsement has been extended until 2027. Ipsos iris has been adopted across the UK publisher and agency ecosystem.
UKOM CEO, Ian Dowds, said: “In the UK Ipsos iris is proving itself to be trusted, transparent and future ready. UKOM is pleased to endorse the Ipsos iris methodology and congratulates Ipsos and IAB Australia on their launch.”
Notes for editors:
- Ipsos iris provides accurate data about the number of people who visit the content of digital publishers and platforms, along with the frequency of visits and time spent by tracking digital audience behaviour across desktop/laptop, smartphone, and tablets. It uses a hybrid methodology that combines metered data from a high quality, nationally representative, single-source passive panel with site-centric census measurement via media owner tagging.
- Ipsos iris is fully privacy compliant and cross-media ready and will continue to evolve with a roadmap of enhancements over 2023 and beyond. It will also be adaptable to changing requirements as the industry develops in future years.
- The launch of Ipsos iris is the culmination of extensive work by the IAB and its Measurement Council that commenced in early 2021 with a strategic review of industry requirements. Ipsos was awarded the IAB’s endorsement, having best met the standards on criteria across all areas of product along with criteria for operations and a future roadmap.
*Source: IAB Australia Online Advertising Expenditure Report (OAER CY2022) prepared by PwC Australia.
To find out more about Ipsos iris for the Australia market visit here.
To find out more about IAB Australia’s role driving independent audience measurement currency visit here.