chapter 10 gsmm-canada

7/27/2019 Chapter 10 GSMM-Canada

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Introduction

The 28.5 million internet user population represented 83% of the population of Canada in 2012 as per

the data provided by internet world stats.

While in terms of internet population Canada may not seem very attractive, but when other factors areconsidered, the internet savvy nature of Canadian Population can be seen through the figures given

below.

In terms of average hours spent on internet Canada is second only to USA. The 41.6 hours per visitor

average is more than 150% of the world average.

83%

17%

Internet Penetration in Canada

Online Population

Offline Population

World-Wide United States Canada Brazil France Germany

24.6

43 41.3

27.9 27.9 24.7

Average Hours Per visitor on Internet

2,278

3,731 3,709 3,4322,835 2,681

Average Pages Per visitor on

Internet

60

101 97 8875

64

Average Visits Per visitor on

Internet


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In terms of pages per visitor and in terms of average visits per visitor Canada again leads the world with

4,014 page views per visitor and 101.7 being the average number of visits.

Ontario, the largest province of Canada contributes the major number of visitors with its 12.9 million

residents. Following Ontario are french section of Canada Quebec at 24% and Priaries at 18%. The

regional breakup of internet users is shown through the figure below.

It is not just the number of residents but also the high internet penetration in Ontario which gives it the

major share of Canadian internet users. The internet penetration in major regions of Canada is

represented through the figure below.

As we can see, British Columbia leads the pack registering 86% internet penetration, followed by Alberta

at 84%, Ontario at 81% and Quebec at 76%.

When looking at the demographical breakup in terms of age categories, an interesting read comes up.

Major users of the internet fall in the 34-55 age categories while under 18 age category as well as 18-34

age category represents 18% and 27% of the internet users respectively. The figure below is based on

the study of comScore done in 2012 in Canada.

39%

22%

18%

14%

7%

Internet Users by Region

Ontario

Quebec

Priaries

British Columbia

Atlantic

British Columbia Alberta Ontario Quebec

86.0%

84.0%

81.0%

76.0%

Internet Penetration in different regions in Canada


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What is also interesting is that the increase in the number of internet users in the 55+ age category

between 2010 and 2011 was 6% while in 2011 to 2012 period it has come down by 1%. Similarly the age

group 35-54 which experienced 2% growth in 2010-11 experienced a decline by 4% in 2011-12. Most

growth was registered by under 18 age category which after going down by 4% has leveled the score

with a 4% growth.

Almost 100% of the online population in Canada is a daily user of internet when comparing monthly

averages of Total unique visitors (25,497) with Average daily users (25,387).

The use of smartphone has increased and it now claims 17% more market share which it gained from

feature phones.

Similar growth is also observed in the percentage of video viewership in Smartphones which grew from

16% in 2011 to 37% in 2012. It is also observed that a smartphone owner is 15% more likely to have

another connected device (tablets, e-readers etc.) with him as compared to feature phone.

Under 18

22%

18-34

27%34-55

32%

55+

19%

Age demographics of Internet Users

2011 2012

45%62%

55%38%

Use of Smartphone vs. Feature Phone

Feature Phone

Smartphone


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Social Media

Social media penetration in Canada is almost 60% of the online users. This represents half of the

Canadian population. The increase in number of users in social media from 2009 to 2011 was only 4%,

but what was significant was the rise in participation.

The daily participation which was at 30% in 2011 as can be seen through the figure above was only 19%

in 2010 and similarly weekly participation grew from 35% in 2010 to 45% in 2011. Majority of the daily

users (60%) were Canadian women.

Given below are the demographics of the social networking population of Canada. Like most countries

the young Canadians are the most active group on social networks. While participation for women

remains above 95% for most categories and above 90% for all age categories, it is the older men, the

ones above 35 years of age which are less involved in the social networking sites.

Not surprisingly, the average time spent on social networking sites, further demonstrates the lead of

young Canadians in social networking and the lag of participation as we move up the age categories.

This is illustrated in the figure below.

Daily Users Weekly users Less frequent users

19%

35%

46%

30%

45%

25%

Participation in social networks

2010

2011

15-24

25-34

35-44

45-54

55+

99.2%

97.8%

90.7%

90.7%

85.5%

99.1%

97.2%

96.2%

95.8%

91.5%

Demographics of Social Networking

Female

Male


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There are different versions to which are the major social networking sites in Canada. The report from

comScore tells us that the top five social networking sites are Facebook, twitter, windows live profile,

LinkedIn and Tumblr as can be seen from the figure below.

However another study reveals slightly different results. This is a study done by askingcanadians.com

and the second place in social networking sites is given to YouTube. The figure below displays a slightly

different top 5 social networking sites in Canada.

15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+

10.6

8.6

7.4 6.25.2

Average Hours Per visitor on Social Networking Sites

Facebook Twitter Windows LiveProfile LinkedIn Tumblr

85.4%

20.8% 19.9% 17.5%10.6%

Top 5 Social Networking Sites in Canada,

Facebook YouTube Twitter LinkedIn Google+

73%

35%

20% 20% 19%

Top 5 Social Networking Sites in Canada,


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While Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are at similar positions, YouTube springs up as the second most

popular social networking site and Google+ enters the top 5. According to a study from comScore,

Canadians spending 17.3 hours by watching 332 videos per month per viewer on average.

Similarly the ranks given by branding personality also puts YouTube on the second spot based on Alexa

rankings. Their top 5 has Wikipedia at number 3 pushing Google+ out of the picture. One thing is forsure that YouTube does have a lot of Canadian users. An article on Techvibes says that in the past seven

years (from 2005 to 2012) more content has been uploaded on YouTube than CBC and CTV have

managed in past 50 years.

Some of the major activities on social media have been very straight forward as can be seen from the

figure below.

In terms of time spent on social networking sites Canada makes it to the top 10 at 10th

position with 7.7

hours as average time spent per visitor.

Social networkings popularity can also be seen when websites with most traffic are measured using

Alexa. Top 5 websites in Canada with most traffic are listed below.

1. Google.ca2. Google3. Facebook4. YouTube5. Yahoo!

The top 5 have 2 social networking sites as the most visited sites among the search engines. Although,

YouTube has now become the second largest search engine in the world, so the count can also be seen

as 1. The top social networking site in Canada is as the giant from the neighbor, Facebook.

Status Updates Photo Sharing Video Sharing

61%

39%

55%

Major Activities on social media


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Facebook

The undisputed leader of Social networking sites in Canada, Facebook leads other social networking sites

by a fair margin in every aspect. In terms of time spent or in terms of penetration of online population,

Facebook leads them all as can be seen from the figure below, where it is compared with only the next

in line of social networking sites in Canada.

With more than 18 million users in Canada, every 2nd

person in Canada has a facebook profile. Although

the past 6 months (September 2012 to March 2013) have seen some cliffs and pits, the huge margin that

Facebook carries over other social networking sites will not be affected so quickly. The progress of

Facebook can be seen through the figure below provided by social bakers.

The age demographics of Canada are displayed through the figure below. The users under 35 years of

age form almost 60% of the total Facebook users. The age group 25-34 accounts for majority of users at

31% followed by 18-24 at 21%. The fall of number of users 35 years of age and above is in line with the

lower participation in social networks in general as was shown earlier.

Facebook Twitter

85.4%

20.8%

In terms of Penetration

Facebook YouTube

470

424

In terms Time Spent (in minutes)


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Lastly, there are more women in Facebook than male, accounting for 56% of the total facebook users in

Canada.

LinkedIn

Canada is one of the largest markets of LinkedIn. LinkedIn has a 17.5% penetration in Canada. A

comparison with the best markets of LinkedIn in the world is given below as per the data from

comScores study in 2011.

As of 2012, there were more than 6 million users of LinkedIn in Canada, and the market penetration has

risen to 22.93% as per the data provided by Social bakers. A summary of LinkedIn in Canada is given in

the table below.

Total Unique

Visitors (in mn) % Reach

Average minutes

per visitor

LinkedIn 4.12 17.50% 16.3

Under 18

7%

18-24

21%

25-34

31%

35-44

17%

45-5412%

55+

12%

Age demographics of Facebook Users

Denmark

Canada

U.S.A.

Ireland

Netherlands

17.4%

17.5%

18.7%

20.4%

27.2%

Top countries of LinkedIn in terms of Market Penetration


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YouTube

In the past 7 years since YouTube came into picture, Canadians have posted more videos in it than the

CTW and CBC have put together in the last 50 years.

An average Canadian user on an average spends 4.4 hours on YouTube. The website is not only ranked

the 2nd most visited social networking site in Canada, but also ranks 4th among the top 5 websites in

Canada in terms of traffic. This traffic is calculated as per Alexa rankings.

In terms of time spent on social networking sites in Canada, YouTube is beaten by Facebook by a mere

margin of 46 minutes (470 minutes in Facebook vs. 424 minutes in YouTube).

As we can see from here, the engagement generated by YouTube is only matched by Facebook, and the

social networking site next in line uses almost 1/4th of the time when compared to YouTube.

Other Social Networking Sites

Other social networking sites such as Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram also showed significant growth in

2012. While Tumblr grew by 96% in 2012, Pinterest grew by 792%. The growth of these sites is

illustrated in the figure below from the comScore study.

Facebook YouTube Tumblr Twitter LinkedIn

470.1424

105

19.9 16.3

Average Time spent Per visitor on Social Networking Sites (in mn)


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Social Media Monitoring Tools

Some of the social media monitoring tools that can be used in Canada are listed in the table below.

Company

name Platform Media type Website

Sysomos MAP, Heartbeat All http://www.sysomos.com

DNA13 dnaMonitor All http://www.dna13.com/

RepuMetrix RepuTrace, RepuTrack All http://www.repumetrix.com

MyFrontSteps Steprep All http://steprep.myfrontsteps

White Noise

Inc. White Noise All http://www.herdthenoise.co

MediaMiser MediaMiser Enterprise All http://www.mediamiser.com

SyncapseCorp Socialtalk

Twitter, Facebook,Wordpress, Moveable Type http://www.socialtalk.com

PostRank Inc PostRankRSS Enabled Content, Blogs,Social Networks & Hubs PostRank

Needium Needium Twitter http://needium.com/

Salesforce Radian6 All http://www.radian6.com

Dishy! AG ReputationTool All http://reputationtool.com

BrandProtect

Social Media Monitoring,Reporting & Incident ResponseExperts ALL BrandProtect

Internet911

Social Media: Understanding &Protecting your OnlineReputation for SMBs ALL Internet911

Lola

Variety of off-the-shelf tools and

proprietary technologies All online sources Lola

There are many factors which contribute to the presence of so many social media monitoring tools in

Canada. A very active social networking population, the language primarily being English and the close

proximity to US which is the originator of most of the biggest social networking platforms, all contribute

to the active presence of many social media monitoring tools in Canada.

Internet and Social Media in Quebec

In terms of internet use, French Canada has lagged when compared to rest of Canada. However, over

the past few years this gap is closing. What is most interesting is the increasing participation of the 55+

age group in this category which has risen from 43% in 2005 to 63% in 2011. The figure below displays

the growth rate of internet usage among different age categories from 2009 to 2011.
http://www.sysomos.com/http://www.dna13.com/http://www.dna13.com/http://www.repumetrix.com/http://steprep.myfrontsteps.com%20/http://www.herdthenoise.com%20/http://www.mediamiser.com/http://www.socialtalk.com/http://www.postrank.com/http://needium.com/%C2%A0http://www.radian6.com%20/http://reputationtool.com%20/http://www.brandprotect.com/social-media-monitoring.htmlhttp://www.internet911.com/http://www.thinklola.com/http://www.thinklola.com/http://www.internet911.com/http://www.brandprotect.com/social-media-monitoring.htmlhttp://reputationtool.com%20/http://www.radian6.com%20/http://needium.com/%C2%A0http://www.postrank.com/http://www.socialtalk.com/http://www.mediamiser.com/http://www.herdthenoise.com%20/http://steprep.myfrontsteps.com%20/http://www.repumetrix.com/http://www.dna13.com/http://www.sysomos.com/


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This growth has also been observed in social media, where the age group of 65+ has grown from a

participation rate of 39% in 2011 to 53% in 2012 as per CEFRIOs recent data.

The top 5 social networking sites in Quebec in terms of percentage penetration of total population of

Quebec is given in the figure below.

While Facebook and YouTube retain the top spot as in rest of Canada, the rest of the social networking

sites are very different from what we see when looking at Canadian average. There is blogger at 25%,

followed by Daily Motion at 15% and then wordpress at 11%. Twitter and LinkedIn are way down at 5%

and 6% respectively.

However the real picture is revealed when the growth rates are taken into account. Some of the growth

and decline rates of various social networking sites in Quebec are represented in the figure below.

Overall Usage 18-34 34-49 50+

76%

93%88%

59%

79%

97%90%

63%

82%

97%92%

63%

Internal Usage of Francophones

20092010

2011

Facebook YouTube Blogger Daily Motion Wordpress

62%

51%

25%

15%11%

Top 5 Social Networking Sites in Quebec


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The high participation rate of females is also represented by the emergence of a studyCanadian Digital Mom by momcentralconsulting.com. For all the marketers looking to

promote products and services targeted towards women, Canada would be the place to start.

Canadians spend 41.3 hours on internet, almost 100% of them are daily internet users, and thetop 5 sites in terms of traffic have two social networks, Facebook and YouTube in it. This is

primarily the reason why social media publishers account for the largest display advertising

when compared with any other media.

In case of Quebec, while it lags the enthusiasm of rest of Canada in terms of social networkingand internet usage, the scenario is changing. The growth of 35% by social media in Quebec

represents an excellent opportunity for social marketers to target the untapped potential of

French Canada.

In the particular case of Quebec, one must consider the growth rates before looking at themarket share of social networking sites. Since Quebec is undergoing a transformation,

previously popular social network platforms such as SkyRock Blogues may not be a better choice

when compared to rapidly rising sites such as Pinterest and Instagram.

Even though language in French Canada would preferably French, social marketer should notignore English, considering 65% of the Francophones consume as much English content as they

do with French. Also some regulations with regards to the language (French) and its use in the

state of Quebec need to be taken into consideration before going into translation mode.

Canadians rank second in terms of number of videos and hours spent on videos by an averageuser. This could mean that video sharing sites such as YouTube may be a better platform to

promote the products over member based social networking sites such as Facebook.

References

Internet Addiction: Canadians Reportedly Now Spending Less Time Online,http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/03/04/internet-addiction_n_2806235.html?ir=Canada+Living

More Content Has Been Uploaded to YouTube from Canada than CTV and CBC Have Produced in 50

Years,http://www.techvibes.com/blog/more-content-has-been-uploaded-to-youtube-from-canada-

than-ctv-and-cbc-have-produced-in-50-years-2012-04-27

OH CANADA! How our neighbors to the north feel about Social Media!,

http://www.brandingpersonality.com/oh-canada-how-our-neighbors-to-the-north-feel-about-social-

media/

ITS A SOCIAL WORLD Top 10 Need-to-Knows About Social Networking and Where Its headed

http://www.slideshare.net/ryangreenme/its-a-social-world-top-10-needtoknows-about-social-

networking-and-where-its-headed

Internet World Stats,http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats3.htm

How are Canadians Using Social Media?http://stryvegroup.com/how-are-canadians-using-social-

media/?goback=.gde_3754448_member_134197618
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2012 Canada Digital Future in Focus,

http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Presentations_and_Whitepapers/2012/2012_Canada_Digital_Futur

e_in_Focus

2013, Digital Future in Focus,

http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Blog/2013_Digital_Future_in_Focus_Series

European Travel Commission, New Media Trend Watch

http://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/markets-by-country/11-long-haul/45-canada

Most Canadians still shy away from social media for shopping: report

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/digital-culture/social-web/most-canadians-still-shy-

away-from-social-media-for-shopping-report/article7903948/

Whats so different in Quebec?,http://en.titaninteractif.com/index.php/2011/02/01/whats-so-

different-in-quebec/

62% of ALL Quebecers use Facebook,http://en.titaninteractif.com/index.php/2011/03/01/62-of-all-

quebecers-use-facebook/

More social. Less networked,http://www.whatquebecwants.com/whatquebecwants/social-media/
http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Presentations_and_Whitepapers/2012/2012_Canada_Digital_Future_in_Focushttp://www.comscore.com/Insights/Presentations_and_Whitepapers/2012/2012_Canada_Digital_Future_in_Focushttp://www.comscore.com/Insights/Presentations_and_Whitepapers/2012/2012_Canada_Digital_Future_in_Focushttp://www.comscore.com/Insights/Blog/2013_Digital_Future_in_Focus_Serieshttp://www.comscore.com/Insights/Blog/2013_Digital_Future_in_Focus_Serieshttp://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/markets-by-country/11-long-haul/45-canadahttp://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/markets-by-country/11-long-haul/45-canadahttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/digital-culture/social-web/most-canadians-still-shy-away-from-social-media-for-shopping-report/article7903948/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/digital-culture/social-web/most-canadians-still-shy-away-from-social-media-for-shopping-report/article7903948/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/digital-culture/social-web/most-canadians-still-shy-away-from-social-media-for-shopping-report/article7903948/http://en.titaninteractif.com/index.php/2011/02/01/whats-so-different-in-quebec/http://en.titaninteractif.com/index.php/2011/02/01/whats-so-different-in-quebec/http://en.titaninteractif.com/index.php/2011/02/01/whats-so-different-in-quebec/http://en.titaninteractif.com/index.php/2011/02/01/whats-so-different-in-quebec/http://en.titaninteractif.com/index.php/2011/03/01/62-of-all-quebecers-use-facebook/http://en.titaninteractif.com/index.php/2011/03/01/62-of-all-quebecers-use-facebook/http://en.titaninteractif.com/index.php/2011/03/01/62-of-all-quebecers-use-facebook/http://en.titaninteractif.com/index.php/2011/03/01/62-of-all-quebecers-use-facebook/http://www.whatquebecwants.com/whatquebecwants/social-media/http://www.whatquebecwants.com/whatquebecwants/social-media/http://www.whatquebecwants.com/whatquebecwants/social-media/http://www.whatquebecwants.com/whatquebecwants/social-media/http://en.titaninteractif.com/index.php/2011/03/01/62-of-all-quebecers-use-facebook/http://en.titaninteractif.com/index.php/2011/03/01/62-of-all-quebecers-use-facebook/http://en.titaninteractif.com/index.php/2011/02/01/whats-so-different-in-quebec/http://en.titaninteractif.com/index.php/2011/02/01/whats-so-different-in-quebec/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/digital-culture/social-web/most-canadians-still-shy-away-from-social-media-for-shopping-report/article7903948/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/digital-culture/social-web/most-canadians-still-shy-away-from-social-media-for-shopping-report/article7903948/http://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/markets-by-country/11-long-haul/45-canadahttp://www.comscore.com/Insights/Blog/2013_Digital_Future_in_Focus_Serieshttp://www.comscore.com/Insights/Presentations_and_Whitepapers/2012/2012_Canada_Digital_Future_in_Focushttp://www.comscore.com/Insights/Presentations_and_Whitepapers/2012/2012_Canada_Digital_Future_in_Focus

chapter 10 gsmm-canada

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