14 November 2000 - The number of people using the Internet every month from home has leapt by almost a third over the past year, from 7.8 million in October 1999, to 11 million in September 2000.

According to the first ever, complete set of annual data on Internet usage in the UK, released today by MMXI Europe, use of the Internet in the UK is growing at a phenomenal rate.

The most popular websites in the UK are MSN.com, Yahoo.com, Freeserve.com, Microsoft.com and Passport.com. Other strong players include Lycos.com, BBC.co.uk and AOL.
Lastminute, Freeserve, BBC, BT, Barclays and British Airways contribute to the overall success of British brands online (Chart 3).
Sports, entertainment and travel are booming on the Internet. Sites in these categories continue to attract more and more visitors and reach greater proportions of the UK at home Internet audience. The most popular sports sites include Supergoals.com and Teamtalk.com. Popular entertainment sites include Virgin.net and Channel4.com. Top travel sites include Lastminute.com and British-Airways.com.
Overall, the average amount of time people are spending on the Internet each month has increased from four hours seventeen minutes in October 1999 to five hours forty-seven minutes in September 2000.

Men continue to dominate use of the Internet, but MMXI Europe figures for the past 12 months show that women are catching up (Charts 1 & 2). Kids aged two to 17 are the fastest growing Internet fans showing an 89% rise in Unique Visitor numbers from 1,224,000 in January to 2,312,000 in September (Chart 5).

“This is the most comprehensive information available on internet use in the UK,” said Mari Kim Coleman, UK Managing Director of MMXI Europe. “A complete year of data allows us to see how Britain is behaving online, and how much the web has become part of our lives. As the population grows and evolves, we can see people spending more time and viewing more content online. The first year of data shows how eagerly the British have embraced the Internet.” she said.