COVID-19 - Changes in online behavior across Europe - June

Which categories of online use have increased and decreased the most before and during the COVID-19 crisis? Using our online usage index based on time spent across different categories of sites, we look at changing patterns of use for:

• Germany
• Spain
• Netherlands
• Italy
• Poland

We analyzed the average daily time spent in each category after lockdown (8 June – 5 July) and compared it with the time during lockdown to understand how behavior had changed, the health of various categories and to get an idea of where to advertise. We used an index approach, where figures above 100 means use has increased, and below 100 mean use has dropped. 

On this comparison, we identified a remarkable growth on time spent on Public Services sites, which is of 52% in Spain and 42% in Italy to give some examples. 

By splitting the analysis into five time periods for each of the markets studied (dates depend on the market’s own lockdown timeline), we can see the rise and fall of categories. For instance, in Germany the average time spent on Travel sites dropped to 60 in period 2 (01/04-12/04) but bounced back to 120 in period 7 (07/06 – 05/07), while in Spain, even when travel is growing steadily, it is still far from pre-lockdown levels. 

Deep dive in the results of the study and discover the best performing vs worst performing categories!