Social networks
The Baromètre du numérique survey issued by the ARCEP reveals that, at mid-2017, 81 percent of the French owned a computer, 73 percent a smartphone and 44 percent a tablet with respectively a daily use of 53 percent, 68 percent and 21 percent. Around 88 percent of overall France inhabitants have access to Internet, but 100 percent of the 12-39 years old. Smartphones are the most used device to log onto the Internet (42 percent), followed by a computer (38 percent) and a tablet (7 percent). According to a study by Eurostat, 59 percent of the French – or 67 percent of Internet users – are connected to social media, a figure that is relatively low considering the recognised high technological quality of Internet access in France. A Eurostat study shows that the French are the Europeans who use the least social media (only 49 percent of women web users and 44 percent of men).
According to Médiamétrie data for 2017, four social networks belong to the top 50 most viewed websites on desktop, whereas six belong to the most accessed websites on mobile. Not surprisingly Facebook is the most accessed social media on desktop (27.4 million of UU/month, 8.4 million of UU/day) as well as on mobile (31.2 million of UU/month), followed by YouTube on desktop (25 million of UU/month, 4.4 million of UU/day) and on mobile (26 million of UU/month). Following is Pinterest on desktop (6.9 million UU/month, 500.00 of UU/day), while Twitter is 4th on desktop (600,000 UU/day) and the 3rd most popular social media on mobile (13.6 million of UU/month). Instagram (11.9 million of UU/month), Snapchat (10.1 million of UU/month) and LinkedIn (9 million of UU/month) are the other most accessed on mobile.
According to a study delivered by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the Union des Entreprises de Conseil et d’Achat Media (UDECAM) on behalf of the Syndicat des Régies Internet (SRI), digital outlets receive since 2016 the biggest part of advertising expenditures in France and TV channels are henceforth the second category of media to attract advertising. This new trend is hugely due to social networks and media that attracted about €1.810bn (+9 percent) in the first semester 2017 and reached 33 percent of the overall advertising budgets.
Digital advertising is usually split in three formats. The search or search engine optimisation (SEO) tends to optimise the online visibility of a website or a web page in a web search engine’s unpaid results. The display includes all formats, devices and ways to advertise. The third category includes e-mailing, (price) comparison websites, affiliate networks. In terms of format, SEO remains the most used and amounts to 55 percent of overall digital advertising; mobile phones are the main trigger of it. The second most-used format is the display in which the video format (35 percent) is the most growing format; traditional formats of display amount to 51 percent of the overall display. Third OPS (online ad operations) represent the remaining 10 percent. The increasing amount of display budgets (€288m) largely comes from social networks and shows +45.9 percent compared to 2016.