Social networks
At the end of the third quarter of 2016, the number of Internet subscriptions was over 8.7m (of this, 68 percent used mobile Internet subscription), according to data by the Központi Statisztikai Hivatal (Hungarian Central Statistical Office). This was 10 percent more than in the same period in 2015. Since 2008, the number of Internet subscriptions had increased by 6.5m. According to the latest data available on Internet World Stats, Hungary’s Internet penetration was 79.7 percent in June 2016 (in 2010, this rate was 61.8 percent), while the European Union’s average Internet penetration was 80.1 percent. A survey conducted in the summer of 2016 shows a different picture: according to Gemius and Digitális Közönségmérési Tanács (Digital Audience Measurement Council - DKT), there were 5.4 million active Internet users in Hungary at that time, and 76.6 percent surfed the web on a daily basis. Regarding the devices, 4.9 million people accessed the Internet via their personal computers, while 3.5 million used their mobile phones.
Hungarian Internet users spend an average of 209 minutes online daily, as opposed to 201 minutes in 2011. According to GfK Digital Connected Costumer, the top three activities online include the use of social media, email services and news sites. According to data provided by DKT, in November 2016 the most visited sites after search engines and social media pages included: Origo.hu (a news site with 552,393 real users), Index.hu (a news site with 504,564 real users), Blog.hu (a blog-hosting site with 446,915 real users), 24.hu (a news site with 394,761 real uses) and Freemail.hu (an email service with 359,220 real users).
In terms of advertising, the online sector had a 56.17bn forints (€183m) or 27.6 percent share in the total advertising revenues in 2015, compared to a 49.45bn forints (€161m) share in 2014. According to IAB Hungary (Interactive Advertising Bureau Hungary) and Pwc Hungary (PricewaterhouseCoopers Hungary), this amount displayed a 14 percent increase, and reached beyond 50bn forints (€162.86m) for the first time. With this amount, the Internet took the lead on the advertising market from the former market leader, the television sector. The competition levelled off between domestic and global participants, so these share approximately fifty-fifty percent on the total online advertising spending.
According to a survey by the specialised agency Kutatópont, 67 percent of Internet users have a social media profile. Of them, 74 percent read the news and—although most of them are passive news consumers, meaning they usually do not share content or comment—60 percent share a content at least once a month. In Hungary, Facebook is the most widely used social network, with 5.3 million users in March, 2016, according to a survey by MediaQ. It is followed by: YouTube (3.2 million users), Google+ (1.7 million users), Instagram (942,000 users), Pinterest (837,000 users), LinkedIn (711,000 users) and Twitter (631,000 users).