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Frankfurt, 20 Oct. 2020. The corona pandemic has led to an increase in the use of online media in Germany, and online transactions are also increasing markedly. According to CONVERGENCE MONITOR 2020 the share of online shoppers jumped 9 percentage points over last year, hitting a new high mark at 44 percent. That means that now almost every second person buys something online at least once a month. At the same time, internet sales are also rising noticeably. At 5 percentage points higher, now almost one in five offer products for sale each month. Online banking has also risen 5 percentage points to 59 percent, and classic product information is up 4 percentage points to 65 percent.
The CONVERGENCE MONITOR survey has been performed by Kantar every year since 2008, making it one of the few long-running media usage studies in Germany. In 2020 it was done under the auspices of AGF Videoforschung (AGF) for the first time. “The data clearly shows how much the corona crisis has affected people’s daily lives. It will be interesting to see whether this level holds in the future, or if there will be a downward trend once life opens back up,” says Kerstin Niederauer-Kopf, Chairperson of the Executive Management of AGF Videoforschung.
For the study Kantar surveyed 1542 people between the ages of 14 and 69 years. The survey population is the German-speaking residential population aged 14 to 69, or households in Germany with at least one person between 14 and 69 years of age. This year the fieldwork took place between 29 April and 5 June, so it included effects at the end of the lockdown.
Overall, internet use rose against the previous year across almost all age groups. 14 to 29 year olds spend the most time online, about 6 hours a day or 370 minutes, 21 minutes over the year before. 30 to 49 year olds’ connected time rose from 226 to 246 minutes.
Not just interaction/communication and transactions rose online, so did media use. Videos (+4 minutes) and reading (+5 minutes) were the drivers here. Corona especially drove news usage online. The percentage who read information online rose from 52 to 57.
Online audio use overall has risen only slightly, from 60 to 62 percent. However, in the 50 to 64 age bracket there is notable growth, from 40 to 46 percent. Music streaming and podcasts account for most of the growth. YouTube is the most popular internet-based music source. Every second person says they listen to music on the platform. Also, 29 percent stream music on other channels, 22 percent listen to web radio and 12 percent listen to podcasts.
The growth in podcasts has become steady. It stayed at a consistently low level of 5 to 6 percent for years, but in 2020 usage rose about a third compared to 2019. Especially older age groups have increased their consumption. Among 30 to 49 year olds it has gone up by half, to 14 percent. 50 to 64 year olds showed the greatest percentual increase, albeit to a comparatively low level of 7 percent. Among 14 to 29 year olds, one in five listen to podcasts, an increase of around 18 percent over the previous year.
Method profile
Study name: CONVERGENCE MONITOR
Frequency: Annual
Institute: Kantar
Survey method: Due to corona, computer-aided telephone interviews by trained, qualified interviewers (CATI). Normally personal, face to face interviews.
Sample: Representative sample n=1542
Fieldwork: 29 April - 5 June 2020
Population: German-speaking residential population aged 14 to 69, or households in Germany with at least one person between 14 and 69 years of age.
About AGF Videoforschung GmbH (www.agf.de)
AGF Videoforschung GmbH specializes in impartial video research. AGF continuously tracks the use of video content in Germany on a quantitative basis and analyzes the data collected. It invests many millions of euros per year to continuously refine its instruments in order to deliver reliable data on the use of video content to the market on a daily basis. AGF consults closely with all market partners, including licensed TV stations, advertisers and media agencies.
Press contact:
Juliane Paperlein
Head of Corporate Communication | AGF Videoforschung GmbH |
T +49 69 955 260-55 | presse@agf.de