Federal and State Government Budgets season garner strong reader interest as cost of living bites – Ipsos iris data
Online retail brands continue to grow, with Temu now Australia’s fifth largest retail brand
25 June 2024 – As many Australians still battle with cost of living issues, the Federal and State Governments’ Budget announcements fuelled interest in News websites and apps during May, as readers sought trusted online content to understand the Budget implications on their lives, according to Ipsos iris data.
While Budget news dominated the headlines, other breaking news events locally and globally – from entertainment to natural phenomena – captured the attention of Australians across news websites and apps.
Major stories, including the mid-air turbulence disaster on Singapore Airlines, the tragic double murder of two Australian surfers in Mexico, the appearance of Aurora Australis, and entertainment stories such as the Met Gala in New York, Seven Network’s Farmer Wants A Wife and Eurovision, saw Australians flock to digital News websites and apps as an essential source for big stories.
More than 20.7 million people used a news website or app in May, reaching 96.7% of online Australians aged 14+.
The chart below shows the News brands’ ranking during May 2024 by online audience size.
Ipsos iris, Australia’s digital audience measurement currency endorsed by IAB Australia, showed that overall, 21.5 million Australians aged 14+ used the internet in May and spent on average 4.5 hours
per day, or almost 137 hours for the month, online.
The most consumed website and app categories in February were search engines (21.4 million), social networking (21.3 million), technology (21.3 million), retail and commerce (21.1 million) and entertainment (21.1 million).
As the winter weather makes its presence known, the energy suppliers/utilities category grew its audience by +5.7%, perhaps as Australians searched for better deals.
Mother’s Day drives retail growth; Temu rises to 5th biggest online retail brand
Almost 21.1 million Australians aged 14+ used a retail or commerce website or app in May.
Most of the top 10 online retail brands have grown their audience year on year with the biggest growth coming from Chinese ecommerce shopping site Temu, increasing its audience by +39.7%, followed by Coles Group, which was up +18.8%. Just one year after its launch in Australia, Temu has more than 11 million Australians using its app or website and is the fifth largest online retail brand in the country, reflecting consumers’ desire to hunt down a bargain.
In the retail sub-categories, the largest growth was for flower shopping for Mother’s Day on 11 May, which jumped by +28.6% compared to April and by +21.2% compared to February 2024 ,which was the next biggest month for purchasing flowers online due to Valentine’s Day.
Restaurants and pubs websites and apps also saw their biggest audiences for 2024 in May, to more than 5.9 million people, up 5.8% on April.
The chart below shows the Retail & Commerce brands’ ranking during May 2024 by online audience size.
Ipsos iris, which officially launched in March 2023, provides accurate data about the 21.4 million Australians aged 14+ who access a wide variety of digital content and services across smartphone, PC/laptop and tablet devices.
Notes for editors:
- Ipsos iris is an independent source of truth for the media industry providing a level playing field for comparison of audience reach and characteristics and supporting the $14.7 billion Australian online advertising market (https://iabaustralia.com.au/resource/online-advertising-expenditure-report-cy23-december-quarter-23/)
- Ipsos iris provides accuracy in solving cross-device deduplication, the biggest challenge in measuring online audiences, using a single-source multi-device panel measuring activity on 8,000 smartphone, PC, laptop and tablet devices
- Ipsos iris provides accurate data about the number of people who visit the content of digital publishers and platforms, along with the frequency of visits and time spent by tracking digital audience behaviour across desktop/laptop, smartphone, and tablets. It uses a hybrid methodology that combines metered data from a high quality, nationally representative, single-source passive panel with site-centric census measurement via media owner tagging.
- In February 2024, the CTV audience currency integration from a data partnership with OzTAM launched, providing total unduplicated digital audience currency data for CTV, smartphones, tablets, and computers.
- Announced in May 2024, enriched YouTube audience reach and watch time data across mobile, desktop and tablets will be integrated into Ipsos iris from the second half of 2024, in collaboration with Google and IAB Australia.
- Ipsos iris is fully privacy compliant and cross-media ready and will continue to evolve with a roadmap of enhancements over 2024 and beyond. It will also be adaptable to changing requirements as the industry develops in future years.
- The launch of Ipsos iris with monthly data from January 2023 was the culmination of extensive work by the IAB and its Measurement Council that commenced in early 2021 with a strategic review of industry requirements. Ipsos was awarded the IAB’s endorsement, having best met the standards on criteria across all areas of product along with criteria for operations and a future roadmap.
- Further information can be found at: https://iris-au.ipsos.com/