Major news including sport – such as the State of Origin and Ashes – the rental crisis, the Voice Referendum, and entertainment related stories including the Logies and death of singer Sinead O’Connor drove strong interest among Australians in July. 20.1 million people used news websites and apps, according to Ipsos iris, Australia’s digital audience measurement currency endorsed by the IAB Australia.
People spent an average of five hours a month consuming news content in July.
The News category includes audience and time spent online on both general news and broader news content including weather, sport, lifestyle, entertainment, and business news.
The chart below shows the News brands’ ranking during July 2023 by online audience size.
News.com.au Editor-in-Chief Lisa Muxworthy said she was thrilled to see news.com.au hold on to the top spot.
“We never take that number one spot for granted. It is exciting to see that news.com.au continues to be the most-read website, not just nationally, but in all states measured by Ipsos,” she said.
“July was a huge month for sport with Wimbledon, the explosive Ashes series, Daniel Andrews scrapping the 2026 Commonwealth Games, and the start of the Matildas incredible World Cup campaign – all on top of our regular NRL and AFL coverage,” Muxworthy said.
Australians aged 14+ spent 3.8 hours per day, or 117 hours per month, online in July, an increase of 4.9% compared to June.
The largest audience increases were in the energy supplier/ utilities category, which climbed 12.0%, events and attractions, up 7.2% and sports, up 4.7% in July compared to June. The events and attractions category was fuelled by the launch of the Barbie and Oppenheimer films, coined ‘Barbenheimer’. The Ashes and start of the Women’s World Cup football saw usage increases in sport.
The most consumed website and app categories in July were social networking at 20.9 million, followed by search engines (20.9 million), technology (20.8 million) and retail and commerce (20.6 million).
People aged 25-39 were the largest cohort online during June, while people aged 40 to 54 spent the most time online.
In other Ipsos iris insights, since its launch in early July, Meta’s new social platform and X (Twitter) rival Threads has an Australian audience of 1.6 million who used the app during the month of July.
Overall in the category, 20.7 million people used a social media website or app during July, with 99% of all online Australians using some sort of social networking website or app.
Among the social media platforms available, usage of online dating websites and apps surged by 13.4% to 3 million in July.
Instant messaging was used by 19.2 million people in July, followed by email at 17.7 million, and online forums at 12.7 million.
Facebook and Messenger are the number one social networking brand group, followed closely by YouTube.
X (Twitter) is in the top 10 brand group but has seen a drop in audience of 8.7% compared to June and its lowest audience to date. When it comes to social networking apps, Snapchat makes it into the top 10, while LinkedIn and X have more website than app usage.
The Ipsos iris data found that different social networking brand groups appeal to different audiences. For example, Facebook, Messenger, and YouTube have very broad appeal as most online Australians 14+ are using them at least once in a month.
Instagram has the strongest appeal among women aged under 40, while TikTok’s strongest audience is the under 25s. LinkedIn’s largest audience is women aged 25 to 39, followed by men aged 40 to 54, while X (Twitter) skews heavily towards men, with the largest audience being men aged 25 to 39. Reddit’s largest audience is also men aged 25 to 39.
The chart below shows the social networking brands’ ranking during July 2023 by online audience size.
Ipsos iris, which officially launched in March, provides accurate data about the 21 million Australians aged 14+ who access a wide variety of digital content and services across smartphone, PC/laptop and tablet devices.