Overview As Per Internet World Stats, the penetration of internet in Netherlands is 92.

9%, which are more than 15 million people with access to internet.

Internet Penetration in Netherlands

7.1%

Online Population
92.9%

Offline Population

This gives it the top position when compared to any other country of the world with more than 5 million population and 5th overall.

Top 5 countries in terms of % of Internet Penetration

Netherlands Falkland Islands Norway Iceland Monaco
92.9% 96.4% 96.9% 97.1% 100.6%

Top 5 countries in terms of % of Internet Penetration with population more than 5 million
United Kingdom Finland Denmark Sweden Netherlands

83.6% 89.4% 90.0% 92.7% 92.9%

Its not just the internet penetration though. In terms of average time spent on the internet by an individual user as well as in terms of number of pages visited by an individual user, Netherlands ranks 3rd in Europe in both terms as is illustrated by the figure below.

Average time spent on internet by an individual user in a month (in hours)

France Poland Netherlands Turkey United Kingdom 27.5 27.8 32.2 33.7 35.6

This data will not be a surprise to many people, especially considering that Netherland was one of the first countries to introduce internet. The use of internet on mobile has also increased very quickly as is illustrated by the figures below. As compared to 2007 the % internet population using mobile internet has almost tripled.

Growth in % of internet users using mobile internet

70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 2007 2011 2012

While this growth has been experienced across all age categories, there are variations in the amount of growth which can be seen through the figure below.

The age category 18-25 took a quantum jump from 21% in 2007 to 86% in 2012 in terms of internet usage on mobile devices. When looked into the most used mobile devices for accessing internet, almost half the mobile internet users preferred a mobile phone (47%), more than 60% using them daily. Other mobile devices used were laptop (34%) and tablets (19%). A survey done by Ipsos OTX MediaCT looks into the various activities people in Netherland are involved in when accessing mobile internet. They are represented in the figure below.

Activity on the mobile internet

Video Sharing Sites Search Engines Social Networking Sites E-mailing 31% 49% 54% 66%

What is most surprising here is the relative position of social media and search engine in terms of activity on the mobile internet. While social media almost always ranks in the top 3 activities on internet, very rarely it has been used more than search engines. Probably this is a distinctive characteristic of internet in mobile devices and not the picture on complete internet scene in Netherland. However, the Dutch certainly are among the most active population on social media. Social Media More than 95% of the Dutch population use social media which is not really a surprise considering the extraordinary internet penetration in the country. In terms of Social media in Europe Netherlands ranks 7th in Europe as is illustrated by the figure below.

Top 10 European Countries in terms of Social Media Penetration in Online Population

United Kingdom Turkey Portugal Poland Ireland Netherlands Denmark Sweden Belgium France

86%

88%

90%

92%

94%

96%

98%

There is little difference in penetration of Social networking among various age categories as can be seen through the figure below.

Social Networking Demographic Reach

55+ 45-54 35-44 25-34 15-24
81.8% 92.5% 98.5%

90.4%

97.1% 94.5% 96.7% 96.8% 97.4% 97.6%

Female Male

From 15-54 almost 97% of the female population is actively involved in social media. For men, the participation declines after 45 (from 94% in 35-44 to 81.8% in 55+). As far as the social networks are many networks local (Hyves) and international (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) are very active in Netherlands. The figure below is a display of their current standings in terms of total unique visitors as of Oct 2011 according to comScore.

Top 5 Social Networks

Facebook

Hyves

Twitter

Linkedin

Windows Live Messenger

Total Unique Visitors

While the local website Hyves was the most popular social networking site, Facebook took over sometime near late June 2011 and is now the leading social network in Netherlands.

While Facebook may have overtaken Hyves in terms of unique visitors Hyves maintained the lead in terms of average time spent by a user on a social networking website.

Average time Spent on Social Networking Sites

201.5 211.0

22.7
Facebook Hyves Twitter

23.0
Linkedin

3.7
Windows Live Messenger

Average Minutes Per Visitor

While time spent on websites other than Facebook and Hyves may be low, Netherland is very active on twitter and LinkedIn as compared to most countries of the world. Hyves Hyves was the most popular social network in Netherlands until late June 2011 when Facebook took over. Although unlike what happened with Copains Davant in France, Hyves only had slower growth than facebook rather than decline. It still scores over Facebook in terms of time spent as seen earlier. Where it has gone down is in terms of unique visitors which is evident by the declining search traffic given below.

As far as participation in Hyves is concerned there is a good difference between male and female, with women taking the lead, as is in the case with social media in general in Netherlands (refer graph Social Networking Demographic Reach ). This is also evident in the figure below.

Politics entered social media through Hyves when in 2006, Wouter Bos a politician from Netherlands created a Hyves account. Since then even the bigger players in politics including the 2006 Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende joined in. The 2010 election saw Hyves became the first social media platform of chat debate among political leaders. The chat debate was organized and hosted by Hyves. The penetration of Hyves within Netherlands also varies when different cities are compared as can be seen in the figure below.

Major concentration for Hyves lies in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. If Deventer is to be put as an exception, then we can see that Hyves larger concentration is in the western region near the coast. Like Facebook, apart from keeping in touch with friends, Hyves provides options such as photo and video sharing, games, and similar other features. The following snapshot of the first page serves as a summary.

Facebook Facebook in Netherlands has stuck to the growth patterns seen in other countries. Although there is tough competition here in the form of Hyves, Facebook has still managed to get ahead. The growth continued in 2012 as is evident by the graph below provided by social bakers.

With a total number of facebook users reaching 7,582,820 Facebook achieved 45% penetration in terms of population and 50.31% population in terms of online population. The user demography in terms of age is consistent with the overall social media pattern in terms of users in different age categories. The age category 25-34 leads the number of facebook users with 1,719,000 users.

User age distribution on Facebook in Netherlands

Communicating with existing relationships (40%) is the prime reason for using facebook. Other reasons social media users in Netherlands use facebook for are for managing the profile (17%), searching for information (10%), acquiring new contacts (7%), searching for jobs (3%) and others (23%). Reasons for Using Facebook
7% 10% 40% 17% 3%
Communicating with existing relations Other Managing the profile (create, modify or delete) Searching for information Acquiring new contacts Seaching for a job

23%

Other Social Networking Platforms It is not just Facebook or Hyves, but other social networking sites have also been making news in Netherlands. Even though US has the most number of twitter users, Netherlands is the most active country on twitter in the world. Both LinkedIn and Twitter have achieved their highest penetration in Netherlands as compared to any other country in the world. With more than 3 million members each and both were registering a growth of almost 70% in 2011; the future of these sites looks bright in Netherlands.

Top 10 Countries in Internet Penetration for LinkedIn.com

30.0% 25.0% 20.0% 15.0% 10.0% 5.0% 0.0%

Top 10 Countries in Internet Penetration for Twitter.com

30.0% 25.0% 20.0% 15.0% 10.0% 5.0% 0.0%

Social Media Monitoring Tools Some of the social media monitoring tools that one can use in Netherlands are given in the table below.

Company name

Platform

Media type

Website

TraceBuzz Twitter Analyzer Clipit News New Music Labs BV Teezir iMonitoring FinchLine

TraceBuzz Twitter Analyzer Clipit - online media monitoring

All Twitter All (dutch) Online (MySpace, Hyves, Last.fm, Twitter, Google Analytics, FaceBook, Google Video, Youtube) All All All All: Blogs, News Sites, Consumer Sites (Radar, Kieskeurig etc), Review Sites (Yelp, Travelocity), Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Orkut, Hyves, etc) All: Blogs, News Sites, Consumer Sites (Radar, Kieskeurig etc), Review Sites (Yelp, Travelocity), Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Orkut, Hyves, etc)

http://www.tracebuzz.com http://twitteranalyzer.com http://www.clipit.nl

Tribe Monitor eCare iMonitoring FinchLine

Tribe Monitor http://www.teezir.com http://www.internetmonitoring.nl http://www.finchline.nl

BrandReact, Inc

Social Media Monitoring, Reporting & Response

http://BrandReact.net/brand

BrandReact Nederland BV

Social Media Monitoring, Reporting & Response

BrandReact.NL

With Netherlands being the most active country on various social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, it is all the more important that all social platforms are watched. Tips for Social Marketers The high internet penetration and the very active social media population make Netherlands a very important test market. To make the best use of social media in Netherlands, the marketers need to keep certain things in consideration While internet penetration is already high, special consideration should be given to mobile internet platforms. The highest active population in twitter is present primarily because of the rise in mobile internet users.

Hyves even though has been overtaken by Facebook still remains one of the prime social networking websites. One needs to remember that unlike Copains Davant, the French local social networking website, Hyves is still growing. Facebooks growth is just faster. With the 2012 events of murder, the teenage bday party disaster, Facebook seems to get associated with some bad press, with not much involvement of its own. There have been talks on regulating Facebook use, and marketers should keep themselves updated as to how it would affect them. Social media platforms have ranked above search engines in Netherlands in terms of activity on mobile internet. This could mean that mobile users are looking for news, brand related information and other on social networking websites. This gives opportunity for brands to connect with their consumers. The major geographic concentration of Hyves user is in the western region with a few exceptions. Social marketers will need to consider in which region there target consumer lays and thereby choose between Facebook and Hyves if required.

With the exceptional strength both in terms of internet and social media, Netherlands can possibly be the next big hub for social media. Even statistics Netherlands has started considering using social media for their stat collection purposes. As businesses also get actively involved in social media, importance of social media in Netherlands will be more than ever in the coming years. References: Internet World Stats, http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats4.htm#europe comScore Media Metrix, http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press_Releases/2012/2/The_Netherlands_and_France_Have_the_Hig hest_Penetration_of_Online_Banking Statistics Netherlands Press release PB12-060, http://www.cbs.nl/en-GB/menu/themas/vrije-tijdcultuur/publicaties/artikelen/archief/2012/2012-060-pb.htm A Wiki of Social Media Monitoring Solutions, http://wiki.kenburbary.com/ New Media Trend Watch, http://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/markets-by-country/10-europe/76netherlands The Netherlands and France Have the Highest Penetration of Online Banking Users in Europe, http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press_Releases/2012/2/The_Netherlands_and_France_Have_the_ Highest_Penetration_of_Online_Banking Mobile internet use continues to grow, Press release, 23 October 2012, Statistics Netherlands http://www.cbs.nl/en-GB/menu/themas/vrije-tijd-cultuur/publicaties/artikelen/archief/2012/2012-060pb.htm

The Netherlands Ranks #1 Worldwide in Penetration for Twitter and Linkedin, April 26, 2011, comScore, http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press_Releases/2011/4/The_Netherlands_Ranks_number_one_Wo rldwide_in_Penetration_for_Twitter_and_LinkedIn 100 More Social Media Statistics For 2012, http://www.agentmedia.co.uk/social-media/100-moresocial-media-statistics-for-2012/