Global internet consumption decreased in 2022. This is reflected in the decline of average daily online activity duration.
According to Global Web Index (GWI) data, in 2013, the global average internet consumption was 365 minutes, or 6 hours and 5 minutes per day.
This trend grew and peaked during the pandemic, reaching almost 7 hours per day in 2020-2021. However, online activity duration in 2022 decreased again, as shown in the graph.
"During the pandemic, people spent more time online. But, the current average daily online activity is almost the same as before the pandemic," said GWI in its Connecting the Dots 2023 report.
"This indicates that global society is experiencing a kind of internet saturation. Internet behavior is changing right before our eyes," it added.
According to GWI findings, the most significant change occurred in online business-related networking, which has decreased by 23% since the end of 2018.
"Other activities such as sharing opinions, following news, and searching for information online have also decreased. These activities are still popular, but are gradually becoming less important for global internet users," said GWI.
"Currently, consumers want their online time to be worthwhile. This is driving companies to provide creative internet content," it continued.
This online activity data comes from a GWI survey of approximately 2.5 million internet users. Survey respondents came from 50 countries across North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.