
Across US, UK and Australia 27 per cent of every hour spent online is social, according to Experian Marketing Service.
Brits spend 13 minutes out of every hour online on social networking and forums, nine minutes on entertainment sites and six minutes shopping.
In the US, 16 minutes out of every hour online is spent on social networking and forums, nine minutes on entertainment sites and five minutes shopping.
Australian Internet users spend 14 minutes on social sites, nine on entertainment and four minutes shopping online.
Social
However, the time spent on social media proportionate to other online activities declined across all three regions.
The US, which has been the most dominant market for social media consumption dropped from 30 per cent of all time spent online to 27 per cent, in the last three years.
In Australia time spent on social dropped from 27 per cent to 24 per cent while in the UK it dipped from 25 per cent to 22 per cent.
This highlights the rise in access via 3G and 4G networks as consumers spend increasingly more time online while on the move.
Online shopping
Across all three markets, time spent online shopping grew year-on-year.
However, the research revealed that Brits spent proportionally more time on retail websites than online users in North America or Australia. British users spent 10 per cent of all time online shopping in 2012, compared to nine percent in the US and six per cent in Australia.
Bill Tancer, general manager of global research for Experian Marketing Service, said: “Understanding consumer behaviour across channels is more important than ever as more visits are being made on the move, particularly among social networking and email.”