In the first quarter of 2024, Average Engaged Time and search traffic rose in Central Asia, social traffic declined in Africa, and loyal readership remained highest in Northern Europe.

Read on for more global audience insights from our first quarter research below.

Compare to our previous insights: Q4 2023 | Q3 2023 | Q2 2023

Engaged Time highest in the Middle East and Central / Eastern Europe

Readers in the Middle East were the most engaged audience with 40 seconds of Average Engaged Time. Central / Eastern Europe and Asia / Pacific followed with 37.7 and 29.8 seconds, respectively.

Mobile traffic grows in Africa and North America

Southeast Asian publishers continue to receive an overwhelming amount of traffic from Mobile as 87% of pageviews came from this device type in the first quarter. Central Asia and Africa followed with 84% and 79%, respectively.

No region received less than 69% of its pageviews from visitors on mobile devices.

Search traffic rises in Central Asia and the Middle East

45% of pageviews in Central Asia came from Search in the first quarter, up from 38% in the fourth quarter. The Middle East also increased pageviews from Search, rising from 34% to 37%.

No region’s percentage of pageviews coming from search engines declined compared to the previous quarter.

Pageviews from Social have declined, but on-platform viewership is growing

Pageviews from social networks fell 1-2% in most regions with the exception of Africa which decreased from 24% to 19%. North America and Southeast Asia saw no change quarter to quarter.

Although referral traffic from social networks has declined, data from Tubular Labs shows that the viewership opportunity on platforms like Facebook is actually growing. From Q1 to Q4 last year, video views for media properties had an average increase of 11% and engagement increased 7%, indicating an opportunity to recoup and engage audiences through social video.

Loyalty highest in Northern and Central / Eastern Europe

Northern Europe had the highest percentage of pageviews from loyal readers at 48%. Central /  Eastern Europe followed at 44%.

Africa saw the largest increase from quarter to quarter, improving from 27% to 29%.

Takeaways from our first quarter insights

1. Varying formats can improve Average Engaged Time.

With major events like national elections and the Paris Olympics unfolding later this year, live blogs will be a valuable tool for publishers. Recent research on engagement with live blogs showed that in 2023, Average Engaged Time for all content in our network was 28 seconds, but when we isolated live blogs during the same period, median Average Engaged Time jumped to 48 seconds.

2. Search continues to grow.

Pageviews from search engines increased in most regions in the first quarter. This continues an upward trend that started in Q3 of last year.

3. Audiences are Mobile-first.

In any given region, at least 69% of site visits occur on mobile devices, and in three of those regions, it’s 79% or more.

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