Financial News and Information Site Engagement Skyrockets as Consumers Seek to Understand the Economic Implications of COVID-19

The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is affecting the economy and individual households, and the lockdown has pushed Australians to spend 87%¹ more time on financial news and Information websites to stay up-to-date with the financial implications of the pandemic.

The uptake in news and financial website usage is not surprising, given the fact that most of the world has been living in quarantined, restricted living situations for weeks now. In fact, recent Nielsen research highlights that consumers who are forced to stay indoors turn to online news publishers to stay informed with an average increase of 57% for top ten news sites audiences.

Across age groups, Millennials have always been active users of digital media, and that has not changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nielsen Digital Content Ratings data show that Millennials (25 -39) are driving the increases in time with an increase of 102%² (March 2020 versus January 2020) in time consuming financial news and information content. Millennials spent a total of 690,308 hours on such content in March 2020. Importantly, however, the global awareness of the crisis has encouraged all age groups to increase the time they spend with financial news and information websites.

“While everyone is concerned about the financial future post-pandemic, Millennials are the most engaged with financial content during this time,” said Monique Perry, Managing Director, Nielsen Media, Sports & Entertainment. “There is an opportunity to reach this important demographic with either your strong financial content or activate your advertising message at this time. Whether it’s digital advertising or content creation this is the opportunity to build awareness or loyalty with Millennials.”

Sources:

• ¹ Source: Nielsen Digital Content Ratings, Monthly Tagged, Dec 2019 – March 2020, P2+ Digital C/M, text, Financial News & Information Sub-category, Total Time (Hours)
• ² Source: Nielsen Digital Content Ratings, Monthly Tagged, Jan 2020 – March 2020, P13-24, P25-39, P40-54, P55+, Digital C/M, Text, Total Time (Hours)