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Each year on Canada Day, WebFuel does something BIG. Why? Aside from being proudly Canadian, and wanting to celebrate our heritage, we are an agency that specializes in Search Marketing in Canada. But when it comes to the online space, what does being Canadian mean?

Again, this year we are sharing industry stats related to Canada. They are what make us unique.

 

Canadian Falb

Internet

Where do Canadians rank in the world in terms of Internet usage? We rank high. Canada has one of the highest Internet penetration rates in the world. According to Internet World Stats, 86% of Canada’s population is online (as of January 2014). This number is, of course,  even higher today. 98% of online Canadians access the Internet daily. In terms of online engagement, Canadians rank number one — 45 hours per month; almost double the global average (Source: ComScore study released in March 2014).

Did You Know?: Six out of ten Canadians access the Internet via a mobile device.

Domains

Domain name registrations continue to increase worldwide. As of the end of 2013, there were 271 million top-level domains (TLDs) registered  (according to VeriSign). These include country codes. The .CA represents Canada. According to the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), the .CA is one of the fastest growing top-level domains in the world. There are well over two millions .CA domains registered. In January of last year, Canadians could register domains with French characters and accents. There is also now a .quebec domain extension (in the pre-registration phase). This, of course helps to support French speaking communities in Canada.

Did You Know?: The .CA was launched 28 years ago.

Search Engines

Which Search Engine do Canadians prefer? Like many other countries, the Search Engine of choice is Google. The difference of course is that most searchers use Google Canada (as in Google.ca). Yes – we have our own Google search index. According to Hitwise Canada, our country specific version of Google has a 68.29% visits share (as of May 2014). Canadians also search via Google.com (although less popular at 7.86%).

Canadians can search Google via English or French interfaces

Canadians can search Google via English or French interfaces


Did You Know?:
YouTube is the second most popular Search Engine in Canada (not Bing or Yahoo!)

Social Media

Canada has the highest Social Media Network penetration in the World. Almost two in three Anglophone Canadians engage with Social Media, according to a report by the Media Technology Monitor published in May of this year. Canada leads the world in watching videos (per view). For business, LinkedIn ranks the highest. There are currently over ten million LinkedIn users in Canada. Facebook however remains the most popular social network — outranking all the others.

Did You Know?: Facebook is the number one search term in Canada

Yes Canadians are indeed unique in the online space!