Internet Browser Statistics

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Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 | Other stuff, Web Analytics | Posted by bluesnapper

Since my post on the impact of the IE security flaw on the take-up of Firefox, I was asked if I had any data on International Internet browser statistics. I didn’t but, always one to please (?), I dug through Google Analytics data on some regional websites…

Below are Internet browser statistics for B2B websites in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, South Africa and Australia (analysis period – 1st Jan 08 to 31st Dec 08). Notes:

Only first-time visitors are included
Opera can be configured to ”disguise’ itself as IE (some sites block Opera) so it usage may be higher than indicated

As you’d expect Internet Explorer (IE) is dominant across all regions with a 75% to 83% market share; Firefox (FF) consistently comes up in 2nd place, typically floating within the 15-20% band. However, in Germany and France, FF hit 27% and 31% respectively. The majority (95%) of the FF visits within these countries were from Windows machines so I guess our European cousins aren’t afraid of a bit of technical tweaking!

Opera, which takes a tiny slice of the pie in all countries (less than 1%) has grabbed almost 9% market share in Norway. No prizes for guessing that Opera has a strong Norwegian connection: it started life as a research project inside Teleno, Norway’s largest telecom company, and is still developed there.

I’d be interested to hear from anybody else on their findings.

Internet Browser Statistics - United Kingdom

Internet Browser Statistics - France

Internet Browser Statistics - Spain

Internet Browser Statistics - Germany

Internet Browser Statistics - Sweden

Internet Browser Statistics - Norway

Internet Browser Statistics - Denmark

Internet Browser Statistics - South Africa

Internet Browser Statistics - Australia

Tags: firefox, internet browsers, internet explorer, market share, opera, statistics

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2788 CommentsInternet+Browser+Statistics2009-01-07+17%3A21%3A18bluesnapper to 'Internet Browser Statistics'

Steve Parry
January 20, 2009

Good info – thanks. It would be useful to get trends over time though.

Steve

bluesnapper
January 20, 2009

Steve. I plan to at some point but I’d like to compare pre-IE security flaw and post. Sometime in the next few months would be best so I can get some meaningful data.

Regards

Andy

Alexander
February 19, 2009

Would be very useful to know which versions of IE (for CSS compatibility issues )

bluesnapper
February 19, 2009

Hi Alexander. Thanks for your comment. Good idea! I do intend to do a follow up so I'll make sure I include some version info.

Sarah
May 7, 2009

And the versions of Firefox, both on mac and pc please
Cool post, thanks a lot!

bluesnapper
May 7, 2009

Hi Sarah. Thanks for dropping by and for your comment. I'll look into splitting out the next round of browser stats as you suggest.

Paul
August 24, 2009

Andy, take a look at these browser statistics for w3schools.com.

I'd be interested to hear your comments on them: http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats…. There is a good section at the end entitled "Statistics Are Often Misleading" that adds some interesting points.

bluesnapper
August 26, 2009

Hi Paul. Nice to hear from you and thanks for your comment.

The W3 disclaimer on the accuracy of browser statistics (and stats in general) is very valid. Trends are important rather than absolutes. However, though our actual figures differ, the W3 stats do support my own B2B data:

- that averaged over 2008, FF had the No. 2 spot. W3 data now shows FF as being the dominant browser (July 2009).

- that in November 08, IE had more market share than FF but after the well-publicised security flaw in Dec 08 (and FF being promoted as an alternative), FF started to pull away from IE. Coincidence? I think not.

W3 data for July indicates that FF has more market share than IE (all versions they track) compared to my 2008 average but, as they point out 'Different sites attract different audiences' and I suspect a lot of visits to the W3 site will be from techies – a group that I know favours FF.

I do intend to do an update on this post covering points raised in all comments so far and using B2C data I have access to – when I get the time though!