studies

For the first time ever the majority of purchasers does online research before purchasing. The online purchase share shows limited growth for most products, however online research grows strongly and consistently across all countries and products.

Key Findings

• Online purchase mainly grows in travel and media, however online research grows strongly and consistently across all countries and products.
• Online research grows equally strong amongst online and offline purchasers and is consistent amongst countries and products as well.
• Products of higher value show both more online research and more online purchase than lower value products.

The Global Business Map provides a country profile for 48 countries on 6 different continents. The country profiles give an overview of fundamental country facts and specific market insights. We have collected those metrics most relevant for uncovering market potential and to help you recognise business opportunities specific to your company. This guide also provides an introduction to a range of products and tools available to you at Google, which are each explained briefly to help you get acquainted with the different ways in which you can reach out and connect with your target markets.

Each country page contains the following data:

• Basic Facts: official country name, capital, area, top-level domain, official or most spoken language, local currency, age distribution and GDP in terms of purchasing power parity and rank. GDP in each country has been expressed in US Dollars.
• Demographics: Population (total, growth and country rank), a breakdown of the age distribution according to gender and age group, median age.
• Internet statistics: The Internet penetration of the population, the total number of broadband and fixed Internet subscriptions, as found by the International Telecommunications Union.
• Google Contact: The email address that you can use to get in touch with our local representatives. They will be happy to give you more insight into the statistics you can find in the pages here and connect your ideas with the appropriate Google products.

This research offers unique insights into the usage of internet enabled devices (PCs, smartphones, tablets, etc.) as well as internet & broadband penetration and online behaviour. The enumeration survey was conducted during Q1 2012 in 40 markets and this is the overview presentation on 11 Northern and Central Europe (NACE) markets.

Key results:

• Growing smartphone & tablet penetration in all NACE markets.
• In Norway, Sweden and UK every second adult uses a smartphone.
• In most NACE-countries mobile networks are the most often used channel to go online via smartphone.
• In every market laptops are more common than desktops – Norway has highest laptop share.
• Across all countries (private) internet usage is on a high level. In the Netherlands, Norway and Denmark private usage reaches 90%.

With Finland's smartphone penetration now at 38% and 55% of smartphone owners accessing the Internet every day from their device, mobile has become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Google partnered with Ipsos OTX Media CT to understand how the growing adoption of smartphones has transformed consumer behavior from media consumption to commerce to connecting with the world around us. These insights can help advertisers understand how to best use smartphones to engage with their customers. Here's what we found:

• Smartphone users are multi-tasking their media with 75% using their phone while doing other things such as watching TV (44%). 90% of smartphone users look for local information on their phone and 87% take action a result.
• Smartphones are critical shopping tools with 73% having researched a product or service on their device. 23% of smartphone users have made a purchase on their phone.
• Mobile ads are noticed by 91% of smartphone users. Smartphones are also a critical component of traditional advertising as 62% have performed a search on their smartphone after seeing an offline ad. Review the full study to understand the business implications and opportunities for marketers.

This study will help you understand more about how consumers in Finland research and shop online. We have looked at behaviour when researching and buying a range of products from furniture to sport equipment, to clothes and TVs.

Key findings:

• Online shopping is an established purchase method among Finnish internet users: overall two thirds of the people online buy regularly on the internet.

• Interest in online shopping is not limited to special verticals but various product categories are bought on the internet.

• Search engines serve as a key navigator in the online shopping process and are the dominant source for discovering new online shops.

This study will help you understand more about how consumers in Finland research and purchase travel online.

Key findings:

• Online research in the travel vertical has to meet highly differentiated information needs: on average 8 topics are expected to be found on the internet.
• Search engines are the top online source for finding inspiration and interesting destinations for trips.
• When it comes to the trip preparing and decision research search engines serve as a crucial navigator to relevant sources.

This study will help you understand more about how consumers in Finland use various information sources, including the internet, when making finance purchases.

Key findings:

• 94% of the Finish internet users use online banking.
• Online research impacts offline sales: ROPO effect visible for all products with with more than half of the online researchers having contracted offline
• Search top navigator tool for finance research on the internet: search is the most popular starting point for product research and provides valuable guidance to relevant online information sources.