Online advertising is a big deal; in 2011 approximately £4.8bn was spent in the UK alone on this medium, a rise of over 14 percent on 2010[1]. The biggest growth area within this is the Real Time Bidding (RTB) market. RTB allows advertisers to specify a consumer type they want to target, the site they want to target them on, and then bid against competitors to display their particular ad. This happens at a rate of billions of slots for ads being auctioned every day[2], and has led to the creation of a highly complex and extremely rewarding system, both for advertising agencies, and the businesses which use them. However, the problem is that like any complex and established system, it is at risk of disruption if the underpinnings of this system start to unravel. New technology is emerging which begs the question, is that disruption about to occur?

Google has grown their share of the UK internet browser market by 6% year on year; equating to 2.3 million extra consumers who have switched from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

Data from the GfK NOP Internet Browser Tracker in the UK shows that market share for all major web browsers has remained static since November 2009, with the exception of Google Chrome and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. The graphic below shows that Internet Explorer’s lost market share has been Google’s gain:

Back in February 2010 Microsoft were forced to offer a choice of browsers to any consumers using one of their operating systems (i.e. Windows); the so-called ‘browser ballot”. GfK’s data suggests that since then many people in the UK have actually stuck with what they know, resulting in little movement overall. What’s particularly interesting is that Firefox has not been able to grow its market share, with Google capturing those interested in trying something different.

Users of Google Chrome are young and heavy users of the internet. By attracting this demographic they are best placed to topple Internet Explorer from top spot in the browser wars.

We recently showed that Internet Explorer’s UK market share is being eroded by the recent EU enforced . Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome are the main beneficiaries as they continue to increase their share of the internet browser market, but where exactly is this growth coming from? We have used the GfK browser data to understand who exactly is using the different browsers and what this all means.

Since Windows introduced a browser ballot at the start of March, GfK Technology research shows that Internet Explorer has lost market share in the UK. Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox have been the main beneficiaries of this new EU enforced regulation.

It was inevitable that Internet Explorer would lose some of its market share when its users were offered alternative browsers at the start of March. The EU thought it was essential that consumers should be offered a choice of browser, to stimulate competition in the browser market.

Early data suggests that when faced with an option, UK consumers have opted for an alternative browser. As we approach the end of March we can see that since the beginning of the month Internet Explorer’s market share in the UK has dropped 5%, with Google Chrome and Firefox each gaining an additional 3% market share.