Billions Lost As UK Websites Download Faster If You Are Outside The UK

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Travel website www.holidaysplease.co.uk analysed 5.5 million interactions on their website over a 3-year period and found that out of the 80 countries that regularly visited their site, 26 downloaded the content quicker than UK visitors. This is despite the fact that the Holidaysplease website is hosted in Manchester, UK.

10 countries actually managed to download the content in half the time of UK visitors. These included countries such as Bulgaria, Hungary, Ukraine and Malta. The 26 countries that were quicker than the UK were on average 1,300 miles away from the UK.

Commenting on the statistics, Charles Duncombe, director of www.holidaysplease.co.uk said:-

“I was curious to see how quickly our site was being downloaded and so I used Google’s analytics software to see. I was shocked to see that UK visitor viewing speeds we only 27th out of 80 countries which is ridiculous when our website is hosted in the UK. How can someone who lives a few miles from where our website is hosted, see the same webpage later than someone who lives thousands of miles away? It just shows how there are still severe internet black spots in the UK that need to be addressed.”

Research has shown that every extra second a website takes to download as many as 7% of people will abandon their visit.* With UK visitors having to wait 2 seconds longer than the countries that featured in the top 10 it could mean that 14% more UK visitors are abandoning their visit ahead of time. With £236bn of business being conducted online in the UK every year** that could mean as much as £33bn is being lost each year due to slower internet speeds.

For further information contact: Fern Share or Charles Duncombe on 0121 200 5714 or at marketing@holidaysplease.com

About Holidaysplease:

Set up in 2002 Holidaysplease.co.uk is a luxury online holiday company. It has picked up over 30 industry awards including Online Travel Agency Of the Year 2017-18.

Their 100+ strong team advise customers on the best places to stay in the world.

Statistics from 5.5m page downloads onwww.holidaysplease.co.uk 2015-2018:-

Ranking Country Avg. Page Load Time (seconds)
1 Slovenia 0.91
2 Austria 1.47
3 Guernsey 1.52
4 Denmark 1.57
5 Bulgaria 1.73
6 Hungary 1.78
7 Switzerland 1.94
8 Ukraine 2.21
9 Malta 2.38
10 Belgium 2.50
11 Sweden 2.61
12 Poland 2.62
13 Estonia 2.69
14 Jersey 2.90
15 Croatia 2.98
16 Cyprus 3.07
17 Israel 3.19
18 Isle of Man 3.31
19 Barbados 3.34
20 Germany 3.41
21 Turkey 3.73
22 Macedonia 3.78
23 Finland 3.83
24 Czechia 3.85
25 Italy 4.12
26 Portugal 4.22
27 United Kingdom 4.41
28 Ireland 4.41
29 Spain 4.44
30 France 4.49
31 Mexico 4.61
32 Japan 4.95
33 Romania 5.28
34 Serbia 5.31
35 Saudi Arabia 5.51
36 Bangladesh 5.56
37 New Zealand 5.73
38 Gibraltar 5.77
39 Netherlands 5.80
40 Qatar 5.82
41 Kenya 5.89
42 Malaysia 5.95
43 China 5.99
44 Norway 6.04
45 Bahrain 6.15
46 Greece 6.20
47 Thailand 6.29
48 Hong Kong 6.33
49 United States 6.35
50 Indonesia 6.46
51 United Arab Emirates 6.55
52 Tanzania 6.63
53 Canada 6.85
54 Lebanon 7.04
55 Lithuania 7.07
56 Vietnam 7.26
57 Trinidad & Tobago 7.92
58 Australia 8.03
59 Jordan 8.09
60 Slovakia 8.36
61 South Korea 8.45
62 Iran 8.63
63 Singapore 9.00
64 Morocco 9.02
65 Brazil 9.61
66 Egypt 10.02
67 Sri Lanka 10.30
68 Maldives 12.14
69 Russia 12.19
70 Oman 12.37
71 South Africa 13.12
72 India 14.46
73 Philippines 17.10
74 Antigua & Barbuda 19.17
75 Latvia 19.50
76 Seychelles 21.40
77 Pakistan 23.31
78 Mauritius 24.50
79 Nigeria 25.61
80 Kuwait 32.11

Resources:

* 365 retail survey:- https://365retail.co.uk/slow-website-load-times-cause-47-of-shoppers-to-abandon-online-baskets/

** Office for National Statistics; https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/itandinternetindustry/bulletins/ecommerceandictactivity/2016

Graphics:-
Worldwide Internet Speeds Heat Map: