Online night owls: Americans stay up late on Internet, peaking at 11 p.m. Eastern
By Peter Svensson, APWednesday, September 2, 2009
Study finds prime time on the Internet is 11 p.m.
NEW YORK — It’s 11 p.m. Do you know where your neighbors are?
Chances are they’re online. According to a new study, North Americans have been staying up late to do their Internet browsing this summer. That appears to be a shift from previous years, when most Internet activity was in the daytime.
The new study by Internet security firm Arbor Networks found that people using the Internet at work and school produce a smaller traffic peak around 4 p.m. Eastern time on weekdays.
Internet activity then declines as people head home. At 8 p.m. Eastern, U.S. and Canadian home Internet traffic starts spiking, and stays surprisingly strong past midnight, Arbor found. At 2 a.m. Eastern, overall traffic is as high as it is at 9 a.m., when people are logging in at work.
