Hong Kong internet users spend twice as much time on instant messaging (IM) as other Asian users, and prefer Yahoo’s websites to others, according to comScore’s first report on the territory.

 

Nearly 16% of the time spent online in Hong Kong was on IM sites, with 11% on entertainment sites – led by YouTube.com and TVB.com – and 8% on social networking, led by Facebook, comScore said.

 

“An average Hong Kong Internet user spends more than 25 hours online per month, making it one of the most engaged Internet markets globally,” said Will Hodgman, comScore executive vice president for the Asia-Pacific region.

 

During the survey period in August, nearly 4 million people in Hong Kong over 15 year old went online, comScore said.

 

Yahoo sites ranked as the most visited Internet property with 3.1 million visitors, or 80% of the online population, followed by Microsoft sites (2.6 million), Google (2.5 million) and Facebook.com (2.1 million). Community forum site Discuss.com.hk was the most visited local site (1.5 million), followed by Uwants (1.4 million). TVB.com was the 8th most visited site and PCCW was 11^th.

 

Apart from IM, Hong Kong net users spent nearly 11% of their online time on business or finance sites, more than double the region’s average.