As we enter 2020 and the start of a new decade, Taboola has taken a moment to reflect on the most read-about topics of 2019. Across the world, people clicked on and consumed a number of different entertainment, general news, and sports stories – but, in the UK, there were a few key standout topics that garnered a great deal of attention.
Content discovery platform Taboola looked at over 9 million online articles to reveal the topics most read-about in 2019. The company has also analysed these topics by gender, to determine which articles men and women were most engaged with.
The most read-about topics of 2019 include:
- Meghan Markle
- Boris Johnson
- Wimbledon
- Kylie Jenner
- Love Island
Unsurprisingly, out of the top ten most read about topics in 2019, “Brexit” and “Boris Johnson” dominated. However, both topics were out-read by “Meghan Markle” who secured a huge 86.3% of readers in 2019. When it came to the world of entertainment, however, it was Kylie Jenner who topped the charts with 35% of readers. Reality shows Love Island and Strictly Come Dancing were also hot topics, drawing in 26.8% and 24.7% of readers respectively.
2019 was a great year for sport, which was also reflected in Taboola’s findings. 59.8% of people went online to read about Wimbledon, with the Cricket World Cup and Rugby World Cup also drawing eyeballs online (27.2% and 8.9% respectively).
Finally, Taboola analysed the top ten topics of 2019 by gender to discover the trends and stories with which men and women were most engaged. In world news, male readers were most interested in the Extinction Rebellion story (45% male readership), whereas women were avid readers of stories about Meghan Markle (81% female readership). In entertainment, the most read about films were Avengers: Endgame (38.4% male readership) and Downtown Abbey (86.4% female readership).
Lastly, in the world of sport, men actively read about the Six Nations Rugby (41% male readership), and women took a particular interest in Andy Murray (79.8% female readership).
Methodology:
Taboola has the capability to analyze reader behaviour on sites where its products are installed, and where permission to collect user data is granted. Taboola now reaches 1.4 Billion people every month, nearly half the world’s internet users.
Insights were pulled between December 2018 and December 2019 and includes internet user activity from:
~9M articles
~670 Million users
~61 billion pageviews
~74 Billion minutes spent reading related content (Or 1.3 Billion Hours, or 51 Million Days)