Between them, Google and Facebook account for more than 28 per cent of UK internet time, further highlighting the dominance the pair have online.

According to measurement firm Verto Analytics, around 17 per cent of British adults’ internet time is spent on Google products – mainly Search, YouTube and Gmail. That equates to an accumulative total of 42.7m days a month spent across Google. Meanwhile, around 11 per cent, or 28.4m days, is spent on Facebook products – which includes Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram.

The top 10 most dominant companies in the UK by internet time is rounded up by Microsoft, Apple, BBC, Amazon, the newly-formed Oath, eBay, Activision Blizzard, and Twitter. So, the list, which accounts for half of internet time, is all US firms except for the BBC – and it is only joined by Sky, if you extend the list out to the top 20.

“The implications of a handful of dominant companies – particularly just two – go beyond simply which sites we surf. You have fewer sites increasingly controlling not only what you see and hear but where advertising revenue goes,” said Hannu Verkasalo, CEO of Verto Analytics. “The erosion of newspapers, magazines and high street retailers plus the web giants sway over political elections is just the beginning.

“Advertising funds companies and ends up having a big impact on what products and technologies get developed. In tandem, increasing power and wealth going into fewer hands means it’s easier to move into other business models and industries, influencing society in new ways – think Google’s move into driverless cars and Facebook’s dive into Artificial Intelligence. It used to be the likes of NASA that drove the future, now it’s down to what search engine and social network you use.”

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