After three years of steady improvement, customer satisfaction with e-business falls 0.8% to a score of
74.3 on the American Customer Satisfaction Index’s (ACSI) 100-point scale. The e-business segment
includes three categories: social media, search engines and information websites, and news and opinion
websites. The decline is a result of lower user satisfaction with internet news and search engines. Social
media is the only category unaffected.
INTERNET SOCIAL MEDIA
As users continue to turn to social media for news and information, customer satisfaction is steady at
an ACSI score of 73. Following the launch of new features and a redesign in January, Google+ posts a
large gain, up 7% to 81. While Google+ has a smaller, more niche-like customer base than other social
media sites, its users are dedicated and highly satisfed. Google+ also benefts from the popularity of its
seamless integration with other Google products across the platform.
In second place, Pinterest regains 3% to 78. The social bookmarking site continues to upgrade its
technology to the beneft of users—and businesses—by increasing site effciency and search technology.
What originated as a space to pin aspirational images has evolved into a hub for shopping and advertising,
and it is increasingly easy for consumers to shop for the products in the pinned images.
Wikipedia, on the other hand, slips 1% to 77. The online encyclopedia is completely dependent on its
users to provide content. Even though the number of articles continues to grow, the number of editors is
shrinking, making it diffcult to maintain the quality for which the site is known. Nevertheless, Wikipedia
remains the seventh most popular site in the world, and sits well above the industry average for user
satisfaction.
Instagram inches up 1% to an ACSI score of 75 following a slate of user enhancements, including the
introduction of Instagram stories. The continued effort to make the site more interactive is helping to keep
users engaged. Meanwhile, YouTube tumbles 4% to 74, just above the industry average.
Overtaking Facebook, Twitter posts the largest gain, up 8% to 70. During the past few years, users have
looked to social media for up-to-the-minute news, and now even major news networks have become
reliant on Twitter for information about what is happening in the world—and in the White House.
After plummeting 9% in 2016, Facebook—the largest social networking site—is unchanged at 68. While
Facebook remains well below its peak score of 75 in 2015, the site is doing better now than in many prior
years and staying ahead of its historic average of 66.
User Satisfaction with E-Business Stumbles; Internet News
and Search Engines Fall but Social Media Endures
ACSI E-Business Report 2017
ACSI
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ACSI E-Business Report 2017
ACSI
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Microblogging website Tumblr also scores 68 (+1%). Tumblr has never gotten out of the 60s for user
satisfaction, and the site is now owned by Oath, the Verizon Communications subsidiary that combines
AOL and Verizon’s recent acquisition, Yahoo!. Professional networking website LinkedIn stays in last
place, unmoved at 65.
Overall, users consider social media sites to be reliable, and give the highest score for site performance
(77). However, as users adjust to new features and changes, ease of navigation is down slightly from a
year ago (-1% to 76). Ease of use on different devices (smartphones and tablets) slips 3% to 75, while
freshness of content (75) and privacy (72) both dip 1% from 2016.
Video is the new frontier for social media platforms, but while individual company performance varies
widely, the industry average is unchanged at 74. Social media users are the least satisfed with the
amount of advertising on websites, but no more so than last year (69).
ACSI E-Business Report 2017
ACSI
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ACSI data show that social media sites have improved performance on mobile browsers compared to a
year ago (up 4% to 75). In contrast, mobile apps underperform, down 1% to 72. This satisfaction score
for mobile apps is no better than that of desktop and laptop browsers (+1% to 72).
INTERNET SEARCH ENGINES & INFORMATION
Customer satisfaction with search engines and information websites reverses course, falling 1.3% to an
ACSI score of 76. All of the top-scoring search engines lose ground. Google, the biggest brand name in
search, slips 2% to 82. However, with a 9-point lead over its nearest major competitor, Microsoft’s Bing,
Google’s dominance in the category is quite secure. Smaller search engines and information websites
also come in behind Google at 79 (-1%).。