Thanks for asking, Martin. I should have added the source in the article.

I’ve received the information from here:

http://spiegel.medill.northwestern.edu/online-reviews/.

I did check the source you’ve mentioned. The information there is based on a survey conducted in the U.S. only, and we are speaking for a global audience.

Although the data mentioned on Spiegel is from 2017 (I didn’t get any fresh stat), I believe that the percentage of people reading online reviews now has certainly not decreased, if not increased.