Napster Soars 92 Percent in Daily US Traffic

Napster Soars 92 Percent in Daily US Traffic, says Nielsen//NetRatings

Auckland – 7 August 2000 – News means views, according to latest Nielsen//NetRatings research. The media spotlight on Napster in the past week has caused a surge in people visiting the site and downloading the file-swapping software. Napster.com rose 92 percent in traffic to peak at 849,000 unique home visitors on Friday, July 28, the day the court stay was granted, from Tuesday, July 25, the day before the federal court’s ruling.

The site broke the 800,000 unique visitor mark both on Friday and Saturday, covering more than three percent of all active US home Internet users each day. In addition, on Friday, the day the stay was announced, downloads of Napster software more than doubled from the day before to 22 percent of its audience, indicating renewed interest (see Table 2).

"The increase in Napster downloads on the heels of the court stay is a strong indication that digital downloading has hit critical mass among American Web consumers,” said Kerry Hawkins, Director Sales and Marketing, ACNielsen eRatings.com New Zealand. “The data underscores consumers’ thirst for MP3 music. Rather than fight this evolution, the entertainment industry should embrace it and develop sensible solutions to capitalise on this market opportunity."

Notes: Rankings are based on audience measurement of people who have access to the Internet at-home and at-work. Work rankings are based on persons at work who have access to a non-shared personal computer. A property is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs owned by a single entity. Reach is a measure of the unduplicated audience that visits a property. The data are expressed as the percentage of the total universe of Internet users who logged onto the Internet at least once during the reporting period.

About Nielsen//NetRatings
The Nielsen//NetRatings service uses unique technology capable of measuring both Internet use and advertising to provide the most timely, accurate and comprehensive Internet usage data and advertising information in the global marketplace. Nielsen//NetRatings leverages proprietary data-collection technology from NetRatings, Nielsen Media Research's 50 years of expertise in research and audience measurement, and ACNielsen’s international leadership in supplying market research information covering more than 100 countries. For more information, please visit www.nielsen-netratings.com.

ACNielsen eRatings.com is a venture between ACNielsen (NYSE: ART) and NetRatings Inc. (NASDAQ: NTRT). ACNielsen is the world's leading market research firm, offering measurement and analysis of marketplace dynamics, consumer attitudes and behaviour, and new and traditional media in more than 100 countries, and NetRatings is the leading provider of Internet audience measurement technology and analysis. Through the Nielsen//NetRatings service, ACNielsen eRatings.com is creating the first global service for tracking audiences, advertising and user activity on the Internet in more than 30 countries worldwide.

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