Nielsen//NetRatings Launches Global Internet Index

World’s Largest Internet Sample Reveals Yahoo! Led the World in June 2000, Reflecting Leading Status of Search Engines and Portals in Global Surfing

Auckland- 10 August 2000- Nielsen//NetRatings, the world’s fastest growing Internet audience measurement service, today released its June global Internet index, showing that Yahoo! is the world’s most popular site for at-home Internet users in many countries outperforming global and local players alike.

The Nielsen//NetRatings global Internet index provides results across the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Ireland and Singapore, measuring two-thirds of the global Internet population and covering more countries, panelists, Internet users than any other survey. Over 207 million people in the eight countries sampled had home Internet access, with over half, or 117 million, being active users.

“The Internet is the first truly global medium,” says Brian Milnes, ACNielsen eRatings.com Managing Director Pacific. “Nielsen//NetRatings’ unmatched global reach is the most effective way to measure how Internet audiences surf across national borders, giving advertising agencies, Internet marketers and corporations the most accurate gauge of global Internet audience, advertising and usage activity.”

Yahoo! registered the highest unique audience and the most page views, showing a relatively high percentage of repeat visits (see Table 1), while eBay was highest in pages viewed per person and time spent per person. Notably, iWon.com ranked 36th in unique audience but came second behind eBay in the time spent per person on the site, holding average visitors for one hour and six minutes.

“The auction content of eBay is successful in drawing visitors, and just as importantly, keeping surfers for an incredible average of one hour and 42 minutes,” says Mr Milnes.

“While on eBay, visitors are viewing 256 pages per person, which shows that the audience is drilling down deep into the site and gaining exposure to a considerable amount of content and advertising.

Similarly, visitors to iWon.com win points towards regular prize drawings by clicking on specially marked links. iWon.com’s surfers are making sure to leverage the site’s content and accumulate sweepstakes points.”

Mr Milnes says the move to E-Commerce is being felt around the world, with, for example,12 percent of active home Internet users visiting Amazon.com or its presence in numerous countries.

Nielsen//NetRatings Global Internet Index
Table 1. Top 25 Web Sites by Property, At-Home, June 2000
Rank By Unique Audience Property Unique Audience Reach %(Active) Time Per Person % Page Views From Browser Cache
1 Yahoo! 62,772,590 54% 1:01:47 21
2 AOL Websites 57,243,240 49% 0:26:38 19
3 MSN 47,790,317 41% 0:45:25 14
4 Microsoft 39,668,640 34% 0:11:23 15
5 Lycos 31,161,092 27% 0:15:15 17
6 Excite@Home 27,502,376 24% 0:26:01 22
7 GO Network 22,916,897 20% 0:21:08 26
8 AltaVista 16,246,444 14% 0:13:44 23
9 NBC Internet 15,007,333 13% 0:12:29 26
10 About.com 14,690,343 13% 0:09:02 23
11 Time Warner 14,312,818 12% 0:12:41 22
12 Amazon 13,527,874 12% 0:13:09 22
13 eUniverse Network 11,010,023 9% 0:12:56 21
14 Real Networks 10,663,603 9% 0:05:21 18
15 eBay 10,460,407 9% 1:42:26 36
16 Go2Net 10,391,977 9% 0:09:10 29
17 Ask Jeeves 10,378,394 9% 0:10:46 29
18 Macromedia 10,235,343 9% 0:10:05 20
19 LookSmart 9,871,946 8% 0:07:36 18
20 Fortune City 8,645,319 7% 0:05:37 21
21 CNET Networks 8,559,120 7% 0:08:38 26
22 Viacom International 8,429,782 7% 0:11:59 21
23 American Greetings 8,099,889 7% 0:11:05 18
24 ZDNet 8,069,426 7% 0:10:15 21
25 Sony Online 7,796,480 7% 0:10:34 30
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, June 2000

The dominance of Yahoo! reflects the preeminence of global search engines and portals with nearly 90 percent of the active Internet universe, or 102 million people, visiting them in June, and staying, on average, just over nine minutes (see Table 2).

The second most popular category was telecom and Internet services, attracting 65 percent of the active Internet universe, or 74 million people for an average of six minutes and 36 seconds in that category.

But Mr Milnes says the finance/insurance/investment and online community categories were by far the ‘stickiest’. “These areas experience average usage times nearly twice that of areas like travel, classifieds, education, and others,” he says.

Nielsen//NetRatings Global Internet Index
Table 2. Activity by Domain Category, At-Home, June 2000
Ranking of Internet usage by category across the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Ireland and Singapore

Category Unique Audience Reach %(Active) Time per Person
Search Engines/Portals 102,201,480 89.33 0:09:02
Telecom/Internet Services 74,311,191 64.95 0:06:36
Entertainment 59,839,149 52.30 0:11:33
Personal/Business Elec. & S/W 53,893,623 47.10 0:09:40
News & Information 52,968,762 46.30 0:08:31
Shopping 48,838,764 42.69 0:08:38
Online Communities 48,740,761 42.60 0:13:01
Directories/Classifieds 36,310,645 31.74 0:07:53
Finance/Insurance/
Investment 30,469,864 26.63 0:14:58
Family & Lifestyles 28,872,064 25.23 0:09:15
Corporate Information 26,767,290 23.40 0:05:43
Adult 25,086,742 21.93 0:03:10
Travel 24,396,077 21.32 0:07:13
Sweepstakes/Coupons 24,282,687 21.22 0:08:32
Education 22,038,889 19.26 0:06:49
Government/Non-Profit 20,268,333 17.72 0:07:56
Sports 14,895,254 13.02 0:11:01
Automotive 11,319,074 9.89 0:08:26
Health & Fitness 211,092 0.18 0:05:01
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, June 2000

Nielsen//NetRatings is the world’s largest Internet measurement service, with more than 150,000 individuals participating in panels across eight major Internet markets. Mr Milnes says the depth of the service’s panels and its unmatched global footprint allow Nielsen//NetRatings to report the most accurate data available.

“With our service using globally consistent sampling methodology, metering technology and web-based reporting, we can provide a unique and truly global picture of Internet activity worldwide,” he said.

June numbers showed a current Internet universe estimate of 207 million individuals at-home, of which approximately 56 percent, or 117 million, were active during the month (see Table 3).

June saw a slight decline in average page views per month and per surfing session from May, a trend probably linked to the beginning of the summer holiday season in most markets.

Nielsen//NetRatings Global Internet Index
Table 3. Average Usage, At-Home, June 2000
Ranking of average Internet usage across the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Ireland and Singapore
June 2000 May 2000 % Change
Number of Sessions per Month 17 17 -1.12
Number of Unique Sites Visited 11 11 -0.71
Page Views per Month 637 742 -14.07
Page Views per Surfing Session 38 43 -12.05
Time Spent per Month 8:30:33 8:36:14 -1.10
Time Spent During Surfing Session 0:30:14 0:29:34 2.28
Duration of a Page Viewed 0:00:49 0:00:47 4.54
Average Click Rate for Top Banners 0.52 0.88 -40.62
Total Internet Audience Sample 107,490 105,486 1.90
Active Internet Universe 116,734,979 115,448,656 1.11
Current Internet Universe Estimate 207,211,099 203,775,960 1.69
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, June 2000

About Nielsen//NetRatings
Through strategic partnerships between NetRatings, Nielsen Media Research and ACNielsen, the Nielsen//NetRatings audience measurement service collects real-time data from more than 150,000 Internet users around the world. The U.S. panel sample currently consists of 57,000 at-home users and 8,000 at-work users. International panels are under development with over 85,000 at-home users currently being measured. These panels collectively represent the largest media research sample of Internet users in the industry.

Nielsen//NetRatings 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 tracks the entire spectrum of Internet user behavior, leveraging 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 offering market research information covering more than 100 countries. For more information, please visit www.nielsen-netratings.com.
About ACNielsen eRatings.com

ACNielsen eRatings.com is a venture between ACNielsen and NetRatings. ACNielsen is the global leader in delivering market research, information and analysis to the consumer products and services industries, and 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 30countries worldwide.
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