Kiwi Website Climbs On Podium

Kiwi Website Climbs On Podium As Global Olympics Battle Heats Up For On Line Surfers

New Zealand Herald site shows up on global index for first time

AUCKLAND: September 24, 2000 – A battle every bit as competitive as the Sydney Olympics itself is being waged between the two global web stars of the Games with nbcolympics.com and olympics.com running neck and neck in terms of Page Views generated over the past 24 hours, according to yesterday’s Nielsen//NetRatings ‘Web Olympics Index’.

But significantly a New Zealand site, nzherald.co.nz, has also made it onto the latest global ratings short-list, and now ranks among the top 25 Olympic-related sites in the world among web surfers seeking information about the Games.

“The Herald’s success attests to the site’s own pulling power, and to the very high level of enthusiasm for the Games among New Zealanders, “said Kerry Hawkins, Director of Sales and Marketing for ACNielsen eRatings.com.

“What we are seeing here is how, despite our relatively small population, a good New Zealand website is showing up alongside international heavyweights in building a strong following.

“The fact the New Zealanders had finalists in the single sculls during this period would have also helped to drive up interest among overseas web surfers coming to a New Zealand website for a local perspective on how their home crowds thought the rowers were going to do.

“In this debut on the Index, the Herald now ranks among the top 25 sites -- a terrific achievement.”

The ‘Web Olympics Index’ provides a daily snapshot of web traffic to approximately 250 official and unofficial Olympics-related sites during the previous 24 hours. The service is provided by ACNielsen eRatings.com (a venture between ACNielsen Corp., NYSE: ART and NetRatings, Inc., Nasdaq: NTRT), Nielsen Media Research and NetRatings, Inc. and covers 15 countries.

Key findings over the 24 hours covered by the Index show that:

 Official Olympics site olympics.com drew within a whisker of nbcolympics.com overnight with both sites attracting approximately 3.9 million Page Views. The two sites experienced a 20% movement with olympics.com increasing Page views 10% while nbcolympics.com dropped Page Views by the same margin.

 sports.yahoo.com continued its impressive growth over the past few days, increasing its Page Views by 22%, following a massive 50% surge the day before.

 usatoday.com jumped into fourth spot, indicating more US-based surfers are accessing sites beyond NBC’s online site to obtain updates on the progress of their national Olympic team.

 Hong Kong-based orientaldaily.com.hk continued its climb up the Index, moving from eighth to seventh position on the back of a 48% increase in Page Views – the largest increase of all the top 10 sites.

 Japanese sports and Olympics update site number.ne.jp moved into the Index for the first time, generating a 13% increase in Page Views to 94,382 Pages.

Table 1: Most popular Olympics-related domains surfed globally from home:

Web domain

Total Page
Views Sept 22
Total Page
Views Sept 21
% Change

Page Views
per person

1 nbcolympics.com 3,980,386 4,430,978 -10% 14
2 olympics.com 3,971,585 3,601,466 10% 17
3 sports.yahoo.com* 3,357,197 2,761,485 22% 9
4 usatoday.com* 1,976,491 1,543,855 28% 8
5 sports.yahoo.co.jp* 1,060,229 1,459,781 -27% 6
6 nikkansports.com* 769,217 778,655 -1% 7
7 orientaldaily.com.hk* 234,422 159,148 47% 12
8 olympics.com.au 157,996 293,578 -46% 8
9 number.ne.jp* 94,382 83,484 13% 5
10 sydney.asahi.com* 88,090 138,428 -36% 5
* This site also contains non-Olympics content

The next 15 most popular Olympics-related domains in alphabetical order were:

Domain Description

Aftonbladet* Swedish newspaper featuring Olympics content
dif.dk Danish Olympic Committee site
eurobet.co.uk* Online Betting site
fanmail.olympic.ibm.com Fanmail site for fans and Olympic athletes
fr.sports.yahoo.com* French sports site within Yahoo!
gamesinfo.com.au Australian-based transport/schedule site for the Games
ireland.com* Irish Times featuring Olympics content
iltalehti.fi Finnish Olympic Information site
jo.wanadoo.fr French Olympic information site
news.bbc.co.uk* BBC web site featuring Olympics content
nzherald.co.nz* NZ Newspaper Site
olympiaden.nu Swedish Olympics site
olympic.org Official IOC site
opasia.dk Danish site focusing on the Olympics
silly2000.com Parody site of the official Olympics web site

* This site also contains non-Olympics content

Portals remain top of Web Olympics Category Index

 The Portal Category remained at the top of the Web Olympics Index, reporting a 4% increase in unique audience, despite a 12% slide in total Page Views.

 Sports, TV/Broadcast and Official Sites Categories all recorded decreases in terms of Unique Audience, although official Olympic sites generated a 22% increase in total Page Views to 4.51 million. This was the largest increase of all Categories.

Table 2: Most popular Olympics-related categories surfed globally from home:

Category Unique Audience % change Total Page Views
% change Time per person
Portal 767,773 4% 7,942,774 -12% 5 mins
News & Information 588,054 3% 4,280,177 9% 6mins
Sports 508,017 -2% 3,792,104 -1% 5 mins
TV/Broadcast 338,303 -9% 4,356,482 -10% 8 mins
Official 288,744 -5% 4,510,062 22% 9 mins
Miscellaneous 26,546 137% 178,128 102% 4 mins

The Nielsen//NetRatings Web Olympics Index
The Nielsen//NetRatings Web Olympics Index measures online user activity of more than 165,000 at home panellists across more than 250 key Olympics and related sites in New Zealand, Australia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Singapore, UK and the USA.

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 165,000 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 100,000 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 behaviour, 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 (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 behavior, 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.

About NetRatings, Inc.
NetRatings (Nasdaq: NTRT) provides Internet audience measurement and analysis services that enable its customers to make informed decisions regarding their Internet strategies. NetRatings delivers accurate and timely information collected from a representative sample of Internet users and augments it with detailed, flexible reporting and in-depth analyses.
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