Nielsen/NetRatings July index finds e-commerce web traffic still strong
Nielsen//Netratings July Index finds e-commerce web traffic still strong
In just one month, number of active Internet users increases 4.5% globally, to 122 million; data shows that
company Websites have six minutes to make user impression.
STAMFORD, CT - August 31, 2000 - Nielsen//NetRatings, the fastest growing Internet audience measurement service in the world, today released results from its July global Internet index, showing that 42 percent of home Internet surfers visited shopping sites last month.
“Despite wide-spread investor concerns about the viability of e-Commerce, shopping sites are pulling in enormous traffic, showing the global appeal and swelling potential of shopping on the Internet,” said David Day, director of analytics, ACNielsen eRatings.com.
Nielsen//NetRatings is a service provided by ACNielsen eRatings.com (a venture between ACNielsen Corp., and NetRatings, Inc.), Nielsen Media Research and NetRatings, Inc.
“Shopping sites attracted nearly 52 million visitors in July, three million more than in June, accounting for 42% of the active Internet audience last month,” Day said. “Content-rich e-Commerce sites like Amazon and eBay are leading this trend by attracting large global audiences and generating large numbers of page views. One in 10 people online in July went to eBay, reflecting its global significance.”
Day also noted that outside the US, Amazon attracted a majority male audience, most notably in the UK, where twice as many males visited Amazon as women. However, in the US, women surfers outnumbered male surfers on Amazon, accounting for 54% of Amazon's traffic, as opposed to the 46% of traffic from male surfers. In each country, Amazon measured its highest proportion of visitors from the 25-49-year-old age bracket.
“Like many global e-Commerce sites, Amazon is most mature in the US,” Day said. “While it has successfully garnered female shoppers in the US, its more recent expansion into other product areas, such as software, PC and video games, auctions and DVD and video products, has clearly attracted male shoppers outside the US, who are most likely attracted by the variety of products available and the ease of shopping the site.”
Corporate Information Sites
"Though corporate information sites ranked, as would be expected, below such audience-grabbing categories as news and information and entertainment, a fair share of the global audience - 23% of the home surfers active in July - are visiting those sites and spending an average of six minutes there,” Day said.
“For companies that have corporate Websites, or for companies looking to create a Website as a marketing tool, this tells us that many consumers, job-seekers, investors and possibly even competitors are analyzing those sites and using the Internet as a means to get a further impression of a company."
"Corporations have six minutes to make the impression they want to make on those important audiences, so this medium should be taken very seriously," Day added.
Table 1. Activity by Category
| Category | Unique Audience | Reach %(Active) | Time Per Person |
| Search Engines/Portals | 107,543,846 | 88.19 | 0:08:01 |
| Telecom/Internet Services | 78,516,293 | 64.39 | 0:06:19 |
| Entertainment | 65,880,257 | 54.02 | 0:10:52 |
| Personal/Business Elec. & S/W | 56,112,827 | 46.01 | 0:09:28 |
| News & Information | 55,739,404 | 45.71 | 0:09:08 |
| Shopping | 51,610,604 | 42.32 | 0:08:56 |
| Online Communities | 50,516,785 | 41.43 | 0:12:17 |
| Directories/Classifieds | 38,362,416 | 31.46 | 0:08:32 |
| Finance/Insurance/Investment | 32,003,267 | 26.24 | 0:14:34 |
| Family & Lifestyles | 31,307,305 | 25.67 | 0:09:36 |
| Corporate Information | 28,563,471 | 23.42 | 0:05:59 |
| Travel | 27,263,540 | 22.36 | 0:07:09 |
| Adult | 26,515,427 | 21.74 | 0:03:10 |
| Sweepstakes/Coupons | 25,690,613 | 21.07 | 0:08:02 |
| Education | 22,268,578 | 18.26 | 0:06:50 |
| Government/Non-Profit | 21,586,344 | 17.70 | 0:07:46 |
| Sports | 16,190,938 | 13.28 | 0:11:21 |
| Automotive | 13,492,059 | 11.06 | 0:08:31 |
Top Sites
July results also showed Yahoo! with a leading global position, attracting an audience of 66 million individuals, followed by AOL, with an audience of 62 million and MSN, with an audience of 50 million. (see table 2)
Table 2. Top 25 web sites by property
| Rank By Unique Audience | Property | Unique Audience | Time Per Person |
| 1 | Yahoo! | 65,907,687 | 54% |
| 2 | AOL Websites | 62,349,504 | 51% |
| 3 | MSN | 50,042,747 | 41% |
| 4 | Microsoft | 42,793,223 | 35% |
| 5 | Lycos | 32,584,584 | 27% |
| 6 | Excite@Home | 28,357,289 | 23% |
| 7 | GO Network | 23,132,996 | 19% |
| 8 | About.com | 17,217,778 | 14% |
| 9 | AltaVista | 16,803,118 | 14% |
| 10 | Time Warner | 15,975,939 | 13% |
| 11 | NBC Internet | 15,465,264 | 13% |
| 12 | eUniverse Network | 14,228,590 | 12% |
| 14 | Amazon | 13,905,421 | 11% |
| 15 | Real Networks | 11,660,108 | 10% |
| 16 | eBay | 11,531,267 | 9% |
| 17 | LookSmart | 11,497,680 | 9% |
| 18 | Ask Jeeves | 10,613,115 | 9% |
| 19 | Macromedia | 9,993,535 | 8% |
| 20 | The Go2Net Network | 9,759,125 | 8% |
| 21 | CNET Networks | 9,633,690 | 8% |
| 22 | Fortune City | 9,116,302 | 7% |
| 23 | American Greetings | 8,706,038 | 7% |
| 24 | ZDNet | 8,635,179 | 7% |
| 25 | Sony Online | 8,541,575 | 7% |
Growth in active users
In July, the online universe - the number of people with Internet access -- grew 4.5% over June figures, rising to 216 million people in July from 207 million people across Australia, Canada, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, the UK and the US in June.
Similarly, the number of people active on the Internet in July increased 4.5% to 122 million, which equates to 56% of those with Internet access.
About Nielsen//NetRating
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.