High-flyer Google still ad-free
After nine months of Internet measurement by MMXI Switzerland, the first winners and losers can be identified
After nine months of Internet measurement by MMXI Switzerland, the first winners and losers can be identifiedBy Clemens Hörler It has been three quarters of a year since MMXI Switzerland first published figures on the website usage of home surfers. Time for a look back.
If you study the monthly top 20 domains of the Swiss MMXI home panel and compare them with those of the previous month, the aha moment is usually limited. Major shifts are rare. Much more interesting, however, is a review of the past nine months. This is the only way to identify longer-term trends.
In the use of the individual website categories, medium-term trends can be discerned, but selective movements can also be noted. These can often be explained by specific international and national events and are not simply a child of chance.
News sites sometimes suffered from large fluctuations
September 11 is just one example. In the ninth month, the number of visitors to online news offerings rose from 727000 to 833000 users, according to MMXI Switzerland. If a work panel had already been available in Switzerland, the effects of the terrorist attacks would probably have been even more visible. Especially in offices without a TV set or radio, the Internet became the number one information medium on September 11.
Not only in September, but also in March, the news sites had a considerable influx of visitors. At that time, access to the news/information category increased by 20 percent. MMXI explains this increase, among other things, with the then current discussion about BSE and foot-and-mouth disease. The continuing slump in the stock markets in the spring of 2001 also left its mark on the Web. The Business/Finance website category lost significant reach among home users. Its market share fell from 31.5 percent in January to 27.1 percent in April.
From January to September, the websites in the Business/Finance categories have both
gained 1.4 percent more unique visitors. However, this was below the growth of the overall market, which increased by an average of 2.5 percent. The same applies to news sites. Of 27 categories, only seven grew faster than the overall market. The strongest growth was recorded by the hobbies/lifestyle and networks sites.
According to MMXI Switzerland, four categories recorded real losses in September compared with January, i.e. were visited by fewer home users than at the beginning of the year. The Technology, Real Estate and Careers categories suffered the greatest loss of visitors. The ranking of the top categories thus hardly changed. This is still led by ISP, Portals and Services.
Urs Wolfensberger, head of MMXI Switzerland, on the shifts in user preferences: "People's behavior on the Internet is increasingly in line with the usual or traditional media usage behavior and is becoming, if you like, ." On the other hand, Wolfensberger said, there hasn't exactly been a lot of spectacular news in the technology sector, for example, which has suffered the most losses.
Among search engines, Google is rapidly gaining terrain
The fact that Internet use is becoming more and more "normal" has a lot to do with the demographic composition of the Internet community. Whereas at the very beginning it was mainly young, well-educated male techies who used the Internet, other demographic groups are now steadily gaining share. For example, the number of male home users grew by 16.1 percent from January to September, while women and even children grew by over 28 percent.
In addition to these general observations, the development of individual websites can also be observed. Among the leading domains and porperties, the search engine market in particular has changed significantly over the past nine months: The big winner here is Google.
Google's various country sites increased their reach among home users from 13.1 percent in February to 19.6 percent in June. The reach of its main competitor Altavista fell from 16.1 to 11.6 percent in the same period.
In September, Google sites were the fifth most popular global domain with a reach of 25.1 percent among active home users. Google, which has also operated a Swiss site for several months, thus overtook Search.ch (20.7 percent) as the most popular search service.
However, Google's appeal to Internet users at home is not reflected in the site's appeal to Swiss advertisers. While Search.ch remains one of the top sites for online advertising, there is little advertising on the banner-free site Google.ch, and it mostly comes from companies abroad.
If you study the monthly top 20 domains of the Swiss MMXI home panel and compare them with those of the previous month, the aha moment is usually limited. Major shifts are rare. Much more interesting, however, is a review of the past nine months. This is the only way to identify longer-term trends.
In the use of the individual website categories, medium-term trends can be discerned, but selective movements can also be noted. These can often be explained by specific international and national events and are not simply a child of chance.
News sites sometimes suffered from large fluctuations
September 11 is just one example. In the ninth month, the number of visitors to online news offerings rose from 727000 to 833000 users, according to MMXI Switzerland. If a work panel had already been available in Switzerland, the effects of the terrorist attacks would probably have been even more visible. Especially in offices without a TV set or radio, the Internet became the number one information medium on September 11.
Not only in September, but also in March, the news sites had a considerable influx of visitors. At that time, access to the news/information category increased by 20 percent. MMXI explains this increase, among other things, with the then current discussion about BSE and foot-and-mouth disease. The continuing slump in the stock markets in the spring of 2001 also left its mark on the Web. The Business/Finance website category lost significant reach among home users. Its market share fell from 31.5 percent in January to 27.1 percent in April.
From January to September, the websites in the Business/Finance categories have both
gained 1.4 percent more unique visitors. However, this was below the growth of the overall market, which increased by an average of 2.5 percent. The same applies to news sites. Of 27 categories, only seven grew faster than the overall market. The strongest growth was recorded by the hobbies/lifestyle and networks sites.
According to MMXI Switzerland, four categories recorded real losses in September compared with January, i.e. were visited by fewer home users than at the beginning of the year. The Technology, Real Estate and Careers categories suffered the greatest loss of visitors. The ranking of the top categories thus hardly changed. This is still led by ISP, Portals and Services.
Urs Wolfensberger, head of MMXI Switzerland, on the shifts in user preferences: "People's behavior on the Internet is increasingly in line with the usual or traditional media usage behavior and is becoming, if you like, ." On the other hand, Wolfensberger said, there hasn't exactly been a lot of spectacular news in the technology sector, for example, which has suffered the most losses.
Among search engines, Google is rapidly gaining terrain
The fact that Internet use is becoming more and more "normal" has a lot to do with the demographic composition of the Internet community. Whereas at the very beginning it was mainly young, well-educated male techies who used the Internet, other demographic groups are now steadily gaining share. For example, the number of male home users grew by 16.1 percent from January to September, while women and even children grew by over 28 percent.
In addition to these general observations, the development of individual websites can also be observed. Among the leading domains and porperties, the search engine market in particular has changed significantly over the past nine months: The big winner here is Google.
Google's various country sites increased their reach among home users from 13.1 percent in February to 19.6 percent in June. The reach of its main competitor Altavista fell from 16.1 to 11.6 percent in the same period.
In September, Google sites were the fifth most popular global domain with a reach of 25.1 percent among active home users. Google, which has also operated a Swiss site for several months, thus overtook Search.ch (20.7 percent) as the most popular search service.
However, Google's appeal to Internet users at home is not reflected in the site's appeal to Swiss advertisers. While Search.ch remains one of the top sites for online advertising, there is little advertising on the banner-free site Google.ch, and it mostly comes from companies abroad.
