Dissatisfaction is growing

Internet research In Switzerland, exemplary Internet research was once planned, but it is currently very chaotic - accompanied by ever louder criticism.
conceptually based on two pillars, of which Wemf and SRG are each building one.
While SRG is concerned with user-side research - specifically a
panel and its financing - Wemf wants to take care of that part of the
that measures access to registered websites (NetAudit
coupled with an onsite survey). For its part, the Wemf
together with a User Commission (UC). This consists of the
online marketers Adlink and Web2com as well as some website operators,
who are looking for a financing key, among other things. This week
a "final meeting" will take place, says UC spokesperson and
Web2com Managing Director Ueli Weber. He hopes that the offer will then be
for this part of NIS has finally been finalized. It was scheduled for the end of March
announced.

However, one thing is certain: if the industry develops a new
research, she has to hurry. But at NIS there are still
some question marks. It was not only the Wemf offer that was delayed,
SRG has also not yet decided whether it will provide the start-up funding.
for its panel. Furthermore, the MMXI internet panel
Switzerland has been a source of confusion since it became clear that its operations
at the end of 2005 as announced, but continued to work with data
on the market (see box). Finally, Net Metrix, the
joint research company of Wemf and SRG, has not yet been founded,
A third partner from the Internet community is also missing. The association
Simsa, who also wants to participate, is in the eyes of Wemf and SRG
not representative enough.

Into this situation recently burst the Goldbach Media
marketer Adlink with the announcement that it has been assigned to the future
company Net Metrix 150000 francs, in the hope of attracting other
Marketers and site operators would follow suit. At the same time
Adlink has announced that it will continue to receive data from
MMXI.

Praise and criticism for Adlink
This announcement triggered different reactions in the industry.
"For NIS to move forward, it is crucial that the marketers
also help with the financing," praises Markus Popp, for example,
Marketing Manager of Tilllate.ch. Also Reto M. Zurflüh,
spokesman for Scout 24 (Switzerland), applauds Adlink: "This brings
Movement in the matter. So far, there has been a lot of talk, but hardly any progress
made."

However, neither Zurflüh nor Popp themselves are prepared to accept any further
fixed amounts. "In principle, we at Net Metrix will be
but we don't have a concrete offer yet," says Zurflüh.
This is the tenor throughout the industry, including at Adlinks
Competitor Web2com. "Of course we will make a contribution, but the
amount is still open," says Managing Director Ueli Weber. He sees himself
not under any pressure to move because of Adlink. Or is it? In any case
he expresses himself less calmly in an e-mail to his UC colleagues:
"I don't think this approach by Adlink is cool at all. It looks
simply looks like profiling on the part of Adlink," he writes there.

Others agree with Ueli Weber - but mostly only behind the scenes.
in the background. It is described as a "clever marketing move".
speech, which was "not in the interest of the cause, but of Goldbach Media"
is. And that Adlink was not adhering to the UC agreements,
according to which an internal agreement must first be reached and then a joint
to present a final model.

But the criticism is more fundamental. For example, Bernhard
Wüthrich, publishing director of Blick Online, is "astonished" by the
Continuation of the MMXI panel. "As a result, we now have another
competitive currency and also a new starting position," he says. The most
However, he is annoyed that Adlink is once again obtaining MMXI data,
although the marketer had asked the industry to do so at the beginning of the year.
out of consideration for NIS. "They don't realize that they
This is not doing the industry any good," he says.

Reto Hartinger, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the
industry organization Internet Efficiency, the situation surrounding NIS. This
was set up incorrectly by the online industry, he believes. "Instead of
Wemf and SRG together with the implementation of a catalog of wishes for the
research, they would have had to submit competing offers.
should have asked," says Hartinger. This would probably have
more creative and more cost-effective, he is convinced. "But now
SRG and Wemf together form the sole research provider, which
can dictate the content, methodology and costs of NIS." Even if the
total annual NIS costs from CHF 4.5 million to around CHF 4 million
would be reduced, this is still too much when one considers that the
industry generated around 40 million francs last year. "The
Data costs are already eating up companies' entire advertising budgets",
says Hartinger.

3.7 million internet users
According to the data published by MMXI Switzerland for March 2006
Around 5.1 million people in Switzerland currently have a
Internet access; 3.7 million of them used the Internet in March
also active. The average Internet user spent 31 hours and
12 minutes in front of his home PC, accessing the Internet 38 times and
called up a total of 79 different websites.

The MMXI Switzerland home panel currently comprises 3200 panelists in
throughout Switzerland. They have software on their home computer
installed, which register Internet use from the respective PC
and forward them online to an evaluation center. However, MMXI has so far
does not indicate which institute conducted the Establishment Survey, i.e. the
basic statistical data. Only on the basis of this
continuously collected data, it is possible to determine whether the panel is still
representative composition.

Markus Knöpfli