International Net Usage Follows US Lead

If you look at the top sites and surfing patterns for countries such as Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, you see an Internet culture quite similar to the one in the US a couple of years ago. Nielsen//NetRatings looks at the surfing tendencies of Internet users around the world.

Top Five Sites by Domain
April 2000
Australia
Domain Unique
Audience
Time per
Person

(hr:min:sec)
msn.com 1,463,656 0:35:49
yahoo.com 1,276,674 0:42:15
passport.com 980,094 0:12:43
ninemsn.com.au 884,535 0:17:02
geocities.com 806,004 0:11:10
Ireland
msn.com 162,719 0:27:53
yahoo.com 150,569 0:29:42
eircom.net 95,663 0:18:53
passport.com 94,902 0:09:11
microsoft.com 78,901 0:04:41
Singapore
yahoo.com 277,934 0:36:47
msn.com 237,034 0:37:36
passport.com 199,042 0:10:48
pacfusion.com 184,957 0:14:51
singnet.com.sg 152,791 0:09:38
New Zealand
msn.com 287,855 0:33:40
xtra.co.nz 215,336 0:09:31
yahoo.com 211,570 1:01:08
microsoft.com 158,724 0:08:33
passport.com 147,136 0:12:00
UK
msn.com 2,907,271 0:22:22
yahoo.com 2,406,904 0:31:23
microsoft.com 1,911,845 0:08:18
yahoo.co.uk 1,739,292 0:17:00
passport.com 1,514,730 0:10:45

Yahoo and MSN are retaining their leadership positions as global Internet brands, according to Internet April 2000 audience data gathered from Australia, Ireland, New Zealand Singapore, and the UK by Nielsen//NetRatings.

“In April, we saw global domains retain the leadership positions they gained in March by taking advantage of global branding efforts and developing strong local partnerships,” said Allen Weiner, vice president of analytical services at NetRatings. “As additional evidence that international Internet usage is following patterns we saw in the US one to two years ago, the number of unique sites visited is higher in all five non-US countries, reflecting the fact that global audiences are still engaging in surfing activity, familiarizing themselves with the breadth and depth of the Web, while in the US, Web sites have attracted more loyal bases and users have streamlined their sessions.”

MSN was the top Web domain in the UK, New Zealand, Ireland, and Australia in April of 2000, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. Yahoo was the top domain in Singapore. The data also found that Australian Internet users are spending more time online per surfing session than their American counterparts. But American Web surfers still spend nearly two hours more online during April than their closest global counterparts.

“Clearly, the Web is satisfying global consumers’ needs for an interactive media,” Weiner said. “The continued leadership of both MSN and Yahoo validate their replicable models and stronger local partnerships and demonstrate that site tools and applications such as email, chat, instant messaging, and message boards help promote functionality, utility, and repeated use.”

Another trend in international Web activity is the local market power displayed by a number of phone and Internet service providers. In Ireland, Singapore, and New Zealand, local telecom companies and major Internet Service Providers are showing their ability to grab traffic on the Web. For example, Xtra, a service of Telecom New Zealand takes advantage of its power in the marketplace to be the second largest domain in that country and a leading news and information resource. The same is true in Singapore, where Pacfusion, a regional ISP and Singnet, a local telecom provider, are among the top sites in their market.

“Outside the US, the role of government-run and emerging telecom providers are significant factors in the evolving Internet marketplace,” Weiner said. “Telecoms have the opportunity in markets with limited competition to not only provide pure Internet service, but also to become a value-added informational resource. It’s the America Online model played out beyond US shores.”

Search engines andportals were the most popular categories for Web surfers in all five non-US countries. However, shopping was the most popular category in the US in April, attracting more than 44 percent of the active Internet population, in sharp contrast to shopping sites in the UK, where nearly 34 percent of the active population visited shopping sites; in Ireland, where less than 17 percent visited shopping sites; in Australia, where shopping sites only attracted 15 percent of the active population; and in New Zealand, where shopping sites attracted just under 14 percent of the active population.

“The popularity of shopping sites in the US reflects the fact that Web sites have succeeded in reaching US shoppers when they are prepared to buy,” Weiner said. “The recent commerce shakeout in the US has forced e-tailers to focus more on customer value, which benefits both buyers and sellers. It’s likely that in short order, commerce companies globally will pick up on this trend for long-term survival.”

Average Internet Usage, April 2000
United
States
Australia Ireland New Zealand Singapore United
Kingdom
Number of sessions per month 19 12 9 15 13 11
Number of unique sites visited 11 15 17 21 20 17
Page views per month 671 468 358 421 506 400
Page views per surfing session 36 38 40 29 40 36
Time spent per month 9:26:23 7:10:47 4:29:49 7:25:13 6:52:51 5:10:32
Time spent during surfing session 0:30:27 0:35:15 0:30:04 0:30:42 0:32:15 0:28:22
Duration of a page viewed 0:00:51 0:00:56 0:00:45 0:01:04 0:00:48 0:00:47
Active Internet Universe
(actually surfed)
80.3 million 3.2 million 319,000 607,000 570,000 8.3 million
Current Universe Estimate
(had access, but did not necessarily go online)
130.2 million 6.3 million 713,000 1.3 million 1.7 million 18.0 million
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

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