Olympics’ fever sweeps Asia Pacific region

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NZ SITE SHOWS UP WELL AS ASIA PACIFIC SURFERS HIT OLYMPICS DOMAINS

Surge to the Web expands as Olympics’ fever sweeps Asia Pacific region.

AUCKLAND – September 18, 2000 – As home Internet users have surged to the web right across the Asia Pacific region for updates on the Sydney 2000 Olympics, one New Zealand site has proved the games’ strong local following, registering as the 11th most popular Olympics-related site overall, according to the latest Nielsen//NetRatings ‘Web Olympics Index’.

The Index provides a daily analysis of web traffic to Olympics and related sites during the previous 24 hour period. The service is provided by ACNielsen eRatings.com Nielsen Media Research and NetRatings, Inc. and covers 14 countries worldwide, including New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore.

Key findings from today’s Nielsen//NetRatings Asia Pacific ‘Web Olympics Index’ show:

 Despite a relatively small population to draw on, New Zealand-based oneolympics.nzoom.com enters the Index at 11th spot, showing the intense interest of the New Zealand market.

 Not surprisingly, given their huge online population base, Japanese sites head the Index with sports.yahoo.co.jp and nikkansports.com rating first and second for the day. This appears to reinforce the high level of interest in the Olympics in Japan – the second largest Web market in the world.

 Chinese language site www2.netvigator.com appears in the Index for the first time, coming in at 9th spot, suggesting that Chinese-speaking Net users from Hong Kong and Singapore are hitting the site for results and information.

 Key portals and sports-dedicated sites are driving heavy traffic within the region, with sports.yahoo.com, nikkansports.com, sydney2k.lycos.co.jp, sports.yahoo.com, sportsillustrated.cnn.com and espn.go.com all appearing in the Index’s top 15.

 Official global games site olympics.com continues to grow as a key “go to” site for specific Olympics content, snaring third place on the Index. More than one third of the site’s unique audience now hails from outside the host country Australia.

 Japanese Olympic Committee site, joc.or.jp, is attracting a large audience with more than 20,000 visitors accessing the site over the 24 hour measurement period, again reinforcing the strength of the Olympic following from Japan.

 Olympic.com.au, the joint site of Australian Olympic Committee and host broadcaster Channel 7, is the fourth top site in the Asia Pacific Index, although all of its traffic is coming from the Australian market at this stage.

 British bookmaking site, willhill.com, appears in the Index for the first time, suggesting that web users in the region are keen to put some money on their favourite Olympic competitors and sports.

Table 1: Most popular Olympics-related domains surfed in Asia Pacific Region: Sept 16

Rank Domain
1 sports.yahoo.co.jp
2 nikkansports.com
3 olympics.com
4 olympics.com.au
5 joc.or.jp
6 sydney2k.lycos.co.jp
7 sports.yahoo.com
8 sportsillustrated.cnn.com
9 www2netvigator.com
10 wave.au.com
11 oneolympics.nzomm.com
12 gamesinfo.com.au
13 willhill.com
14 espn.go.com
15 fanmail.olympic.ibm.com
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings ’Web Olympics Index’

* Unique audience is defined as the number of unique people that have gone to the site at least once in the defined time period.

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, 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.

###

© Scoop Media