According to statistics released by the Audit Bureau of Circulation`s electronic arm (ABCe) today, local Web sites continued to see growth in their readership during the third quarter of this year, albeit at a slower rate than previously.
The average audited site saw an increase in 5% on the number of pages it served to users, with the biggest gainer growing 40% and the biggest losers dropping by 18%.
In the second quarter of the year the average growth was more than double at 13%, but the first quarter, traditionally slow as corporate users abandon their cubicles for fairer climes, saw a 2% average growth.
"The results suggest that South African Web users are still increasing their usage of local Web sites," says ABCe chairman Craig Farham.
The biggest audited local Web site group remained MTN E-business, which includes the internationally popular MTNSMS.com Web site. The group reported close to 139 million page impressions as a monthly average for the period.
The News24 portal reported a 40% growth in its impression rate, apparently at least partially due to a peak in news interest after the events of 11 September. News24 overtook fellow news site IOL, which saw only an 11% increase.
Two Johnnic financial sites, Netassets and Financial Mail, both reported an 18% decline in impressions. The Financial Mail recently blocked part of its site to non-subscribers.
Unique users
Several sites reported the number of unique users visiting their site for the first time with this report. ABCe says this new set of statistics form an important part in understanding the traffic patterns of a Web site and will be invaluable to advertisers.
"A site with a small audience and a high number of page impressions indicates loyalty and depth of site usage," says Farham. "On the other hand, a site with a large number of unique users but a low page per user ration may not be holding users` attention sufficiently to yield a good ROI [return on investment] on advertising revenue."
Among the sites reporting the new metric, Job Navigator said its average user visits 104 pages on the site per month. iAfrica.com, the only remaining asset of dot-bomb Metropolis, reported an average of 69 pages per user per month and MTN said it had 35.
More member sites are expected to report unique user figures for the fourth quarter.
Back on its feet?
ABCe says a large number of sites have resigned from the body, some to make use of the Nielsen NetRatings service, which conducts quantitative research. An equally large number did not submit figures for the quarters, something the body blames on its slow transition from ABIS, the Audit Bureau of Internet Standards, to ABCe.
However, the body believes its adoption of international standards and the needs of advertisers will see it revitalised.
"Advertisers and advertising agencies need to have confidence in the figures being reported by the media owners," Farham says.
Related stories:
Abis results show continued growth
Abis admits honeymoon over, looks at changes
Share