Online circulation figures released by the electronic division of the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC-e) today highlight a continuing battle for Internet dominance between two of the country`s largest publishers.
<B>Unique users vs unique hosts</B>
No method exists to accurately measure the number of readers accessing a Web site. The number of pages requested by users can be counted with far greater precision and is generally relied on to compare one site to another.
The majority of ABC-e member sites calculate a unique user number through what is internationally defined as counting "the total number of unique combinations of an IP [Internet protocol] address plus a further identifier". However, a single IP address can represent several thousand people accessing a site from a corporate network using a proxy server. A single person can also access a site using any number of different IP addresses if using a dial-up connection with dynamic addressing. The use of the second identifier seeks to nullify this effect but is itself susceptible to technical difficulties.
ABC-e members who report unique hosts count only the number of unique IP addresses requesting their Web pages with no attempt to determine how many users are represented by an address. As a result, unique host figures are invariably far lower than unique user figures.
Since MTNSMS.com, formerly the largest Web site in the country, was closed, Naspers and the Independent Group have been in a league of their own as the only local Web sites to continuously record an average of more than 10 million page impressions per month.
The figures released today, for the second quarter of this year, show that Naspers portal News24.com had an average of just less than 14 million page requests while Independent`s rival site, iol.co.za, recorded just 11 million impressions.
Their closest rival was search portal Ananzi with 8 million impressions. Only one other ABC-e member site, Moneymax, had more than an average of 2 million impressions over the period.
The rivalry between the two main players is heated and an attempt by IOL to prove that it has 24% more readers than News24 was nipped in the bud by the audit bureau.
The ABC-e says the figures of one of its members were informally challenged after it "became apparent that the member was using a calculated figure for unique users". It says an agreement was reached that saw the unidentified member revert to reporting unique hosts instead of unique users (see sidebar).
Only three member sites reported unique host figures for the second quarter, of which IOL is one. In a statement released today, the site claimed it had overtaken its "nearest competitor" with an average of 667 344 unique visitors per month. The ABC-e figures, however, report exactly half that number as unique hosts on the site.
News24 reported an average of 538 839 unique users per month.
Although the number of unique users and unique hosts are not comparable, IOL showed quarter-on-quarter growth of 34% in its user figure as opposed to the 4% growth recorded by News24. Yet the more accurate page impression figure showed 6% growth for IOL while News24 grew by 10%.
Other players
<B>Audited average page impression figures, Q2 2002:</B>
IOL: 10 793 891 (+6%)
Ananzi: 8 183 031 (-13%)
Moneymax: 2 086 972 (+6%)
Sunday Times: 1 731 458 (+1%)
Business Day: 1 622 890 (+21%)
Moneyweb: 1 554 173 (+7%)
Job Navigator: 1 515 020 (0%)
ITWeb: 1 306 282 (+5%)
CarToday.com: 684 641 (+8)
Financial Mail: 255 789 (+57%)
GetawaytoAfrica.com: 154 286 (-19%)
Careerjunction: 135 541 (-7%)
The biggest quarter-on-quarter growth among audited sites was reported by the Financial Mail, which grew page impressions by 57%. In the first quarter of the year it was the smallest audited site after losing most of its readership when the site was mostly closed to non-subscribers. Its sister site Business Day was the second-biggest gainer at 21%.
The biggest decline in page impressions came from GetawaytoAfrica.com which shrank by 19%, followed by Ananzi with a 13% decrease. Other sites` figures were relatively flat, ranging from a 7% decrease to 10% growth.
ITWeb reported a 5% increase in page impressions to an average of 1.3 million per month, but also saw the biggest decline in the unique user figure, down 27% to 72 000. The biggest unique user growth came from Business Day - a 31% increase to 131 000.
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Internet circulation stable, growing, says ABC-e
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