Audit Bureau of Internet Standards (ABIS) co-chair Glenn Chapman says offline advertising made a big difference in traffic figures for Internet sites, which usually experience a slump during the festive season.
The big trend to emerge from the latest figures, says Chapman, is seeing Web sites advertised on radio, TV and billboards. Chapman believes this made a huge difference for Web sites that traditionally have stagnant growth over the festive season.
"The traffic dip during December simply reiterated the fact that most South Africans still access the Internet from the office, meaning huge growth potential as home PC users increase steadily." notes Chapman.
Fuelled by the global boom in instant messaging, MTN`s SMS Web site, www.mtnsms.com, still remains the site with the highest ABIS figures.
Averaging close to 89 million impressions per month, the main growth driver has been attributed to the Web site`s Scandinavian membership. The site`s international audience currently comprises 3.5 million subscribers.
Johnnic e-Venture`s search engine, Ananzi grew by 29 % to more than four million impressions per month.
Ananzi capitalised on its relaunch as a fully-fledged Internet search portal, complete with a rebuilt search engine and branding, while IT news provider ITWeb managed 18 % growth in a relatively quiet market, says ABIS.
Other big winners include Web sites that invested heavily in offline marketing campaigns, like MoneyWeb.
Chapman says the site reaped the benefits of an active billboard and radio marketing drive and has raised its traffic by 55 % to 635 thousand impressions per month.
On the retail side, The Shopping Matrix grew 22 % to attract more than 292 000 visitors per month.
In the portal category, iafrica.com, passed long-time leader M-Web on the back of an ad campaign in the country`s major centres.
News portals Independent Online (IOL) and Woza felt the effects of the December slump to drop back by 6 % and 14 % respectively.
The seasonal decline was reflected in the fortunes of information, career and publication sites.
In spite of a new ABIS recording system which separates genuine impressions from page refreshes, perennial favourite Africam`s traffic grew by 23 % over the third quarter of 2000.
"The decision to exclude refreshes and reflect them separately brought some figures down, but the figures now give a far better 'apples for apples` comparison," says Chapman.
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