SA`s online sites show increased readership

Johannesburg, 01 Mar 2002

The electronic division of the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC-e) today released figures which show continued growth in the readership of most local audited Web sites.

<B>Page impressions (quarter-on-quarter growth):</B>

Business Day: 1 197 090 (7%)
MoneyWeb: 1 089 873 (16%
Moneymax: 1 684 366 (14%)
PSG-Online: 1 487 874 (3%)
CARtoday.com: 701 571 (-17%)
IOL: 8 054 889 (20%)
ITWeb: 1 370 020 (20%)
News24.com: 12 807 006 (71%)
Sunday Times: 1 610 770 (-17%)
Financial Mail: 164 766 (-73%)
GetawaytoAfrica.com: 154 519 (-5%)
iafrica.com: 17 880 764 (2%)
Careerjunction: 1 585 136 (-9%)
Job Navigator: 1 350 262 (-26%)
Ananzi: 6 396 793 (-4%)
SA Active: 480 785 (22%)

Counted sites:
LottoManager: 88 681 (-8%)
The Shopping Matrix: 721 163 (36%)
Classic FM: 53 371 (-6%)
Steve`s Auto Clinic: 22 839 (4%)

MTN E-Business and Netassets did not submit their figures.

The figures for the last quarter of 2001 are dominated by News24.com, which showed a 71% increase in the number of page impressions, and the Financial Mail Web site, which reported a 73% decline.

News24.com, with its 12.8 million average impressions per month for the period, cites Big Brother and the September attacks on America as big traffic drivers during the period. The usually quiet December period was bolstered by the publication of the matric results.

In September, Financial Mail closed large parts of its Web site to the public, with subscribers of its print edition having to register in order to access all its content.

The only other big decliner was Job Navigator, which reported 26% less page impressions for the quarter.

The Independent Newspapers` IOL site, ITWeb and SA Active showed page impression growth of 20%.

The biggest reporting Web site is iAfrica.com, with 17.9 million impressions. Traditional leader MTN E-Business and its MTNSMS.com Web site did not submit figures to the body. News24.com ranks second in total impressions, with no other site breaking the 10 million per month barrier.

Comparing the results with that of the fourth quarter in 2000 shows page impression growth of more than 70% for IOL, Moneymax, Moneyweb and ITWeb. News24`s year-on-year growth is 196%.

The report includes the number of unique users for only the second time. Despite continuing problems in determining the number of unique visitors to a site (ITWeb reported a 21% decline in unique visitors due to such difficulties) the metric is seen as important for the advertising industry. It also shows a massive variation in the readership patterns for different Web sites. Job Navigator reported that its average user would access 117 pages on the site every month while the average Moneyweb reader requests eight pages per month.

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Internet reader growth slows, says ABCe