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as America trades in old for new
Jittery investors boost financial category
By Jeremy Schlosberg
It’s the beginning of the year, so you know what that means: time to sell the old car and find a new one.
Didn’t realize that’s what the beginning of the year means? Well it’s amazing what the web can show us about basic consumer behavior, stuff we couldn’t quite measure before.
Media Metrix’s weekly list of gainers can be particularly interesting this way as it shows us web sites that have experienced notable surges in traffic over previous weeks.
And so for the week ending Jan. 2, there are two sites in the list of top 10 gainers that relate to buying and selling new and used cars: Edmunds.com, which was the second leading gainer for the week, with a 183 percent increase in traffic, and Kbb.com, the web site for the venerable Kelley Blue Book, No. 6 on the list.
Topping the gainers list for the week ending Jan. 2 was the web site for Publishers Clearing House, Pch.com, which experienced a hefty 356 percent increase in traffic for the week.
Two Microsoft sites were among the 10 biggest gainers on the web for the week: Computing Central, which is MSN’s tech news and information site, and Slate, the Michael Kinsley-edited online magazine.
Other sites in the top 10 were: Aa.com, the web site for American Airlines; Webmd.com, a health site; Flash.net, the web site for FlashNet, an internet service provider; Vicinity.com, a company offering internet-related marketing services; and Bbc.co.uk, the web site for the BBC Online.
In addition to the general gainers, Media Metrix also noted that financial web sites as a category experienced strong increases in traffic for the week--10 financial sites, in fact, showed a 20 percent or higher increase (see chart), led by Wellsfargo.com with a 54 percent gain in traffic.
| TOP WEB
GAINERS |
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| Site | Avg. daily unique visitors for week ending 1/2/00 | % gain in week ending 1/2/00 compared to avg. of 3 weeks prior |
| 1. Pch.com | 285,000 | 356 |
| 2. Edmunds.com | 114,000 | 183 |
| 3. Computingcentral.com | 196,000 | 146 |
| 4. Slate.com | 103,000 | 100 |
| 5. Aa.com | 79,000 | 82 |
| 6. Kbb.com | 106,000 | 70 |
| 7. Webmd.com | 87,000 | 67 |
| 8. Flash.net | 153,000 | 63 |
| 9. Vicinity.com | 125,000 | 62 |
| 10. Bbc.co.uk | 106,000 | 59 |
| Source; Media
Metrix |
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| FINANCIAL SITE GAINERS |
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| Sites | Avg. daily unique visitors for week ending 1/2/00 | % gain in week ending 1/2/00 compared to avg. of 3 weeks prior |
| 1. Wellsfargo.com | 163,000 | 54 |
| 2. Intuit.com | 183,000 | 45 |
| 3. Schwab.com | 141,000 | 39 |
| 4. Smartmoney.com | 56,000 | 36 |
| 5. Morningstar.com | 54,000 | 30 |
| 6. Multexinvestor.com | 53,000 | 27 |
| 7. Vanguard.com | 53,000 | 27 |
| 8. Cnnfn.com | 214,000 | 23 |
| 9. Ameritrade.com | 54,000 | 23 |
| 10. Fidelity.com | 187,000 | 20 |
| Source; Media
Metrix |
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Jeremy Schlosberg is is the senior editor for new media.