1999 was the year of the web
and now the numbers to prove it

Women are equals, and we all spend more time

By Jeremy Schlosberg
   
       If 1999 was the year of the web, it was notably the year the web came to Main Street, as some new year-end numbers from Nielsen//NetRatings make clear.
    It was the year in which women gained full web equality. Back in February, women accounted for 47 percent of the online audience, men for 53 percent. By December, the percentages equalized at 50
    It was also a year in which the online audience exceeded and then went well past the 100 million mark.
      Overall, Nielsen//NetRatings places the size of the internet audience at 119 million in the U.S. at year’s end. This refers to the number of people who have access to the internet, not the number who may be actively surfing.
     Overall audience numbers grew markedly during the year, but it was the growth of the female audience that outpaced the men, with a 32 percent growth rate from February through December. The number of men online grew 20 percent during that same period.
    As the audience increased, so did the average amount of time spent online per person, which was up to 8 hours and 17 minutes by December, a 10.9 percent increase from February.
    At the same time, however, the average number of unique web sites visited by each web surfer decreased. At the beginning of 1999, users were visiting an average of 15 unique sites per month. By December, people were going to just 9 per month on average—a decrease of 40 percent. What did increase substantially was the number of page views per surfing session, which went from 19 at the beginning of the year to 32 by the end of the year.
    It seems that web users are increasingly happy visiting fewer sites but going more deeply into those they visit.
    The Nielsen//NetRatings report further confirms the large increase in ad impressions delivered on the net towards the end of 1999. It notes that the ad impressions delivered on the top 10 advertising domains increased by more than 17 percent. The No. 1 domain for advertising, Yahoo.com, finished the year with a reach percentage of 42.4--meaning that ads delivered there reached more than 42 percent of active internet users in December. That represented a 9.6 percent increase over its reach in September.
     The No. 2 ad domain, Aol.com, delivered ads to 36.3 percent of internet users in December, a striking increase over its 27.4 percent reach in September.
    Of all the top 10 ad domains, Lycos.com saw the largest percentage increase in the reach of its ads, going from 11.1 percent to 16.6 percent from September to December, an increase in reach of nearly 50 percent.
     As always it must be noted, however, that when Nielsen//NetRatings reports on advertising domains, the statistics include internal ads for the domains in question.
     Nielsen//NetRatings also released a list of the fastest-growing web sites among the top 100, comparing visitors in December to visitors in September. "Holiday shopping sites led the fastest growing properties during the last quarter of 1999," states the report.
    Interestingly, this analysis doesn’t exactly match the chart.
     Yes, the No. 1 fastest-growing site was eToys, which experienced a 438.1 percent increase in visitors over the time period in question. But close behind at No. 2 was Comet Systems, a company that offers animated cursors for web sites, with a 432.7 percent increase. BizRate, an online shopping guide with rebates, was third with a 307.6 percent increase.
    In fact, of the top 15 growing sites for the fourth quarter last year, only five were e-commerce sites, plus the previously mentioned BizRate, not an e-commerce site per se but shopping-related. So e-commerce sites were certainly in the running but they did not dominate.

TOP 10 DOMAINS BY ADVERTISING
End of 3rd quarter vs. end of 4th quarter, 1999
Sept. 99   Dec. 99
Domain Reach % Domain Reach % % change*
1. yahoo 38.7 1. yahoo 42.4 +9.6
2. aol 27.4 2. aol 36.3 +32.5
3. msn 22.2 3. msn 28.7 +29.3
4. netscape 18.7 4. netscape 16.8 -11.3
5. go 15.4 5. lycos 16.6 +49.5
6. geocities 13.6 6. go 16.5 +7.1
7. lycos 11.1 7. bluemountain 13.4 n/a
8. ebay 10.3 8. geocities 11.8 -15.3
9. excite 8.9 9. ebay 11.3 +9.7
10. looksmart 7.2 10. excite 10.3 +15.7
* Percent change in reach percentage Dec. vs. Sept.
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

 

Fastest Growing Properties Among Top 100 Properties During Q4
Property Sept. 99 Oct. 99 Nov. 99 Dec. 99 % growth*
1. eToys .87 1.83 4.06 4.69 438.1
2. Comet Systems .78 1.29 3.46 4.16 432.7
3. BizRate .44 .70 1.23 1.82 307.6
4. Sears Roebuck & Co .51 .74 1.11 1.75 244.8
5. CBS 1.24 1.81 4.20 4.19 236.7
6. JCPenney .72 1.25 1.71 2.22 209.8
7. Auralis .59 .96 1.01 1.77 200.1
8. The Gap Inc. .63 .83 1.41 1.85 194.0
9. CJB.NET .57 1.31 1.49 1.68 192.9
10. Alexa .81 1.72 2.15 2.29 181.7
11. Buy.com .78 1.00 1. 68 2.08 165.8
12. Launch .70 1.40 1.66 1.76 149.9
13. Mplayer Entertainment Network 1.65 2.13 2.87 3.87 134.4
14. Macromedia 2.53 5.00 6.25 5.83 130.3
15. United Parcel Service .75 .81 1.10 1.72 128.3
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

-Jeremy Schlosberg is the senior editor for new media.