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online book peddlers
Big mid-summer push: Beach reading, anyone?
By Marty Beard
In the never-ending Battle of the Online Booksellers, Barnes and Noble and Amazon are going at it head-to-head, with both mounting aggressive ad campaigns to capture summer readers.
BarnesandNoble.com last week nosed ahead of Amazon, coming in at No. 8 on the Nielsen//NetRatings list of the web's top 10 advertisers, with 140,615,432 impressions.
Amazon.com was the No. 9 online advertiser, with 139,059,222 impressions. But its messages reached a larger audience of 22,245,934 unique visitors in the week ending July 22, putting it ahead of BarnesandNoble.com, which reached a unique audience of 17,063,104.
With the exception of one banner advertising its wireless phones, Amazon’s ads last week were generic promotions of its book division, while BarnesandNoble.com promoted itself, its free shipping, the Harry Potter series, and summer bestsellers.
Both companies are perpetual online advertising presences, plastering major web properties such as Yahoo and MSN with banners and buttons.
The prior week, Barnes and Noble ranked tenth on Nielsen//NetRatings’ list of top-10 advertisers, with 133,941,371 impressions and a unique audience of 15,664,186. Amazon's most recent appearance on the Nielsen//NetRatings’ top-10 online advertisers was in late June.
Meanwhile, Amazon and AOL Time Warner earlier this week became an item of sorts when AOL acquired a 2 percent, $100 million stake in Amazon, with an option to acquire the six-year-old e-commerce site.
And while AOL remains the No. 1 online property, with a unique audience of 37,654,172 last week, arch-rival MSN and parent Microsoft continue to dominate as online advertisers, holding the No. 1 and No. 2 spots in the top 10.
When AOL raised its monthly access fee to $23.90 a month, Microsoft launched a $50 million ad campaign to persuade AOL users to switch to MSN.
MSN offered AOL expatriates three months of free internet access service and the promise that it would charge defectors no more than $21.95 a month through January 2003.
The push appears to be working. MSN announced yesterday that it now has 6.5 million users, up 30 percent from April. What's not known is how many of those new members are being drained from AOL. With more than 30 million users, AOL still has almost five times MSN’s user base.
AOL has gone on the counteroffensive by telling computer manufacturers that it is willing to pay them a commission, or bounty, if you will, of $35 for each new subscriber they refer to AOL.
In order to appease the Justice Department over antitrust issues, Microsoft on July 11 agreed to give computer makers more leeway in determining what icons go on computers’ desktops.
And AOL has jumped at the chance, asking computer makers to place its ISP and instant-messaging icons on desktops. The giant ISP will pay computer makers a commission for each user that signs up from the desktop icons. To sweeten the deal for consumers, the first three months of AOL service will be free.
Microsoft, meanwhile, has decried AOL for making what it calls an "anti-consumer" move.
|
Top 25 Properties |
|||
|
Property |
Unique Audience |
Reach % |
Time |
|
1. AOL Time Warner |
37,654,172 |
50.82 |
0:16:31 |
|
2. Yahoo |
30,234,822 |
40.81 |
0:28:35 |
|
3. MSN |
27,587,010 |
37.23 |
0:23:36 |
|
4. Microsoft |
9,768,170 |
13.18 |
0:05:08 |
|
5. Lycos Network |
8,370,041 |
11.30 |
0:08:38 |
|
6. Excite@Home |
8,188,045 |
11.05 |
0:13:20 |
|
7. eBay |
7,637,852 |
10.31 |
0:41:15 |
|
8. Walt Disney Internet Group |
5,807,474 |
7.84 |
0:16:48 |
|
9. About |
5,611,189 |
7.57 |
0:06:11 |
|
10. Amazon |
5,472,606 |
7.39 |
0:07:46 |
|
11. Google |
5,107,066 |
6.89 |
0:07:15 |
|
12. eUniverse Network |
4,584,726 |
6.19 |
0:08:09 |
|
13. InfoSpace |
4,391,940 |
5.93 |
0:04:32 |
|
14. CNET Networks |
4,230,867 |
5.71 |
0:05:49 |
|
15. Vivendi Universal |
4,081,646 |
5.51 |
0:09:34 |
|
16. Ask Jeeves |
3,597,533 |
4.86 |
0:05:01 |
|
17. ClassMates Online |
3,304,795 |
4.46 |
0:05:32 |
|
18. AT&T |
3,213,933 |
4.34 |
0:11:21 |
|
19. iWon |
3,170,120 |
4.28 |
0:27:57 |
|
20. EarthLink |
3,020,999 |
4.08 |
0:06:58 |
|
21. Viacom International |
2,972,694 |
4.01 |
0:14:31 |
|
22. NBC Internet |
2,924,796 |
3.95 |
0:05:51 |
|
23. GoTo.com |
2,901,647 |
3.92 |
0:02:42 |
|
24. Gator.com |
2,769,695 |
3.74 |
0:06:28 |
|
25. EA Online |
2,544,926 |
3.43 |
0:59:27 |
| Source:
Nielsen//NetRatings
|
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Top Ten Advertisers |
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|
Advertiser |
Impressions |
Unique Audience |
Reach % |
|
1. MSN |
450,670,136 |
17,521,091 |
23.65 |
|
2. Microsoft |
402,011,223 |
22,571,651 |
30.46 |
|
3. Yahoo |
343,846,176 |
19,257,954 |
25.99 |
|
4. eBay |
249,937,246 |
19,581,263 |
26.43 |
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5. Providian |
193,425,204 |
22,708,562 |
30.65 |
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6. ClassMates |
188,994,981 |
19,387,324 |
26.17 |
|
7. Columbia House |
174,680,987 |
21,999,232 |
29.69 |
|
8. Barnes and Noble |
140,615,432 |
17,063,104 |
23.03 |
|
9. Amazon |
139,059,222 |
22,245,934 |
30.02 |
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10. America Online |
129,968,638 |
14,904,542 |
20.12 |
| Source:
Nielsen//NetRatings
|
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Top 25 Domains |
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Domain |
Unique Audience |
Reach % |
Time |
|
1. yahoo.com |
27,775,780 |
37.49 |
0:29:29 |
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2. aol.com |
26,681,036 |
36.01 |
0:14:37 |
|
3. msn.com |
25,320,426 |
34.17 |
0:20:56 |
|
4. passport.com |
13,839,936 |
18.68 |
0:03:01 |
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5. microsoft.com |
9,272,347 |
12.51 |
0:05:05 |
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6. geocities.com |
7,548,054 |
10.19 |
0:05:43 |
|
7. ebay.com |
7,085,463 |
9.56 |
0:42:17 |
|
8. netscape.com |
5,853,229 |
7.90 |
0:09:18 |
|
9. go.com |
5,639,707 |
7.61 |
0:17:08 |
|
10. excite.com |
5,154,811 |
6.96 |
0:16:35 |
|
11. amazon.com |
5,132,933 |
6.93 |
0:07:25 |
|
12. google.com |
5,107,066 |
6.89 |
0:07:15 |
|
13. lycos.com |
3,939,552 |
5.32 |
0:10:00 |
|
14. classmates.com |
3,304,795 |
4.46 |
0:05:32 |
|
15. iwon.com |
3,170,120 |
4.28 |
0:27:57 |
|
16. about.com |
2,926,880 |
3.95 |
0:04:02 |
|
17. compuserve.com |
2,902,119 |
3.92 |
0:17:57 |
|
18. goto.com |
2,899,284 |
3.91 |
0:02:42 |
|
19. tripod.com |
2,793,691 |
3.77 |
0:05:02 |
|
20. gator.com |
2,740,869 |
3.70 |
0:06:14 |
|
21. msnbc.com |
2,705,375 |
3.65 |
0:06:54 |
|
22. earthlink.net |
2,666,018 |
3.60 |
0:07:09 |
|
23. napster.com |
2,454,998 |
3.31 |
0:03:22 |
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24. angelfire.com |
2,449,265 |
3.31 |
0:03:07 |
|
25. mapquest.com |
2,361,325 |
3.19 |
0:07:49 |
| Source:
Nielsen//NetRatings
|
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Top 25 Advertising Domains |
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|
Domain |
Impressions |
Reach % |
|
1. yahoo.com |
1,304,640,959 |
32.51 |
|
2. msn.com |
1,215,979,834 |
30.99 |
|
3. ebay.com |
491,136,832 |
9.23 |
|
4. aol.com |
407,177,577 |
21.87 |
|
5. netscape.com |
180,570,652 |
7.09 |
|
6. excite.com |
165,011,401 |
6.36 |
|
7. iwon.com |
88,190,868 |
2.92 |
|
8. audiogalaxy.com |
86,101,951 |
1.24 |
|
9. pogo.com |
85,351,287 |
2.33 |
|
10. go.com |
79,004,650 |
4.80 |
|
11. mapquest.com |
78,040,264 |
3.04 |
|
12. monster.com |
64,743,767 |
2.01 |
|
13. compuserve.com |
64,306,143 |
2.97 |
|
14. infospace.com |
63,169,312 |
2.07 |
|
15. ezboard.com |
60,910,502 |
1.03 |
|
16. lycos.com |
51,146,499 |
4.07 |
|
17. juno.com |
45,208,160 |
1.72 |
|
18. dogpile.com |
42,120,368 |
1.71 |
|
19. cnn.com |
40,578,778 |
2.42 |
|
20. att.net |
38,910,719 |
2.20 |
|
21. netzero.net |
38,613,139 |
1.87 |
|
22. msnbc.com |
35,254,772 |
3.75 |
|
23. cs.com |
33,327,683 |
2.04 |
|
24. prodigy.net |
30,647,754 |
1.84 |
|
25. musiccity.com |
28,111,959 |
0.88 |
| Source:
Nielsen//NetRatings
|
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|
Top Ten Banners |
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|
Advertiser |
Impressions |
Unique Audience |
Reach % |
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1. Colonize |
37,393,465 |
9,140,359 |
12.34 |
|
2. ClassMates |
16,856,432 |
6,467,044 |
8.73 |
|
3. Consumer Counseling |
28,837,736 |
6,397,515 |
8.63 |
|
4. ClassMates |
99,882,773 |
6,263,591 |
8.45 |
|
5. Bonzi Software |
32,180,468 |
5,904,169 |
7.97 |
|
6. eDiets |
11,036,933 |
5,664,283 |
7.64 |
|
7. Consumer Counseling |
26,204,102 |
5,627,300 |
7.59 |
|
8. Columbia House |
12,093,067 |
5,355,304 |
7.23 |
|
9. Providian/CompuServe |
14,605,018 |
5,130,618 |
6.92 |
|
10. J.P. Morgan Chase/Shell |
19,687,137 |
5,061,292 |
6.83 |
| Source:
Nielsen//NetRatings
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Average Usage |
|||
|
|
Current Week |
Last Week |
% Change |
|
Number of Sessions per Week |
6 |
6 |
0 |
|
Number of Unique Sites Visited |
6 |
6 |
0 |
|
Page Views per Week |
229 |
229 |
0 |
|
Page Views per Surfing Session |
36 |
37 |
-2.7 |
|
Time Spent per Week |
3:19:49 |
3:15:33 |
2.18 |
|
Time Spent During Surfing Session |
0:31:45 |
0:31:31 |
0.74 |
|
Duration a Page Viewed |
0:00:53 |
0:00:51 |
3.54 |
|
Average Click Rate for Top Banners |
0.26 |
0.25 |
4 |
|
Active Internet Universe |
74,094,714 |
73,921,907 |
0.23 |
|
Current Internet Universe Estimate |
167,319,348 |
167,313,030 |
0 |
| Source:
Nielsen//NetRatings
|
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July 27, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Marty Beard is a staff writer for Media Life.
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