|
|
role as a fat farm
Traffic surge in January to dieting and health sites
By Marty Beard
Fat Tuesday was this week, but judging from internet traffic patterns in January, people had a Fat December as well.
The usual New Year’s resolutions about losing weight inspired web surfers to seek out health and diet sites in droves last month, according to data from both Jupiter Media Metrix and Nielsen//NetRatings.
Many health and diet sites posted sizable increases in traffic over December.
"The beginning of a new year signals resolutions to be made and accomplished," observes Jarvis Mak, an analyst with Nielsen//NetRatings.
"For many the internet has become the starting ground for organizing their lives, offering an abundance of content and information easily accessible with a click of a mouse."
Leading diet sites eDiets and WeightWatchers.com both experienced a boom in traffic in January, according to Jupiter Media Metrix.
The number of unique visitors logging on to WeightWatchers.com increased some 114 percent over December 2001, to 1.8 million visitors.
Ediets.com received 49 percent more unique visitors than usual, bringing the total for the month to 3.8 million.
Straight-up health sites also benefited from the New Year’s drive to get fit and healthy: WebMD received a 48 percent increase in traffic, with some 4.2 million visitors.
The pattern held true on the health channels of leading portals as well. Traffic to the health section of women’s portal iVillage increased by 263 percent, or 3.5 million unique visitors.
Heavyweight AOL Health attracted 7.2 million people, a 68 percent traffic increase. MSN Health drew three million unique visitors, a 48 percent increase; and Yahoo Health rose to 2.5 million unique visitors, a 32 percent increase.
Vitamin site FreeVitamins.com drew 771,000 unique visitors during January, enough visitors for Jupiter to rank it one of the top "newcomer" sites.
Nielsen//NetRatings backs Jupiter’s findings of high traffic to health sites, and adds that, in January, Mayoclinic.com traffic rose 80 percent, to nearly 1.4 million unique visitors.
But at the same time that some were dieting, other web surfers just couldn’t get prepackaged comestibles out of their heads, causing some sites to have more than 500,000 visitors a month for the first time ever.
CarnationInstantBreakfast.com attracted 553,000 visitors, enough to bring it to Jupiter Media Metrix’s attention.
Wish-bone.com, a web site advertising the brand of salad dressing, drew 932,000 visitors
The Super Bowl, which took place the first weekend of this month, typically inspires hunger for heavy, greasy food. Chilliman.com, a site that peddles canned chili and chili mixes, attracted one million visitors.
Anticipation over the St. Louis Rams-New England Patriots matchup also propelled the NFL Internet Group into the ranks of the most-visited web sites. In January, NFL.com and its associated network of web sites received 8.7 million visitors, making it the No. 45 online property for the month.
|
TOP 50 WEB PROPERTIES |
|||||
|
Property |
Jan. Visitors (000) |
Dec. Visitors (000) |
Nov. Visitors (000) |
Oct. Visitors (000) |
% Chg over Prev. 3 Months’ Avg (%) |
|
1. AOL Time Warner Network |
86,954 |
83,612 |
83,843 |
83,871 |
3.8 |
|
2. Microsoft Sites |
78,825 |
75,081 |
74,782 |
70,720 |
7.2 |
|
3. Yahoo Sites |
74,942 |
71,487 |
71,976 |
68,364 |
6.1 |
|
4. Terra Lycos |
40,562 |
37,318 |
38,299 |
39,514 |
5.7 |
|
5. About/Primedia (6) |
34,972 |
33,464 |
30,974 |
33,220 |
7.4 |
|
6. Amazon Sites (7) |
30,105 |
30,957 |
30,326 |
24,298 |
5.5 |
|
7. eBay (8) |
28,859 |
28,316 |
28,364 |
25,945 |
4.8 |
|
8. Google (11) |
26,912 |
23,004 |
22,256 |
21,146 |
21.6 |
|
9. InfoSpace |
25,436 |
25,245 |
21,928 |
20,670 |
12.5 |
|
10. CNET Networks |
23,232 |
23,247 |
23,262 |
21,368 |
2.7 |
|
11. Gator Network (17) |
20,780 |
17,664 |
13,093 |
13,015 |
42.4 |
| 12. Walt Disney Internet Group (15) |
20,232 |
19,812 |
20,123 |
25,386 |
-7.1 |
|
13. Excite Network (14) |
19,302 |
20,113 |
20,723 |
21,723 |
-7.4 |
|
14. eUniverse Network (13) |
19,075 |
20,312 |
23,054 |
25,156 |
-16.5 |
|
15. Viacom Online (16) |
18,817 |
17,779 |
17,366 |
17,008 |
8.2 |
|
16. ClassMates.com Sites (20) |
18,087 |
15,221 |
15,080 |
10,587 |
32.7 |
|
17. AskJeeves (18) |
17,492 |
16,630 |
17,667 |
16,741 |
2.8 |
|
18. American Greetings (12) |
17,007 |
22,946 |
25,540 |
20,814 |
-26.4 |
|
19. Real.com Network |
16,238 |
16,274 |
14,823 |
14,692 |
6.4 |
|
20. AT&T Web Sites (21) |
15,985 |
14,487 |
14,724 |
15,248 |
7.9 |
|
21. Coolsavings.com (34) |
15,701 |
9,455 |
8,499 |
8,386 |
78.8 |
|
22. iVillage (25) |
14,691 |
11,256 |
10,848 |
11,802 |
30 |
|
23. Ticketmaster Sites (22) |
14,570 |
12,481 |
12,526 |
13,090 |
14.7 |
|
24. Vivendi Universal Sites (5) |
14.553 |
35,925 |
35,793 |
36,458 |
-59.6 |
|
25. The Weather Channel (27) |
13,957 |
11,097 |
10,364 |
9,831 |
33.8 |
|
26. Monster.com Sites (39) |
13,890 |
8,858 |
10,101 |
9,642 |
45.7 |
|
27. Homestore.com Network (48) |
13,741 |
8,070 |
10,626 |
12,863 |
30.6 |
|
28. RedeemMyGifts.com (31) |
12,178 |
10,379 |
9,151 |
-- |
24.7** |
|
29. United Online (23) |
11,489 |
11,447 |
11,573 |
10,763 |
14 |
|
30. Expedia Travel (44) |
11,398 |
8,304 |
-- |
-- |
37.3* |
|
31. SBC Communications Sites (32) |
11057 |
9,968 |
9,832 |
9,297 |
14 |
|
32. EarthLink (26) |
10,986 |
11,109 |
10,660 |
10,818 |
1.1 |
|
33. Gannett Sites (42) |
10,816 |
8,438 |
9,184 |
9,559 |
19.4 |
|
34. LookSmart (41) |
10,558 |
8,540 |
9,426 |
10,177 |
12.5 |
|
35. EA Online (29) |
10,550 |
10,757 |
9,674 |
8,766 |
8.4 |
|
36. UGO Networks (37) |
10,205 |
8,936 |
8,173 |
-- |
19.3** |
|
37. FortuneCity Network (33) |
10,116 |
9,803 |
9,261 |
9,236 |
7.2 |
|
38. Overture Network (47) |
10,113 |
8,074 |
8,722 |
-- |
20.4** |
|
39. Barnes & Noble (30) |
9,903 |
10,437 |
8,971 |
-- |
2.1** |
|
40. Sony Online (36) |
9,863 |
8,971 |
8,143 |
-- |
15.3** |
|
41. NBC Internet Sites (43) |
9,513 |
8,436 |
8,862 |
11,346 |
-0.4 |
|
42. Travelocity |
9,318 |
-- |
-- |
8,325 |
11.9* |
|
43. Harris Interactive |
9,317 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
44. News Corp. Online (50) |
8,865 |
7,824 |
9,188 |
10,531 |
-3.4 |
|
45. NFL Internet Group |
8,706 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
46. WeatherBug |
8,521 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
47. Tribune Interactive |
8,447 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
48. RealNames.com (38) |
8,290 |
8,922 |
9,616 |
9,682 |
-11.9 |
|
49. HotJobs |
8,272 |
-- |
8,655 |
-- |
-4.4* |
|
50. Adobe |
9,249 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
| Underline indicates a site not in the Top 50 in January. *Site’s percentage increase calculated against a previous month only. **Site’s percentage increase calculated against two previous months only. Source: Jupiter Media Metrix |
|||||
|
Fastest Growing Health Sites in January 2002 |
|||
| Site |
Unique |
Unique |
Percent |
| 1. ivillagehealth.com |
543 |
2,076 |
282 |
| 2. cigna.com |
348 |
884 |
154 |
| 3. weightwatchers.com |
681 |
1,717 |
152 |
| 4. ediets.com |
2,050 |
3,908 |
91 |
| 5. mayoclinic.com |
762 |
1,375 |
80 |
| Source:
Nielsen//NetRatings
|
|||
February 14, 2002 © 2002 Media Life
-Marty Beard is a staff writer for Media Life.
Printer-Friendly
Version | Send
to a Friend
Cover Page | Contact
Us
