Kiwis Are Six Million Hour Surfers

Online Businesses Must Move Quickly To Secure Customer Loyalty

Auckland – 28 June 2001 – Kiwis clocked up over six million hours of Internet surfing at home during May according to the latest statistics released by Nielsen//NetRatings.

Nielsen//NetRatings, the world's largest and fastest growing Internet audience measurement service, is produced by ACNielsen eRatings.com (a venture between ACNielsen Corp., NYSE:ART and NetRatings, Inc., Nasdaq: NTRT), Nielsen Media Research and NetRatings, Inc.

Brian Milnes, Managing Director Pacific, ACNielsen eRatings.com says this is the first time New Zealand at home surfers have broken the six million hour barrier, a significant milestone in surfing behaviour.

Furthermore, of that time spent surfing, the top five sites only occupied 22 percent of the average Kiwi surfer’s time. This is significantly lower than the global average.

“New Zealanders spend a lot of time surfing around other sites apart from the top global portals,” says Milnes. “Kiwi surfers are still experimenting and discovering which sites most fulfil their needs. Currently Kiwi surfers are looking at an average of 19 sites per month. Our international research suggests in time this will follow US trends and halve.”

In the world’s most mature Internet consumer market, the US, surfers have reduced the number of sites they regularly visit and settled into strong brand loyalty behaviour online.

“The Internet is now seen as a utility in the US and people are picking their favourite sites and sticking to them.”

Nielsen//NetRatings’s research suggests that New Zealand is around 18 months behind the US in terms of Internet consumer behaviour, so the message to local and international businesses looking to acquire a strong loyal following in New Zealand is move fast and move now.

“This is the time for online businesses to attract New Zealanders to their site before we settle down into hard-to-shift surfing patterns,” says Milnes.

“Businesses need to work hard now to convert brand into a loyalty franchise. The implication of our international research is that it will be harder to attract New Zealanders in a year’s time when they have already chosen their favourite sites.”

ENDS

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