Lycos beats Yahoo in number of users over month
By Andrea Orr
PALO ALTO, Calif., April 21 (Reuters) - More than half of all Internet users visited a
Lycos Inc. <LCOS.O> property last month, helping the online service surpass Yahoo!
Inc.'s <YHOO.O> long-standing lead, according to a survey being released on
Wednesday.
The new Media Metrix survey, which is closely watched by Internet advertisers and
investors, shows that Lycos attracted 31.9 million users in March, compared with
Yahoo's 31.3 million.
It was the first time Lycos' reach has surpassed that of Yahoo, which has typically
ranked first among the Internet portals -- the online hubs that offer everything from news
and stock quotes to shopping links, sports scores and chat rooms.
The latest data also mark the first time that Internet underdog Lycos, based in Waltham,
Massachusetts, has attained an audience reach of over 50 percent. The survey shows
51.8 percent of Internet users visited a Lycos property at least once during March, vs.
50.8 percent for Yahoo and 30.6 percent for Excite Inc. <XCIT.O>
"I think it's phenomenally significant," Lycos Executive Vice President Ron Sege said. "I
expect it will help us attract more users as well as advertisers."
Yahoo stressed that the numbers only reflected a one-month snapshot and said it did
not believe they marked a trend.
One survey clearly does not make or break a company, and in the new Internet
medium, audience reach is just one of many measurements of a company's success.
By other gauges, Yahoo arguably remains the leader. In its latest quarter, Yahoo
averaged 235 million page views a day, or more than four times Lycos' average. Page
views are the number of individual pages all Internet users combined call up in a given
day.
In addition, while Yahoo is a profitable business, Lycos is still losing money. And though
name recognition is harder to quantify, Yahoo appears to be a better-known brand than
Lycos.
Nonetheless, Lycos says the latest numbers show the strength of its business, and they
come as the company's valuation has been subject to wild dispute.
Although Lycos belongs to the group of high-flying Internet stocks, its share price is
languishing at around half its high for the year. The drop has been largely linked to
criticism that its pending acquisition by USA Networks Inc. <USAI.O> undervalues it.
The dispute surrounding the merger remains unresolved, and some close to the company
have said other parties are interested in buying Lycos at a premium over what USA
Networks has offered.
Sege would not comment directly on whether the new data might affect the merger. But
he said: "Anything that proves the effectiveness of our strategy makes us more valuable.
These numbers matter a lot."
One reason Lycos may still not be as much of a household name as Yahoo is that its
strategy involves compiling multiple businesses. Unlike Yahoo, which has focused on
developing a single strong brand, Lycos is a network of different services, including the
Tripod and Angelfire online communities, the HotBot search engine, the Wired
technology news service, and the Suck.com collection of commentary on media and
culture.
This strategy, it argues, has helped it grow rapidly by reaching multiple demographics.
In recent months, Lycos has moved aggressively to offer some of the hottest new
features available online, including a search service for online music recorded in the
Internet-friendly MP3 format.
Lycos said it became interested in the format when it discovered that "MP3" was
second most commonly searched word on the Internet, after "sex."
00:14 04-21-99
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of
Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without
the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays
in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. All active hyperlinks have
been inserted by AOL.
------
Previous
|
