MSFT's MSN portal bucking the trend - and GAINING eyeballs!
Portals Multiply, Get Slimmer Slice Of Pie-Analyst
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<<While the number of Web media networks and Internet gateways are increasing, visitor numbers are shrinking as the sites divide up the same audience between more players, an analyst said of new April Internet traffic data.
A report by research company Media Metrix Inc. (Nasdaq:MMXI - news) of New York showed top Web networks like Lycos, Go Network backed by Walt Disney Co. and Excite all losing visitors between March and April.
No. 4-ranked Lycos lost 3 million month-to-month to drop to 28.8 million visitors in April, while No. 5 Go Network and No. 7 Excite both lost 1.3 million visitors, amid a slight drop in the estimated 65 million U.S. Internet users at home and work.
Media Metrix surveys up to 40,000 computer users and publishes statistics on visitors to the top 50 Web sites each month. Advertisers use the studies to set online ad rates.
John Robb with Gomez Advisors, an Internet consulting firm in Concord, Mass., said the survey suggested competition was heating up between portals -- popular entrances to the Internet. But Robb added that he considered Media Metrix's data ''a very rough cut'' of actual Web traffic patterns.
''There are more portals now competing for the same number of people,'' said analyst John Robb. ''It means that there will be fewer people going to specific portals.''
America Online Inc. (NYSE:AOL - news), the No. 1 network of sites, including its online services and stand-alone Web sites, dipped to 46.4 million visitors from 47 million in the previous month. Its overall audience reach was 71 percent of the total universe of Web users. Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news), the No. 2 most visited network, rose to 32.4 million from 31.9 million.
No. 3-ranked Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) lost some visitors but regained its lead over rival Lycos, which it had temporarily lost in March. Microsoft and Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ - news)'s AltaVista network were two of the few portals to gain visitors in April.
EBay Inc. and Network Associates Inc. (Nasdaq:NETA - news) stood out among other sites that saw a shift in visitors. EBay, ranked number 20 among the top-50 sites, saw its visitors fall to 7.2 million in April from 8 million in March.
Network Associates, on the other hand, saw visitors rise to 3.8 million in April from 2.4 million the previous month.
A Media Metrix spokeswoman attributed the increase to people going in search of the company's anti-virus software in the wake of the Melissa virus scare.
Lanny Baker of Salomon Smith Barney disagreed with the pessimistic view. He cited Yahoo's and Lycos's relative audience reach as examples of how things have not changed dramatically among the leading players in the Web media world.
Baker said that in the last three months Yahoo's audience reach has hovered over 50 percent while Lycos' share has remained just below 50 percent, except for March when it was over half the sample population.
''This month's data looks a lot like last month's data,'' Baker said.
Highlighting the difficulty of tracking Web use, a separate survey focused solely on home Internet use by the Internet audience measurement venture of Nielsen Media Research and NetRatings Inc. arrived at a somewhat different count.
The study for the week ended May 16 put AOL's total audience reach at 40 percent of the Internet market, followed by Yahoo at No. 2, with 30 percent, Microsoft's MSN at 26.5 percent and Lycos with 17.5 percent.
The report offered no absolute audience figures.>>
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