The IGN Data Hub - Feb 16, 2000

1999 Fourth Quarter Advertising Sees Huge Increase

Online companies increased advertising expenditures 500 percent during fourth quarter 1999. Competitive Media Reporting said $473 million was spent on advertising during October 1999, a larger amount than was spent during the first two quarters of the year combined, according to a recent article in The Standard. Online companies advertised their services via television, newspapers, magazines, radio and outdoor media.

What's In A Name?

Online shoppers place higher value on brand names and reputations than on price when shopping for technical products, while price considerations are more important to buyers who aren't shopping online. Both groups, however, rate "good service and technical support" as the most important attribute for a brand name to convey, more important than either price or brand trust. The findings come from a study just published by Reality Research & Consulting.

More Americans Online

About 90 million American households are expected to be online by 2004, according to Strategis Group, almost twice the number of connected homes today. Strategis Group's most recent study of U.S. Internet usage, according to NewsEdge, forecasts that up to 171 million Americans will be online by 2004. The Internet's growth mimics other communication and entertainment media adoption, such as television, which also underwent dramatic growth spurts during its early days.

Saturday is the Most Popular Day to Surf the Web

WebSideStory has broken down Internet usage on a daily basis, finding Saturday the most popular day to surf the Web and Wednesday the least popular.

A breakdown of daily traffic during the week of Jan. 30 - Feb. 5 showed:

Sunday - 14.03 percent
Monday - 13.71 percent
Tuesday - 13.58 percent
Wednesday - 13.44 percent
Thursday - 14.37 percent
Friday - 15.36 percent
Saturday - 15.51 percent

European E-commerce Growth Hits a Few Snags

Boston Consulting Group found that even though Internet commerce is growing in Western Europe, most sales are made by U.S. e-tailers. The Standard reported the findings in a recent article.

BCG also found that while European Internet sales reached $3.47 billion last year, the online sales figures in the United States were $36 billion for the same period. Meanwhile, language and cultural barriers among various European nations are proving hard to overcome. As a result, companies are taking a different tack to break into these markets. Instead of a one-size fits all mentality, a smaller, more localized approach is being taken to win over customers.

The Standard also reported on findings from Datamonitor that show European banks are spending nearly $1 million daily to implement online banking systems and strategies. The banks are hard-pressed to develop all the necessary functions, and have sought outside help. By 2004, $1.4 billion will be spent on developing Internet banking services, with $850 million of the total being used for outside contractors, Datamonitor reported.

Major Marks Spending in Germany

German online advertising doubled last year, hitting 150 million marks, according to a Reuters news article. The amount is expected to double again for 2000. Also, Industry groups told Reuters that German Internet usage had tripled to about one billion "page impressions" last year.

Japanese Online Advertising Expenditures Expected to Increase

The Japanese online advertising market grew 111.4 percent last year. According to The Standard, an estimated $22.2 million will be spent for this year's online advertising, while, last year's overall advertising expenditures were down slightly.