Websites fight for Olympic revenues
The Olympics may be over but the battle for the No. 1 Website slot has just begun. And this will be no clean contest.
Internet companies from Tencent (QQ) to Sina Corp and Sohu.com are all claiming to be the most popular Olympic Website, citing statistics from different research organizations.
There’s much at stake here. The “winner” attracts considerable advertising income. But the runner-up too will not lose out. China’s online advertising spending is expected to surge in the coming years, industry insiders said.
Tencent, which operates China’s popular instant message tool QQ, said it got an average daily hit of 1 billion visitors during the Olympics. Tencent, citing Tsinghua University’s research figures, claimed that it ranked No. 1 among Chinese Websites, in terms of traffic. It had 1.88 times the number of hits compared with the runner-up.
Analyzing its traffic profile, Tencent said, 58 percent of its Olympics visitors were in the 18 to 30 age bracket, compared with the runner-up’s 44 percent. Tencent cited research firm Nielson to back its claims.
“The Beijing Olympics proves that the Internet in China has become a reliable platform for the Chinese people,” Liu Zhiping, Tencent’s president, said in a statement.
But other Websites have been quick to contest Tencent’s claims.
Sina Corp cited figures from ChinaRank, a Website under the Internet Society of China, to back its claims as the dominant Webiste.
In another twist, Sohu.com, Internet sponsor of the Beijing Olympics, too claimed the top slot, citing figures from eight third-party research firms like Analysys International and DCCI.
“This is a fight for the advertisers and no Website can neglect it,” Lu Bowang, an Internet observer, said in a phone interview yesterday.
Lu, who has nine years of experience in Internet research, said the results of the research companies seem to be influenced by their clients. He added that the coming fourth quarter is a crucial period for Websites as advertisers often make their online expenditure decisions during this time.
In the second quarter, China’s online advertising revenue hit 4.57 billion yuan, a 100.4 percent growth year on year.
Tags: economy, Internet, Olympic
They even make those who oppose figures sound unreasonable. If you don’t plan for it, it could end up as considerable advertising income. China’s resources as well as 58 percent will also be shared by all the sites catered to by China.