Hitwise To Go - Asia Pacific

Christmas Planning Online

2008-11-18T22:52:51Z

With the festive season on its way, it seems New Zealanders have commenced preparation for Christmas as early as October. Searches for 'christmas' increased by 40% between the weeks ending 11/10/2008 and 08/11/2008 (rolling 12 weeks).

The top 3 terms searched for during the 12 weeks ending 08/11/2008 were, 'christmas decorations', 'christmas in the park' (concert) and 'christmas games' indicating what's top of mind. Christmas Treasures (www.christmastreasures.co.nz) received the greatest volume of traffic (45.04%) from the search term 'christmas decorations'.

During the same period, Northpole (www.northpole.com) a website which contains stories and activities for kids, as well as gift ideas, holiday recipes, games and an email address for Santa, was the number one website to receive traffic from the search term 'christmas'. Now you know.

Melbourne Cup Pipped at the Post

2008-11-17T01:33:06Z

During the week ending 08/11/2008, the race that stops a nation, the Melbourne Cup, was pipped at the post for the title of Australia’s fastest moving search term (based on relative change compared to the previous week), overshadowed by interest in the long awaited US presidential election. Australia’s fastest moving search term during this period was ‘us election’, closely followed by a string of Melbourne cup related searches, including ‘melbourne cup results’, ‘melbourne cup horses’, ‘melbourne cup odds’ and ‘melbourne cup sweep’ just to name a few. Of all Australian searches for ‘melbourne cup’ (during 4 weeks ending 08/11/2008), 50.94% resulted in visits to Victoria Racing Club (www.vrc.net.au), which includes information about the Melbourne Cup Carnival and related events. Now you know.

Jump-Start Required for Auto Manufacturers Online

2008-11-14T04:46:53Z

Reviewing Hitwise data over the last three years provides a window into the current predicament of the Automotive Manufacturing Industry. Visits to this category have understandably taken a serious hit as people tighten their belts, with Manufacturing websites experiencing an all-time low, accounting for just 0.12% of visits amongst all Australian websites, during the week ending 08/11/2008.

Amongst the parent Automotive category specifically, Manufacturers websites have also hit rock bottom accounting for just 9.54% of all visits to the Automotive industry – a decrease of 25% from the same time last year.

The Automotive category as a whole is propped up by Automotive Classifieds websites such as Carsales.com.au, which have their bases covered by catering to both buyers and sellers of new and used vehicles. Carsales actually has experienced a 10% increase on their market share of visits compared to last year within the Automotive Category. Now you know.

Cilmi Crashes Hard Rock Extravaganza

2008-10-31T05:38:29Z

Forget about the Billboard Top 100. A better gauge these days of a music artist’s popularity could arguably be the Hitwise ‘Music - Bands and Artists’ Category.

Not surprisingly, off the back of her six Aria Awards Gabriella Cilmi was a fast mover in the Bands & Artists industry last week, with her official site (www.gabriellacilmi.com.au) skyrocketing from a ranking of 259 to 6 in a single week in the Bands & Artists industry (w/e 25/10/08).

While Cilmi is a fresh face on the scene, a look at the Top 20 Band and Artist sites for the same week would warm the cockles of many long suffering hard rock enthusiasts, with the list looking like a throwback to the early 90s.
A swathe of new album releases has seen many of the big guns of yesteryear back on top. AC/DC (www.acdc.com) are “back in black” at number 3 and Nine Inch Nails (www.nin.com) gained their “animal instincts” to feature at number 8 by following the lead of Radiohead and offering their album online for free. “Nothing Else Matters” for Metallica fans however, who have propelled their site (www.metallica.com) up to rank 11th, closely followed by Gun’s and Roses (www.gunsnroses.com), who after years in the wilderness have their “appetite for destruction” back. Their website (www.gunsnroses.com) sits at number 12 in the Bands & Artists rankings.

Gmail increases market share by 68.46% year-on-year

2008-10-30T12:09:06Z

During the period September 2007 to September 2008, Gmail (www.gmail.com), Singapore’s #2 Email Service increased its market share of Singapore Internet user visits by 68.46%. Similarly, Windows Live Mail (mail.live.com) experienced strong growth during this period, increasing its market share of visits by 50.72% to maintain its dominance as Singapore’s #1 Email Service. Windows Live Mail received 35.52% share of visits during September 2008. Now you know.

Interest in Byron Bay accommodation spikes

2008-10-29T03:02:53Z

In the lead up to the holiday period, it seems Byron Bay, Lakes Entrance and the Barossa Valley were amongst the destinations top of mind with Australian Internet users last week. According to the Hitwise Fast Movers report, searches for ‘byron bay accommodation’, ‘lakes entrance’ and ‘accommodation Barossa valley’ were amongst the fastest moving search terms by relative increase in the Travel industry for the week ending 25/10/2008 when compared with the previous week. During the 4 weeks ending 25/10/2008 Byron-bay.com, ByronBayAccomm.net and Wotif.com were the top 3 websites to receive traffic from searches for ‘byron bay accommodation’. Now you know.

Australian Dollar Spikes! (…in search terms)

2008-10-20T00:16:35Z

The economy's 'deceleration' seems to be on everyone’s lips and indeed it seems in their typing fingers. People, perhaps keen to avert some of the damage to their hip pockets, are looking for finance related information in a big way, with the dollar’s sharp decline instigating searches with a particular emphasis on currency. Of the top 10 fastest moving search terms by volume increase (week ending 11/10/2008), 'currency converter' came in at number two, 'Australian dollar' number seven and 'exchange rates' at number nine. Xe.com (www.xe.com) was a key beneficiary of these sharp increases in currency searches receiving the most traffic from the terms 'currency converter' and 'exchange rates'. Its market share increased 62% in All Categories during the week ending 11/10/2008. Now you know.

F1 Singapore Grand Prix Fast Moving Online

2008-10-04T00:21:47Z

With the Grand Prix in the Lion City last week, search terms relating to the Singapore Grand Prix were amongst the fastest moving for the week ending 27/09/2008. Searches for ‘f1 road closures’ was Singapore’s fastest moving search term, with ‘formula 1’ and ‘f1 singapore grand prix’ also appearing amongst the top 10 fast moving searches. The Official Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix website (www.singaporegp.sg) experienced a jump in market share of visits by over 300% during week ending 27/09/2008 to rank 141 amongst all websites visited by Singapore Internet users. During this period, Google Singapore (26.59%) was the number one website to refer traffic to the Official Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix website, followed by Yahoo! Singapore Search (18.07%). Now you know.

Get in shape for summer

2008-10-02T06:08:14Z

With the weather starting to warm up and thoughts of bikinis and beach holidays starting to creep in, Australians are seeking out information on healthy living from Health & Medical – Wellbeing websites. During September 2008, the Health & Medical - Wellbeing industry, which features exercise, eating and wellbeing websites, has experienced its highest ever monthly market share of visits from Australian Internet users. Year-on-year traffic to Wellbeing websites has increased by 18.16% (as of September 2008), with patterns over the last three years showing peaks during early January (likely due to New Year’s resolutions) and troughs in late December. Search Engines (34.62%) and Social Networking and Forums websites (8.68%) referred the greatest share of traffic to the Wellbeing industry during September 2008. Now you know.

Hawthorn #1 on the field and online

2008-09-29T05:48:55Z

With another AFL season coming to a close, the two most popular AFL clubs online during Grand Final week (w/e 27/09/2008) not surprisingly were the Hawthorn Football Club (www.hawthornfc.com.au) followed by the Geelong Football Club (www.gfc.com.au). According to Search Term data, Buddy Franklin was the most popular player to drive traffic to the Hawthorn Football Club website, while Joel Selwood took the honours for Geelong (4 weeks ending 27/09/2008).

The demographic profile of visitors to the club websites in part matches the stereotypical profile of the clubs supporters, with the Hawthorn Football Club’s online followers most commonly fitting the Mosaic 2008 Type ‘Rising Wealth’, which can be best described as educated and affluent young professionals in inner city areas. Comparatively, the Geelong Football Clubs online followers matched the Mosaic 2008 Type ‘Farming Stock’ which can be best described as rural landowners and workers in agricultural heartlands. Now you know.

Hot Tickets

2008-09-17T00:03:35Z

According to search terms directing traffic to the Shopping & Classifieds – Ticketing industry during 4 weeks ending 13/09/2008, some of the most sort after tickets by Australian Internet users include tickets to the AFL and the musicals Wicked, Billy Elliot and Phantom of the Opera. The top websites referring traffic to the Ticketing industry include Google Australia (26.64%), Ninemsn (7.37%) and Google (4.44%). Now you know.

Google Chrome New Zealand’s Fastest Moving Search Term

2008-09-15T02:38:15Z

The launch of Google’s new browser Chrome, has spiked interest amongst New Zealand Internet users, with ‘google chrome’ ranking as New Zealand’s fastest moving search term during the week ending 06/09/2008. Other searches referencing this new browser, including ‘chrome’, and ‘google browser’ also appeared amongst the top 10 fast moving search terms during the same period. Google NZ News was the number one website to receive traffic from searches for ‘google chrome’ (7.76%), closely followed by Wikipedia (7.16%), during the 12 weeks ending 06/09/2008. Now you know.

Happy Little Vegemites

2008-08-27T23:11:42Z

On the back of the ‘How do you like your Vegemite’ campaign, searches for ‘vegemite’ have jumped by 66.6% in just one month (based on 4 week rolling period ending 23/08/2008). The majority of Australian Internet users searching for ‘vegemite’ went onto visit Vegemite.com (66.33%) followed by How Do You Like Your Vegemite (www.howdoyoulikeyourvegemite.com.au). During week ending 23/08/2008, Footytips.com.au referred 50.99% of traffic to How Do You Like Your Vegemite. Now you know.

New Zealanders Prefer to Rent, not Buy Cars

2008-08-20T22:44:48Z

According to Hitwise New Zealand, market share of visits to the online Automotive industry decreased by 11.33% year-on-year as of July 2008. An analysis of the top Automotive search terms suggests that since August last year, New Zealanders are increasingly interested in renting rather than purchasing, with car purchase-related search terms such as ‘car sales’, ‘car auction’ and ‘car auctions’ decreasing by 38.10%, 44.17% and 40.54% respectively (between weeks ending 25/08/2007 and 09/08/2008). Comparatively however, car rental-related searches have spiked dramatically, with searches for ‘car rental’, ‘car hire’ and ‘rental car’ increasing by 838.26%, 783.05% and 1245% respectively during the same period. Now you know.

Facebook Hong Kong’s Number One Website

2008-08-19T11:23:51Z

Facebook.com became Hong Kong’s number one website as of week ending 26/07/2008. During the past 2 weeks, Facebook has not only maintained its lead but also increased it, possessing 6.66% of market share as of week ending 09/08/2008. Prior to week ending 26/07/2008, Yahoo! Hong Kong (hk.yahoo.com) possessed a strangle hold on the title of Hong Kong’s most popular website, maintaining its number one ranking for the duration of 2007 and first half of 2008. Now you know