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Visits to Stock Web Sites Increase 19 Percent in
February 2009
Yahoo! Finance top-visited Web site, Sirius XM top stock search term
New York, NY, March 4, 2009 – Hitwise®, an Experian company, announced today that U.S. visits to the Stocks and Shares category increased 19 percent in February 2009 compared with February 2008. The category accounted for 1.11 percent of all U.S. Internet visits in February 2009 — ranking as the third-highest month in the past year, behind October and September 2008. The average time spent within the category was 11 minutes and 24 seconds, an increase of 14 percent over February 2008.
“With recent declines in the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index, consumers are increasingly turning to Web sites to monitor financial news and portfolio performance,” said Heather Dougherty, director of research, Hitwise. “There is a strong need for continuous information, particularly during economic uncertainty, that provides an opportunity to drive repeat visits and increase customer communication — especially advice that could help customers weather the storm.”
In February 2009, Yahoo! Finance was the top-visited Web site in the category, with 22.21 percent. MSN Money received the second-highest number of visits (7.32 percent), followed by CNN Money (7.16 percent).
Note: The Hitwise data featured is based on U.S. market share of visits, which is the percentage of online traffic to the domain or category, from the Hitwise sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users. Hitwise measures more than 1 million unique Web sites daily, including subdomains of larger Web sites. Hitwise categorizes Web sites into industries on the basis of subject matter and content, as well as market orientation and competitive context.
Source: Hitwise, an Experian company
Branded Web sites are most popular
Among the top 300 search terms sending traffic to the Stocks and Shares category, 64 percent were for branded terms in February 2009. Stock searches made up 20 percent, and generic searches made up 16 percent. The majority of searches within the Stocks and Shares category are navigational, where Internet visitors simply are searching on the brand name of their desired destination.
Among the search terms in the Stocks and Shares category in February 2009, Sirius XM was the top-searched stock amid talk of potential bankruptcy filing, Bank of America, General Electric, Pure Spectrum and Cross Atlantic Commodities round out the top five search terms for the month. The top generic search terms were “currency converter”, “gold price”, “gold prices”, “exchange rates” and “gold.”
Note: The search term data is based on the volume of all U.S. searches for the four weeks ending Feb. 28, 2009, resulting in traffic to the Stocks and Shares category from the Hitwise sample of 10 million users.
Source: Hitwise, an Experian company
About Experian Hitwise
Hitwise, an Experian company, is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Only Hitwise provides its 1,500 clients around the world with daily insights on how their customers interact with a broad range of competitive Web sites and how their competitors use different tactics to attract online customers.
Since 1997, Hitwise has pioneered a unique, network-based approach to Internet measurement. Through relationships with ISPs around the world, Hitwise’s patented methodology anonymously captures the online usage, search and conversion behavior of 25 million Internet users. This unprecedented volume of Internet usage data is seamlessly integrated into an easy-to-use, Web-based service, designed to help marketers better plan, implement and report on a range of online marketing programs.
Hitwise, an Experian company (FTS:EXPN), http://www.experianplc.com, operates in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. More information about Hitwise is available at http://www.hitwise.com.
For up-to-date analysis of online trends, please visit the Hitwise Intelligence — Analyst Weblogs at http://www.ilovedata.com and the Hitwise Data Center at http://www.hitwise.com/datacenter.
About Experian
Experian is a global leader in providing information, analytical and marketing services to organizations and consumers to help manage the risk and reward of commercial and financial decisions.
Combining its unique information tools and deep understanding of individuals, markets and economies, Experian partners with organizations around the world to establish and strengthen customer relationships and provide their businesses with competitive advantage.
For consumers, Experian delivers critical information that enables them to make financial and purchasing decisions with greater control and confidence. Clients include organizations from financial services, retail and catalog, telecommunications, utilities, media, insurance, automotive, leisure, e-commerce, manufacturing, property and government sectors.
Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Experian has corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, and has operational headquarters in Costa Mesa, Calif., and Nottingham, UK. The Group employs approximately 15,500 people in 38 countries worldwide, supporting clients in more than 65 countries around the world. Continuing sales for the year ended March 31, 2008, were in excess of $4 billion.
For more information, visit www.experianplc.com.
Ashley Johnston
Vice President, Marketing
Experian CheetahMail
1 212 863 4654
ashley@cheetahmail.com
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