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Three years of the Czech Internet in numbers
2008-05-16
Project NetMonitor, online audience measurement in the Czech Republic, celebrated its third birthday in February 2008. During this period the project itself, as well as the Czech Internet, have developed so significantly that they deserve a closer look.
For the online industry the numbers of ad spend give an overview of how mature the market is. Czech online advertising experienced momentous growth between the years 2005 and 2008. In 2007, the Internet as a medium shared 5.8% of all ad spends in the country, compared to 4.2% in 2005 (source: OMD Digital). When taking a look at Internet visiting trends in 2005-2008, we can also observe the long-term growth of all other values. This has encouraged advertisers and their agencies to dedicate a more significant part of their budgets to different Internet ad formats. The numbers speak for themselves:
- the amount of visitors (real users) in the study is more than twice as high as it was in the first month of the research
- the page views are proliferating and amount to over fourteen times the initial number from the beginning of 2005
- the average time spent online by a user has skyrocketed and is nearly 6.5 times as much compared to the numbers from February 2005.
In the table below there is a summary of the data for the whole Internet, including both visitors from the Czech Republic as well as visitors from foreign countries.
For better readability particular indicators are illustrated separately in the charts below. Only three of them: the number of visitors (real users), page views and visits, will be analyzed in detail. The first and the most crucial indicator is the number of visitors (real users). It corresponds to the actual number of users that visited at least one of the web sites taking part in the research, not less than once in a given month.
The highest increase is noted in the year 2005. In consecutive years an upward trend was still registered, nevertheless growth was not as fast as before. The reason for this is that the major Czech portal seznam.cz (and related web sites) was included in the research only in 2005. The following years meant a gradual involvement of new web services in the project and, at the same time, an increase in the number of people with Internet access. Analysis of seasonal variations is possible against the background of the trend line (the black continuous line on the chart). There are visible increases in December and declines in the summer during the whole analyzed period. The latter is due to the holiday period, when people tend to spend more time outside and do not access the Internet. From February 2005 to January 2006, there was an annual increase of 2 028 266 (77.97%) of visitors (real users). In the consecutive years, the annual growth reached 632 512 of visitors (real users) (13.66%) and from January 2007 to January 2008 there were 747 354 more users (growth of 14.20%). In the period of three measured years, the number of real users increased, with 3 408 132 people, so threre were 131.01% more users than when the project had begun.
The second important indicator, the number of page views, noted an even better-defined increase. Again, the highest difference was measured in the first year of the study: between February 2005 and January 2006. There were 2 063 346 859 more page views monitored in NetMonitor (this is a vast growth of 480.56%). The reasons for this are similar to the ones influencing the giant leap in the number of users: the most popular portal and other often-visited web sites entered the study. In the period from January 2006 to January 2007 the number of generated page views was higher, with 1 918 973 789 (76.98%). Finally, in the last researched year, the increase was visible but lower than before: 1 709 673 785 more page views (38.75%). In the end, the number of viewed pages for three years soared, with 5 691 994 433 in total, which constitutes a 1 325.69% growth compared to the data from February 2005.
Last but not least, there is one more significant indicator worth analyzing: the number of visits. A visit is the sum of page views on a given web site, provided that not more than 30 minutes have elapsed between consecutive page views. Statistics from the last three years are presented in the graph below.
The values of this metric were also rocketing in the first year of the project, with 241 033 575 more visits in January 2006, in comparison to February 2005 (a 446.38% increase). Similarly to the other trends, in the following years the boost was less remarkable: 224 309 581 more visits until January 2007 (a 76.03% growth) and 210 059 779 more visits until the beginning of this year (a 40.45% upturn). For the measured three-year period, the number of visits was 675 402 935 (1 250.80%) higher, in comparison to the beginning of the project.
Generally speaking, the progress of all the main indicators describing the Czech Internet has been quite similar in the last three years. Naturally, the numbers climbed high when the top sites were included in the research. Then, we witnessed a regular seasonal decline in the winter in the number of page views, visits and average time spent online. In the first three months of 2006 and 2007, all of the indicators similarly increased. Another repeating seasonal cycle is the beginning of summer, when a small decline takes place. An increase in the number of web sites within the project, which reached a total of 272 in January 2008, was taken into consideration in all of the analyses. This year the numbers will inevitably grow again, the question is only how significantly.
*The article is based on press material published by Mediaresearch on 20 March 2008.
Gemius SA is the largest online research agency in Central and Eastern Europe, which provides a wide range of Internet research products to brand name clients throughout the region. Gemius SA has also recently started operating in Denmark. The aim of its core research - gemiusAudience - is to set an online audience measurement currency in all of the countries the company is present in. By working with key joint-industry committees and other market players, Gemius provides accurate, high-quality data for media planners, buyers and sellers.
Mediaresearch in cooperation with Gemius SA provides monitoring of Internet servers attendance and survey on socio-demographic structure of Internet audience in the Czech Republic - project NetMonitor. Simultaneously it does marketing and business support of other Gemius SA products in this country. The company developed methodology of TV audience monitoring that has been implemented on the Czech market since 2002. Mediaresearch was also Gemius partner in e-commerce stucy in the Czech Republic.
Download a complete version of the press release in a Word file.
For detailed information about the study please contact:Krzysztof Dabrowski, Operation Manager Gemius s.r.o.; krzysztof.dabrowski@gemius.cz