Revealed: SA's online hangouts

2007-09-12 15:30

Johannesburg - South Africans spend most of their time on news and weather internet sites when they are online, a study done in August by global internet media and market researcher, NetRatings, has revealed.

News and weather sites account for 23% of the time that South Africans spend online, which translates into about 1.1 million hours, with 16% of time spent on media and publishing sites.

"The online sectors where South Africans spend most of their time highlights the power of the internet as an information resource. Almost one in every four minutes online is accounted for by a news and weather site," said Alex Burmaster, an internet analyst at Nielsen//Netratings.

The study showed that the third most time was spent on entertainment (12%), followed closely by travel (11%) and e-mail, message and chat (11%), which rated as fifth.

Six percent of the total time spent online was on employment sites and 5% was on directories and search.

Sports sites accounted for 4% of the time, with financial services and real estate each accounting for 2% of the time - 8% fell under the "other" category.

Burmaster said that it was worth noting, that the popularity of a sector wasn't necessarily aligned with how much total time it accounts for.

"Employment, for example, is the ninth most popular category but ranks as the sixth leading sector by total time," he said.

The study also listed the ten most engaging publishers, which accounted for all the time spent by South Africans online.

In order of rank, they were Media24 (27%), MWEB (11%), Interface (11%), Independent Online (10%), Career Junction (5%), MSN (5%), Ananzi (4%) Johncom (3%), Supersport Zone (3%) and Auto trader (3%) and 19% of publishers were not listed in the above top ten.

"The dominance of Media24 in the South African landscape is astonishing when one considers that just over one in every four minutes online is spent on their sites - and when comparing that to the most dominant brands in other countries," said Burmaster.

He added: "MSN, for example, is the most dominant brand in the UK in terms of time, yet accounts for just 12% of total time. Similarly in Australia it's Nine/MSN which also accounts for 12% and, in the US, it's AOL which accounts for 'just' 9% of total time."

- I-Net Bridge (News24)