Official World Cup Website Sees Surge In Traffic
The World Cup appears to be driving football fans online with figures from Nielsen/NetRatings showing that FIFA’s official World Cup website has seen traffic increase by 420% in the first week of the tournament.
According to the research, the tournament’s official website fifaworldcup.yahoo.com has seen a “surge in interest” since the World Cup matches started, with a peak of over 255,3000 people accessing the site from home on 5 June. However, on the day of England’s first game on Sunday 2 June, less than 23,000 Britains accessed the site, choosing instead to watch the match on television (see England Versus Sweden Attracts Over 12 Million To ITV).
According to Nieslen/NetRatings, since 1 May over 1.86 million people from the 17 countries taking part in the tournament have visited the official World Cup website. The British are using the website the most, with 271,444 users accessing the site from home since the beginning of May, followed by internet users in Germany and France.
However, British and French internet users are accessing the official site more from work than from home, with 343,775 UK users and 271,192 French users logging on to the site from work since the beginning of May.
David Day, international analytical services director at Nielsen/NetRatings, said: “Interest in the official website for the World Cup has been growing steadily. People are using the web for a number of reasons; from obtaining pre-match information and post match images to ensuring they are fully up to date with the latest results as they happen.”
He added: “The timing of the matches means that many will be played during work time in Europe. The number of people accessing the site from work shows that the web is proving to be an invaluable source of World Cup information for employees.”
Recent research from Netpoll suggests that internet will be the preferred medium for keeping up to date with the World Cup matches, behind satellite and cable TV and ahead of daily newspapers, terrestrial TV and radio (see World Cup Pushes Sports Fans Online).
Nielsen/NetRatings: 01865 742 742 www.nielsennetratings.com
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