iab gemius do_you_cee

www.carnationgroup.com

http://cemp.blog.hu/

COUNSELORS:

Alain Heureux, Filip Pieczyński,Jarosław Sobolewski

AUTHORS:

Małgorzata Dudko, Michalina Pelc, Bartosz Wardziński

CONTRIBUTORS:

Tamás Ács, Vesselin Angelov, Mikhail Doroshevich, Catalin Emilian, Tomáš Gregor, Vladimir Houba, Vlad Ionescu, Ľuboš Ivanič, Vibor Kalogjera, Marta Klepka, Alexander Levshin, Dmytro Lysiuk, Gökhan Mertay, Gregor Nišavič, Toms Panders, Jolita Reidman, Natalia Szymańska, Judit Völgyesi, Paap Peterson, Ieva Knāķe

SUPPORT:

Marcin Dukat, Dawid Fillmann, Łukasz Urbański, Katarzyna Zagórska

WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO:

Ričardas Baltaduonis, Tomáš Búřil, Joanna Gajewska, Dmitry Gizhdevan, Elvijus Gudžiūnas, Hristo Ivanov, Jan Jilek, Plamen Kalinikov, Edgars Kalniņš, Alexander Kim, Piotr Kowalczyk, István Kürti, Martin Kyncl, Tomáš Lauko, Gergana Marinova, Péter Novák, Cezar Paraschiv, Sergey Petrenko, Laurentiu Pop, Igor Rõtov, Viktors Rožkalns, Andrey Sebrant, Dmytro Sholomko, Petar Simeonov, Egidijus Sirvydis, Saša Škorić, Radoš Skrt, Aleksander Stelmakh, Orkun Tekin, Silviu Toma, Gabor Tóth, Tomáš Varga, Adina Vasilescu, Dilyan Velichkov, Meelis Vill, Alex Visa, Artur Waliszewski, Jurij Ziccer Anatoljewicz

The authors of „Do you CEE? The Internet Market of Central and Eastern Europe

in 2010” wish to thank Romanian Audit Bureau of Circulations (BRAT) for providing

access to data concerning the Romanian internet and for preparing the chapter

on the online market in Romania.

Do you CEE?

ALAIN HEUREUXIAB Europe President and CEO

After the enormous success of the first Do you CEE? report produced in

collaboration with Gemius, I’m delighted to get back to the industry with

a second report explaining the dynamics of the CEE region in 2010. Other

regional reports will be provided by IAB Europe in response to the positive

feedback from the members.

CEE remains a special region for us, as we can feel the energy, innovation,

creativity and strong growth of these markets. Jarosław Sobolewski (Manager

of IAB Poland, Board member IAB Europe and Regional Manager on the CEE

Region) and Martin Radelfinger (International Business Director Goldbach

Media-Adconion) are working closely with the European team, the Board as

well as partners like Gemius in supporting the growth, training local IABs and

Partner associations and providing information to the industry. This report

serves as a source of valuable information not only for marketers, media houses

and advertisers who are looking for new areas for expansion, but also for

the younger markets to measure their own progress and identify areas where

they can continue to develop and grow.

FILIP PIECZYŃSKIGemius Management Board Vice President

Gemius has the great pleasure to present you Do you CEE? The Internet Market

of Central and Eastern Europe in 2010. This is already our second compendium

of knowledge on the CEE online reality. The last year’s report proved to be

immensely popular and revealed the scale of demand for credible and unbiased

compilation of data concerning the entire region. The report has also become

one of the most eminent and prestigious projects carried out by Gemius.

Like in 2009, this year’s report presents a landscape of the region and

an overview of each CEE market, discussing its main players, online audience

and most popular tools. Those familiar with the 2009 version of the report

will appreciate the inclusion of interesting data from two more markets into

the analysis: Belarus and Turkey. It is in these countries that Gemius successfully

started its operations in the years 2009 and 2010.

I would like to thank our partner in this and last year’s project, IAB Europe,

as well as all those whose effort made the creation of the report possible.

I cordially invite you to join us in analysing the online reality of Anno Domini 2010

– a year marked by the growing importance of video content, invariable

popularity of social networking websites and a battle of web browsers.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

10 CEE Online Landscape

24 Belarus

40 Bulgaria

58 Croatia

72 Czech Republic

88 Estonia

102 Hungary

120 Latvia

138 Lithuania

156 Poland

172 Romania

192 Russia

206 Slovakia

218 Slovenia

230 Turkey

246 Ukraine

260 Methodological Note

264 SATI Methodology

Do you CEE? Online Landscape

10

ONLINE LANDSCAPE

MARKET SIZE

The online market in Central and

Eastern Europe is developing;

therefore the dynamics of its growth

is still one of the key factors indicating

its great potential. Despite the fact

that differences in the development of

the internet in various CEE countries

are visible, an increase in the number

of new users in the whole region is

not losing momentum. In this respect,

the Central and Eastern European

online market is growing from

strength to strength and appears to

be a forward-moving and extremely

promising business sector. To better

understand its nature and general

Central and Eastern Europe is a market

of over 300 million people, therefore

the online area has tremendous

opportunities for growth. According

to the gemiusAudience study, at the

beginning of 2010 in all CEE countries

(plus Turkey) there were over

117 million internet users. However,

this region is extremely diverse and

the differences in sizes of these

markets are great. The largest market

is Russia, where in January 2010

exactly 40.1 million individuals were

using the internet on a regular basis.

The second largest and attention-

drawing online market is Turkey

(almost 22 million internet users),

however, it is often not counted

among the relevant CEE markets. Such

uncertainty does not concern Poland,

where almost 15 million people

regularly use the internet.

All other markets are proportionately

smaller and the size of each online

population in most cases reflects the

actual size of each particular country.

characteristics, let us look at the data

describing the landscape of this fertile

online land.

The comprehensive description of

the online area in Central and Eastern

Europe should focus on three basic

and interrelated elements: size of

market, its level of development and

its business potential. In this chapter

all three approaches will be presented

and discussed.

Ukraine is one of the exceptions.

At the beginning of 2010 there were

over 45 million people in the country

and less than 8.4 million internet

users. At the same time the online

population in Romania was 7.6 million,

in the Czech Republic it was slightly

over 5.2 million and in Hungary almost

4.2 million. In contrast, the CEE region

also covers such small online markets

as Latvia (1.2 million internet users),

Slovenia (1.1 million internet users)

and Estonia (0.8 million internet

users). However, the absolute number

of internet users is only the first step

in an exhaustive description of the

market.

It is extremely important to note

that what makes the online markets

interesting is also the dynamics of

their growth.

11

Mili

ons

of u

sers

Internet population

Chart 1 Internet population in the CEE region (January 2010);source of data: Ukraine: gemiusAudience; Hungary: gemius/Ipsos Fusion Data; Latvia: gemiusAudience; Belarus: gemiusAudience; Turkey: gemiusAudience; Czech Republic: NetMonitor - SPIR - Mediaresearch & Gemius; Romania: Mercury Research; Slovakia: AIMmonitor - AIM - Mediaresearch & Gemius; Bulgaria: gemiusAudience (data collected using Synovate research); Poland: Megapanel PBI/Gemius; Slovenia: gemiusAudience; Russia: Gemius estimation based on FOM statistics/gemiusAudience Data; Estonia: gemiusAudience (data collected using TURU-UURINGUTE AS research); Lithuania: gemiusAudience; Croatia: gemiusAudience [age groups – CEE: 15+; Russia: 18+; Romania: 14-64; Lithuania: 15-74]

http://www.way2traffic.com


12

Internet users 2009-2010

Chart 2 Internet population in the CEE region – growth (January 2009 – January 2010);source of data: Ukraine: gemiusAudience; Hungary: gemius/Ipsos Fusion Data; Latvia: gemiusAudience; Turkey: gemiusAudience; Czech Republic: NetMonitor - SPIR - Mediaresearch & Gemius; Romania: Mercury Research; Slovakia: AIMmonitor - AIM - Mediaresearch & Gemius; Bulgaria: gemiusAudience (data collected using Synovate research); Poland: Megapanel PBI/Gemius; Slovenia: gemiusAudience; Russia: Gemius estimation based on FOM statistics / gemiusAudience Data; Estonia: gemiusAudience (data collected using TURU-UURINGUTE AS research); Lithuania: gemiusAudience; Croatia: gemiusAudience [age groups – CEE: 15+; Russia: 18+; Romania: 14-64; Lithuania: 15-74]

Since the beginning of 2009 the

general online population in the

whole region of Central and Eastern

Europe (together with Turkey) grew

by over 9 million new internet

users. That is more than the entire

population of Slovakia. Even more

important is the fact that when

growth dynamics are taken into

consideration, it becomes obvious

that the largest internet markets are

not those which develop fastest. In

2009, as in the previous year, Ukraine

was the country which experienced,

relatively speaking, the greatest

increase in the number of internet

users (15%). During the same period

the online population of Hungary

increased by 13% and in Latvia by

12%. It is worth noting that the

Latvian market is one of the smallest

in the whole CEE region.

As for the largest markets, the

dynamics of their development seem

to be inversely proportional to their

size. From January 2009 to January

2010 the number of internet users in

Poland increased by 8% and in Russia

by barely 6%.

The slowest online population growth

in 2009 was observed in Lithuania

and Croatia. In both countries the

number of regular internet users

increased by 3% (from 1.45 to 1.49

million) and 2% (from 1.63 to 1.66

million), respectively.

Mili

ons

of u

sers

Growth 200

9 - 2

010

13

MARKET DEVELOPMENT

The size and speed of growth attest to

the potential of the CEE online market.

However, in answer to the question

of the state of its development,

another indicator may be useful, i.e.

internet penetration. If one takes

into account the differences in the

size of CEE countries, it becomes

possible to determine the real level

and diversification of the development

of the internet infrastructure in the

region.

The general observation does not

refer directly to the data. When

comparing the CEE online market as

a whole with its western counterpart,

it becomes evident that this region still

does not display a penetration level

similar to that found in more ‘mature’

economies. However, as in other

equally promising parts of the world,

the situation is improving fast.

This is the case in Ukraine, which

for several years has been the most

dynamically developing online market

and in the following comparison holds

the last position with its internet

penetration level at a mere 21%.

According to the gemiusAudience

study, a quite low internet penetration

level is also found in Belarus

(35%) and Russia (36%), which,

as a large and extremely diverse

market, still faces many obstacles

to the development of its internet

infrastructure. Similarly, Turkey, one

of the newest markets participating in

the gemiusAudience study, recorded

an internet penetration level of 40%

at he beginning of 2010.

http://www.clickad.pl


14

Internet penetration

Chart 3 Internet penetration in the CEE region (January 2009 – January 2010)source of data: Ukraine: gemiusAudience; Hungary: gemius/Ipsos Fusion Data; Latvia: gemiusAudience; Czech Republic: NetMonitor - SPIR - Mediaresearch & Gemius; Romania: Mercury Research; Slovakia: AIMmonitor - AIM - Mediaresearch & Gemius; Bulgaria: gemiusAudience (data collected using Synovate research); Poland: Megapanel PBI/Gemius; Slovenia: gemiusAudience; Turkey: Ipsos KMG; Russia: Gemius estimation based on FOM statistics/gemiusAudience Data; Estonia: gemiusAudience (data collected using TURU-UURINGUTE AS research); Lithuania: gemiusAudience; Croatia: gemiusAudience; Belarus: gemiusAudience (February 2009, January 2010); Romania: Mercury Research; [age groups – CEE: 15+; Russia: 18+; Romania: 14-64; Lithuania: 15-74]

Interestingly, the highest level of

internet penetration in Central

and Eastern Europe is the domain

of small and very small countries,

which have already managed to cope

with a host of challenges associated

with infrastructural and business

development. In this respect, Estonia

appears to be the undisputed leader

of the whole region. In January 2010

internet penetration in this country

reached a level of 71%. At the

forefront of the list are the other

Baltic countries: Latvia (65%) and

Lithuania (57%), as well as Slovenia

(62%) and the Czech Republic

(58%). In turn, the average internet

penetration for the whole region

at the beginning of 2010 equaled 49%.

Should this result be regarded as

satisfactory? Yes, especially seeing

that no country in this part of the

world is sluggish when it comes to

internet penetration growth. Since

last year this indicator has increased

in all CEE markets. The greatest

growth took place in Belarus.

Between January 2009 and January

2010 internet penetration in this

country increased by astounding

9 percentage points. Significant

growth of internet penetration in

2009 has also been observed in

Poland (7 percentage points) and

Latvia (6 percentage points). In turn,

for the Czech Republic, Croatia,

Hungary and Romania 2009 was

a year of moderate development,

Inte

rnet

pen

etra

tion

[%]

http://insights.socialbakers.com


16

as internet penetration grew on

these markets by 5 percentage

points. Incidentally, the average

increase of internet penetration

for the entire region was also exactly

5 percentage points.

While considering the problem of

internet development in Central

and Eastern Europe, the issue of

broadband internet penetration

cannot go unnoticed. It is worth

remembering that the share of

modern, high-speed internet

connections on the market is not

only a precise illustration of its

status, but also a key foundation

for its future development.

Apart from Estonia, where

broadband internet penetration

per household amounted to 62%

in 2009, the share of high speed

internet connections on other

CEE markets is much lower than

in Western European countries.

The leading position in Europe

in this respect belongs to the

Nordic markets (Iceland, Sweden,

Norway, Denmark, and Finland),

small countries like the Netherlands

or Luxembourg, as well as ‘mature’

economies such as the United

Kingdom.

In the CEE region there is one

small, yet very interesting and

stigmatic market. Croatia, which is in

question, appears to have a virtually

brand new internet infrastructure.

The ‘online boom’ on that market

began suddenly and caused a

massive flood of completely new

technologies. Croatia did not have

time to develop the infrastructure

of the internet gradually; it began

with the introduction of the newest

possible solutions available.

Broadband penetration - 2009

Chart 4 Broadband internet penetration per households in the CEE region and Western Europe;sources of data: Eurostat, broadband.ua, Gemius calculations based on ITU, Ipsos, Turkey census, Russian census, National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus and ANCOM (National Authority for Administration and Ruling in Communications of Romania)

Broa

dban

d pe

netr

ation

[%]

17

This is rather an extreme example;

however, it shows clearly one of

the most important characteristics

of the whole region. Despite the fact

that the penetration of broadband

internet remains lower than in

Western Europe, it is crucial to

remember that the whole online

industry in CEE began to develop

later than in western economies.

Due to this fact, the natural process

of improving and exchanging old

internet technologies, practically

speaking, does not apply to most

countries in this part of Europe.

This is one of the features which

make this region a place with

extraordinary potential. The CEE

online market is something akin

to a half-written book. In the near

future it will be filled only with

the newest content.

http://www.proxyad.pl


18

MARKET POTENTIAL

Online adspends

When a new medium creates a space

for lucrative business activities,

it immediately becomes a huge

industry. This stage of development

has already taken place for the

internet in Central and Eastern Europe.

For years the ultimate indicator of its

development has been - and still is

- money. And whenever money met

the internet, online advertising always

triumphed.

Currently, there is no need to convince

anybody in the CEE region that online

advertising is the future and the basis

for commercial operations within

digital media. Year on year, advertisers

spend more money on the internet,

often making significant shifts within

general budgets for all types of media.

Although the global economic crisis

has led to a slowdown in the dynamics

of online adspending on some CEE

markets, the general trend has been

maintained. It is important to note at

this point that the interpretation of

data for online adspends must precede

awareness that the methodology used

to measure it differs from country to

country and depends on the research

company. However, the overall picture

of online adspends in this region

appears to be quite clear.

In 2009 on all CEE markets included

in this summary over 1.3 billion Euro

Chart 5 Online adspends in the CEE region (2008-2009);source of data: TNS Gallup; BG Piero & Argent; SPIR (Admonitor); TNS Emor; IAB Europe; PricewaterhouseCoopers; TNSMI; lra.lv; Ukra-inian Advertisement Coalition; AKAR; marketing.by; Gemius; (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey: gross values; Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine: net values)

19

was spent for various kinds of online

advertising. This equates to a 11%

increase of online adspends compared

to the previous year. The largest

amount of online ad-money is found

on the largest markets, like Russia,

where in 2009 advertisers spent

almost 494 million Euros. During

the same period in Poland the volume

of online advertising expenditures

equaled slightly more than 296 million

Euro, while in the Czech Republic

almost 250 million Euro was spent.

This market recorded the second

largest increase in online advertising

expenditures, 32% to be exact.

The most rapid increase of online

adspends in the period between 2008

and 2009 was observed in Ukraine.

In 2009 almost 15 million Euro

was spent on this market, which is

an increase of 45%.

Due to the global economic collapse,

2009 was also a year of significant

declines in online advertising spends.

The greatest falls were observed

in Lithuania (-33%), Latvia (-32%)

and Estonia (-22%). Thankfully,

the prognosis for 2010 is very

promising. For example, a 15%

increase in Romania and a 16%

increase in Lithuania are expected

within the next year.

As it is the case with describing online

market size, one should remember

that in estimating business potential,

absolute values represent only a half

of the truth. When the total volume

of online adspends is compared with

the number of internet users living in

each country, the juxtaposition of CEE

markets leaders changes profoundly.

mailto:[email protected]


20

Online adspends per internet user

Chart 6 Online adspends per internet user in the CEE region (2009);source of data: TNS Gallup; BG Piero & Argent; SPIR (Admonitor); TNS Emor; IAB Europe; PricewaterhouseCoopers; lra.lv; Ukrainian Advertisement Coalition; AKAR; marketing.by; Gemius; (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey: gross values; Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine: net values)

Although the largest amount of

money on online advertising is spent

in Russia, the industry fights for the

average internet user most fiercely

in the Czech Republic, where 48 Euro

was spent on this purpose in 2009.

In the same period, advertisers in

Poland and Hungary spent 20 Euro

to attract and acquire one customer

on the internet. Russia comes fifth

among all CEE markets with a result

of 12 Euro per average internet user.

A similar amount of money for online

advertising is spent in Slovakia (11

Euro).

Finally, the weakest market in

the CEE region is Belarus. In 2009

only 4.3 million Euro was spent on

online advertising in this country.

The rapid increase in the number

of internet users has caused the

amount of money available to shrink

in a relatively constant manner.

It is noteworthy that advertisers

spent barely one Euro per average

Belarusian internet user last year.

Great hopes are pinned on the recent

campaign aiming to activate the

Belarusian internet industry. One thing

is certain: this market is definitely

worth fighting for.


22

A STEP FORWARD

It is easy to demonstrate that

the online market in Central and

Eastern Europe is a very interesting

and promising area of business.

It is also one of the fastest-growing

markets. The internet industry in this

part of the world is already relatively

strong and year on year is becoming

larger, more developed and more

affluent.

Moreover, the most important

feature of the CEE online market is

that it is extremely diverse, colorful

and unique. This market not only has

much more room for new media and is

a fertile ground for new investments,

but is also a perfect field to conduct

complex and valuable research

studies.

To summarize, the objectives can

differ, but one simple need is common:

it is worth knowing as much as

possible about the CEE online market

because in the near future it will

most certainly play one of the most

significant roles in the global network

which we know as the internet. Thus,

it is hard to understate the value of the

present report. It includes a detailed

description of the online industry in all

CEE countries. In this document one

can find the detailed characteristics of

the major internet players, the online

audiences, the most significant online

industry organizations operating in

the region and much, much more.

We hope that this year’s Do You CEE?

report will be absorbing, practical and

useful.

www.httpool.com

Belarus3.09minternet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_

2. ONLINEAUDIENCE_3. TOOLS_

4. ADVERTISINGNETWORKS_5. OPINIONSFROMTHEMARKET_

2525

2628

2930

3032

3434

3435

3535

3637

1.1. Top10websitesbyreach_1.2. Top10websitesbyaveragetimespentperuser_1.3. Topportals_1.4. Socialnetworks_1.5. Onlineclassifiedadsbyreach_1.6. Topfinancesitesbyreach_

3.1. Browsers_3.2. Operatingsystems_3.3. Searchengines_3.4. Screenresolutions_3.5. Mobiledevices_

Do you CEE? Belarus

25

WEBSITE’S CATEGORY NUMBER OF REAL USERS

NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS

PAGE VIEWS PER USER

AVERAGE TIME PER USER

REACH

1 mail.ru horizontal portal 1 155 292 203 421 963 176 04:23:36 37%

2 onliner.by new technologies portal 351 367 30 300 784 86 01:41:32 11%

3 kp.by news portal 242 600 2 310 352 10 00:20:27 8%

4 irr.by classified ads 226 648 15 174 480 67 00:51:12 7%

5 readme.ru news aggregator 201 415 1 626 006 8 00:20:31 7%

6 naviny.by news portal 160 206 1 052 255 7 00:09:23 5%

7 rbc.ru news portal 146 605 2 384 651 16 00:48:33 5%

8 loveplanet.ru dating service 111 857 17 789 718 159 02:21:29 4%

9 utro.ru news portal 110 218 512 713 5 00:06:51 4%

10 relax.by entertainment directory 103 822 1 620 685 16 00:16:20 3%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Belarus by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

Two of the most significant features

illustrating the Belarusian online

market can be easily revealed by

analyzing the above ranking of top

online market players. The first is that,

according to the gemiusAudience

study, 50% of the top 10 most

popular places on the web visited

by local internet users are Russian

websites. The second characteristic is

that only two websites covered

in the above ranking are something

other than portal or news services.

The strong market position of

horizontal platforms is a common

phenomenon observed in many CEE

countries; however the great popularity

of news services may be especially

symptomatic for the Belarusian

online area, where free and objective

information seems to be of great value

and is sought after by many internet

users.

1. MAIN PLAYERS

1.1. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY REACH


study results, in March 2010 the

greatest number of Belarusian internet

users visited mail.ru, one of the

leading Russian horizontal portals,

which takes second place on its own

domestic market. However, the other

places on the ranking are occupied by

local players. The second website in

Belarus is onliner.by, which is a vertical

portal and extended discussion forum

focused on new technologies and

lifestyle. In March 2010 it gained

a reach level among Belarusian

internet users of 11%. In turn, the

third place was taken by kp.by, the

most popular classical news service.

The website irr.by heads the group of

most popular online sites in Belarus

outside the top three in March 2010.

This internet database of classified

ads took fourth place among the most

Do you CEE? Belarus

26

NUMBER OF REAL USERS

PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 mail.ru 1 155 292 176 04:23:36 37%

2 torrents.by 58 905 143 02:30:01 2%

3 loveplanet.ru 111 857 159 02:21:29 4%

4 semeistvo.by 57 455 85 01:52:45 2%

5 borda.ru 26 090 72 01:46:54 1%

6 onliner.by 351 367 86 01:41:32 11%

7 sng.by 4 739 50 01:33:33 0,2%

8 charter97.org 100 646 48 01:18:27 3%

9 belaruspartisan.org 60 696 40 01:14:47 2%

10 football.by 19 645 41 00:56:45 1%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Belarus by average time spent per user (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

1.2. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY AVERAGE TIME SPENT PER USER

popular websites, attracting over

220,000 real users and gaining

a reach of 7%. Despite the fact that

this website is dedicated to a local

audience and has a .by domain,

it cannot be considered as a purely

local project. Irr.by is owned by

BELPRONTO, which is the Belarusian

branch of the famous Russian media

holding, Pronto-Moscow.

One of the most interesting top

websites in Belarus is naviny.by,

a news portal run by BelaPAN,

a private local information agency

providing political, economic,

commercial and financial news. This

site, established by Ales Lipai, was in

2006 the first Belarusian website to

win the Runet prize, a distinction given

by the Russian Federal Agency for

Press and Mass Communications.

Finally, what kind of internet activities

are popular among Belarusian internet

users? They most certainly read news

on Russian websites. The 5th, 7th and

9th place in the ranking of websites by

reach are respectively: a Russian news

aggregator, readme.ru (7% reach), and

two Russian news portals: rbc.ru

(5% reach) and utro.ru (4% reach).

However, when it comes to fun and

entertainment, Belarusians seem

to trust their own local solutions.

Although 4% use the Russian dating

service loveplanet.ru, the ranking

of top 10 websites on the market is

propped up by the local website

relax.by. This website is an extended

online directory of places to go

out in Minsk (related to cultural

and entertainment activities). Its

database includes information on

cafes, restaurants, clubs, cinemas,

bowling centers, hotels, casinos and

much more. This website seems to

maintain a visible interest of the

online audience. According to the

gemiusAudience study, in March 2010

it gained a reach of 3%. At the same

time, its users spent an average of

more than 16 minutes on the site.

Do you CEE? Belarus

27

Among the websites participating in

the gemiusAudience study in Belarus,

three of the top ten most popular ones

are Russian. According to the results

of the above-mentioned research for

March 2010, the average internet user

in Belarus spent almost 4.4 hours and

generated over 170 page views using

a Russian horizontal portal, mail.ru.

The last six months in Belarus were an

extremely successful period for this

brand, which experienced over 10%

growth without bearing any significant

costs. The high quality of this product,

the similarity of both languages

(Russian and Belarusian) and a lack

of local alternatives have made its

development possible and, to some

extent, natural.

Mail.ru is not the only Russian website

which Belarusian internet users seem

to love. ’Love’ is the apt word here

because the website in 3rd place is

a Russian dating platform, loveplanet.ru.

Despite the fact that this website

enjoys only a 4% reach among

Belarusian internet users, those who

used it in March 2010 remained active

for over two hours while looking for

‘love’ or casual acquaintances.

In this top ten, there is also one very

interesting player from Russia,

borda.ru. This website is not

particularly popular in Belarus – only

1% of the general audience (slightly

more than 26,000 real users) visited

it in March 2010. However, those

individuals spent an average of almost

2 hours chatting and exchanging

information with others during this

period. Considering the fact that the

Belarusian market is still undeveloped

but is growing extremely fast, the

position of this player cannot be

deemed strong or enduring. The

revival of local forces, the inflow

of capital and the development of

infrastructure and local initiatives will

certainly lead to a situation where

native products and solutions will take

over from foreign players.

How about Belarusian websites

which presently engage local internet

users most often? They seem to be

developing at a rapid rate and look

and operate more professionally,

although most of them use very

simple business models. The most

‘engaging’ Belarusian website, which

holds second place in the above

ranking, is a torrent tracker. Torrent.by

was created almost one year ago

and it is a file exchange database

dedicated to Belarusian internet users

only. As its administrators explain,

the outbound traffic of this website

is closed not because of legal issues

or internal regulations, but because

of the cost ($3 per 1GB transmitted

outside Belarus). Indeed, the

telecommunications market in Belarus

is still dominated by Beltelecom, which

is a government-controlled monopoly.

This example is an excellent illustration

of the problems local online

developers and publishers in Belarus

must continue to struggle with.

Among all the websites monitored in


such sites as: semeistvo.by (an online

forum for parents, especially mothers,

run by a private individual), sng.by

(a small but strong online community

of gamers) and football.by (a vertical

portal devoted to football with only

1% reach) can be defined as the most

engaging ones. However, the ranking

of the top 10 websites by average

time spent per user also includes

three other significant and interesting

players.

Let us begin with Onliner, a Belarusian

portal devoted to lifestyle and

new technologies. It is owned by

a private unitary enterprise „Onliner”.

Do you CEE? Belarus

28


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 mail.ru 1 155 792 176 04:23:36 37%

2 onliner.by 351 367 86 01:41:32 11%

3 naviny.by 160 206 7 00:09:23 5%

4 myminsk.com 77 447 3 00:03:00 3%

Table 3 Top 4 portals and news services in Belarus by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

1.3. TOP PORTALS

This website was established in 2001

and was initially an online forum,

then, after the implementation of

ICT-News, a directory and many

other subservices, became more of

a regular horizontal platform. From

its beginnings, onliner.by has not lost

its lifestyle character, but has grown

and gained significant popularity.


study, it is currently the second largest

website in Belarus with a reach among

internet users of 11%.

The 8th and 9th places in the above

ranking belong to particularly

interesting players, charter97.org

and belaruspartisan.org. These two

news websites have very specific

Among all the portals participating in


the unquestionable leader is mail.ru,

which in March 2010 gained a reach

of 37%. However, the largest

horizontal platform on the market

is tut.by, which, according to some

estimates, is said to attract around

2 million users (understood as unique

visitors) each month. Tut.by is a typical

information portal.

Russia plays a significant role on the

Belarusian online market, in particular

Russia’s greatest player, Yandex.ru.

What is most interesting is that the

high interest in Yandex’s search

services in Belarus has caused the

Moscow-based service to prepare

full entry into this market. Yandex

announced last year its intention to

open an office in Minsk and run

a dedicated search engine in the .by

domain. According to the results of

gemiusTraffic, Yandex enjoys more

than half of all visits which are begun

(with gemiusTraffic-participating

websites) using any search engine.

characteristics (at least in terms of

the local market). They operate as an

opposition, partisan in some manner,

to other sources of information on

the Belarusian internet. It is no secret

that independent media in Belarus is

still a thorny issue, therefore (despite

the high quality of information and

engagement of users) advertisers

are afraid to use these websites as

placements for their online campaigns.

It is a pity, considering that the results

of the gemiusAudience study indicate

that in March 2010 the average

internet user spent more than an

hour on each of these two websites.

This would be a particularly long

exposure time for any potential piece

of advertising.

Do you CEE? Belarus

29

1.4. SOCIAL NETWORKS

The social networking sector in

Belarus does not differ from other

parts of online market in this country

in terms of the major players. Like the

whole online area, foreign services

also visibly dominate here. The leaders

are, of course, Russian. Based on the

reliable estimates, the most popular

social networking website in Belarus

is vkontakte.ru and second place

is held by another Russian service,

odnoklassniki.ru. In turn, the third

major player on the Belarusian social

networking market is livejournal.com,

the blogging platform owned by

LiveJournal, Inc., but licensed and

operating in Russia by SUP, a media

company founded in Moscow in 2006

by Andrew Paulson and Alexander

Mamut. Its ownership is split between

Mamut, the Kommersant Publishing

House and the management.

Apart from these three social

networking websites, another service

from Russia is also found on the

Belarusian market. The community-

based subservice of the mail.ru

horizontal portal (my.mail.ru), attracts

more Belarusian internet users than

the most popular social networking

platform in the world, Facebook,

which is the top global player on this

developing online market. Despite the

worldwide popularity of services such

as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, at

present they do not have any chance

to compete with the Russian brands.

However, they successfully compete

with Belarusian community websites,

such as i.tut.by (the online community

run by tut.by portal) and vceti.by.

At this point in time, only one

Russian online community service,

habrahabr.ru is less popular than

these two sites.

However, this excellent result is

decreasing year on year in favor of

Google. Therefore, Yandex must hurry.

Apart from onliner.by and naviny.by,

the sector of internet portals in

Belarus also includes sites such as

open.by (the oldest Belarusian portal

run by the Open Group, the owner of

the largest Belarusian e-commerce

platform, shop.by) and interfax.by

(a news portal of the well-known

information agency). Another Russian

portal, rambler.ru, also has a relatively

strong market position. The ranking

of top portals measured in the

gemiusAudience study is propped

up by myminsk.com, a small website

for Minsk citizens. This city portal

covers mainly local news, classified

advertising as well as cultural and

entertainment information. In March

2010 it attracted almost 80,000 real

users with a reach of 3%.

Do you CEE? Belarus

30


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 afn.by 60 634 21 00:35:14 2%

2 ej.by 30 651 9 00:13:05 1%

3 belmarket.by 12 926 6 00:07:06 0,4%

Table 5 Top 3 finance sites in Belarus by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

1.6. TOP FINANCE SITES BY REACH


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 irr.by 226 648 67 00:51:12 7%

2 slanet.by 71 350 9 00:06:43 2%

3 migom.by 65 902 13 00:11:29 2%

Table 4 Top 3 online classified ads in Belarus by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

1.5. ONLINE CLASSIFIED ADS BY REACH

Classified advertising seems to be

a perfect activity for local players

in Belarus. Among the three most

popular websites of this kind there are

no Russian or global sites. According

to the gemiusAudience study results

for March 2010, the leading classified

advertising service is irr.by, which is

also generally one of the most popular

websites in Belarus (it takes fourth

place in the ranking of top 10 websites

by reach). Second and third place,

taken by slanet.by and migrom.by,

gained over 71,000 and almost 66,000

users, respectively during the same

period, which gave them identical

reach levels of 2%.

It is worth noting that a significant part

of the internet classified advertising

market belongs to the second most

popular horizontal portal in Belarus,

onliner.by, which on its site runs

a section devoted to this kind of

advertising, catalog.onliner.by. The

Belarusian online market is also

filled with well performing thematic

classified advertising services. The

best example of this is kosht.com,

which aggregates computer hardware

announcements. According to

gemiusAudience, it attracted almost

68,000 real users in March 2010

gaining slightly more than 2% reach.

Do you CEE? Belarus

31

The area of finance seems to be

an unfilled niche on the Belarusian

internet. Apart from the journalistic

activity of rbc.ru, which holds

a strong position on the market,

the popularity of websites devoted

to these topics is still very low.

The greatest one measured in the

gemiusAudience study, afn.by, gained

a reach of barely 2% in March 2010,

however, at the same time its users

were active for an average of over

35 minutes. AFN (АФН) has been

operating on the information market

since 1995 providing financial news

regarding the Belarusian, Russian and

Ukrainian economy.

The second most popular financial

website participating in the

gemiusAudience study in Belarus

is ej.by, which in March 2010

gained only a reach of 1%. Ej.by

(Ежедневник) basically operates as

an internet-based economic magazine

(available in PDF) and extended

economic news service. Its creators

claim that it is the first e-press project

in Belarus and is a response to the

huge gap in the market.

Among the finance websites

participating in the gemiusAudience

study in Belarus there is yet

another player worth mentioning:

belmarket.by, an online version of the

economic newspaper „Belarusians

and the Market” (“Белорусы и

рынок”), formerly “Belarusian

Market” (“Белорусский рынок”),

established in 1990. This weekly

magazine is considered the first

independent newspaper in Belarus,

which started to deal with complex

economic analyses, problems in the

country, new businesses. It promotes

democratic institutions within society.


study results, in March 2010

belmarket.by attracted just under

13,000 real users, which gave it less

than 0.5% market reach.

Another interesting website in

Belarus is rbcard.com; it is devoted

to banking and dedicated primarily

to individuals owning various kinds

of payment and credit cards. RBCARD

was established in 2002, but during

the last eight years did not manage

to gain any significant popularity.

According to the results of the


it attracted slightly more than 7,000

real users and kept them active for an

average of 4 minutes. However, there

are also much more successful and

better performing financial services

on the Belarusian online market,

namely infobank.by and select.by,

both operating since 2007.

Do you CEE? Belarus

32

the academic environment, from

students with incomplete higher

education to individuals with science

degrees (together making up 46%

of the total). The least represented

group of internet users in Belarus

are individuals with an MBA degree,

making up only 0.34% of the whole

online population.

The largest group of Belarusian

internet users (exactly 38.3%) live in

the Minsky region. The high density

of users in this region is due to the

fact that in Belarus the majority of

people who are active on the internet

live in the capital city (as with other

young and underdeveloped markets).


study for March 2010, almost 33%

of the whole online population of

this country consists of individuals

who live in Minsk. Individuals from

other regions of Belarus represent

a proportionally smaller share within

the internet user population, that is

from 16% in the case of Gomelsky

region to a mere 9% in the case of

Mogilevsky region.

Three biggest groups of

Belarusian online population are

students, specialist/chief specialists

and engineers/technical workers. They

constitute nearly 50% of internet users

in this country. The other half consists

of other occupations with almost

equal shares.

2. ONLINE AUDIENCE

As on most other CEE markets,

the gender structure of the online

population of Belarus is also

very balanced. According to the

gemiusAudience study for March 2010

almost 51% of internet users are men

and just over 49% of the whole online

population are women. Internet use

in Belarus remains equally distributed

among both genders and no significant

fluctuations within this area are being

observed.

Internet users in Belarus

are very young. According to the

gemiusAudience study for March

2010, almost 40% are aged between

15 and 24 years. Moreover, almost

68% of the whole online population

consists of individuals younger than

34 years old. On the other hand,

users aged 55 years or over represent

only 1.6% of the all internet users.

This visible disproportion is caused

mainly by the immaturity of the

Belarusian online market, which is not

yet experiencing the phenomenon of

aging (along with its users). It is highly

probable that in the near future the

share of individuals older than 45 and

55 years will rise year on year.

The educational structure of

Belarusian internet users does

not differ a great deal from those

characteristic of other CEE markets.

Within the whole online population

of this country there are three major

groups of users: individuals with a

high education (32%), vocational

education (26%) and those who have

graduated from a secondary school

(22%). However, when broader

categories are taken into account, it

becomes very clear that the dominant

group of internet users in Belarus

consists of people connected with

Do you CEE? Belarus

34

Chart 2 Top operating systems in Belarus by share of page views generated by internet users who visit the Belarussian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2009 – 1Q 2010)

3.2. OPERATING SYSTEMS

Chart 1 Top browsers in Belarus by share of page views generated by internet users who visit the Belarussian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2009 – 1Q 2010)

3. TOOLS

3.1. BROWSERS

3.1. Browsers

The web browser most intensively

used in Belarus is Opera. According

to gemiusTraffic, in the first quarter

of 2010 almost 49% of all page views

generated by Belarusian users on

websites monitored in the study have

been made using this browser. In this

regard the Belarusian online market

is similar to Ukraine, where Opera is

also the dominant software used for

web browsing. In Belarus, Opera won

the market at the end of first quarter

of 2009, when it beat off its rival -

Mozilla Firefox. The third force on the

market is Microsoft Internet Explorer.

In the first quarter of 2010 its users

were responsible for 19.4% of all page

views recorded in the gemiusTraffic

study.

3.2. Operating systems

Internet users in Belarus are not an

exception when it comes to the usage

Do you CEE? Belarus

35

Chart 3 Top search engines in Belarus by share of visits made by internet users who visit the Belarus-sian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2009 – 1Q 2010)

3.3. SEARCH ENGINES

Chart 5 Top 5 mobile devices in Belarus by the website-averaged percentage share of page views generated by internet users form Belarus who visit the Belarusian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10 **to 2010-07-25

3.5. MOBILE DEVICES

of operating systems. Windows XP

head the list and the whole market

is dominated by Microsoft products

(non-MS Windows operating systems

hold less than a 3% share). According

to the gemiusTraffic study, in the first

quarter of 2010, Windows XP was

responsible for almost 83% of all page

views monitored in the study, while

the second most intensively used

operating system, Windows 7, was

responsible for slightly more than 10%

of all page views. Interestingly, the

latter is experiencing dynamic growth

on the Belarusian market. At the

beginning of 2009 it was completely

absent in Belarus, in the second

quarter of 2009 it gained 0.67% of all

page views and by the first quarter of

2010 its market share had increased

more than 15 times.

3.3. Search engines

The search engine most frequently

used in Belarus is Russian-based

Yandex. According to gemiusTraffic, in

first quarter of 2010 more than 56%

of all visits on websites monitored

by Gemius in this study have their

origins in Yandex search results.

The second search engine most

frequently used by Belarusians is

Google, which accounts for more

than 41% of all visits on websites

monitored by gemiusTraffic. Other

engines, including Microsoft MSN,

have a negligible market share and

are single-handedly unable to break

the 1% barrier.

3.4. Screen resolutions

The most popular screen resolution

in Belarus is 1280x1024, the visitors

of which generated nearly 28% of all

page views on websites monitored

in the gemiusTraffic study in the

first quarter of 2010. What is most

Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Belarus by share of page views generated by internet users who visit the Belarussian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2009 – 1Q 2010)

3.4. SCREEN RESOLUTIONS

Do you CEE? Belarus

36

4. ADVERTISING NETWORKS

important is the fact that at the

beginning of 2010 there was no

screen resolution which could be

identified as strongly dominant on the

Belarusian market (the shares of the

most popular ones are distributed in a

very balanced manner).

3.5. Mobile devices - models

Unlike the majority of CEE countries

where the iPhone dominates the

mobile devices market, according

to the gemiusTraffic study, the most

popular mobile tool used to access

the web in Belarus is Nokia 6300. In

July 2010 it was responsible for 8%

of page views generated by mobile

devices on the average website.

Apple’s iPod had a 5% share which

gave it second place in the ranking.

However, the popularity of both

market leaders is gradually decreasing

and over two months both products

lost approximately 1 percentage

point. The third most popular mobile

device was Nokia 5800. Its users

generated 4% of the mobile traffic on

GENERAL CONTACT INFORMATION

FULL NAME HOMEPAGE URL ADDRESS

REACH MAIN OFFICEADDRESS

CONTACT

1 Mediacode mediacode.by 24%416-14, Pervomaiskaya Street, Minsk

Phone: +375-17-222-3204Fax: +375-17-222-3204Email: [email protected]

2 Red red.by N/A109 - 24/2 Pervomaiskaya Street

Phone: +375-17-217-02-42Fax: +375-17-217-02-42Email: [email protected]

3 Webody webody.by N/A214-5. Oktaybrskaya Street, Minsk


the average Belarusian website using

gemiusTraffic. The other devices in

the top 5 ranking were SonyEricsson

products and each gained around a

3% share.

Do you CEE? Belarus

37

5. OPINIONS FROM THE MARKET

Aleksander Stelmakh

Director, Onliner.by

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the Belarusian online

advertising market?

The online market is still extremely small; worth only about $3 million in

2009. Moreover, rapid growth is not expected in 2010. This is partly due to

the tardiness of the whole advertising market (including TV, radio „Outdoor”

advertising amongst others) compared to, for example, the Ukrainian

market, even if the discrepancy in population sizes is taken into account.

Advertising is a sign of activity in the economy. In Belarus most companies

depend on the government in some form or another, which (with a few

exceptions) promotes products and services using „kuplyay Belarusian”

methods (national products don’t need advertisement). However, the

advertising market is still at a low level and no changes in the short term are

expected.

In addition, we should not have any illusions about the purchasing power

of the population even in the capital, Minsk. The average household here

operates with a budget of approximately $673 (2 million BYR) per month.

The main problem of the local market is a fixation on media advertising.

Banners, which are sold daily, are at the level of the past decade and

publishers forget that there are more efficient ways to direct monetization

than banners.

The market faces many difficulties and not all of them are related directly to

the online sphere.

Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete

with the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this

battle?

The local players do not have much chance to compete unless they provide

the services that are truly demanded. One well-known site in Belarus

formerly positioned as a search portal with a mail service and various

subsites, also became popular as a content aggregator, gathering news

from other services. The portal then tried to create their own content, but

Do you CEE? Belarus

38

its quality was low, even when compared to Belarusian counterparts. The

service has lost users in favour of Russian sites like vkontakte.ru and mail.ru.

This could lead to greater losses in user numbers unless the portal changes

its development strategy.

Yury Zisser

Founder and co-owner, Tut.by


What are the opportunities and obstacles for the Belarusian online

advertising market?

Share of internet advertising in total advertising is growing each year. In the

crisis period this share rose from 4.5% in 2008 to a surprising 7% in 2009

(the entire media market fell by 21.4% while the internet grew by 16%).

Another serious obstacle to dynamic growth is the modest size of the private

sector, the lack of small- and medium-sized businesses.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are

expected to develop most in the future?

In 2009 a new trend appeared on the market: the transfer of ads sales

to specialized structures, sales houses which form a professional market

using clear rules. Position of sales houses will strengthen in the future.

Market will grow, technology will improve. Role of mobile, contextual and

video advertising and advertising with possibility of targeting using socio-

demographic profiles will grow.




battle?

Successful local players use brand strategy to create powerful local brands.

The lion’s share of advertising sales is held by Belarusian players. All the

efforts of foreign players, mostly Russian, have not as yet been

successful. Global brand expansion in Belarus has not happened and will not

come soon due to the small capacity of the Belarusian market.

Do you CEE? Belarus

39

Market specifics

What makes your local online market unique? Are there any specifics that

make it different from others in the CEE region?

Due to the above mentioned weakness of small- and medium-sized business,

search advertising is not well developed in Belarus. Its share in Belarusian

internet advertising does not exceed 20% and over the last years there has

been slow increase. There is a concentration of advertising budgets around

the main players: the Belarusian portal tut.by which accounts for one third

of all the budgets of banner advertising or about half the budgets of all

media advertising on the Belarusian internet.

Bulgaria3.28minternet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_


4. BRANCHORGANIZATIONS_5. ADVERTISINGNETWORKS_6. OPINIONSFROMTHEMARKET_

4141

4244

4546

4748

5050

5151

5151

5253

54



Do you CEE? Bulgaria

41



PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 abv.bg mail service 1 954 947 335 065 970 171 02:34:07 60%

2 dir.bg horizontal portal 1 340 402 89 431 095 67 01:18:54 41%

3 gbg.bg horizontal portal 945 424 15 177 123 16 00:25:48 29%

4 start.bg horizontal portal 893 066 7 247 182 8 00:09:41 27%

5 btv.bg horizontal portal 777 131 20 184 745 26 00:21:54 24%

6 svejo.net social bookmarking 761 397 5 547 144 7 00:09:45 23%

7 vesti.bg news portal 745 950 14 796 523 20 00:29:02 23%

8 bg-mamma.com lifestyle portal 674 676 26 259 938 39 01:00:44 21%

9 mobile.bg auto classified ads 669 052 149 438 163 223 01:57:50 20%

10 sportal.bg sports portal 659 510 47 819 851 73 01:49:03 20%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Bulgaria by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

The most popular website in Bulgaria

measured by gemiusAudience is

abv.bg, a free web mail service. It not

only reaches 60% of the audience,

but also outnumbers other players

in terms of user engagement, with

a result of over 2.5 hours spent by

average user monthly. The service is

owned by NetInfo, the digital media

company, which in turn belongs to

Sanoma Media International. Apart

from the mail service it also provides

its users with a search option, news,

weather forecasts and entertainment.

With a 41% reach, dir.bg, the largest

and trusted Bulgarian portal, takes

second place. The top 3 is propped up

by the web directory gbg.bg, which

reaches 29% of the Bulgarian online

audience. The site, created in 1997,

belongs to the same owner as abv.bg.

The website offers its users a complete

1. MAIN PLAYERS


package of searching options including

a huge bank of images as well as video

content. Gbg.bg gathers over 47,000

selected sites and their number is

constantly increasing. The next player,

start.bg, had a reach level of 27%.

Among the market leaders there are

also two news services: btv.bg and

vesti.bg that gained reach levels of

24% and 23% respectively in March

2010. The first is the site of the most

popular private TV station in Bulgaria,

and at the beginning of 2010 it was

bought by CME, the international

media company. The second, vesti.bg

is third among the four players present

in the ranking owned by NetInfo. The

last site is svejo.net, which ranked

6th in March 2010. It is a social

bookmarking portal reaching 23% of

the audience.


42


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 ladypopular.bg 132 271 602 07:13:40 4%

2 aha.bg 374 559 1,005 07:03:59 11%

3 impulse.bg 598 852 483 07:03:56 18%

4 prodavalnik.com 47 095 239 04:40:30 1%

5 forum.levski.com 5 289 259 04:10:04 0.2%

6 focus-news.net 224 209 81 03:29:48 7%

7 conquiztador.bg 68 653 472 03:17:56 2%

8 abv.bg 1 954 947 171 02:34:07 60%

9 mobile.bg 669 052 223 01:57:50 20%

10 novsport.com 111 604 47 01:52:04 3%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Bulgaria by average time spent per user (gemiusAudience, March 2010)


The second significant group within

the Bulgarian online market includes

specific portals such as bg-mamma.

com and sportal.bg. The first is mainly

dedicated to women and contains

a great deal of useful information

related to children, health, beauty

and lifestyle. The strongest part of the

site is its forum, where women can

exchange views and ask other users

for their opinion. In March 2010, the

website had almost 660,000 real users

and the number is growing.

The second website, sportal.bg, is

a portal containing sports news,

especially popular among the male

online audience. The site offers

detailed information about different

sports events as well as the Sportal

TV service with a large amount of

HD videos. In March 2009 its reach

level amounted to 11% but in March

2010 this grew to 20%. Its rising

popularity makes it a preferable site

for advertisers.

Another popular site on the

Bulgarian online market in March

2010 was mobile.bg, a classified ads

service specializing in automotive

advertisements. It had almost 670,000

real users, who constituted a reach

level of 20%. In terms of average

time spent per user, mobile.bg, came

second among the top 10 websites by

reach level with almost 2 hours

a month spent per user.

Three major groups can be

distinguished in the ranking of top

10 websites by average time spent

per user. The first one includes

ladypopular.bg, aha.bg and impulse.

bg. These are sites on which the

average user spent more than 7 hours

in March 2010.

Like in other CEE online markets,

people in Bulgaria tend to spend most

of their online time making friends


43

and having fun. Ladypopular.bg is

an online game for girls who dream of

becoming popular. Users create

a ‘lady’, follow her career, take care

of her pet and organize virtual garden

parties. The game has a pleasant

design and is available after free

registration. Moreover, the site is

available in 25 languages. The other

two sites with an average time per

user of over 7 hours, aha.bg and

impulse.bg, are social networking sites

with reach levels of 11% and 18%.

The second group consists of sites

with average online time per user of

3-5 hours a month. Prodavalnik.com is

an online auction mainly for women,

with a great deal of information about

babies, gardening, home and family.

Moreover, there are direct links to

other websites with the same theme:

clothes, baby toys, etc. In March 2010

this site had on average 239 page

views generated by each of the more

than 47,000 real users.

The next website in this group is forum

levski.com. Although in March 2010 its

reach level amounted to only 0.2%,

it ranked fifth in the ranking presented

above, with 4 hours and 10 minutes

spent by the average user. It is a

forum for FC Levski supporters, where

they can exchange views, meet other

fans and be up-to-date with news

concerning their favorite football

team.

A news service can also be found

in this group: focus-news.net. It is

a part of the first Bulgarian private

information agency FOCUS. One of the

greatest advantages of focus-news.net

is the fact that it offers news, analysis

and comments not only in Bulgarian

but also in English 24 hours a day. In

March 2010 its reach level amounted

to 7%.

The last player in this group is

conquiztador.bg, with a result of

3 hours 18 minutes spent on average

on this website by users. It is an online

game, where users have to answer

questions to conquer new territories

on a virtual map.

The last group of sites includes ones

with an average time spent online per

user of around 2 hours. One of them is

mobile.bg, the previously-mentioned

automotive classified ads website,

which is very popular in Bulgaria.

Abv.bg, the market leader in terms

of reach, does not dominate as far

as the average time spent per user is

concerned and ranks 8th with a result

of just over 2.5 hours. This is mainly

due to the fact that abv.bg is primarily

a mail service.

The last website is a sport site:

novsport.com. It presents news

concerning sports events, teams and

players. Moreover, it keeps statistics of

match results, covers live games and

contains many helpful links for sports

fans.


44


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 dir.bg 1 340 402 67 01:18:54 41%

2 gbg.bg 945 424 16 00:25:48 29%

3 start.bg 893 066 8 00:09:41 27%

4 btv.bg 777 131 26 00:21:54 24%

5 vesti.bg 745 950 20 00:29:02 23%

Table 3 Top 5 portals and news services in Bulgaria by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

1.3. TOP PORTALS

The importance of horizontal portals

and news services in Bulgaria can be

demonstrated by the fact that the five

most popular ones were also included

in the top 10 websites by reach.

In March 2010, the leading position

belonged to dir.bg, which is just like

the year before. It is seen as

a trustworthy portal containing

a variety of information and catering

for the needs of visitors in terms

of entertainment, discussion

forums, classifieds; it also includes

communication tools.


study, gbg.bg ranked second with

a reach level of 29%. This portal was

created in 1997 and since that time

has been offering a wide range of

options enabling its users to search

for online content. Moreover, it has

a huge bank of images and videos

and its directory contains over 47,000

selected sites.

The 3rd player in this category is

start.bg, a horizontal portal and the

largest online catalog, owned by

Investor.BG AD, a leading internet

media company in Bulgaria with

14 websites including blog.bg,

dnes.bg and snimka.bg. In 2004 it

was listed on the Bulgarian Stock

Exchange and is said to have a market

share of almost 10%. Start.bg has

links classified into 22 categories and

approximately 1,900 topics, which

enables its users to search for any

information they may need. In March

2010 its reach level amounted to 27%

(in March 2009 it was 32%).

Btv.bg is a website run by the

most popular private TV station

in Bulgaria. On the 1st June 2000

bTV broadcasted for the first time

thus breaking the monopoly of the

national public TV station. Over

the years it has established its

position as the most watched TV

channel in Bulgaria. According to the

gemiusAudience study, its reach level

amounted to 24% in March 2010

giving it the third place in the top 5

portals ranking. bTV has been present

on the market for almost two years.

In February 2010 an agreement for

its sale was reached. It was bought by

Central European Media Enterprises

(CME), one of the leading radio and

television groups in Central and

Eastern Europe.


45


There is no dominant leader on the

local social networking market in

Bulgaria. Although in March 2010

impulse.bg had the greatest reach

level (18%), it was only 3 percentage

points higher than clubs.dir.bg,

which ranked second. However, as

mentioned before, impulse.bg is

undoubtedly the leader when it comes

to number of page views per user.

In terms of average time per user

it took second position, right after

aha.bg. Impulse.bg is a typical social

networking site offering its users

the possibility to make new friends

or retain old ones. It also includes

a section devoted to classified ads,

clubs with users grouped together by

interest with access to almost 60,000

topics as well as a games section.

The last place in the ranking is

taken by vesti.bg, formerly known

as Netinfo.bg, which in March 2010

had a reach level of 23%. The site

provides its users with current news

from Bulgaria and the world. Thanks

to a modern and user-friendly design,

visitors can quickly find everything

they are searching for. Moreover, the

site offers a section with the most

popular news for busy users.


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 impulse.bg 598 852 483 07:03:56 18%

2 dir.bg-CLUBS.dir.bg 493 509 15 00:10:59 15%

3 dir.bg-GLOG.dir.bg 420 138 15 00:10:32 13%

4 teenproblem.net 404 388 17 00:15:45 12%

5 aha.bg 374 559 1,005 07:03:59 11%

Table 4 Top 5 social networking sites in Bulgaria by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

Clubs.dir.bg and glog.dir.bg both

belong to dir.bg. The first includes

clubs, in which people with the same

interests are grouped together. In

March 2010, clubs.dir.bg had almost

500,000 real users who spent an

average of 11 minutes online a month.

Glog.dir.bg enables its users to create

their own profile and use it to stay in

touch with friends or make new ones.

Its reach level of 13% gave this social

networking site 3rd place in the top 5

ranking.

The last two most popular Bulgarian

social networks, measured in the

gemiusAudience study in March

2010 were teenproblem.net (12%)

and aha.bg (11%). They both belong

to Investor Group (start.bg, blog.bg,


46

etc.). Teenproblem.net is popular with

young people. On the website they

can find answers to their questions

and problems, including some

embarrassing ones, as well as general

info about anything that can be of any

interest to a teenager. The site is very

user-friendly and is designed to attract

young online audience.

The second site, aha.bg, has a more

diversified user structure with users

aged 19-35 predominating. This

popular social networking website


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 mobile.bg 669 052 223 01:57:50 20%

2 imot.bg 219 376 104 01:12:24 7%

3 karieri.bg 202 899 6 00:06:35 6%

Table 5 Top 3 online classified ads in Bulgaria by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)


Each of the top 3 online classified ads

in Bulgaria specializes in a different

field. Number one in March 2010

with a reach level of 20% was

mobile.bg. It is the most popular

Bulgarian site where people can buy

or sell a car. The site also contains

many other automotive

advertisements of different kinds,

from VIP to regular. The price is related

to the ad’s type.

The second player on the Bulgarian

classified ads market is imot.bg, whose

reach level amounted to 7%. Users and

dealers publish ads related to buying

and selling real estate. Like other sites

of this kind, there are various kinds

of advertisements and their prices

depend on what options are used.

The third place belonged to karieri.bg.

It had over 200,000 real users

interested in job offers. Beside regular

job advertisements, there are also

offers of training sessions, educational

courses and the like.

gives its users a chance to meet new

people, exchange messages, create list

of friends and watch music videos.


47


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 econ.bg 304 865 16 00:03:54 9%

2 odit.info 256 078 20 00:24:55 8%

3 investor.bg 214 850 24 00:39:36 7%

Table 6 Top 3 finance sites in Bulgaria by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)



study from March 2010, there

was no definite leader among finance

sites in Bulgaria. Although the reach

level of econ.bg gave it first place,

the difference between it and the

reach levels of odit.info (2nd) and

investor.bg (3rd) was just 1 percentage

point. In terms of average time spent

online per user, the leader is investor.bg

with almost 40 minutes a month per

user.

Econ.bg is a business portal with

over 300,000 real users. The site was

created through the cooperation of

the Center for Economic Development

(CED) and the United States Agency

for International Development (USAID)

and was launched in April 2001. Apart

from presenting business news from

Bulgaria and the world, its users

can also find interviews, analyses,

classified ads and a law section here.

An additional feature is the English

version of the site. Even though it

contains information which is often

2 months old, it is a useful source of

information for English-speaking users,

especially considering the fact that

econ.bg gives its users free access to

an archive of all information uploaded

on the site since its creation in 2001.

The second significant player, odit.info,

had over 250,000 users in March 2010

and on average 20 page views per

visitor. It is a popular website owned

by Economedia, which publishes the

most current information especially

for accountants. There is a section

with notices on courses and seminars

as well as a forum.

Another important finance site in

Bulgaria was investor.bg with a reach

level of 7% in March 2010. It is a

site with business information from

Bulgaria and the world. Apart from

typical financial sections such as

Exchange or Forex, it also has a section

dedicated to lifestyle.


48

2. ONLINE AUDIENCE

The gender structure of the

Bulgarian internet population is quite

balanced and does not differ much

from those observed on other CEE

markets. In March 2010, women

constituted 51.5% of the online

population, while men comprised

48.5%. However, what distinguishes

the Bulgarian online population from

other CEE countries is the fact that

men on average spent one hour more

than women surfing the web.

Undoubtedly, the Bulgarian online

market is dominated by young people.


study, in March 2010 people aged

15-24 accounted for 29% of the online

population. Moreover, they spent

the greatest amount of time surfing

the studied websites, i.e. 19 hours.

Increasingly more elder people have

become interested in the internet

during the last twelve months. In

March 2009 the share of people over

55 years old was 5%, and in March

2010 it was 9%.

The Bulgarian online population is

quite well-educated. In March 2010 a

mere 1% of internet users had primary

or no education. The majority had

graduated from secondary school and

27% had a degree. With regards to

average time spent online per user, in

March 2010 the groups of users with

basic or lower education consistently

spent approximately 21.5 and 18.5

hours online, whereas users with

higher education spent only 10 hours

and 44 minutes online.

As it is the case in the majority

of CEE countries, the greatest

number of internet users in Bulgaria

live in big cities. According to the

gemiusAudience study from March

2010, 27% of the Bulgarian online

population lived in Sofia, the capital

of Bulgaria. Cumulatively, users living

in cities with over 100,000 citizens

accounted for 60% of the online

population. Another significant group

of users (19%) lived in cities, in which

there are 20,000 – 99,999 people.

With regards to occupation

the most numerous group among

Bulgarian internet users in March 2010

were specialists and office workers.

The second force on the internet was

the group made up of unemployed

internet users. The unskilled

workers accounted only for 1% of

the researched internet audience,

however this occupation group was

the most active and in March 2010 the

average user from this group spent

over 19 hours surfing the web.


50

Chart 2 Top operating systems in Bulgaria by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Bulgarian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)


Chart 1 Top browsers in Bulgaria by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Bulga-rian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3. TOOLS

3.1. BROWSERS

3.1. Browsers

There are two main players on the

Bulgarian browser market. Number

one is Firefox with a market share of

46%. At the end of 2009 it overtook

Microsoft Internet Explorer, whose

popularity has been declining for some

time already. After the first quarter

of 2010 its market share was 42%

giving MSIE the second place among

the top browsers in Bulgaria. The

popularity of Opera and Chrome is

not of any significant value. However,

it is important to note that Chrome is

gaining popularity extremely quickly.

Also, while Opera’s market share grew

during the past year by 0.5 percentage

point, Chrome’s market share rose by



51

Chart 3 Top search engines in Bulgaria by share of visits made by internet users who visit Bulgarian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3.3. SEARCH ENGINES

Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Bulgaria by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Bulgarian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)


3.5. MOBILE DEVICES

Chart 5 Mobile devices in Bulgaria by the website-averaged percentage share of page views genera-ted by internet users from Bulgaria, who visit Bulgarian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10 **to 2010-07-25


Like in the other markets in Central

and Eastern Europe, the most popular

operating system in Bulgaria was

Windows XP with an 82% share in the

first quarter of 2010. However, this was

9 percentage points less than a year

ago. This is mainly due to Windows 7,

Microsoft’s newest operating system

launched in the second quarter of

2009. Since then it has been constantly

gaining popularity, and in the first

quarter of 2010 its market share

accounted for 9% overtaking Windows

Vista with its 8% share. The market

share of Linux is relatively stable at the

level of 0.3%.

3.3. Search engines

Google is the leader of the Bulgarian

online search engine market. In the

first quarter of 2010 its share of the

market accounted for almost 99%.

Second place belonged to MSN, and

third to Yahoo. However, their market

shares declined during 2009 and

according to the gemiusTraffic study

they did not even exceed 1% in the first

quarter of 2010.


The market share of 1024 x 768

monitor screen resolutions has

been decreasing over the last years.

However, in the first quarter of 2010

it was still the most popular choice

among Bulgarians. Other popular

screen resolutions among internet

users who visit Bulgarian sites using

gemiusTraffic were 1280 x 1024 and

1280 x 800. Also, the screen resolution

of 1440 x 900 has been gaining

popularity in recent years and after the

first quarter of 2010 its market share

was 6%. There is also a newcomer,

1366 x 768, whose popularity has

been growing and during one year this

resolution gained a market share of 4%.


52

4. BRANCH ORGANIZATIONS

Interactive Association Bulgaria

www.iabulgaria.bg

Description: The mission of IAB

is to show the advantages and

possibilities of interactive marketing:

targeting, on-line measurement,

high effectiveness, a great variety of

formats and different approaches

and to the internet as one of the

main channels of communication,

next to TV, radio, press and outdoor

advertising.

Members: The greatest rivals and

leading internet players include:

Darik News, Dir.bg, Economedia,

Investor.bg, NetInfo.bg, mail.bg and

an associate member, ABC Design and

Communication.

Bulgarian e-commerce association

www.baet.bg

Description: The main objective

of the Bulgarian e-commerce

association is to protect the interests

of its members with regard to the

development of e-commerce and

also to enhance public confidence

in it. Moreover, BEAT aims to create

professional ethical standards to

be followed by its members. BEAT

also concentrates on cooperation

with public authorities in creating

laws and regulations relating to

internet trade and in monitoring their

implementation.

Members: BGPRINTER Ltd., JAR

Computers Ltd., Interminds Ltd., SILA

BG, Store Ltd., SuperHosting.BG, Bw

Time Ltd.

Bulgarian Web Association

www.bwa.bg

Description: The Bulgarian Web

Association (BWA) is an internet

industry association, representing

the interests of web companies and

professionals in Bulgaria. At present,

the Bulgarian Web Association


A wide variety of mobile devices can

be found on the Bulgarian market.

The five most popular tools constitute

less than 50%. However, like in

majority of CEE markets, Bulgaria’s

top mobile device is the iPhone,

which in July 2010 had a share of

over 17%. However, compared to the

previous month, it decreased slightly.

The next three positions were taken

by Nokia devices among which the

Nokia 5530 XpressMusic is the most

popular. During the same period,

Apple’s latest product, the iPad, has

been consistently gaining popularity,

increasing its share by 3 percentage

points from May 2010.


53


(BWA) is the only association with

activities directed to the benefit

and protection of legal entities and

natural bodies, working on the design,

arrangement, organization, realization

and hosting of internet sites, web

design and internet advertisement.

All activities of the Bulgarian Web

Association (BWA) are in the service

of the interests of the Bulgarian web

market operating in the free economy

environment.

Members: associated web studios:

Studio 3B, Etaligent.Net, You Eye

Design Ltd, Blekbord Studio Ltd.,

By BG Ltd., DOTmedia DZZD, Dream

Studio Ltd., DriymMediya Ltd., Exsisto

Ltd., Leks.BG AD, MediaBasket OOD,

Need BG Ltd., Stenik Group Ltd.,

Studio IDA, associated web media:

Inteldey Solutions Ltd., Programme

Media Group Ltd., associated

web services: User Media Ltd.,

DIDZHITREYS Ltd., ESRI Bulgaria Ltd.,

ET-MarMaN Mario Mankov, Ripped

Ltd., Imaynd Ltd.



MAIN OFFICEADDRESS

CONTACT

1 Httpool httpool.bg61 Vitosha Blvd, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria

Phone: +359-2-988-09-75Email: [email protected]

2 Easy Trader stat.easytrader.bgNikola Vaptzarov Blvd 29, et. 2, floor B, ap.13, 1407 Sofia, Bulgaria


3 User Media - Student.forums usermedia.netSolunska 59, et. 4, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria


4 User Media - Autoforums usermedia.netSolunska 59, et. 4, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria


5 User Media - Sportforums usermedia.netSolunska 59, et. 4, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria


6 Direct direct.dir.bg7, Danail Dechev st. 1407 Sofia, Bulgaria

Phone: +359-2-969-45-33

7 E- target etarget.bg70, Tsaribrodska Blvd, office 3, Sofia 1309, Bulgaria



54


Hristo Ivanov

Market Research and Analyses specialist, Netinfo


What are the opportunities and obstacles for the Bulgarian online advertising

market?

The economic environment has led to a serious decline in advertising expenditure

in all types of media. Only the internet succeeded in keeping the same level as in

2008. The largest advertisers: automotive and finance, brought their investments

in advertising for the past year to a relative standstill.

We believe that this situation will remain unchanged for the next year or two.

Online video and social media advertising together with rich media will lead

the development of the online market in Bulgaria. Advertisers will learn to use

different channels for different goals: e-mail and social media marketing for

customer loyalty, keyword search ads for direct responses and display ads for

building brand awareness.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are expected

to develop most in the future?

The financial crisis slowed down the development of the internet market in

Bulgaria during the last year and the market players were forced to focus on their

main and most profitable products. This led to ever increasing competition in

certain internet categories such as news and information (including sports), dating,

entertainment, and the suchlike. Internet penetration in Bulgaria continued to

increase but at a slower growth rate compared to previous years. Furthermore,

the largest publishers have invested time and money in the mobile versions of

their websites following the latest trends on global markets.

Petar Simeonov

Head of Internet Department, Piero97



market?

The world economic crisis did not overlook Bulgaria in 2009. The growth of

internet advertising budgets was 60% during the previous three years, but in 2009

this shrunk to a mere 4%. On the backdrop of a total ad market decline of about


55

14%, this is a good result, although expectations were for at least 20% growth.

In 2008 the gross internet advertising budgets in Bulgaria were 32.3 million Leva

(16.5 million Euro), and in 2009 they were 33.4 million Leva (17 million Euro). This

data do not contain the budgets spent on Google advertising and other media

situated outside of the country, due to the fact that this data are unobtainable.

There were other positive results on the internet market in general, for instance

significant growth in the number of internet users: at the end of 2009 there were

already 3.413 million in Bulgaria (45% penetration). The internet share in the total

media mix is also on the rise: in 2008 it was 2.7%, in 2009 3.4%, and a rise of 5% is

predicted for 2011.

The steepest decline in the advertising budgets of 2009 was noticed in the

telecommunications sector. Surprisingly, it was overtaken by the financial

and banking sector, which was also hit by the crisis, but tried to regain client

confidence via various marketing and advertising incentives. A similar situation

was observed in the construction and automotive businesses.

News sites and portals drew the largest part of advertising budgets, in third place

were social networking sites, followed by sport sites. Facebook attracted great

interest with 1.2 million subscribers at the end of 2009.

A significant growth in online advertising (approximately 20%) is expected for

2010, as well as substantial growth in video advertising on the internet.

The numbers used in the above text have been collected

by Piero97 Media Agency.

Plamen Kalinikov

Marketing Director, Argent media agency



market?

We had anticipated that the global financial crisis would lead to significant

budget allocation on traditional media channels: TV, radio, print as well as

OOH would face a major drop at the expense of digital advertising. Alas, net

online investments for 2009 in Bulgaria retained the same levels as those from

the ‘extremely successful’ year of 2008. The growths of 50 to 100% from the

aforementioned 2008 would later become something to dream about over the

following years. The main players on the market decided not to take risks and

kept their investments allocated to the media channel that responded in the most

appropriate way to the economic realities and the fiscal deficit. They stayed with

TV. The national TV channels lowered their prices and boosted bonuses, and thus

kept the lion’s share in the media mix. Digital advertising comprises about 10% of

the Argent media agency portfolio but the average for the market percentage does


56

not exceed 5%. The long-awaited arrival of the largest global advertisers like P&G,

Henkel, and Kraft Foods meant that the digital market has (again) been put on hold

for an uncertain period of time. Most committed advertisers in the digital domain

are from the financial, automotive, as well as telecommunications sectors but they

also have the most experience in internet advertising. Most companies diverted

about 10-20% of their online budgets to cheap CPC solutions and in consequence

they delivered millions of impressions.

Market specifics

What makes your local online market unique? Are there any specifics that make it

different from others in the CEE region?

internet usage

The combination of ADSL by Vivacom and cable internet furthered broadband

penetration even in the smallest towns and villages. However, advertisers still

have to understand that 95% of the most difficult-to-get audience in the 15-24 age

bracket is on the web.

publishers

Bulgaria is no exception regarding the development of social networking and the

most popular site, Facebook, has more than 1.5 million users. Unfortunately,

the stability of the banking system and the great number of debit and credit

cards have not smoothed out the progress of e-commerce and e-shops. Bulgarian

publishers could well offer advertisers anything their creative agencies could

think of.

Gergana Marinova and Dilyan Velichkov

Marketing Director, Zed Digital Cybermark



market?

Despite the general upward trend during the last 10 years and the expectations

for even faster growth during the recession, in 2009 and early 2010 the Bulgarian

online advertising market experienced its first year of an almost complete halt.

Instead of trying to optimize their budgets through the use of internet as a more

effective medium, as foreseen by specialists in the field in 2008, advertisers

preferred to ‘play it safe’, investing most of their budgets in the ‘good old media’,

such as press, radio and television. This led to the small growth of the online

advertising market of 4%, as estimated by a leading Bulgarian media house.

In 2009 the online media in Bulgaria continued their development of new forms

of online advertising as well as the process of creating better opportunities for

advertisers. This trend is expected to continue, following general technological

developments.


57

Moreover, many cost-effective buying solutions in the online media were

introduced last year. This was a simple response to the unclear expectations and

fears of advertisers, but it led to certain deviations in general pricing and buying

models. Finally, it caused some chaos on the market. Buying banner positions

using both CPM and CPC is common practice for advertisers and for a short period

the cost-per-click model flourished. However, most media soon recognized that

selling ad space using CPC as a mistake and corrected this by either increasing

their prices per click, or returning to CPM.

The interest of advertisers in professional online measurement opportunities

continued to grow. Precise advertising tracking tools started to be treated not as

an extra option but as both a common and essential part of online campaigns.

Despite the obstacles caused by the world recession, the Bulgarian online

advertising market as a whole continued its development and maintained an

upward trend, albeit at a slower pace.

Dominating trends



A continued and natural trend in 2009 was the extremely fast growth of Facebook.

Its Bulgarian audience continued to increase by over 100% on year to year. This

had a strong negative impact on the local social media, which had so far also been

developing quickly. Although internet users keep spending more time on social

networking sites, a relatively small percentage of advertising budgets is invested

therein. In 2009 and at the beginning of 2010, Bulgarian advertisers together

with agencies were still unable to find the most suitable way to take advantage of

the increasing usage of social media. They rely mostly on traditional advertising

formats, while rarely trying to utilize social media in a more unconventional and

creative way.

Another trend continued in 2009 was the growth of online search investments,

driven to a large extent by small advertisers entering this market for the first time.

Croatia1.67minternet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_



5959

6061

6262

6364

6666

6667

6767

6868

68



Do you CEE? Croatia

59


NUMBER OF PAGE VIEW

PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 net.hr horizontal portal 829 372 158 273 571 191 04:32:15 49%

2 index.hr horizontal portal 755 780 76 327 847 101 03:09:12 45%

3 tportal.hr horizontal portal 735 631 69 055 950 94 02:07:32 43%

4 forum.hr forum site 655 139 27 588 585 42 01:01:32 39%

5 24sata.hr news portal 631 918 89 223 037 141 02:02:18 37%

6 jutarnji.hr news portal 600 535 48 851 538 81 01:53:06 35%

7 njuskalo.hr classified ads 548 991 72 245 870 132 01:15:26 32%

8 blog.hr blog site 536 094 4 896 194 9 00:12:55 32%

9 bloger.hr blog site 473 324 8 601 594 18 00:24:22 28%

10 vecernji.hr news portal 456 003 19 800 231 43 00:53:11 27%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Croatia by reach level (Gemius/Valicon gemiusAudience March 2010)

Majority on the Croatian online

market is made up of horizontal

portals and they lead in the ranking

taking the first three positions.

Net.hr dominates the market reaching

almost every second Croatian internet

user. With a reach 4 percentage points

lower than the leader, second position

is taken by index.hr, a portal which

has reinforced its position within the

last year. The top 3 is propped up by

tportal.hr, which reaches 43% of the

audience. At the beginning of 2008,

this service headed the market. After

a significant decrease in 2009, it will

probably gain second place by the end

of 2010.

The second important group of players

includes news services. The first,

24sata.hr, in fifth place, has a reach

level of 37%. In sixth place is jutarnji.hr

with a reach of 35%. Vecernji.hr,

1. MAIN PLAYERS


a news portal of one of the leading

newspapers Večernji List, owned by

Styria Media Group AG, comes in at

tenth in the ranking.

Apart from portals and news services

among the market leaders there is also

a forum site (forum.hr), classified ads

service (njuskalo.hr) and two blogging

platforms (blog.hr and bloger.hr).

Forum.hr is the most popular, multi-

thematic forum site which like index.hr

does not belong to any large media

group. It reaches 39% of Croatian

online internet users who on average

spent 1 hour on this service monthly.

Njuskalo.hr, which ranks seventh,

owned by Styria, is the most popular

classified ads service.

First among the blogging platforms,

blog.hr, was bought by NOVA (the

Croatian commercial television

Do you CEE? Croatia

60


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 net.hr 829 372 191 04:32:15 49%

2 index.hr 755 780 101 03:09:12 45%

3 1klik.net 2 419 49 02:24:36 0,17%

4 business.hr 73 578 36 02:15:04 4%

5 tportal.hr 735 631 94 02:07:32 43%

6 igre123.net 175 810 98 02:03:35 10%

7 24sata.hr 631 918 141 02:02:18 37%

8 fotozine.org 12 527 219 01:57:36 1%

9 jutarnji.hr 600 535 81 01:53:06 35%

10nogometni-maga-zin.com

44 585 60 01:30:38 3%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Croatia by average time spent per user (Gemius/Valicon, gemiusAudience, March 2010)


Network) 2 years ago. At the beginning

of 2009, it reached almost 37% of the

Croatian online audience; however,

after one year its reach has declined

by almost 5 percentage points.

A similar situation can be observed in

The players that engage Croatian

internet users most are the popular

portals that take the lead in terms of

reach. Net.hr dominates in the ranking

with a result of 4.5 hours. At the same

time, its main rival, Index, has over

one hour less than Net.hr. Tportal.hr

does not significantly lag behind its

two major rivals in terms of number of

users, but has two hours less than the

leader when average time spent per

user is taken into account.

Third position is taken by 1klik.net,

a website catalog and search domain

based on the Google engine. Though

the average time spent per user equals

almost 2.5 hours, the service’s reach

is very limited, lower than 1%. The

next position, with a result of 2 hours

15 minutes, is taken by a popular

business portal, business.hr.

What is interesting is that there are

hardly any entertainment websites

present in the ranking. The only

gaming service, igre123.net, comes in

6th place with a result of 2 hours.

Croatian users also devote much of

their time online to news services and

two of them, 24sata.hr and jutarnji.hr,

are the listed in the ranking with

a result oscillating around the 2 hours

mark.

case of the second player, blogger.hr,

which lost 3 percentage points in

March 2010 compared to March 2009.

Do you CEE? Croatia

61

Among the leaders in terms of average

time spent per user, there is also

a service dedicated to photography,

fotozine.org, where its users spent on

the site almost 2 hours monthly on

average.

The ranking is propped up by

nogometni-magazin.com dedicated to

football. Though its audience is limited

to users interested in football they

spent on average of 1.5 hours on the

website monthly.


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 net.hr 829 372 191 04:32:15 49%

2 index.hr 755 780 101 03:09:12 45%

3 tportal.hr 735 631 94 02:07:32 43%

4 24sata.hr 631 918 141 02:02:18 37%

5jutarnji.hr 600 535 81 01:53:06 35%

Table 3 Top 5 portals in Croatia by reach level (Gemius/Valicon, gemiusAudience, March 2010)

1.3. TOP PORTALS

All of the portals and news services

are listed among the most popular

players on the market. The first, net.hr,

was formerly known as iskon.hr, the

portal of the ISP provider. It has been

leading the market since the beginning

of 2008. This website, owned by

Centrum Holdings (75%) and Proficio

(25%), is operated by Adriatic Media.

Apart from news, the portal offers

a wide variety of services such as free

mail, and chat.

The second is index.hr, a portal

with a tabloid character. Apart from

news, it offers also a forum, nightlife

information, video content, a blog

platform and more. Index does not

belong to any large media house and

Index promocija d.o.o. is the sole

owner of the portal.

Index’s main rival is tportal.hr,

a service which at the beginning

of 2008 used to lead the market.

It belongs to the largest ISP provider

T-com. Tportal provides its users

with news as well as entertainment.

Although the discrepancy in terms

of reach between Index and Tportal is

not that significant and accounts

for a mere 2 percentage points,

the latter loses out in terms of average

time per user with a result over one

hour worse than Index.

Do you CEE? Croatia

62


Unlike other CEE online markets,

Croatia has no strong local player that

would attract a wide group of internet

users. The most popular community

site is Iskrica. Even though it has been

present on the market for more than

10 years, its reach is estimated at only

a few percent. Currently, Facebook is

the strongest social networking site

on the Croatian online market and

its position is still growing. Due to its

domination, local players are losing

The last two services included in the

ranking are more news services than

horizontal portals. The first, sata24.hr,

is a news portal run by a leading

daily tabloid. It belongs to Styria

Media Group AG and has a unique,

interactive design, which distinguishes

it from other services. 24sata.hr

reaches 37% of the Croatian audience

who on average spent 2 hours monthly

using this service.


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

tulumarka.com 57 152 9 00:05:53 3%

Table 4 Local social networking site measured by Gemius/Valicon, the gemiusAudience study by reach level (Gemius/Valicon, gemiusAudience, March 2010)

The ranking is propped up by jutarnji.hr,

the news portal of a popular

newspaper “Jutarnji List”. It belongs

to Europapress Holding (EPH),

a media company operating in Croatia

and Southeastern Europe. It owns

5 daily newspapers and more than

30 magazines.

their market share. For example, the

share of the second important local

player, Tulumarka, fell by 1 percentage

point last year, losing almost 15,200

users from March 2009 to March

2010.


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 njuskalo.hr 548 991 132 01:15:26 32%

2 oglasnik.hr 232 790 48 00:33:03 14%

3 auti.hr 184 722 107 01:08:32 11%

Table 5 Top 3 online classified ads in Croatia by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)


Do you CEE? Croatia

63

The unquestionable leader among

online classifieds is njuskalo.hr,

a service presenting itself as

a „marketplace”. It contains a wide

spectrum of categories beginning with

automotive to tourism. The service

is extremely popular among Croatian

internet users and comes in at 7th

place in the general reach ranking

with a reach level of 32%. The second

player is oglasnik.hr which also has


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 poslovni.hr 149 786 28 00:42:12 9%

2 limun.hr 81 728 24 00:55:38 5%

3 business.hr 73 578 36 02:15:04 4%

Table 6 Top 3 finance sites in Croatia by reach level (Gemius/Valicon, gemiusAudience, March 2010)


Among Croatian finance websites, the

unquestionable leader is poslovni.hr,

the vertical portal of the first Croatian

daily business newspaper Poslovni

Dnevnik. The portal has a large online

community of users centered around

financial and business topics, along

with current affairs and analysis.

Poslovni.hr provides an overview

of trading on regional stock exchanges.

Moreover, it offers many business

and professional titles available

through an online bookstore.

The second site, limun.hr, belongs

to Raiffeisen Consulting d.o.o.,

a company specializing in business

consulting and brand management.

This site is devoted to economic news

and advanced financial services.

According to Gemius/Valicon, the

gemiusAudience study, it reached 5%

of the Croatian online audience in

March 2010. Last in the ranking among

leading financial services is business.hr,

which seems to be most engaging

for its users who spent an average

of more than 2 hours monthly on

this website. Moreover, the portal is

supported by a printed newspaper.

a print version, Plavi Oglasnik, and

is the oldest site in this category.

It is owned by Trader Media East and

publishes more than 300,000 new ads

every month. However, the service is

not performing as well as njuskalo.hr

and gained a reach of 14%. Last place

is taken by the auti.hr, auto classified

service with a reach level of 11%

which also belongs to TME.

Do you CEE? Croatia

64

2. ONLINE AUDIENCE

The Croatian gender structure

of the online population is quite

balanced, like on most other CEE

markets. In March 2010 men


audience. Moreover, the average man

spent over 2 hours more online than

the average woman.

In terms of age, the most

significant group within the Croatian

online population are young people

aged 15-24. According to the Gemius/

Valicon gemiusAudience study

from March 2010, they constituted

35% of the population. The second

largest group, users 35-44 years old,

accounted for 23% of the population.

People aged 25-34 accounted for

1 percentage points less of the online

population.

Croatian internet users are quite

well-educated. Majority of Croatian

internet users graduated from

secondary school. According to the

Gemius/Valicon gemiusAudience study

from March 2010, they accounted

for 48% of the online population in

Croatia. The next significant group

consisted of users who were still in

school or faculty (29%). Only 3% of the

Croatian online population had at best

primary education.

In March 2010, 27% of Croatian

internet users lived in cities with over

100,000 inhabitants. What is more,

these users were also the most active

ones, spending over 14 hours online.

The second most important group of

internet users lived, according to the

Gemius/Valicon gemiusAudience study

from March 2010, in towns with 5,000

– 24,999 inhabitants (19%). 11% of

the online population lived in villages

and small towns with less than 1,000

inhabitants.

According to the Gemius/Valicon


2010, the largest group among

Croatian internet users in terms

of occupation consisted of people

employed in companies. They


population. Second place belonged

to students, who accounted for 22%

of the online population. Another

significant group is users employed in

the public sector (18%).

Do you CEE? Croatia

66

Chart 1 Top browsers in Croatia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit the Croatian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3. TOOLS

3.1. BROWSERS

Chart 2 Top operating systems in Croatia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Croatian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)


3.1. Browsers

For many years, the leader on Croatian

browsers market was Microsoft

Internet Explorer. However, over the

past few years the MSIE’s share of

page views generated by internet

users who visit Croatian websites using

gemiusTraffic has been decreasing.

At the beginning of 2010 it reached

a level of 43% and was overtaken

by Firefox. Other browsers used

by Croatian internet users worth

mentioning are Chrome (6%) and

Opera (4%). They are gaining a larger

share of the market, though the

process is slow.


Like on other CEE markets, the leader

among operating systems in Croatia

is Windows XP. After the first quarter

of 2010, its share of the market as

Do you CEE? Croatia

67

analyzed by gemiusTraffic, constituted

77%, and its position does not seem to

be threatened in the nearest future.

However, Windows 7 gained almost

12% of the market in less than a year,

leaving Windows Vista behind.

3.3. Search engines

The Croatian search engine market

is as dominated by Google as other

CEE markets. After the first quarter

of 2010, it accounted for 99% of the

visits made by internet users who visit

Croatian websites using gemiusTraffic,

leaving hardly any room for its rivals,

MSN and Yahoo.


The share of 1024 x 768 monitor

screen resolutions in Croatia has been

decreasing for the last few years.

However, it is still the most popular

choice among Croatians with a share

of 32%. Other popular ones in the first

quarter of 2010 were 1280 x 1024,

1280 x 800 and 1680 x 1050.


Among the mobile devices used to

connect to the network, leadership

on the Croatian market belongs to

the iPhone, which according to the

gemiusTraffic study, was responsible

for 54% of the page views generated

by mobile devices on an average

website in July. Despite such a high

result, its popularity is gradually

falling: a 2-percentage-point decrease

was observed over the past two

months. Like on other markets, this

loss is in favor of the iPad, Apple’s

latest product, which during the same

period improved its market share by

2 percentage points. The share gained

by other devices in the top 5 oscillates

around 2-3%.

Chart 3 Top search engines in Croatia by share of visits made by internet users who visit Croatian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3.3. SEARCH ENGINES

Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Croatia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Croatian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)


Chart 5 Top 5 mobile devices in Croatia by the website-averaged percentage share of page views generated by internet users from Croatia who visit Croatian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraf-fic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10 **to 2010-07-25

3.5. MOBILE DEVICES

Do you CEE? Croatia

68




MAIN OFFICEADDRESS

CONTACT

1 E-Target etarget.hrBoškovićeva 13A, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia


2 Xclaim xclaim.hrLivanjska 11, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia


3 AdNet ad-net.hrLivanjska 11, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia



Jan Jilek

President of IAB Croatia


What are the opportunities and obstacles for the online advertising market on your

local market?

The economic situation in the world and in Croatia has decreased advertising

expenditures in general, although the only medium that grew was the internet.

On the other hand, the crisis resulted in lower prices of other media, mostly TV,

which is already the most represented medium in total advertising Adex (60%). In

conclusion, the greatest problem regarding online advertising in Croatia is the fact


IAB Croatia (INAMA)

www.inama.hr

Description: IAB Croatia is a local non-

profit, non-governmental organization

dedicated to interactive marketing.

It was founded with the objective of

helping the development of interactive

marketing communication in Croatia

by offering stimulation and guidance

for the industry. It was formerly known

as INAMA or ‘the association for

interactive marketing’. It received an

IAB license in 2008.

Members: publishers and agencies

(e.g. net.hr, tportal.hr, OMG)

Do you CEE? Croatia

69

that the global crisis is still ongoing here. In short, it is hard for the online market

to be competitive in these conditions.

Dominating trends



As with many other markets, social media marketing had the highest growth in

Croatia and this is expected to continue. Many advertisers began using Facebook

and Twitter creating applications, fan pages, etc.


Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete with

the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this battle?

Google and Facebook are the most popular global players in Croatia and have

more than 90% of the search and social media markets, respectively. Croatian

companies cannot compete with this. Local players stick to news and portal

information as they have an advantage with regards to local current affairs. The

top three players in Croatia are all horizontal portals.

Market specifics



The Croatian market is unique due to the extremely low price of TV advertising

compared to other countries. This inhibits the growth of other media, including

the internet. Although the internet is the only medium that can compete with TV

and is growing, this is not happening as fast and as much as it could.

Saša Škorić

Director, OMG



local market?

The lack of research on online advertising investment is the main obstacle for the

greater growth of advertising on the Croatian market. This is the main reason why

only 2% of the advertising budget is online, although the real figures are much

higher. Despite the fact that Croatians are a little behind in the standardization of

advertising formats and prices, Croatian users are fast in accepting new trends that

come from so-called more ‘developed’ countries.

Do you CEE? Croatia

70

Dominating trends



Social networking sites have become the main subject of discussion with regard to

advertising and almost all online campaigns include some forms of advertising and

user engagement on social networking sites, primarily Facebook. Geo-targeting

services and mobile advertising is expected to become more developed and

popular in the months to come.




The strength and character of competition between global and local players

depends basically on the particular business field. Although local players have

strong positions in some segments like ‘classifieds’ or ‘publishing’ (horizontal

portals), in the ‘search’ or ‘social networking’ fields local players have almost

disappeared with the huge growth of Google and Facebook. Knowledge of the

local market and user habits as well as local sales forces are the main advantages

of local players, who still hold the greatest shares within particular segments.

Market specifics



Croatian users have embraced some global services on a larger scale and more

intensely than in the majority of other countries. On the other hand, fear of online

payment is still relatively high and the main reason why some online projects have

failed in Croatia.

Czech Republic5.29minternet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_



7373

7475

7677

7878

8080

8181

818284

84


3.1. Browsers_3.2. Operatingsystems_3.3. Screenresolutions_3.4. Mobiledevices_

Do you CEE? Czech Republic

73



PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 seznam.cz horizontal portal 4 779 928 2 924 611 713 612 18:47:51 84%

2 novinky.cz news portal 3 152 036 222 189 189 70 01:47:06 55%

3 centrum.cz horizontal portal 3 046 395 453 637 700 149 02:59:39 53%

4 idnes.cz news portal 3 021 952 306 990 826 102 01:56:20 53%

5 firmy.cz company catalogues 2 469 792 60 832 571 25 00:25:36 43%

6 super.cz news portal 2 430 318 140 331 585 58 00:50:33 42%

7 mapy.cz maps 2 298 139 51 914 825 23 00:25:01 40%

8 stream.cz video content portal 1 860 614 35 977 914 19 00:25:20 33%

9 sport.cz sports portal 1 758 540 59 189 200 34 00:40:40 31%

10 estranky.cz webhosting and web creation 1 713 221 41 406 635 24 00:19:51 30%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in the Czech Republic by reach level (NetMonitor - SPIR/Mediaresearch/Gemius, March 2010)

According to the NetMonitor - SPIR/

Mediaresearch/Gemius study in March

2010 the top 10 ranking by reach was

dominated by a varied set of portals.

The unquestionable leader was

seznam.cz with a reach level of 84%,

1 percentage point more than a year

ago. This site is also top when it comes

to the number of page views per user,

with a result of 612. The following

three places were occupied by

websites with reach levels of around

50% - novinky.cz (55%), centrum.cz

(53%) and idnes.cz (53%). They are

all popular Czech portals and news

services.

The next group of sites reached

approximately 40% of the Czech

online audience. Among them, the

most popular one, Firmy.cz, a business

catalogue with a database of company

1. MAIN PLAYERS


contacts, ranked fifth and its reach

level amounted to 43%. The next

are: Super.cz, a news portal with

over 2.4 million real users, and mapy.

cz, the most popular map site in the

Czech Republic.

The last group includes websites

with an approximate 30% share of

the market. With 1.86 million users,

stream.cz ranked eighth and was the

number one Czech portal with audio

and video content as well as TV shows.

Its users are not only able to watch

available videos, but also upload their

own. Moreover, there is a special

section for kids. Another portal in the

ranking was sport.cz (31%), an online

magazine with sports news from

Seznam.cz and a daily newspaper

Právo. The ranking was propped up

by estranky.cz, which is a site dealing

with web hosting and web creation.


74


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 seznam.cz 4 779 928 612 18:47:51 84%

2 lide.cz 1 690 541 406 04:34:14 30%

3 onlajny.cz 109 019 148 04:30:56 2%

4 livesport.cz 126 363 80 03:31:53 2%

5 warforum.cz 94 749 125 03:18:57 2%

6 rande.cz 61 759 279 03:18:51 1%

7 geewa.cz 18 195 85 03:11:20 0.3%

8 centrum.cz 3 046 395 149 02:59:39 53%

9 seznamit.cz 52 868 212 02:53:39 1%

10 aukro.cz 1 566 095 327 02:46:34 27%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in the Czech Republic by average time spent per user (NetMonitor - SPIR/Mediaresearch/Gemius, March 2010)


It enables its users to create a website

in 5 minutes, easily and, what is more,

for free. In March 2010 it had a reach

level of 30%.

What is interesting about the websites

from the top 10 ranking list is the fact

that half of them: seznam.cz, novinky.cz,

firmy.cz, sport.cz and mapy.cz belong

to the same owner, Seznam.cz.

In March 2010 the ranking of the

top 10 websites by average time

spent per user included sites that are

entertaining or enable their users

to stay in touch with their friends.

Not surprisingly the leader again

was seznam.cz. Its lead over other

websites seems to be unthreatened.

In March an average user spent there

almost 18 hours and 48 minutes.

In second place, but with much lower

result of 4 hours and 34 minutes spent

by its users monthly, was the social

networking service lide.cz. It was

followed by onlajny.cz, which provides

online results and commentary on

various sports events e.g. football, ice

hockey and handball. It had a reach

level of 2%, but its popularity is

growing regarding the Olympics and

football championships. A similar

Czech portal is livesport.cz, whose

users spent on average 3 hours and

32 minutes on the service. As with

onlajny.cz, it publishes sports news

and live match results. Moreover,

there is a chat room where visitors can


75

comment on current sports events or

simply share information with others.

The 5th and 6th positions were

occupied by warforum.cz and rande.cz

respectively, sites where users spend

almost 3 hours and 19 minutes

a month. Warforum.cz is a forum

divided into various sections such as

Movie Hall or Music Hall and they

are further subdivided into forums

and themes. In order to read or post

comments users have to register.

In March 2010 this forum had almost

94,750 users. Rande.cz, on the other

hand, is a website dedicated to

internet users who are searching for

a friend or a relationship.

1.3. TOP PORTALS

Since portals and news services are

very popular among Czechs, the

services from the top 5 ranking also

occupy the leading positions in the

general ranking by reach. The most

significant one is seznam.cz, a market

leader on the Czech online market not

only in terms of reach (84%), but also

in average time per user (18 hours

and 48 minutes). The portal offers the

usual services to its users such as free

mail, current news, weather forecasts,

exchange rates, etc. This horizontal

With 3 hours and 11 minutes geewa.cz

ranked seventh. It contains a collection

of online games grouped into

categories. However, it is not very

popular among Czechs and its reach

level in March 2010 amounted to only

0.3%.

The last three places were occupied by

sites where users spent little less than

3 hours online a month. These were

centrum.cz, a popular Czech horizontal

portal, seznamit.cz, another dating site

(like rande.cz) and the aukro.cz online

auction, whose popularity among the

Czech online population is growing.


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 seznam.cz 4 779 928 612 18:47:51 84%

2 novinky.cz 3 152 036 70 01:47:06 55%

3 centrum.cz 3 046 395 149 02:59:39 53%

4 idnes.cz 3 021 952 102 01:56:20 53%

5 super.cz 2 430 318 58 00:50:33 42%

Table 3 Top 5 portals in the Czech Republic by reach level (NetMonitor - SPIR/Mediaresearch/Ge-mius, March 2010)

portal allows its users to personalize

the main page according to their

interests in a user-friendly way.

In March 2010 the second player

within the Czech online market was

the news portal novinky.cz with

a reach level of 55%. It is an online

magazine created in cooperation

with a daily newspaper Právo and

Seznam.cz. It was launched in 2003

and instantly jumped to the top of the

popularity rankings. Thanks to its rich


76


The popularity of local social networks

measured by NetMonitor in the Czech

Republic is declining. Lide.cz and blog.cz

were, according to the NetMonitor

- SPIR/Mediaresearch/Gemius study,

the most popular ones. However, in

comparison to last year, their reach

level decreased by 5 percentage points

and in March 2010 accounted for 30%

and 29%, respectively. Lide.cz is a part

of Seznam.cz, dedicated mainly to

content, it has a firm position in the

Czech Republic with over 3.15 million

real users, who in March spent an

average of 1 hour and 47 minutes on

this service.

The third place was occupied by the

horizontal portal centrum.cz. In March

2010 its reach level amounted to

53%. In comparison to last year its

reach grew by 2 percentage points,

but it is still far behind seznam.cz.

However, this portal is extremely user-

friendly and its users can find typical

services for this kind of site here i.e.

mail, news, a TV schedule, free SMS

gateway, horoscopes and much more.

Idnes.cz was ranked fourth with over

3 million users and almost 307 million


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 lide.cz 1 690 541 406 04:34:14 30%

2 blog.cz 1 664 116 40 00:34:54 29%

3 spoluzaci.cz 1 139 332 63 00:30:44 20%

4 idnes.cz|Rajce.net 822 533 25 00:19:43 14%

5 libimseti.cz 634 750 173 02:23:01 11%

Table 4 Top 5 local social networks in the Czech Republic by reach level (NetMonitor - SPIR/Media-research/Gemius, March 2010)

page views. It has been present on

the Czech online market since 1998,

when it published its first news online.

24 hours a day its editorial team is

preparing reliable news from home

and abroad, culture, sport, economy

and finance. Moreover, its users can

visit specialized sub-services dedicated

to particular interest groups such as

the automotive industry, lifestyle,

health or travel.

The ranking from March 2010 was

propped up by super.cz, which had

a reach level of 42%. It is a joint

project of Seznam.cz and Stratosféra

and it contains articles from magazines

of the Stratosféra publishing house.

the younger generation – the average

age ranges from 12 to 19 years old.

It is divided into several categories,

including a popular instant messaging

service, discussion forums, dating

service and blogs. Blog.cz, on the

other hand, is a web application for

creating blogs. It was launched in 2005

and soon became the largest blog

service on the Czech online market.


77


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 sbazar.cz 1 044 789 50 00:32:46 18%

2 hyperinzerce.cz 941 032 18 00:14:46 16%

3 bazos.cz 615 046 116 01:01:28 11%

Table 5 Top 3 online classified ads in the Czech Republic by reach level (NetMonitor - SPIR/Media-research/Gemius, March 2010)


The leader on the classified ads

market in the Czech Republic in March

2010 was sbazar.cz with a reach level

of 18%. It is the largest Czech portal of

this kind. One can buy and sell as well

as participate in auctions on the site.

As many as 200,000 classifieds are

grouped into 20 categories. Moreover,

sbazar.cz allows an immediate

communication between buyer and

seller. It is a part of Seznam.cz.

Second place belonged to

hyperinzerce.cz, a classified ads site

with over 1.2 million offers.

The other player on the Czech social

networking market is spoluzaci.cz.

Its popularity is decreasing and over

the last twelve months its reach

declined by 8 percentage points, down

to 20%. The site enables its users to

stay in touch with their classmates.

Within the service, there is a database

of primary and secondary school

classes available in the Czech Republic.

The fourth place in the ranking was

occupied by rajce.net, part of MAFRA,

a.s. (which owns idnes.cz) dedicated to

sharing photos. Its users can create

a free account with unlimited space

for photos that can be easily uploaded

to the site with simple software.

In March 2010 its reach level

amounted to 14%.

Libmiseti.cz, a community portal,

was ranked fifth and with a reach level

of 11% it is another significant player

on the Czech online market. It offers

to its users custom profiles, photo

albums, a chat and e-mail service,

competitions and much more.

In March 2010 its average user spent

2 hours and 23 minutes on

the website.

In comparison to March 2009 its reach

level increased by 3 percentage points

and in March 2010 accounted for

16%. The last website in the ranking,

bazos.cz, has also been gaining

popularity and its reach level grew

by 2 percentage points over the last

twelve months. Bazos.cz is trying to be

as simple and user friendly as possible

and this strategy seems to be working

very well: its users add around 11,000

new ads daily.


78


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1novinky.cz-rubrika Ekonomika

1 330 776 7 00:10:21 23%

2idnes.cz Ekonomika a Finance iDNES

724 322 18 00:24:21 13%

3

centrum.cz Aktualne.cz Ekonomika/ Finance

390 404 17 00:16:31 7%

Table 6 Top 3 finance sites in the Czech Republic by reach level (NetMonitor - SPIR/Mediaresearch/Gemius, March 2010)


When it comes to finance sites, there

is no significant independent player.

The popular sites are parts of the

leading Czech portals: novinky.cz,

idnes.cz and centrum.cz.

The first place in the ranking, based on

the NetMonitor - SPIR/Mediaresearch/

Gemius study from March 2010,

belonged to Ekonomika (part of

novinky.cz) with a reach level of 23%.

It was followed by Ekonomika and

Finance of iDNES, whose reach level

amounted to 13%. The top 3 ranking

was propped up by finance.aktualne.

cz, which is a part of centrum.cz and in

March 2010 it had over 390,400 real

users. It publishes business news on

the stock exchange, the RM system,

currency rates, commodities etc.

2. ONLINE AUDIENCE

The gender structure of the online

population in the Czech Republic

is quite balanced. According to the

NetMonitor - SPIR/Mediaresearch/

Gemius study from March 2010, men

constituted 52% whereas women

48%. Also in terms of average time

spent online per user there was no

major difference between the male

and female audience. On average

men were surfing the web for only 12

minutes longer than women.


numerous group within the Czech

online population were people aged

25-34, with a share of 24%. They

were also the group of users who

spent most time online, i.e. 32 hours

and 32 minutes a month. The second

largest group, users aged 15-24, who

in 2009 accounted for 28%, in March

2010 constituted only 22%. At the

same time the share of people over 55

increased by 2 percentage points.

In March 2010 the highest

percentage of the Czech online

population had completed secondary

education (the group also included


80

over 100,000 inhabitants, with 13%

in Prague alone. Another 23% of the

online population lived in cities with

20,000 – 99,999 inhabitants. 16% of

the online population lived in villages

and small towns with up to 999

inhabitants.

In the Czech Republic, the most

significant group in March 2010 in

terms of occupation (37%) among

internet users were employees.

Second place belonged to pupils,

students and trainees, who accounted

for 24% of the online population.

Another major group of the online

audience were businessmen and sole

traders with 17%.

extension studies). This amounted to

39%. Moreover, they were the most

active internet users and on average

spent almost 34 hours online per

user. The second significant group

within the Czech online audience were

people with secondary education but

without completing a ‘leaving exam’.

All in all, these two groups together

constituted 61%.

Users with higher education amounted

to 16% in March 2010, 5% had

abachelor degree and 11% graduated

from university. According to the

NetMonitor - SPIR/Mediaresearch/

Gemius study, users aged 12-14


population in the Czech Republic, thus

it comes as no surprise that there is

also a high percentage of internet

users with incomplete primary

education (11%).

According to the NetMonitor

- SPIR/Mediaresearch/Gemius study

from March 2010, 23% of Czech

internet users lived in cities with

Chart 1 Top browsers in the Czech Republic by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Czech websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3. TOOLS

3.1. BROWSERS


81

Chart 2 Top operating systems in the Czech Republic by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Czech websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)


Chart 3 Screen resolutions in the Czech Republic by share of page views generated by internet users who visit the Czech websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

Chart 4 Mobile devices in the Czech Republic by the website-averaged percentage share of page views generated by internet users from the Czech Republic who visit Czech websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10 **to 2010-07-25


3.4. MOBILE DEVICES

3.1. Browsers

Microsoft Internet Explorer has been

the leader on the Czech browser

market for many years. However, over

the past few years, MSIE’s share of

page views generated by internet users

who visit the Czech websites using

gemiusTraffic has been decreasing

(over the past twelve months it lost

7 percentage points) and its advantage

over other browsers declined. The

second player on the Czech market

with a market share of 35% in March

2010 was Firefox. Unlike MSIE, its

popularity has been growing for a long

time now and soon a change in the

leader position may be expected.

According to the gemiusTraffic study,

after the first quarter of 2010, Opera

had 6% of the market. The newcomer,

Chrome, already managed to gain 4%

of the Czech browser market.


Similarly to other CEE markets,

the unquestionable leader among

operating systems is Windows XP.

After the first quarter of 2010 its share

of the market accounted for 71%. Yet,

its popularity has been declining for

some time. Quite a significant share

of the market (18%) belonged to

Windows Vista. Windows 7, launched

in the Czech Republic in October 2009

gained in 1Q 2010 8% of the market in

less than a year.


The most popular choice among

Czechs when it comes to screen

resolutions has for a long time been

1024 x 768. However, its popularity

has been declining for years. According

to the gemiusTraffic study its share of

the market went down 9 percentage

points over the last twelve months.


82


SPIR

www.en.spir.cz

Description: SPIR is a professional

association active in the field of

internet advertising since 2000. The

membership base of the association

currently accounts for 66 members.

Alongside operating integrated,

widely respected research into visitor

numbers and sociodemographic

profiling of internet visitors via

NetMonitor, it also implements an

internet advertising monitoring

project, AdMonitoring, organizes

the IAC professional conference on

internet marketing, and provides

expert analysis of internet market

development in the Czech Republic.

Members: Internet Media (e.g.

ARBOinteractive, spol. s r.o.; Centrum

Holdings; CET 21, spol. s r.o.; Internet

Info, s.r.o.; MAFRA; Ringier ČR, a.s.;

Sanoma Magazines Praha, s.r.o.;

Seznam.cz, a.s.), Internet Advertisers

(e.g. Mediaedge:cia Czech Republic,

s.r.o.; MindShare, s.r.o.; OMD Czech,

a.s.; Starcom MediaVest Group, s.r.o.).

APEK

www.apek.cz

Description: The Association for

Electronic Commerce (APEK) is

an association of more than 200

companies, entrepreneurs and

experts in electronic commerce.

APEK’s main goal is the analysis

and study of electronic commerce.

Members include the largest internet

shops, leading software companies

and financial institutions.

The association was founded in 1998

as an independent organization

that supports the development of

electronic commerce in the Czech

Republic.

Members: the biggest internet

retailers, e-marketplaces, IT service

providers, consultants, logistics

companies, financial service providers

(e.g. kasa.cz; invia.cz; cedok.cz; datart.

cz; dhl.cz; InternetMall; Mironet;

Retail Info).

After the first quarter of 2010 other

popular screen resolutions were 1280

x 1024 (18%) and 1280 x 800 (17.5%).


The unquestionable leader on the

Czech market of internet mobile

devices is the iPhone. According to

the gemiusTraffic study, in July 2010

iPhone was responsible for 22% of

page views generated by mobile

devices on an average website. Second

position was taken by Apple’s latest

product, the iPad. Even though in July

2010 its share equaled a mere 4%, it

grew by 2 percentage points during

the past two months. The next three

positions belong to Nokia and HTC

devices, all oscillating around 3%.


83

Association of Internet

Solutions Providers

www.asociace.biz

Description: Asociace.biz brings

together IT and web agencies

specializing in the development

of internet and intranet solutions.

Asociace.BIZ organizes seminars and

conferences, publishes professional

publications providing world news

and internet solutions. The aim of

Asociace.BIZ is to provide inspiration

for advertisers and companies

as well as ideas on how to use

interactive media in e-commerce and

marketing campaigns, to streamline

work through corporate intranets

and systems built on modern web

technologies. The association was

established in 2002.

Members: IT companies and internet

agencies (e.g. AARON GROUP spol.

s r.o.; AMI Praha a.s.; ET NETERA

a.s.; FG Forrest, a.s.; Internet Projekt

a.s.; Lundegaard spol. s r.o.; Mather

Advertures, s.r.o.; MEDIA FACTORY

ČR a.s.; OgilvyInteractive, Onlio, a.s.;

První multimediální, s.r.o.; SYMBIO

Digital, s.r.o.; WDF - Web Design

Factory, spol. s r.o.).

UVDT Czech Publishers Association

www.uvdt.cz

Description: The Association is the

sole representative association of

entrepreneurs and employers in the

sector of periodicals and the provision

of content via the internet in the

Czech Republic. The Association brings

together most publishers of national

and regional newspapers and a large

majority of publishers of relevant

magazines. It was founded in 1990

and has 43 members. The Association

has a special section dedicated to

the internet – SVIT, which has run

as an independent operation since

2002. Its mission is the creation and

enforcement of standards for the

internet environment.

Members: members of SVIT section:

Centrum Holdings, Epravo.cz,

Euronews, IDG Czech, MAFRA, Ringier

ČR, Sanoma Magazines Praha, Trade

& Leisure, Publications, Vltava Labe

Press.


84


Tomáš Lauko

Digital & Business Development Manager, ZenithOptimedia – CEE

Tomáš Varga

Head of ZED Digital, Zed Digital (part of ZenithOptimedia)


What are the opportunities and obstacles for the Czech online advertising

market?

The Czech market will most certainly grow. It has great potential (the 3rd largest

advertising market in the CEE region) and is certainly one of the most developed

CEE markets. The latest Advertising Expenditures forecast of ZenithOptimedia




MAIN OFFICEADDRESS

CONTACT

1 Impression Media, s.r.o. impressionmedia.czNad Petruskou 63/1, 120 00 Praha-Vinohrady


2 AdActive s.r.o adactive.czU Hellady 697/4, 140 00 Praha 4


3 VISIBILITY s.r.o. visibility.czLužná 716/2, 160 00 Praha-Vokovice


4 Admarket, a.s. admarket.czHálkova 1629 / 11,Praha 2, 120 00

Phone: +420-720-755-839Email: [email protected]

5 Best Online Media, s.r.o. online-media.czVinohradská 2396/184, 130 00 Praha-Vinohrady


6 ARBOinteractive, spol. s r.o. arbointeractive.czJanáčkovo nábřeží 51/39, 150 00 Praha 5


7 Media House, s.r.o.outdoornet.czfamilynet.cz

Senovážné náměstí 1984/10, 110 00 Praha-Nové Město


8 AMEDIA media, s.r.o. amediamedia.czVítězné náměstí 576/1,160 00 Praha 6


9 Internet BillBoard a.s. nternet.billboard.czNovoveská 1262/95, 709 00 Ostrava - Mariánské Hory



85

(July 2010) predicts increasing investment in the Czech internet from the current

11% (2009) to 14% in 2010 (prices from price list), which will ensure for the Czech

Republic a place in the top three countries in the CEE region, excluding Estonia

and Latvia.

The greatest obstacle for the Czech market is the lack of understanding as many

people pervceive the internet as a cheap medium.

The second greatest obstacle is that the total online Audio-Visual potential

cannot be fully measured (YouTube, Google and Facebook are missing here).

Regarding investments in the internet market, search marketing (as a type of

performance marketing) has the greatest potential in the short term with mainly

text, but also display, starting to develop its full potential. Thanks to the crisis,

also the small companies choose more often the CPC model, but on the other

hand the large companies still choose the CPM model.

Dominating trends



To summarize in three points: The cost per action payment model (ROI), social/

online listening and mobile marketing. We can already see the first steps,

testing and a shift from TV to AV (Audio Visual) after analyzing the first report of

multimedia content measurement in the Czech Republic. It will be interesting

to look at the mobile marketing measurement in the second part of 2010.

Facebook, YouTube and performance marketing in general will continue to

expand on the Czech online market. There is also great and still untapped

potential in social/online listening. In most cases the brands do not realize their

potential and do not know how to embrace and take full advantage of it.

The most interesting work force in the nearest future will be analysts,

copywriters, and people with ‘soft’ social skills.




The strength of global players is growing and the last important market bastion

in the Czech Republic is Seznam with many users impatiently waiting for its API.

Seznam is strong enough and will be able to compete with global companies, but

its weakness lays in relatively slow implementation of innovations. On the other

hand, the cooperation of Seznam with Microsoft shows that the vision of how to

fight competition is clear.


86

Another bastion of the Czech internet are local social networking sites, whose

position has become weak (for example, the popularity of the Czech portal

Libimseti.cz has fallen) and these sites will have to fight hard with such social

networking sites as Facebook to regain ground.

Market specifics



One of the greatest advantages is the popularity of everything that is ‘Czech’.

Czech Google can even build its success on this. The great advantage of the

Czech online market is the high developed measurement here. We can see the

breakthrough in multimedia content monitoring in the Czech Republic and the

measurement of mobile marketing, in which the Czech Republic has a prominent

position in the region.

What the Czech Republic still lacks compared to other countries in the CEE region

is self-promotion. There are already a great number of talented people on the

market, as well as know-how, possibilities, tools for testing and implementing

innovations in communication on the internet. However, unfortunately this is still

not reflected in reality and in the image of the Czech Republic in CEE markets.

Tomáš Búřil

Director of Sales and Marketing, Centrum Holdings


What are the opportunities and obstacles for the Czech online advertising market?

We can see that the online market in the Czech Republic in 2010 is growing, mainly

due to direct clients. They are investing in the internet a larger part of their ad

budgets than the major clients by media agencies. We expect that the total online

advertising market could reach its pre-crisis level in 2012, the level of 2008. At that

time, we also expect a balanced level of ad spending to online and print media.

Currently, the biggest obstacle to fast growing investment is the great caution

of the largest advertisers and their predilection for traditional media, although,

according to the surveys, the time spent on the internet is growing compared with

declining print media and television.

Dominating trends


to develop the most in future?

The main trends concern the following areas: media consolidation (into larger

units), a greater emphasis on news quality and local content and the high use


87

of email, social media and instant messaging. In the future, search and PPC

advertising will certainly be top of the list, but that does not mean that display

advertising (banners) will lose their meaning, rather the opposite will happen.

These two things, in combination with specialized verticals, will be the main source

of income on the internet in the future, where it will be not just ‘advertising’ but

the entire business chain from addressing client to direct selling.




The local players are certainly strong enough because of their local content and

more personal ‘Czech’ approach to clients and customers. However, those who

concentrate purely on the technological battle with the global players will not

succeed. It is just a matter of time when users realize this and start demanding

a better service. The successful combination of both the local approach and

content with global technologies and know-how is a strong possibility.

Market specifics

What makes your local online market unique? Are there any specifics that make

it differ from others in the CEE region?

The Czech market is the most developed market in Central and Eastern Europe,

due to the fact that all members of the local joint industry committee SPIR

(the Czech Association for Internet Advertising) have agreed on the same point of

view, how to develop the whole market in a transparent way and how to profile

online advertising. Another specific feature is Seznam and its strong position,

which has a great influence on the market, on business conditions and ‘user

standards’. What normally works in other countries may not necessarily work in

the Czech Republic.

Estonia0.81minternet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_



8989

9091

9293

9496

9696

9797

979899

99

1.1. Top10websitesbyreach_1.2. Top10websitesbyaveragetimespentperuser_1.3. Topportals_1.4. Socialnetworks_1.5. Onlineclassifiedadsbyreach_


Do you CEE? Estonia

89



PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 delfi.ee horizontal portal 511 230 92 743 974 181 04:15:31 63%

2 postimees.ee horizontal portal 372 864 39 573 318 106 03:15:39 46%

3 sloleht.ee horizontal portal 295 111 27 276 398 92 02:04:37 37%

4 elu24.ee horizontal portal 263 236 11 296 684 43 00:52:29 33%

5 rate.ee social network 222 082 157 172 820 708 06:48:28 28%

6 mail.ru horizontal portal 179 646 55 733 268 310 07:44:34 22%

7 ilm.ee weather portal 169 503 3 608 057 21 00:15:22 21%

8 everyday.com horizontal portal 155 634 6 012 955 39 01:14:13 19%

9 buduaar.ee portal 128 562 24 961 666 194 02:20:52 16%

10 fotoalbum.ee photo sharing website 125 826 23 176 640 184 00:46:41 16%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Estonia by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

In March 2010 the top 10 ranking of Estonian websites included in the gemiusAudience study was dominated by portals. The most popular one is delfi.ee with a reach level of 63%. It is the largest internet portal in the Baltic States, which popularity within the Estonian online population is steadfast. In comparison to March 2009, it increased its reach by 1 percentage point, which considering the ever growing number of internet users in Estonia means that it is constantly gaining new audience.

The next three places are occupied by portals belonging to Eesti Media, the largest media group in Estonia. In March 2010, the most popular one: postimees.ee had a reach level of 46%. It used to be the online version of a newspaper but with time developed into a successful independent portal. Such huge discrepancy between the first two players may be due to differences

1. MAIN PLAYERS


in the construction of these sites. While delfi.ee develops each of their new subsection (women, motoring, etc.) under one domain, postimees.ee builds its services on separate domains. One of its elements is elu24.ee, ranked fourth with a reach level of 33%. They are both very popular among the Estonian online audience, as is the printed version of the “Postimees” newspaper.

The other Eesti Media Group portal is sloleht.ee. According to the gemiusAudience study from March 2010 it had almost 300,000 real users. Similarly to postimees.ee it used to be only an online version of the newspaper, but now is probably more popular than the original. In this day and age, increasingly more people choose to take advantage of new technologies instead of traditional media. Online newspapers are not only handy, but also save money and time.

Do you CEE? Estonia

90


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 mail.ru 179 646 310 07:44:34 22%

2 rate.ee 222 082 708 06:48:28 28%

3 delfi.ee 511 230 181 04:15:31 63%

4 postimees.ee 372 864 106 03:15:39 46%

5 perekool.ee 66 441 137 02:51:17 8%

6mangukoobas. lahendus.ee

65 723 166 02:26:30 8%

7 buduaar.ee 128 562 194 02:20:52 16%

8 lastekas.ee 44 917 118 02:12:50 6%

9 sloleht.ee 295 111 92 02:04:37 37%

10 gamefriik.ee 20 971 99 01:56:20 3%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Estonia by average time spent per user (gemiusAudience, March 2010)


The 6th place in the ranking belonged to mail.ru, a Russian horizontal portal. Although the site is only available in Russian, it had almost 180,000 real users in Estonia. This is due to the fact that the Russian speaking part of the population is very active in Estonia. Mail.ru offers its users not only a mail service, but also current news, weather information and various entertaining content. In March 2010 an average user spent almost 7 hours and 45 minutes visiting the website making it a leader in terms of user activity among Estonian websites.

With a 21% reach ilm.ee took 7th place in the ranking. It is a popular weather portal in Estonia. Thanks to its pleasant design and user-friendliness, more than 3.6 million page views were generated on this site in March 2010. The site is available in Estonian, Russian and English.

Everyday.com, a horizontal portal, came 8th , followed by buduaar.ee, a popular women’s portal with lots of gossip, lifestyle and diet advice, a forum and

useful links. Moreover, the site offers its users many contests with attractive prizes. In March 2010 the site recorded almost 25 million page views.

In the top 10 ranking from March 2010 there were only two non-portal sites. One of them was the social networking service rate.ee. It is the largest and only important local social networking site with a reach level of 28%. However, because of strong competition from global sites, it has been losing its audience and in comparison to March 2009 decreased by 7 percentage points.

The ranking was propped up by fotoalbum.ee, a photo sharing website with a reach level of 16%. Registered users can create profiles and publish their photos to show to their friends. In spite of competition from global sites, fotoalbum.ee is not losing popularity and its number of real users remains constant.

Do you CEE? Estonia

91

In terms of average time spent online per user the leader on the Estonian online market in March 2010 was mail.ru with almost 7 hours and 45 minutes. Also, users of the social networking service rate.ee were very active online (6 hours and 48 minutes). The subsequent two places were occupied by the horizontal portals delfi.ee and postimees.ee.

Perekool.ee came in 5th place in the ranking. It is the most popular Estonian family portal, where users can find articles dedicated to pregnant women and parents of small children. In the forum section, users can exchange views or ask other parents for advice on raising children. Moreover, there is a marketplace for used children’s clothes, toys etc. According to the gemiusAudience study in March the site’s visitors spent more than 2 hours and 50 minutes online.

Mangukoobas.lahendus.ee was ranked sixth with a result of 2 hours and 26 minutes. It is the number one entertainment platform in Estonia with mainly flash games for children and young people. Games are available for free and no registration is needed. Apart from games, there is also a section where children can find helpful

1.3. TOP PORTALS


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 delfi.ee 511 230 181 04:15:31 63%

2 postimees.ee 372 864 106 03:15:39 46%

3 sloleht.ee 295 111 92 02:04:37 37%

4 elu24.ee 263 236 43 00:52:29 33%

5 mail.ru 179 646 310 07:44:34 22%

Table 3 Top 5 portals in Estonia by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

material to study different school subjects. In order to gain access to this material users have to ‘pay’ a certain amount of points/stars.

7th place was occupied by buduaar.ee, mentioned above, and followed by an online-games site, lastekas.ee. As opposed to Mangukoobas, its target group is much younger (it is the only website in Estonia dedicated to such a young audience). In March 2010 its reach level amounted to 6% and an average user spent almost 2 hours 13 minutes online here. There are many interactive games that kids can play not only in order to have fun but also to learn.

Another horizontal portal in this ranking, sloleht.ee, in March 2010 had over 295,000 real users who on average spent 2 hours and 5 minutes on this site. The 10th ranking position was occupied by gamefriik.ee, a computer games portal with almost 21,000 real users who spent almost 2 hours online a month. It is dedicated to an older audience than Mangukoobas and Lastekas. Apart from games there is also

a forum and a video section.

Do you CEE? Estonia

92


Local social networking services are

losing popularity in Estonia. They are

not able to fight with global brands

such as Facebook. The reach level of

rate.ee decreased in comparison to

last year by 7 percentage points and

the 4% reach of keskus.ee makes it

hardly a non-marginal player on the

Estonian online market.


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 rate.ee 222 082 708 06:48:28 28%

2 keskus.ee 32 788 19 00:13:05 4%

Table 4 Top 2 social networks in Estonia by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

The most popular portals in Estonia also occupy leading positions in the general rankings by reach and by average time spent per user. The leader in the Baltic States, delfi.ee, provides its users with the latest news and what is more it contains a blog, chat, webmail service and other information related to entertainment and lifestyle. Moreover, it has a games section, a forum and a video section, where users can either watch available video content or upload their own. Thanks to these features, delfi.ee has a devoted audience of over 500,000 users, who according to the gemiusAudience study, generated more than 92.7 million page views in March.

The second player on the Estonian portals market is postimees.ee. “Postimees” is the most popular daily in Estonia. It is considered to have high quality content and a rather serious profile. Its users can find current business, science and sports news, information about cultural events and much more on the site. Moreover, it offers a subscription option. The site is also available in Russian, making

it popular among the Russian-speaking Estonian online audience. Postimees.ee is dedicated mainly to well-educated users who visit the site in order to be up-to-date. In turn, elu24.ee has a more entertaining profile. It publishes eye-catching news, gossip and info about mass events taking place around the world. It has a gallery and a video section. In March 2010, elu24.ee had a reach level of 33%, which gave it the 4th position in the top 5 portals by reach ranking.

With a 37% reach sloleht.ee ranked third. In terms of its content the portal is somewhere between postimees.ee and elu24.ee. 50% of it is owned by Eesti Meedia and 50% by the Ekspress Group. It presents business news and current affairs as well as light-hearted photos and videos. Moreover, it has a blog section and a TV guide.

The ranking from March 2010 was closed by mail.ru with a reach level of 22%. In terms of number of page views, mail.ru is the unquestionable leader with 310 page views per user

a month.

Do you CEE? Estonia

93


service is for free, whereas publishing advertisements by employers is only possible after paying a fee. The job offers are classified into categories to enable its users to find the job they are interested in quickly and easily.

There are two classified ad sites in gemiusAudience study from March 2010: kv.ee and cvonline.ee. The first one, with a 13% reach, contains over 30,000 real estate ads published by private users as well as by companies. Moreover, there is a news section with market overviews, analysis and advice. From February 2008 users can follow the kv.ee Index characterizing the Estonian real estate market. The website is available not only in Estonian but also in Russian, Finnish and English.

In March 2010 cvonline.ee had a reach level of 12%, 1 percentage point more than in March 2009. This classified ads site is dedicated to people searching for jobs and employers looking for employees. For job-seekers, the


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 kv.ee 107 239 52 00:54:21 13%

2 cvonline.ee 99 551 60 00:37:43 12%

Table 5 Top 2 online classified ads in Estonia by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

Rate.ee is dedicated mainly to young

people, who want to stay in touch with

their friends or meet new ones. Users

can upload their photos and videos,

which can be commented on by their

friends. Moreover, they can join clubs

with people who have the same

interests or create a new one. There

are also games and tests accessible for

registered users only.

The second local social network in

Estonia, keskus.ee, enables its users

to create advanced profiles with

a personalized webpage containing

gadgets and information from various

sources. Users can trace their friends’

activities, upload photos or create and

participate in different interest groups.

Do you CEE? Estonia

94

Specialists and office employees

constituted the most numerous group

in terms of occupation (23%) among

Estonian internet users in March 2010.

Second place belonged to students,

who accounted for 20% of the online

population. Workers also constituted

a significant part of the Estonian

online population.

2. ONLINE AUDIENCE

In Estonia, the gender structure

of the online population is not as

balanced as in other CEE markets.

In March 2010, women constituted

54% of the online population, while

men comprised 46%. Additionally, an

average man spent 16 minutes more

online than an average woman.

The age structure of the Estonian

online population is quite balanced.

The highest percentage of users (24%)

is in the group of people aged 15-

24. Yet the percentage differences

between particular age groups are not

very significant. In March 2010 the

group of users aged 25-34 accounted

for 23% of the online audience and

the group aged 35-44 years old 22%.

Even the group of internet users over

55 constituted 15%, which is a large

proportion in comparison to other CEE

online populations.

The majority of Estonian internet

users are high school graduates.


study from March 2010, they


population in Estonia. The next

significant group are users with

a university degree (25%). 15% of the

internet users in Estonia have only

elementary or unfinished high school

education. However, this is the group

that leads in terms of the average time

spent online with almost 13.5 hours

a month.

The majority of Estonian internet

users (30%) live in Tallinn, the capital

of Estonia. In March 2010, the

counties with the largest share of the

internet population were Tartumaa

(14%), Harjumaa (11%), Pärnumaa

(8%) and Ida-Virumaa (7%).

Do you CEE? Estonia

96

Chart 1 Top browsers in Estonia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Esto-nian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3. TOOLS

3.1. BROWSERS

Chart 2 Top operating systems in Estonia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Estonian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)


3.1. Browsers

For many years the leader on the

Estonian browser market has been

Microsoft Internet Explorer. However,

the growing popularity of Firefox

seems to threaten its position.

Over the last year MSIE’s share of

page views generated by internet

users who visit Estonian websites

using gemiusTraffic decreased by

12 percentage points, whereas

the Firefox’s share increased by

7.5 percentage points. The third

most popular browser is Chrome

followed by Opera. According to the

gemiusTraffic study, during 2009,

Chrome gained 4 percentage points

and this trend remains stable. Another

browser used by Estonian internet

users is Safari. Although, it may not

be the most popular browser, its

popularity is still slowly growing. After

the first quarter of 2010 its market

share amounted to 1.5%.

Do you CEE? Estonia

97

Chart 3 Top search engines in Estonia by share of visits made by internet users who visit Estonian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3.3. SEARCH ENGINES3.2. Operating systems

Similarly to other CEE markets, the

most popular operating system in

Estonia is Windows XP. In spite of

the fact that its popularity has been

decreasing for the last few years, after

the first quarter of 2010 its market

share (as analyzed by gemiusTraffic)

constituted 67%. The greatest threat

and Windows XP’s replacement is

deemed by some to be Windows

Vista. However, it did not meet

users’ expectations and after initial

growth has started to lose its share

to Windows 7. In less than a year this

newcomer has managed to grab

a market share of 9%.

Mac OS X and Linux are slowly gaining

popularity, however their respective

market shares are not significant

(2% and 1%).

3.3. Search engines

There have been no significant

changes over the last 12 months on

the search engine market in Estonia.

Since the second quarter of 2008,

when Google overtook NETI, it has

been the unquestionable leader

with a market share of 72% after the

first quarter of 2010. However, NETI

is no longer losing its market share

and during the last three months

2009 it gained 2 percentage points

and reached a 22% share of the

market. Other search engines, i.e.

MSN, Yandex, Delfi, Yahoo, are not

particularly popular among Estonians

and therefore they do not pose any

threat to the two main players.


The market share of monitors with

a resolution of 1024 x 768 has been

decreasing for the last few years.

However, it is still the most popular

Chart 5 Top 5 mobile devices in Estonia by the website-averaged percentage share of page views generated by internet users form Estonia who visit Estonian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10 **to 2010-07-25

3.5. MOBILE DEVICES

Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Estonia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Estonian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)


Do you CEE? Estonia

98

choice among Estonians. Other popular screen resolutions among internet users who visit Estonian sites using the gemiusTraffic in the first quarter of 2010 were 1280 x 800 and 1280 x 1024. Also screen resolutions of 1440 x 900 and 1680 x 1050 have been gaining popularity in recent years. 1366 x 768 is a new screen resolution, which in one year has managed to take 3% of the market.


The most popular mobile device used to connect to the internet on the Estonian market is the iPhone. However, it is visibly losing its share

and comparing the results from May 2010 to July 2010, its share has decreased by more than 8 percentage points. The other Apple product that has lost its market share is the iPod, gaining nearly 9% in July 2010. During the same period, the iPad consistently gained the interest of users and its share grew by more than 4 precentage points within the past two months. The last positions are taken by Nokia devices, responsible for around 10% of page views generated by mobile devices on an average website.


Estonian E-commerce Union

www.e-kaubanduseliit.ee

Description: E-commerce Union’s

mission is to help develop the e-

commerce market in Estonia as well

as to work on unifying standards

and making the process of shopping

online easier and safer for customers.

E-commerce Union was established

in spring 2009 and currently has 44

members. It costs to join as a member.

Members: In June 2010 there were 44

members. CDMarket AS, Despal SJ Ltd,

Interbauen Ltd, Neolor Ltd, Kindershop

Ltd, Baltic IT Solutions Ltd, Onshop

AS, OX Estonia OÜ, Time Squared

Ltd, Internet Revolution Ltd, Personal

Trade Ltd., Nordwise Ltd., Catwalkers

Ltd., Petsec Trading Ltd., Rattle Ltd.,

E Boutique Ltd., Helfors Trade Ltd.,

Riveante Ltd., Sopso.com Ltd., IS

Commercial Ltd., Nesting Project Ltd.,

Nature Mobilis Ltd., Finest Fashion

Group Ltd., Baumax Estonia OÜ,

Adelor Ltd., Kids First LLC, Autoladu.ee

Portal Ltd., Text Elle OÜ, Maronek Ltd.

Estonian advertising agencies union

www.eral.ee

Description: The Estonian advertising

agencies union was founded in 1998

and was formed to protect members’

interests, as well as to award the

best agencies annually with the

“Kuldmuna” awards. ERAL’s vision is of

a better environment through better

ideas.

Members: The Estonian advertising

agencies union has very influential

members (approximately 99% of

the largest players on the market).

In June 2010 it had 41 members.

These agencies include: AGE McCann,

AD Angels, Artwerk, Blumberg,

Brilliant, DDB Eesti, Direct Group OÜ,

Do you CEE? Estonia

99

Ecwador, Euro RSCG Idea, Inorek &

Grey, TBWA\Guvatrak, Kala Ruudus,

Kontuur Leo Burnett, Plektrum Studio,

Refleks, SAN Korpus JWT, Smile Design

& Advertising, Zavod BBDO, Taevas



FULL NAME HOMEPAGE URL ADDRESS MAIN OFFICEADDRESS

CONTACT

1 Smartad smartad.eeRoo 42-7, Tallinn, Estonia


2 Adnet adnet.eePärnu mnt 147, Tallinn, Estonia


3 Klikivabrik klikivabrik.eeEndla 69,Tallinn, Estonia

Phone: +372-61-05-896 Email: [email protected]


Meelis Vill

Sales Director, Delfi Estonia


What are the opportunities and obstacles for the Estonian online advertising

market?

The advertising market is liberal and flexible towards the needs of clients. The

majority of main publishers are flexible regarding specific solutions. One obstacle

could be the high price of specialized solutions which limits the creativeness of

advertisements.

Dominating trends



Banners are getting larger. In addition to the day-based price model it is possible to

buy impressions from all major publishers.

Ogilvy, The Division AS, Tank, Vatson

Wunderman.

Do you CEE? Estonia

100




Most of the adspends of large international companies are at the moment being

spent on television. It would be important to find possibilities and arguments to

show television commercials on the internet.

Igor Rõtov

CEO, Äripäev AS:


What are the opportunities and obstacles for the Estonian online advertising

market on your local market?

We are expecting little growth in internet advertising, which will bring an increase

in its general share. The trend at the moment is to direct advertisements to exact

target groups. Those who have very general target groups will lose their market

share whereas those players who can gain smaller market segments or maintain

positions of niche leaders will win. The testing of innovative solutions and

technical possibilities will continue.

Dominating trends



News publishers will primarily try to offer paid content. Mobile applications, iPad

and e-readers are set to become more popular. On the other hand, consumers will

stay conservative and money will not be spent easily.




Local players have a good position to win this battle. Estonia is too small market

for Google, Microsoft or other major global players to especially invest here. Local

players on the other hand have the substantive and technical expertise, resources

and motivation to strengthen their positions.

Hungary4,30minternet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_



103103

104106

107108

108109

111111

112112

113113

114115

117



Do you CEE? Hungary

103



PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 google.hu search engine 3 927 644 - - 08:10:01 91%

2 youtube.com video sharing 2 777 829 - - 03:10:32 65%

3 iwiw.hu social network 2 771 643 1 764 264 408 637 05:24:32 64%

4 startlap.huhorizontal portal / web directory

2 287 189 - - 03:00:52 53%

5 freemail.hu mail provider 1 948 731 136 630 017 70 01:54:35 45%

6 facebook.com social network 1 910 368 - - 04:40:15 44%

7 blog.hu blog site 1 902 768 36 799 044 19 00:34:31 44%

8 live.comMicrosoft’s interactiv services platform

1 668 642 - - 00:35:18 39%

9 origo.hu horizontal portal 1 630 868 55 484 691 34 02:00:06 38%

10 microsoft.com company site 1 563 662 - - 00:10:11 36%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Hungary by reach level (gemius/Ipsos Audience, March 2010)

The ranking of the most popular

websites in terms of the number

of real users in Hungary provides

an interesting picture of internet

users. Global websites, such as

google.hu (91%), youtube.com

(65%), facebook.com (44%), live.

com (39%) and microsoft.com (36%)

are very popular among Hungarians.

Moreover, unlike on many other

CEE online markets, local horizontal

portals and news services are not

websites with the highest reach

level in Hungary.

A local site with the largest number

of real users is a social networking

service, iWiW.hu, with a reach level

of 64% in March 2010, which gave

it third place in the top 10 ranking

of websites. The second popular

service of this kind is the global

1. MAIN PLAYERS


service Facebook. Its reach level in

March 2009 amounted to only 10%

and this year it was 44%.

With a reach level of 53% startlap.

hu ranked fourth. It is the most

popular local web directory, which

includes links to social networking

websites, articles and all kinds of

useful information. Fifth place in

the ranking belongs to the mail

provider, freemail.hu. Its reach

level amounted to 45% in March

2010, according to gemius/Ipsos

Audience. It is not only an e-mail

service, but also has a gallery where

users can upload photos.

In 7th place, in terms of reach level,

was blog.hu with 44%. Blog.hu, part

of the portfolio of Central European

Media and Publishing, is the leading

Do you CEE? Hungary

104


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 tagged.com 52 464 - 12:07:07 1%

2 battleknight.hu 92 344 - 09:07:11 2%

3 google.hu 3 927 644 - 08:10:01 91%

4 hirlista.hu 31 791 - 07:49:00 1%

5 love.hu 137 860 848 07:36:10 3%

6 myvip.com 1 336 069 756 06:04:55 31%

7 freelove.hu 48 216 - 05:56:54 1%

8 kapu.hu 479 249 - 05:53:53 11%

9 iwiw.hu 2 771 643 637 05:24:32 64%

10 donna.hu 64 932 739 05:17:48 2%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Hungary by average time spent per user (gemius/Ipsos Audience,March 2010)


Hungarian blogging platform with

more than 70,000 active blogs.

The 9th ranking position was held

by origo.hu, the most popular

Hungarian portal with news and

services (the only one in the top

10 ranking). However, its popularity

is declining and in comparison

to March 2009 its reach level

decreased by 5 percentage points.

When describing the situation on

the Hungarian internet market,

it is crucial to take into account

the ownership structure of the

top websites. From this point

of view it can be easily noticed

that, apart from global players,

the undisputable leader in

terms of reach is Origo Média és

Kommunikációs Zrt., which

is a member of the Magyar Telekom

Group. This company owns 3 sites

in TOP10: iWiW.hu, freemail.hu and

origo.hu.

In terms of publisher-level reach of

media portfolios, Sanoma Budapest

(startlap.hu, citromail.hu, nlcafe.hu

etc.) and Central European Media

and Publishing (blog.hu, index.hu,

velvet.hu etc.) are the next biggest

local online media players after

Origo.

Do you CEE? Hungary

105

In terms of average time spent online,

the indisputable leaders are social

networking websites. According to

data from gemius/Ipsos Audience,

in March 2010 Hungarian internet

users spent more than 12 hours

visiting tagged.com. It is a different

kind of social networking website,

which enables its registered users

to meet new people through social

games, friend suggestions, browsing

profiles and group interests. Its reach

level amounted to only 1%, which is

worrying considering the fact that in

March 2009 it was 3 percentage points

higher.

Second place, with over 9 hours,

belonged to battleknight.hu, a free

online game created by a German

company Gameforge AG. Users can

choose whether they want to play as

a paladin in a shining armor or a dark

robber knight. There are 33 versions

of this game available for people from

different countries.

An average google.hu visitor spent

over 8 hours on this serch engine site

in March 2010, and only little less,

i.e. 7 hours 50 minutes, was spent by

visitors of hirlista.hu. It is a site which

collects news from several other

Hungarian news sites and provides

link to them. Thanks to the site,

users no longer need to visit many

different news portals, but click on the

most interesting links and are then

redirected to the original site where

the news was first published.

The next three places are occupied by

social networking websites: love.hu,

myvip.com and freelove.hu. They give

users the opportunity not only to stay

in touch with old friends, but also meet

new people. Love.hu and freelove.hu

serve mainly as dating sites, whereas

myvip.com has a more entertaining

character with lots of media content.

In March 2010 their users visited

the site for almost 6 hours or more

(love.hu – 7 hours 36 minutes).

Other social networking websites in

the ranking were iwiw.hu, the most

popular one in Hungary with almost

5 hours and 25 minutes spent per user,

and donna.hu, for young women with

a result of almost 5 hours and

18 minutes. The latter provides articles

on women topics, forums with expert

advice and a chat room. Moreover,

visitors can browse the classified ads.

One can join through an invitation

from a member or by permission of

the community if he is a man. What is

interesting is the fact that Facebook

was not included in this ranking.

Although it is a very popular social

networking service on the Hungarian

online market, its users spent less time

online here than the users of local

social networking websites.

In March 2010, one more Hungarian

site with users spending almost 6 hours

was kapu.hu. In this web directory

users can find links to social sites, news

services, and websites with diversified

topics. According to the gemius/

Ipsos Audience study, its reach level

amounted to 11% in March 2010.

Do you CEE? Hungary

106

engaged audience in terms of time

spent on the site (04:59:41 per

user). Apart from news on politics,

economics, technology, culture and

sports Index also offers direct access

to its community services (Inda) from

its front page, e.g. a blogging platform

(blog.hu), video (indavideo.hu) and

photo sharing (indafoto.hu) sites.

The forth position, with 31% reach

in the ranking, is taken by port.hu.

Established in 1996, the service aims

to provide culture-oriented content

programme and leisure information.

Port.hu presents data from official

and primary sources such as TV

channels, cinemas, theatres, and its

own content: reviews of films, photos

from concerts, etc. The company

belongs to PORT-network, a website

with subsidiaries in Romania, Slovakia,

Serbia and Croatia. Their main

function is providing internet and

other electronic content concerning

cultural offer information.

Another significant player in Hungary

is nlcafe.hu, which ranked fifth in the

top 5 portals ranking. It is an online

magazine for women, which provides

many features typical for such portals,

The leader among portals on the

Hungarian online market is startlap.hu,

which in fact is a combination

of a web directory and a service

aggregator, but is recognized as the

most popular portal in Hungary with

a reach level of 53% in March 2010.

It enables users to access e-mails,

search engines, social networks, radio

programs as well as dictionaries.

The second player in the category is

origo.hu. It is the most popular news

portal in Hungary as far as the number

of users is concerned. In addition to

the facilities typical for such portals,

it contains a section with holiday

offers and, furthermore, it has its

own online store and software

download section. Moreover, there

is a search engine that allows one to

browse through the yellow pages and

a telephone book. The reach level

of this service amounted to 38% in

March 2010 according to gemius/

Ipsos Audience.

With a 31% reach, index.hu was the

third most popular portal in Hungary.

It is owned by Central European

Media and Publishing. Among the

Hungarian portals, it has the most

1.3. TOP PORTALS


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 startlap.hu 2 287 189 - 03:00:52 53%

2 origo.hu 1 630 868 34 02:00:06 38%

3 index.hu 1 332 998 77 04:59:41 31%

4 port.hu 1 322 314 60 0:34:19 31%

5 nlcafe.hu 1 069 158 - 00:25:51 25%

Table 3 Top 5 portals in Hungary by reach level (gemius/Ipsos Audience, March 2010)

Do you CEE? Hungary

107


With regard to social network

communities, the leader is the local

website iWiW.hu, which dominated

websites participating in the gemius/

Ipsos Audience study. In March 2010,

it attracted an audience of over 2.7

million real users, which is 100,000

more than a year ago. However,

the reach level fell by 8 percentage

points. Apart from the typical

networking features, it also provides

its users with classified ads. A huge

advantage of iWiW.hu is easy access

from mobile devices.

Although there are many social

networking sites in Hungary, for

a long time there was no significant

competition to iWiW.hu. However,

the past year has shown major

growth in the reach level of

Facebook. In March 2009, its market

share slightly exceeded 10%, but

a year later it reached a level of 44%.


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 iwiw.hu 2 771 643 637 05:24:32 64%

2 facebook.com 1 910 368 - 04:40:15 44%

3 myvip.com 1 336 069 756 06:04:55 31%

4 hotdog.hu 1 026 115 - 01:30:22 24%

5 network.hu 677 737 - 00:19:38 16%

Table 4 Top 5 social networks in Hungary by reach level (gemius/Ipsos Audience March 2010)

such as a blog platform, online games,

multimedia galleries, online shopping

and a dating service. According to the

gemius/Ipsos Audience study, more

than 1,000,000 users visited the site in

March 2010.

Another important player is myvip.com,

with a reach level of 31%. In March

2010, the site was visited by over

1,300,000 real users. In comparison

to March 2009, its reach decreased

by 2 percentage points. Like iWiW.

hu, myvip.hu is an exclusive network

where users can only sign in when

they are invited by a member.

Myvip.hu is run by a company

specializing mainly in online

entertainment, Generál Média Kft.

Great attention is paid to the site’s

media content, therefore, users are

able to share their photos and videos.

Moreover, the service publishes video

material itself, also in HD format. In

terms of monthly average time spent

online per user, myvip.hu ranked first

with more than 6 hours.

In 4th place we find hotdog.hu,

a Hungarian social networking

website for young people. Users are

Do you CEE? Hungary

108


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 index.hu-Gazdaság 487 130 8 00:15:33 11%

2 vg.hu 318 474 8 00:08:54 7%

3 portfolio.hu 315 414 34 01:45:16 7%

Table 6 Top 3 finance sites in Hungary by reach level (gemius/Ipsos Audience, March 2010)


able to communicate with each other,

play games, read news or search for a

job. Moreover, the site offers a dating

service, forums and blogs.

The ranking is propped up by

network.hu, another Hungarian social

networking website, whose users can

join various communities and browse

through advertisements.

They can share photos, videos, links

and articles. However, its market

share decreased by 8 percentage

points in comparison to March 2009.


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 expressz.hu 1 065 524 105 01:09:21 25%

2 apronet.hu 339 798 10 00:09:27 8%

3 onlineapro.hu 177 173 21 00:14:04 4%

Table 5 Top 3 online classified ads in Hungary by reach level (gemius/Ipsos Audience, March 2010)


The main player on the classified ads

market in Hungary is expressz.hu,

with a reach level of 25%. A year ago

its reach level was 1 percentage point

higher. Advertisements are grouped

into 31 categories e.g. games, clothes,

job offers, cars, real estate. According

to the gemius/Ipsos Audience study,

the second most popular site with

classified ads, with a reach of 8%, was

apronet.hu. Third place belonged to

onlineapro.hu with a reach level of 4%.

According to information on the site it

stores more than 300,000 ads. The site

offers its users free registration and

online ads.

Do you CEE? Hungary

109

The online population in Hungary

is very balanced in terms of gender

structure. In March 2010 the majority

of Hungarian internet users were

men, but they constituted only 50.2%

of the online population, so their

predominance is not impressive. Men,

however, spent an average of 6.5

hours more online than women (58

hours compared to 51.5).

Like in other CEE markets,

Hungarian internet users are very

young. According to the gemius/

Ipsos Audience study, in March 2010

individuals aged 15-24 were the

majority and constituted 28%. 25%

constituted users aged 25-34. People

over 55 years accounted for 13% of

the audience and the percentage

is growing, which means that the

internet is becoming an even more

attractive medium for more mature

persons.

Hungarian internet users are

relatively well-educated. Although

only 7% had graduated from

a university, this is still a good

result, especially after taking into

consideration the age structure,

which is dominated by young internet

users. People with at least secondary

school education constituted 65%

of the Hungarian online population.

Only 1% of the internet audience

had incomplete elementary school

education in March 2010.

The majority of internet users in

Hungary live in big cities and larger

towns. According to the study carried

out by Gemius and Ipsos, Budapest

(the capital city) alone is home to as

The most popular service dedicated

to the economy in terms of reach

level is the subsection of the famous

horizontal portal index.hu, owned

by Central European Media and

Publishing(CEMP). With almost

500,000 internet users it reaches 11%

of the online audience in Hungary.

Portfolio.hu, also owned by CEMP,

reaches 7% of the audience who are

interested in finance. They spend

an average of more than 1 hour

45 minutes on the site. Portfolio.hu is

an economic portal with information

regarding, amongst others, finance,

stocks and exchange rates. Although

third as far as the number of real users

is concerned, , the website leaves both

its competitors behind in the number

of page views per user.

Second place is taken by vg.hu, the

online version of the newspaper

Világgazdaság, covering economic

and financial news. In March 2010 the

service had more than 310,000 real

users which gave it a reach level of

7%. However, compared to last year

a drop of 1 percentage point has been

observed.

2. ONLINE AUDIENCE

Do you CEE? Hungary

111

much as 21% of Hungarian internet

users as of March 2010. A further 16%

live in cities with more than 100,000

citizens. A significant proportion of

the online audience come from small

towns and villages and accounted for

22% of the online population.

In March 2010, students

constituted the largest group of

internet users (25%) in Hungary.

Another significant proportion

of internet users are specialists

(graduates) and qualified workers who

3.1. Browsers

Mozilla Firefox has been the most

popular browser in Hungary since the

beginning of 2009, when it overtook

Microsoft Internet Explorer. In the

first quarter of 2010 its market share

constituted 54%, whereas the MIE

constituted 37%. The third most

popular browser is Chrome, which

has been gaining an advantage over

Opera since the end of 2009 and

Chart 1 Top browsers in Hungary by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Hunga-rian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3. TOOLS

3.1. BROWSERS

during the first three months of the

2010 has gained 2 percentage points.

This trend seems to be continuing.


The most popular operating system in

Hungary was Windows XP, with a 76%

share in the first quarter of 2010.

However, its popularity has been

decreasing with the introduction of

Windows 7, which since then has

together constituted 31%. People who

are not professionally active did not

constitute an important proportion of

the online market; however, they are

undoubtedly the most active internet

users. In terms of average time spent

online per user they were far ahead of

any other group.

Do you CEE? Hungary

112

Chart 3 Top search engines in Hungary by share of visits made by internet users who visit Hungarian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3.3. SEARCH ENGINES

been gaining an ever larger share

of the market and is catching up

with Windows Vista. After the first

quarter of 2010, the market share

of Windows 7 amounted to 9.5%,

which ranked second among the top

operating systems in Hungary. Mac OS

X and Linux have been slowly gaining

popularity, but neither of them cover

more than 1% of the market.

3.3. Search engines

Like in other CEE countries, the

indisputable leader of the search

engine market in Hungary was Google

winning a market share of 97% in

Chart 2 Top operating systems in Hungary by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Hungarian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)


the first quarter of 2010. Bing, which

ranked second, contributed to only

1.5%.


Although the market share of 1024 x

768 monitor screen resolutions has

decreased, it is still the most popular

choice among Hungarians. Other

popular screen resolutions in the first

quarter of 2010 were 1280 x 800 and

1280 x 1024. The screen resolution

of 1440 x 900 as well as 1366 x 768

have become more popular in recent

years.

Do you CEE? Hungary

113

3.5. MOBILE DEVICES

Chart 5 Top 5 mobile devices in Hungary by the website-averaged percentage share of page views generated by internet users from Hungary, who visit Hungarian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10 **to 2010-07-25

Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Hungary by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Hungarian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)




the most popular mobile device

used to access the web in Hungary is

iPhone, which in July was responsible

for 36% of page views generated

by mobile devices on the average

website. Another Apple product,

iPad, had a 6% share, however, its

popularity is growing and from May

to July 2010 it gained 2 percentage

points. The third most popular mobile

device was Nokia 5800. Its users

generated 5% of the mobile traffic on

the average Hungarian website using

gemiusTraffic. Other devices in the

top 5 ranking were iPod and Nokia

E51.

Do you CEE? Hungary

114


IAB Hungary

www.iab.hu

Description: IAB Hungary was established in November 2008 as a division of the Hungarian Advertising Association. There are 48 founder members. The organization is concentrated on: increasing the awareness, usage and recognition of digital marketing and advertising solutions; assisting in the development of the digital marketing and digital media industries; lobbying at national and international forums for-profit, non-profit and governmental organizations; creating a common view (platform) in the industry by means of constant and credible communication with market players, various organizations, press and municipalities connected to the industry.

Members: agencies and sales houses (e.g., Adaptive Media, Carnation, EURO RSCG, Evomedia, Kirowski, Onlinemarketing.hu, Fastbridge, MEC Interaction), publishers (e.g. Axel Springer, Central European Media and Publishing, Expressz, Google, Magyar Telekom, MTM-SBS – TV2, Origo, Sanoma Budapest), research agencies (e.g. AGB Nielsen Médiakutató, Gemius Hungary, GFK Hungária Piackutató Intézet, Medián, NRC, Szonda Ipsos Piackutató), advertisers (CIB Bank, MOL, Vodafone) and technology service providers (e.g. Adverticum).

Association of Hungarian Content Providers (MTE)

www.mte.hu

Description: The Association of Hungarian Content Providers (MTE),

a self-regulating body, was founded in 2001 by Hungarian internet content providers, including Index and [origo], in order for the content providers to be able to participate in the development of the Hungarian internet business market with verified and professionally supported commitments using the tools of self-regulation.

MTE’s aim is to ensure that the internet is regulated with as little intervention as possible with emphasis on self-regulation. To this aim, MTE has created a professional code of internet content provision and a code of ethics describing the generally accepted system of ethical norms for Hungarian content provision. In order to decide about disputed matters, the association established a professional decision court, whose decisions are accepted by members of MTE as binding.

Members: publishers (e.g. T-Online Magyarország Rt., Index.hu Zrt., Népszabadság Online, www.napi.hu Online Kft., Kurt Lewin Alapítvány, Menedzsment Fórum Kft., Colorplus Kft.) service providers (e.g. Neumann János Digitális Könyvtár és Multimédia Központ Kht.)

Association of Communications Agencies in Hungary (MAKSZ)

www.maksz.com

Description: The Association of Communications Agencies in Hungary (MAKSZ) was set up by 13 leading advertising agencies in Hungary in May 1995. The main objective was to set up an organization especially focused on the interests of agencies. The MAKSZ is member of

Do you CEE? Hungary

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CONTACT

1Adaptive Media Sales HouseSales Contact Kft.

adaptivemedia.hu 93%1037 Budapest, Szépvölgyi út 33.

Phone:+36-1-577-4050 Phone:+36-1-577-4051

2 Origo Zrt. corp.origo.hu 91%1117 Budapest, Gábor Dé-nes u. 2. „D”

Phone:+36-1-371-3500Fax:+ 36-1-371-3805Email: [email protected]

3 Sanoma Budapest Zrt. sanomabp.hu 76%1037 Budapest, Montevideo u. 9.Flórián Udvar

Phone:+36-1-437-1100Fax:+36-1-437-3737Email: [email protected]

4CEMP Sales House, Index.hu Zrt.

cemp.hu 71% 1033 Budapest, Flórián tér 1.Phone:+36-1-555-7000Fax: +36-1-231-0862Email: [email protected]

5 Evomedia evomedia.hu 68%1097 Budapest, Vaskapu utca 10-14. D épület

Phone:+36-1-323-0360Fax:+36-1-323-0361Email: [email protected]

6 GMedia - Habostorta habostorta.hu 58%1094 Budapest, Tűzoltó u. 59.

Phone:+36-1-299-0318Fax:+36-1-299-0319

7Actual Media Sales HouseActual 77 Media Kft

actualmedia.hu 56% 1201 Budapest Pacsirta u.77.Phone: +36-1-998-0164Email: [email protected]

8 Generál Média Kft. ringier.hu 53%1053 Budapest Ferenciek tere 7-8. III. lh. I/8.

Email: [email protected]

9 Axel Springer Online axelspringer.hu 38%1122 Budapest Városmajor utca 11

Kolozs KrisztinaPhone: +36-1-488-5564Email: [email protected]

10 Lighthouse Média Kft.www.lighthouse-media.hu

34%1024 Budapest Margit krt. 15-17.

Lazók RómeóPhone: +36-30-456-3907Email: [email protected]

the European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA), which is the highest level of agency representation in the world. It can be assisted by a number of foreign experiences in the domestic processing industry, the development of marketing communication.

Members: There are already 51 members and the number is increasing. Agencies include: Euro RSCG Budapest Zrt., Ogilvy&Mather Reklámügynökség Budapest Zrt., Young & Rubicam Budapest, Createam Promotion, HPS BTL Solutions, Human

Telex Kft., Lauritzen Marketing Kft., Café Group, eMission, Initiative Media Hungary, Mediaedge:cia Hungary Kft. Media Planning Group Hungary Kft.).

http://www.iabeurope.eu

Do you CEE? Hungary

117


István KürtiDirector of Sales, Sanoma Budapest


What are the opportunities and obstacles for the Hungarian online advertising market?

The growth rate of internet penetration has slowed down recently, thus it is not the primary engine of the industry’s growth anymore. Nowadays the greatest opportunities are in displaying new and creative types of advertisements and enhancing the effectiveness of ads. To implement such changes the following actions should be taken:

clients should provide creatives congruent with website themesmeasurement standards should be developed effectivelythe potential of media convergence, e.g. ‘augmented reality’ should be used more intensivelyeffective targeting of video advertisements, sponsored videos and others should be applied

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are expected to develop most in the future?

Development might be expected after the falloff of the economic crisis mainly by those market segments that have suffered from an economic downturn the most (for example transport or real estate). Generally speaking, advertisers put more emphasis than ever on measurability and return on investment, thereupon the share of the internet in total advertising expenditure is growing.


Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete with the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this battle?

Generally speaking, though globalization unequivocally supports large, international companies, local content is still important for users. Due to this fact, Hungarian users can be found through domestic media. Sales teams taking this approach can provide the same level of services as the larger companies represented by sales houses.

Péter NovákChairman, IAB Hungary



•••

•

Do you CEE? Hungary

118

As a result of changes in consumer media usage online/digital communication itself is seen to be increasing, and it is not possible to avoid the processes that the economy and advertising market is going through.

Considering the fact that communication spending has decreased significantly in the last two years, it has also had a negative influence on online market growth and also decelerated it. The dynamics over the last few years are in parallel with the economic recovery and the visible growth of consumption. Also, the restructuring of the online market will not stop, so trends are influenced by measurability and efficiency most.

Dominating trends


Advertisers are increasingly more interested in solutions that are capable of generating sales directly and this affects the growth of targeting needs and also transforms pricing and financial accounting.

The expansion of both online shopping and e-commerce brings new advertisers to the market. Besides different direct communication environments, the constant development of online CRM solutions, the improvement of database construction and the growing appreciation of the data obtained are the most important trends. Furthermore, the significant strengthening of mobile media is expected.



When considering the role of global market players it is worth noting that nowadays those who provide services for domestic users without conducting any significant local operations form a great threat to Hungarian players in fields like searching, video hosting and social media.

On the other hand, while the search market is dominated by the leading global service provider, the position of the local social media market leader has not been really threatened. The video market has gone through remarkable changes, the ‘match’ has not finished. Overall, global competition will cause more difficulties for local market players during the next few years.

Market specifics

What makes your local online market unique? Are there any specifics that make it different from others in the CEE region?

While comparing the Hungarian online market with other CEE countries many similarities as well as differences can be found. Online markets in this part of the world are rather small, internet penetration oscillates at a medium level and local competition is strong.

Do you CEE? Hungary

119

Taking into consideration the development of the online advertising market, Hungary belongs to the CEE leaders, but in a certain sense it is still rather conservative.

Gabor Tóth Head of Digital of Omnicom Media Group (OMG)



The biggest obstacle is the prolonged financial crisis and economic downturn. However, this is also an opportunity, as investors are turning to effective and cost efficient channels to use their limited marketing budgets.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What branches are expected to develop most in the future?

The two main areas receiving a lot of attention are search and social media. Search is finally getting the recognition it deserved as advertisers are learning how to use this channel best. Social media is at the stage of experimentation: although many companies feel the urge to use it, many mistakes are being made. The third area which will experience intense growth is video advertising.


Are your local market players strong enough to compete with the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they have in this battle?

Local language in non-user generated content is the key, so global players are not a significant threat in this area. However, in other fields it is clear that local players are struggling to keep up with the pace of development dictated by the global players: Google search, Facebook, YouTube are either already the undisputable winners in their own segment or they are going to be one in the near future.

Market specifics

What makes your local online market unique? Are there any specifics that make it different it from others in the CEE region?

The importance of social network sites and the way Hungarians use them. We love to share photos, videos with our friends – and we do it with more commitment than other countries in the region. It almost seems like we preferred to meet up online.

Latvia1.20minternet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_



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Do you CEE? Latvia

121



PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 inbox.lv horizontal portal 792 531 245 041 702 309 06:17:28 66%

2 draugiem.lv social network 739 786 1 249 803 404 1689 24:20:44 62%

3 delfi.lv horizontal portal 665 600 98 698 672 148 03:33:09 55%

4 ss.lv classified ads 598 001 241 360 669 404 03:21:33 50%

5 tvnet.lv horizontal portal 450 903 37 609 480 83 02:29:12 38%

6 apollo.lv horizontal portal 416 432 36 821 077 88 01:54:59 35%

7 one.lv social network 337 475 277 799 261 823 10:03:18 28%

8 1188.lv information service 296 934 3 852 033 13 00:10:42 25%

9 zip.lv classified ads 289 721 18 423 529 64 00:43:20 24%

10 zl.lv information service 277 005 3 063 874 11 00:11:37 23%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Latvia by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

The most popular websites in terms

of reach can be classified into four

categories. Similarly to other CEE

markets, the leadership belongs to

horizontal portals. In March 2010,

number one in the ranking was inbox.lv,

a mail service that evolved into a

horizontal portal with a reach level

of 66%. However, in comparison to

March 2009, its reach decreased by 3

percentage points and this is not an

exception; the same situation applies

in case of other horizontal portals. The

reach level of delfi.lv, which ranked

third, dropped by 2 percentage points

(from 57% to 55%) and tvnet.lv and

apollo.lv had reach levels 3 percentage

points lower than the previous year

(38% and 35%, respectively).

The second significant group within

the Latvian internet market are social

networking services. Interestingly,

1. MAIN PLAYERS


despite strong competition from

global social networks, the position

of the local ones remains very strong.

The unquestionable leader, with

a reach level of 62%, is draugiem.lv.

Its growing popularity can be

confirmed by the fact that its reach

level increased by 3 percentage points

during the last twelve months.

The other popular social network

in Latvia in March 2010 was one.lv.

It had a reach level of 28% (still,

regarding one.lv this indicator has

dropped) and over 300,000 real users.

Unlike draugiem.lv, which is visited

mainly by Latvians, one.lv is more

popular with Russian users.

What is also characteristic about the

Latvian online market is the high

popularity of online classified ads

services. With a reach level of 50%,

ss.lv occupied the fourth position in

Do you CEE? Latvia

122


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 draugiem.lv 739 786 1,689 24:20:44 62%

2 one.lv 337 475 823 10:03:18 28%

3 inbox.lv 792 531 309 06:17:28 66%

4 boomtime.lv 150 902 285 04:05:33 13%

5 delfi.lv 665 600 148 03:33:09 55%

6 ss.lv 598 001 404 03:21:33 50%

7 tvnet.lv 450 903 83 02:29:12 38%

8 sportacentrs.com 142 797 99 02:26:17 12%

9 mail.ru 246 811 93 02:17:16 21%

10 spoki.lv 211 600 120 01:59:51 18%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Latvia by average time spent per user (gemiusAudience, March 2010)


the ranking of top websites. Zip.lv,

whose introduction to the market in

June 2008 was a great success, comes

9th. However, its popularity seems

to have reached its peak and during

the last year, its reach level decreased

by 1%.

The fourth significant website category

in Latvia is the group of information

services, which enable users to search

for company services, shops or places

on a map. The most popular Latvian

information service is 1188.lv with

a reach level of 25% in March 2010

which gave it the 8th position among

the most popular websites by

reach. Apart from the normal kinds

of services offered by this sort of

websites, 1188.lv also contains useful

information on different means of

transport, an entertainment section

and job offers.

In August 2009 another information

service, zl.lv, was included in the

gemiusAudience study with a reach

level of 15%, which soon started to

grow. In March 2010 its reach level

amounted to a surprisingly high 23%.

The site is organized in a very simple

way, all available information is

divided into nine categories together

with an additional “most wanted” one.

Apart from Latvian, its users can also

choose the Russian or English version

of the website.

The first two places in the top 10

websites by average time spent per

user are occupied by social networking

sites. Similarly to people from other

CEE countries, Latvians enjoy spending

long hours socializing with their

acquaintances online. An average user

of the most popular social networking

service in Latvia, draugiem.lv, spent

more than 24 hours visiting the

website in March 2010. Users of one.lv

are not so much active online, but

Do you CEE? Latvia

123

still spent more than 10 hours on

the site. Another social networking

service in the ranking, boomtime.lv,

occupied fourth place. However, in

terms of average time spent per user

it was far behind the two leaders, with

approximately 4 hours spent visiting

the site in March 2010.

A relatively strong position in the

ranking is held by horizontal portals.

Inbox.lv, which has the greatest reach

level in Latvia, ranked third, with 6

hours and 17 minutes spent online

by an average user a month. The

users of the second portal, delfi.lv,

spent more than 3.5 hours reading

the news published on the site in

March 2010. Only one hour less online

was spent by visitors of tvnet.lv and

sportacentrs.com. The latter is a sports

portal offering its users current news

concerning sports events and the

private lives of sportspeople. Apart

from articles there are also a video

section, a gallery and a forum.

It has already been mentioned that

classified ads services are very popular

on the Latvian online market. As

can be seen in the top 10 ranking by

average time spent per user, they

are not only visited by a large part of

the internet audience, but also their

visitors spend much time online. In

March 2010 an average user of ss.lv

spent 3 hours and 22 minutes on the

website, placing it on the 6th position

in the ranking.

The ninth place in the ranking was

occupied by mail.ru, which is a Russian

horizontal portal. The site is very

popular in all the Baltic states due to

the fact that the Russian minorities

account for a significant part of the

Baltic population. In Latvia, mail.

ru had almost 250,000 real users in

March 2010, who on average spent

over 2 hours there.

The ranking, based on the results

obtained with the gemiusAudience

study conducted in March 2010, was

propped up by spoki.lv, a Latvian

entertainment platform with

humorous articles, photos and

videos for young people seeking

entertainment. It had a reach level of

18% and an average user spent almost

2 hours on the site in March.

1.3. TOP PORTALS


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 inbox.lv 792 531 309 06:17:28 66%

2 delfi.lv 665 600 148 03:33:09 55%

3 tvnet.lv 450 903 83 02:29:12 38%

4 apollo.lv 416 432 88 01:54:59 35%

5 diena.lv 218 093 22 00:34:49 18%

Table 3 Top 5 portals in Latvia by reach level (gemiusAudience March 2010)

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124



PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 draugiem.lv 739 786 1689 24:20:44 62%

2 one.lv 337 475 823 10:03:18 28%

3 irc.lv 152 613 40 00:41:19 13%

4 boomtime.lv 150 902 285 04:05:33 13%

5 orb.lv 137 362 19 00:20:20 11%

Table 4 Top 5 social networks in Latvia by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

The top 5 portals on the Latvian

online market also occupy the leading

positions in the general rankings.

In March 2010, the leader was inbox.lv,

which is not a typical horizontal

portal and differs from similar sites in

neighboring countries. Usually, they

are news-oriented services, whereas

inbox.lv offers a free e-mail service and

is an entertainment-style website with

a variety of games and jokes accessible

after registration. Also, it publishes

news from apollo.lv and has its own

social networking portal - amigos.lv.

The second player in this category

is delfi.lv, which provides its users

with the latest news and in addition

has a blog, chat and webmail service

and info related to entertainment

and lifestyle. Moreover, it has an

entertainment channel with games

and a forum and a video section,

where users can either watch available

video content or upload their own. It

was one of the first portals to have its

own mobile versions: m.delfi.lv, i.delfi.lv.

Recently it has had a facelift, but this

did not stop its decreasing reach level,

which in March 2009 accounted for

57%, and a year later - 55%.

The third place belonged to tvnet.lv.

It is one of the best local news

providers, but it also has an online TV

service and co-operates with major

offline stations in order to manage

the best video content. Similarly to

delfi.lv, the portal underwent a facelift

last year and created a mobile version,

m.tvnet.lv. Tvnet.lv had, according to

the gemiusAudience study from March

2010, a reach level of 38%.

Another important player among

Latvian portals is apollo.lv with more

than 415,000 real users. The portal

is a typical news publishing site with

diversified subdomains. Its strong side

is its video content with a possibility

to watch TV programs in real time.

Apollo.lv collaborates with some of

the smallest sites within their media

group.

In the fifth place is diena.lv,

a horizontal portal with a reach level of

18%. Since it is an online version of the

respected daily newspaper, it focuses

mainly on high quality text content.

Moreover, it offers paid content from

its daily newspaper where users can

find more analytical articles. Apart

from that, it develops user-generated

content. In comparison to March 2009

the number of its real users grew

by 30,000 and its popularity is still

growing.

Do you CEE? Latvia

125


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 ss.lv 598 001 404 03:21:33 50%

2 zip.lv 289 721 64 00:43:20 24%

3 reklama.lv 197 237 58 00:31:41 16%

Table 4 Top 3 online classified ads in Latvia by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)


The most popular social networking

service in Latvia is draugiem.lv, the

second most popular Latvian website

in terms of reach. From March 2009

to March 2010 it gained over 70,000

new real users, thereby increasing its

reach level by 3 percentage points.

Moreover, as mentioned before,

draugiem.lv is also leading in the

ranking of websites by average time

spent online. Its success can be put

down to a complex and well-managed

platform, mixing the concepts and

functionalities of global brands such as

Facebook and Twitter. What is more,

it is still developing and trying to reach

new audience for example by a recent

introduction of an option to create

company profiles.

Another important player is one.lv,

which is especially popular among

Russian-speaking users. According to

the gemiusAudience study in March

2010 its reach level accounted for

28%. In contrast to draugiem.lv, one.lv

is losing traffic. In comparison to

March 2009, its reach level declined by


The indisputable leader when it comes

to the classified ads online market

in Latvia is ss.lv with a reach level

of 50%. The ads are classified into

12 categories and are available

Amongst the services with the highest

reach level, there also are irc.lv and

boomtime.lv with a reach level of

13%. The first, like one.lv, is popular

among Russian speaking internet

users. It is dedicated to internet users

aged 15-24, who can search for their

friends, use chat rooms or visit the

blog section. Boomtime.lv has over

150,000 real users and although in the

ranking it claimed 4th place, in terms

of average time spent online it was far

ahead of irc.lv.

The last site in the ranking is orb.lv,

a non-typical social networking site

with a reach level of 11%. Its users are

not so much into meeting their friends

online but they would rather listen

to music or visit the blog section and

orb.lv gives them this possibility. Most

of its users are 18-25 years old.

in Latvian and Russian. The second

place among the classified ads sites in

March 2010 belonged to zip.lv, a relatively

new player with a reach level of 24%.

It started from the draugiem.lv

Do you CEE? Latvia

126


PAGE VIEWS PER USERS


REACH

1 financenet.lv 155 740 10 00:11:52 13%

2 db.lv 95 122 24 00:32:41 8%

Table 6 Top 2 finance sites in Latvia by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)


According to the data from the

gemiusAudience study, the most

popular financial sites in Latvia are

financenet.lv and db.lv. The first one

works as a part of tvnet.lv, a popular

Latvian horizontal portal that ranked

fifth in the top 10 websites by reach

ranking. However, financenet.lv

has its own logo and a separate

domain and its results are measured

independently. In March 2010 it

had a reach level of 13% and over

150,000 real users. Financenet.lv

publishes articles concerning business

and finance. It has a special section

devoted to foreign financial markets.

In comparison to March 2009 its reach

level decreased by 3 percentage points

as did the number of users, by more

than 20,000.

The second significant player on the

finance sites market in Latvia in March

2010 was db.lv with a reach level

of 8%. It is the digital version of the

business newspaper “Dienas Bizness”,

but its content is original. Users are

not only able to read online news,

but also subscribe and get the printed

version of the newspaper and gain

access to archives with older articles in

PDF format. In terms of average time

spent online per visitor, db.lv beats

financenet.lv. Its users on average

spent more than half an hour visiting

this site in March 2010.

hours and 20 minutes) than men, who

surfed the web for almost 30 hours

and 54 minutes.

Similarly to other CEE online

markets, Latvia is also dominated


study in March 2010, women

constituted 52% of the online

population, while men comprised

48%. Furthermore, women on average

spent more time online (around 32

2. ONLINE AUDIENCE

platform and in a short time became

a successful player on the Latvian

internet market. In the third place

is reklama.lv with a 16% reach and

almost 200,000 real users.

Do you CEE? Latvia

128

Majority of internet users in

Latvia live in large cities (72%). In

March 2010, 39% of the Latvian online

population lived in the capital city

(Riga) and a further 10% in the Riga

region. 8% of Latvian internet users

live in small towns and 10% in villages.

People in Daugavpils spent the least

amount of time online - on average

only 23 hours and 17 minutes per user

a month.

The most numerous group in

terms of occupation (22%) among

Latvian internet users in March 2010

was ‘specialists and office employees’.

The second force within the internet

users were students, who were

also among the leaders in terms of

activity per user, with 32 hours and

42 minutes. Another active group was

farmers. In March 2010 they accounted

for only 1% of the researched internet

audience, however, during this month

each of these users spent over 36

hours surfing the web. Marginally less

time was spent online by unemployed

people, who in March accounted for

9% of the internet audience in Latvia.

by young people. According to the


people aged 15-34 accounted for 53%

of the online population. The highest

percentage of users (28%) are people

aged 15-24.

In comparison to March 2009 the

proportion of people over 55 years

old grew by 2 percentage points. It has

been observed that not only more

older people have become interested

in the internet, but also it can be

observed that the Latvian internet is

maturing together with its users.

Most Latvian internet users have

a higher education (29%) or have

finished vocational schools (29%).

The next significant group includes

high school graduates and constitutes

19% of the Latvian online population.

A mere 13% of internet users in Latvia

have only elementary or incomplete

high school education. However,

this group leads in terms of average

time spent online with almost 40 hours

a month.

Chart 1 Top browsers in Latvia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Latvian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3. TOOLS

3.1. BROWSERS

Do you CEE? Latvia

129

Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Latvia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Latvian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)


3.1. Browsers

The most popular browser in Latvia

is Firefox with a market share of 53%.

At the beginning of 2009 it overtook

Microsoft Internet Explorer, whose

popularity has been declining and in

the first quarter of 2010 had a market

share of 34%. The third most popular

browser is Chrome followed by Opera.


during the three first months of 2010

Chrome gained 2 percentage points

and the trend is sustained.


The leader of the operating systems

market in Latvia is Windows XP with

a 76% share in the first quarter of

2010. However, its popularity has

been decreasing since the introduction

of Windows Vista. Windows 7 was

launched in Latvia in the second

quarter of 2009 and since then it has

been gaining an ever larger share of

the market and is catching up with

Windows Vista. After the first quarter

of 2010 its market share accounted

for 9%. Mac OS X and Linux are slowly

gaining popularity, but still each of

them covers less than 1% of the

market.

3.3. Search engines

Similarly to other CEE online search

engines markets, the Latvian one is

dominated by Google with a market

share of 97% in the first quarter of

2010. The second place belonged to

Yandex and the third to MSN, both

of them had a market share of only

about 1%.


Although the market share of 1024

x 768 monitor screen resolutions

has decreased in the last few years,

Chart 2 Top operating systems in Latvia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Latvian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)


Chart 3 Top search engines in Latvia by share of visits made by internet users who visit Latvian websi-tes using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3.3. SEARCH ENGINES

Do you CEE? Latvia

130


LRA (Latvian Advertising association)

www.lra.lv

Description: The Latvian Advertising

association (LAA) is a public

organization, established in 1994

with the objective to unite 3 parties

working in the advertising industry:

advertisers, mass media and

advertising agencies. From the very

start the main aim of the association

was to organize the advertisement

market by improving the quality of

advertisements, building up its positive

image in society and contending

against new legal regulations regarding

the limits of advertising distribution in

the mass media.

Chart 5 Top 5 mobile devices in Latvia by the website-averaged percentage share of page views generated by internet users from Latvia, who visit Latvian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10 **to 2010-07-25

3.5. MOBILE DEVICES

it is still the most popular choice among Latvians. Other popular screen resolutions among those who visit Latvian sites using the gemiusTraffic in the first quarter of 2010 were 1280 x 1024 and 1280 x 800. Also the screen resolution of 1440 x 900 has been gaining popularity over the recent years.


According to the gemiusTraffic study, the most popular mobile device used

to access the web in Latvia is the iPhone, which in July was responsible for 27% of page views generated by mobile devices on an average website. Yet, its domination is gradually diminishing and its share fell by 4 percentage points in two months. As with other markets the loss is in favor of the iPad, Apple’s latest product, which in the same period extended its share by 3 percentage points. The other devices in the top 5 oscillate around 3%.

Do you CEE? Latvia

131

Members: advertising agencies,

mass media, mass media agencies,

advertisers, production companies,

catalog publishers, research institutes;

banks.

LADC (Latvian Artdirector Club)

www.ladc.lv

Description: The LADC (Latvian

Artdirector Club) is a non-profit

organization that represents

specialists from Latvia’s design and

advertising sector as well as other

creative professions. It was founded

by the main market players. LADC

holds regular workshops and lectures

inviting lecturers from the world’s

leading agencies and independent

artists in order to exchange

experiences and improve the creative

competence of the Latvian advertising

market.

Members: Creative, advertising and

web agencies, their workers and

independent artists.

Latvian Internet Association

www.lia.lv

Description: The Latvian Internet

Association brings together

companies connected with the

internet and online services;

it informs members about important

changes in legislation, new public

online projects, global case studies,

and the suchlike. Its main aims are

the development of the Latvian

internet market and educating market

members about various internet

issues. It was founded in 2000 by

15 internet market players with

the intention of becoming the main

internet association in Latvia.

Members: internet providers,

software developers, web design

developers, programming companies,

internet research companies and

others (e.g. Izzi SIA, Microsoft Latvia,

Latnet Serviss, Latvenergo , Euro Data,

Lattelecom).

The Latvian Information Technology

and Telecommunications Association

www.likta.lv

Description: LIKTA is a non-

governmental association bringing

together ITTE product and

service providers and educational

institutions, as well as over 150

individual professional members

of the ITTE industry sector in

Latvia. LIKTA is actively involved in

discussing legislation and monitoring

public procurement procedures for

ITTE products and services. It was

founded in 1998 by the major

market players. At the 2002 annual

meeting the members of LIKTA

adopted a declaration on the need

to develop the ITTE sector listing

a number of concrete steps to be

taken into account. The declaration

has been forwarded to top

government officials, political parties

and other competent authorities.

By 2007 almost all steps had been

accomplished.

Members: Computer hardware

and software developers, internet

providers, telecommunications

infrastructure and service providers

and developers, web developers,

electronics (e.g. Exigen Services

Latvia, LATTELECOM SIA, Institute of

Do you CEE? Latvia

132





CONTACT

1 Adnet adnet.lv 55%Caka str. 83/85 – 30, Riga, Latvia

Phone: + 371 67 29 25 23Fax: + 371 67 18 64 06Email: [email protected]

2 SmartAD smartad.lv -Vienibas gatve 75A,Riga, Latvia

Phone: + 371 28 36 40 65Email: [email protected]

3 Inspired Affiliate inpired.lv -Stabu str. 54,Riga, Latvia

Phone: + 371 67 83 06 61 Fax: + 371 67 83 06 60Email: [email protected]

4Lattelecom Affiliate

affiliate.lattelecom.lv -Dzirnavu str. 105, Riga, Latvia

Fax: + 371 80 00 80 41Email: [email protected]

Mathematics and Computer Science

of UL, RIX Technologies, Tieto Enator

& Alise).

Association of Computer Technologies

of Latvia (LDTA)

www.itnet.lv

Description: Founded in 1997,

the Association of Computer

Technologies of Latvia (LDTA) is

a non-profit organization and

the oldest association on the Latvian

IT market. The founders and members

are the largest IT companies and

best known juridical individuals that

deal with IT solution development

and implementation together with

IT wholesale product enterprises.

At present members of LDTA are

involved in processes that support

the creation of information

society infrastructure and are

actively using and promoting New

Economy principles. In order to

provide a friendly environment

for the development of IT and

telecommunications development,

in 2000 LDTA became a founder

of ITTE ALLIANCE which unites

professional associations that

represent Latvian-based enterprises

and scientific and educational

institutions whose work is connected

with electronics and electrical

engineering as well as information

technology and telecommunications.

Members: IT product sellers,

computer hardware developers and

sellers, IT infrastructure developers

(e.g. Capital Ltd, MicroLink Systems,

Lursoft IT).

Do you CEE? Latvia

133


Viktors Rožkalns

OMG Digital Manager, Omnicom Media Group


What are the opportunities and obstacles for the online advertising market on

your local market?

It is easy to target potential customers because we have exact information

about all popular portals. However, we still need to find the best ways to use

this space. Traditional Giga banners are not working well so we need to find

new places, new kinds of banners. Portals also are developing new forms of

banners. A major obstacle is a lack of buying options. In most cases there is only

one currency: price for days, but increasingly more clients are willing to buy

impressions or clicks.

Dominating trends



It is obvious that a lot of companies are willing to use creative interactive web

solutions for their campaigns but not all of them are ready to pay for them.

Many companies are still choosing to use standard banners but internet users

more often like interaction with a brand than just clicking on banners. There

are also ready platforms for interaction: the social portal draugiem.lv as well as

others. Many companies use also Google Adwords but still this is only a small

part of the whole web budget. We predict that companies will continue to

mainly buy traditional banners but interactive web solutions will also grow. With

many risks come success stories which provoke other companies to take similar

risks and spend more on these solutions and receive in return more than using

traditional formats.




battle?

Local players are much stronger than global ones because global players cannot

compete with the content that local players are providing. One exception

of course is Google with its Adwords and display ads. Facebook is becoming

stronger in Latvia but the number of Facebook users is still under 120,000 and it

Do you CEE? Latvia

134

has stopped growing after a rapid increase of users at the beginning of 2010.

Also, we do not have a great deal of information about Latvian web users who

visit global portals.

Market specifics



Latvia is one of few countries where the strongest social networking site is not

Facebook but draugiem.lv. This makes this particular local market different among

other markets. What has become most important to brands of late is interaction

with its consumers, customers. Draugiem.lv contains many nonstandard features

available which would not be possible in Facebook.

In this small market there are fewer than 10 portals, the major players. Thus,

the largest part of web media budgets is spent on those portals.

Edgars Kalniņš

BiFri Brand Communication Manager, SIA BITE Latvija



your local market?

The techniques used are extremely blunt so there are a lot of opportunities

for innovative solutions but on the other hand most marketers have a limited

understanding about online advertising.

Dominating trends



Companies think more about a return on online investment so tracking and

measuring ad efficiency should grow accordingly.




Local players are still strong but the foundation of their position is the local

language. This foundation could quite easily be eroded if the global giants decide

to go for it.

Do you CEE? Latvia

135

Market specifics


The market is small and also split into two languages.

Dmitry Gizhdevan

Marketing Director, SIA Inbokss (inbox.lv)



local market?

With one of the highest indices in Eastern Europe (approx. 60%), the online

advertising market in Latvia takes only a small part of the total advertising market

(11% in 2009). The greatest opportunity and objective for online media in the

upcoming years would be to enlarge the role of online advertising in the total

media mix on account of traditional and less effective media. The prediction for

the upcoming years is that online advertising will reach up to second place in

media channels and the greatest part of advertising turnover will be shared by TV

and online advertising.

Despite a decline in the advertising market in total, at present a tangible increase

is visible in online advertising. Major players have strengthened their positions

in the online advertising market despite the fact that many market players have

implemented a chaotic, nontransparent and non-predictable sales model, which in

turn has had a negative impact not only on the current situation, but also on long

term market development.

An essential factor which is impeding the development of the advertising market

is unequal stats data on measuring different advertisement channels. Due to the

fact that only two media channels in Latvia, TV and internet, are measured using

modern digital measure methods, advertisers have a feeling of non-transparency

of the whole advertisement market, which in its turn leads to more careful and

slower investment in advertising.

Dominating trends



Almost all of the global trends have been observed in Latvia, albeit with a small

delay. They have had little impact on the market since Latvian internet users are

relatively conservative. Only some residents follow the trends. It reflects the

Do you CEE? Latvia

136

Pareto Principle in that 80% of users do not follow trends whereas 20% of users

do. 5% of the total number of users are seen to use the possibilities of these new

trends.

For example, at present games on social networking sites are developing at an

extremely fast rate and the advertisement market has reacted to this by placing

advertisements on such sites. The mentioned advertisement model has not been

able to prove its efficiency yet, however such a trend exists.

Using the internet for two-sided communication with the consumer has also

been observed. But unfortunately due to the lack of specialists and qualitative

local stages it is developing slowly. Regardless of this, there are several

successful cases of consumer and brand correlation.

Latvian online advertising market players often try to force some trends onto

the market, which might be profitable for them. For example, in late 2009

a line of media introduced a CPC payment model for display advertisements,

but this trend passed very quickly. One more essential trend, which appeared

on the internet from the press was news media overproduction. Several years

ago there was a case on the press market where a large number of news media

were observed. The same trend is visible now in the internet, but it is also slowly

passing.

Various trends are likely to develop rapidly, including third party measuring

systems, which digital departments of media agencies lack at the moment.




battle?

Despite the fact that internet penetration in Latvia is great, the Latvian market

is small and not interesting for global players. This situation will continue for

several more years. It is necessary to point out that this has created a chance for

local portals to become strong in almost all areas except in searching services.

Local portals were able to guarantee users the necessary internet tools, by

taking into account the specifics of local users. Unlike global players, who when

entering a new market have tried to change it to their needs, local players

understand their own users much better and are able to provide products by

taking into account user specifics, which in turn is highly evaluated by local

users. This tendency can be seen by analyzing the latest brands (Latvia’s Most

Loved Brands http://inx.lv/E0 ). The two most popular local internet media are

in 3rd and 4th places in the general brand top list, in turn as local brands these

internet media came 1st and 2nd. These results show that Latvian users highly

rate local products and this will help when competing with global players.

Do you CEE? Latvia

137

It is also worth pointing out that most local portals are slightly different

technologically from the global players, since local portals switch basic

investments to product development, which is necessary for local users. The

number of services offered by the local players is smaller than that of the global

players, however they are suited to local needs due to the fact that local players

understand local users much better.

Market specifics


it different from others in the CEE region?

The Latvian online market is unique with regards to the level of penetration.

Thanks to Latvia’s rural regions this continues to grow. Regardless of penetration

proportional results, compared with other countries, the number of users in

total is extremely low because the number of residents is small. Most users are

conservative and choose local resources instead of global ones on condition that

such an analogous service exists on the local market. In the TOP five Most Loved

brands there are 3 internet portals of which 1 is global and 2 are local.

Unique differences exist also in the online advertising market in total.

Unlike many other markets, on the Latvian online advertising market display

advertisements have a stable position, advertisements in searching services

make up a small proportion. In all probability, this is connected with the fact that

users rely less on advertisements in searching services, and on the other hand

there is little pro-active drive in searching services in order to provide this type

of advertisement to their partners. Due to the fact that the market is relatively

small, investment requires a great deal of effort.

Another important factor is bilingualism in Latvia, which distinguishes the

country from other CEE markets. Most local portals have to deal only with one

part of the audience, the others have to consider language, ethnic and other

psychographic indexes to maintain two services simultaneously.

Lithuania1.48minternet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_



139139

140141

142143

144144

146146

147147

147148

149150

151



Do you CEE? Lithuania

139



PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 delfi.lt portal, news service 1 003 791 102 444 194 102 02:53:59 59%

2 one.lt social network 766 423 677 488 843 884 08:27:00 45%

3 lrytas.lt portal, news service 757 397 57 255 390 76 01:49:00 44%

4 balsas.lt portal, news service 665 740 8 051 562 12 00:16:24 39%

5 draugas.lt social network 609 752 299 279 202 491 04:24:15 36%

6 alfa.lt portal, news service 592 062 16 667 809 28 00:36:52 35%

7 skelbiu.lt classified ads 589 169 58 681 601 100 01:01:42 34%

8 plius.lt classified ads 561 033 68 780 425 123 01:40:21 33%

9 15min.lt portal, news service 548 557 17 871 519 33 01:07:47 32%

10 zebra.lt portal, news service 496 880 14 820 800 30 00:32:27 29%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Lithuania by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

Portals and news services maintain

the leadership in the top 10 reach

ranking. The most popular service

among websites participating in

the research in Lithuania is delfi.lt,

a well-known horizontal portal, with

more than 1 million real users and

a reach level of almost 59%. In the

previous year, the portal launched

the subdomains auto.delfi.lt,

dedicated to auto news and classified

ads, and myep.delfi.lt providing news

on the European Parliament. Other

popular news services are lrytas.lt,

balsas.lt and alfa.lt.

The runner-up in the top 10 websites

list is one.lt, a social networking site

with a reach of 45%. However, in

comparison to 2009 its number of

real users decreased by around 177

thousand. In turn, draugas.lt, also a

social networking service, extended its

1. MAIN PLAYERS


online audience. In March 2009

it had a reach level of 34%, whereas

in March 2010 this amounted to 36%.

In terms of average time spent per

visitor the leader is one.lt with 8 hours

27 minutes, but the tendency is

decreasing; in March 2009 the average

visitor spent over 11 hours and 46

minutes on the site.

With a reach of over 30% the 7th

and 8th positions belong to classified

ads portals skelbiu.lt and plius.lt. In

January 2009 plius.lt came in 4th place

in the ranking, but in March 2009 its

reach began to fall dramatically and in

May 2009 it was overtaken by skelbiu.lt.

Although it made some attempts to

regain its former position, for example

by updating its design in November

2009 and adding new functionalities

as per users’ wishes, it did not manage

to achieve its former reach level.


140


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 one.lt 766 423 884 08:27:00 45%

2 draugas.lt 609 752 491 04:24:15 36%

3 pazintysxxx.lt (erotic) 43 650 304 03:43:47 3%

4 starchat.lt 7 577 231 03:09:26 0.44%

5 mail.ru 212 063 122 03:05:55 12%

6 inbox.lt 73 285 120 02:55:46 4%

7 delfi.lt 1 003 791 102 02:53:59 59%

8 ieskok.lt 118 934 151 02:31:11 7%

9 supermama.lt 375 877 95 02:12:45 22%

10 autogidas.lt 411 933 148 01:54:06 24%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Lithuania by average time spent per user (gemiusAudience, March 2010)


The top 10 websites list is propped

up by two horizontal portals 15min.lt

and zebra.lt. The first noted a sudden

growth; in February it had a reach

level of 26% and in March this was

already over 6 percentage points

The top four places in the top 10

websites by average time spent per

user are occupied by social networking

websites. Their domination is no

surprise. People tend to spend

long hours socializing with their

acquaintances online. One.lt is the

most popular social networking

website in Lithuania with a reach level

of 45%. On average its users spent

8 hours 27 minutes a month using the

service, while the users of draugas.lt,

which ranks second, spent 4 hours and

24 minutes. Pazintysxxx.lt, a service

with an erotic profile came in 3rd

place. Fourth place is occupied by

starchat.lt. Although its reach level

is less than 0.5%, its users spent an

average of more than 3 hours on the

website monthly. The site even runs

on its own ranking of its most devoted

users, and some of them spent more

than 15 hours online a day. In 8th

place, with 2 hours 31 minutes,

we find another social networking

website, ieskok.lt.

5th place belongs to mail.ru,

a Russian horizontal portal, which has

a reach level of 12%. Its popularity

is influenced by the considerable

Russian minority in Lithuania. Inbox.

lt, a mailing service, ranks sixth and

has over 70,000 real users who spent

an average of almost 3 hours using the

service a month.

higher. If the trend continues, it will

probably overtake the classified ads

sites (plius.lt) in the ranking.


141

The most popular news service in

Lithuania, delfi.lt, takes 7th place in

the ranking. In March 2010 its users

spent an average of 2 hours and 54

minutes online. This means that every

day users spent around 10 minutes

reading the news here.

The last place is taken by supermama.lt,

a portal dedicated to parents, with

an average time per user of 2 hours

13 minutes a month. The ranking is

propped up by a classified ads portal

autogidas.lt.

1.3. TOP PORTALS

The top 5 portals on the Lithuanian

online market also occupy the leading

positions in the general rankings (all of

them belong to the top 10 websites).

The indisputable leader is delfi.lt

which leads not only in terms of the

number of real users, but also in terms

of the average time spent online by

each user. The portal provides the

latest news and in addition contains

a blog, chat and webmail service

as well as information related to

entertainment and lifestyle. Moreover,

it has a channel for young people with

games and a forum. As mentioned in

the previous section, delfi.lt launched

two new subdomains dedicated to the

European Parliament and cars. “Delfi”

portals are available in five languages:

Lithuanian, Russian, Latvian, Estonian

and Ukrainian.

The second player in the category is

lrytas.lt, which is the site of the daily

Lithuanian newspaper “Lietuvos rytas”

and it concentrates mostly on news.

However, it also contains subdomains

with a forum, photo section, blog

service, a traditional TV channel,

a magazine about lifestyle and

weather forecasts. In March 2010

its reach level amounted to 44%.

In August 2009 “Snoras Media

Investicijos” acquired 34% of “UAB

Lietuvos rytas” authorized capital

and in this way the AB BANK SNORAS

group became its largest shareholder.

Another important player among

portals is balsas.lt. It gained almost

11 percentage points in reach level

compared to March 2009 and

progressed to 3rd place in the top

5 list. The portal is a typical news

publishing site with diversified

subdomains similar to those available

on the portals described above. There

are also special sections for women


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 delfi.lt 1 003 791 102 02:53:59 59%

2 lrytas.lt 757 397 76 01:49:00 44%

3 balsas.lt 665 740 12 00:16:24 39%

4 alfa.lt 592 062 28 00:36:52 35%

5 15min.lt 548 557 33 01:07:47 32%

Table 3 Top 5 portals in Lithuania by reach level (gemiusAudience March 2010)


142


In terms of social networking

communities, two domestic websites

dominate among services participating

in the gemiusAudience research.

The leader is one. lt with a reach

level of 45%. However, as mentioned

before, its market share is declining.

Meanwhile, the number of real

users of the second largest social

networking website, draugas.lt, soared

in comparison to March 2009.

One.lt is dedicated to internet users

older than 14 years old. It offers a

variety of social features enabling

which include recipes, parental advice,

greetings and lyrics.

Alfa.lt ranks fourth in the top 5 portals

ranking. However, its number of real

users decreased in comparison to

March 2009 by 9.5% and its reach

level dropped by 4 percentage points.

In addition to the facilities typical for

such portals, it contains a travel search

engine and reservation section and,

furthermore, it has its own computers

and domestic electric appliances

e-shop. Moreover, its main news is

available not only in Lithuanian, but

also in English.

In 5th place is 15min.lt, a horizontal

portal of quickly growing popularity

in Lithuania. It is a result of the well-

planned marketing strategy with

regard to the use of social networking

sites such as Facebook. In terms of

average time spent per user, 15min.

lt is located in third place; the same

applies when it comes to number of

page views and page views per user

according to gemiusAudience data

from March 2010.


PAGE VIEWS PER USERS


REACH

1 one.lt 766 423 884 08:27:00 45%

2 draugas.lt 609 752 491 04:24:15 36%

3 klase.lt 293 415 29 00:21:04 17%

4 pazintys.lt 120 924 86 01:08:28 7%

5 ieskok.lt 118 934 151 02:31:11 7%

Table 4 Top 5 social networking websites in Lithuania by reach level (gemiusAudience,March 2010)

people to express themselves and stay

in touch with both their real-life and

virtual friends. In order to gain access

to communication tools, exchange

photos and files and participate in

contests and games, users have to

register on the website. Moreover,

the platform offers some non-typical

networking solutions, for example an

SMS service.

The transparent layout of draugas.lt

allows the user to identify the five

main sub-sites immediately. To

describe the two of them, one is


143


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 skelbiu.lt 589 169 100 01:01:42 34%

2 plius.lt 561 033 123 01:40:21 33%

3 skelbimai.lt 376 677 21 00:13:37 22%

Table 5 Top 3 online classified ads in Lithuania by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)


The two main players on the classified

ads market are skelbiu.lt, with a reach

level of 34%, and plius.lt with 33%. A

year ago, in March 2009, the leader

was plius.lt reaching over 41% of

the market. However, since then its

popularity has declined and in March

2010 it is in second place between the

classifieds. In May 2009 skelbiu.lt took

the lead. It is a site of classified ads

that are grouped, amongst others, into

transport, real estate, services and job

dedicated to maintaining contact

with acquaintances. It allows the

user to search for classmates, group

mates and the suchlike. The second

subdomain is devoted to games. What

is more, there is a forum, an e-mail

and classified ads service.

Another important player is klase.lt,

though its reach level is significantly

smaller and accounts for only 17%.

It has a complex structure consisting

of five main subsections: classmates,

group mates, clubs, sites and

acquaintances. In comparison to the

data from March 2009, the number

of real users and the number of page

views of this website declined as did

the average time spent per user.

Amongst services with the highest

reach level we also find pazintys.lt and

ieskok. lt. Similarly to the previously

described social networks, these also

allow their users to search for friends,

chat and play games. In addition,

ieskok.lt has a section in which users

can listen to an online radio station.

This may explain the fact that in terms

of average time spent online, ieskok.lt

overtakes klase.lt and pazintys.lt.

Pazintys.lt provides its users with

information about entertainment and

events and has a hot line for instant

massages. The site is available in four

languages: Russian, Lithuanian, English

and Italian. Moreover, the company

owns the independent service

pazintysxxx.lt, which has an erotic

profile.

offers. Skelbiu.lt makes money through

selling advertising space, but also its

users have to pay for the publication

of ads.

Third place goes to skelbimai.lt, with

a reach level of 22%, which in turn

allows its users to place ads on the site

free of charge.


144


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 vz.lt 227 057 15 00:19:41 13%

2 tax.lt 164 995 13 00:17:22 10%

3 verslobanga.lt 91 268 3 00:03:41 5%

Table 6 Top 3 business and finance sites in Lithuania by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

1.6. TOP BUSINESS AND FINANCE SITES BY REACH

The most popular finance site in

Lithuania is vz.lt. It publishes business

news and articles as it is an e-version

of a business newspaper. It has

separate subdomains dedicated to

searching for articles and photos as

well as an e-shop, where users can

order the newspaper or buy articles,

recommendations, dictionaries, books,

etc. Vz.lt has a reach level of 13% and

the average time per user is less than

20 minutes a month.

Tax.lt, which ranked second with

a 10% reach, is dedicated to

accountancy. In addition to a forum, it

gives its users the possibility to search

for or place job ads on the site related

to accounting. Moreover, it presents

legal acts, forms and other useful

pieces of information for accountants.

There is also a possibility to order the

weekly delivery of news articles or to

use a system for invoice issuance and

management on the internet.

The third significant player on the

business sites market in Lithuania is

verslobanga.lt, which presents news

about companies and information

about events related to accountancy,

business or finance. It allows its users

to publish their own information

about events or create any documents

related to various fields of business,

available to a broader audience. Its

reach level amounted to 5% in March

2010.

2. ONLINE AUDIENCE

Majority of Lithuanian internet

users are women. They constitute

51% of the online population, which

is not a surprise taking into account

the demographic structure of the

Lithuanian population with women

predominating. Furthermore, women

on average spent more time online (13

hours 39 minutes) than men (13 hours

01 minute).

Lithuanian internet users are

generally young. In March 2010

people aged 7-34 accounted for 62%

of the online population. The highest

percentage of users (28%) falls in the

group of people aged 15-24. People

over 55 years old constitute 7% of

internet audience.


146

Lithuanian internet users are

well-educated. Only 17% of them

have only primary or lower education.

The greatest percentage of the online

population has secondary education,

i.e. 28%. There is also a significant

number of people with higher

education that use the web (26%).

The structure conforms to the general

education structure of Lithuanian

society.

Majority of internet users in

Lithuania live in large cities. 26% of

the whole internet population live in

Vilnius and in March 2010 the 7 largest

cities together constituted 65% of

the online population. Only 10% of

internet users live in villages, but this

is 1 percentage point more than a year

ago.

3.1. Browsers

The most popular browser in Lithuania

used to be Microsoft Internet Explorer.

However, at the beginning of 2010

Chart 1 Top browsers in Lithuania by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Lithu-anian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3. TOOLS

3.1. BROWSERS

In March 2010 the most

numerous group (33%) on the

Lithuanian internet included students.

The second force were specialists

and office employees, however they

did not spend a great deal of time

online. In terms of activity per user,

the unquestionable leaders were

housewives, who spent an average

of more than 19 hours online a

month. Another active group is small

businessmen. In March 2010 they only

accounted for 4% of the researched

internet audience, however, during

the same period each of them spent

16 hours surfing the web.

it was overtaken by Firefox with a

market share of 42%. The third most

popular browser is Opera followed by

Chrome, whose popularity has been

growing since the second quarter of


147

2009. According to the gemiusTraffic

study, during the first three months

of 2010 Chrome gained 2 percentage

points and the trend seems to be

continuing.


The indisputable leader of the operating systems market in Lithuania was Windows XP with a 76% share in the first quarter of 2010. However, its popularity has been decreasing since the introduction of Windows Vista. In the second quarter of 2009 MS Windows released its newest operating system, Windows 7. Since then it has been gaining an ever larger share of the market and is catching up with Windows Vista. After the first quarter of 2010 its market share was 10%. The other Windows operating systems have lost users during the past two years.

Mac OS X is slowly gaining popularity, but still it only covers less than 1% of the market.

3.3. Search engines

Without question, the most popular search engine in Lithuania was Google with a market share of 98% in the first quarter of 2010. MSN, which ranked second, contributed to only 1% of visits made by internet users who visit Lithuanian websites using gemiusTraffic.


Although the market share of 1024 x 768 monitor screen resolutions has decreased, it is still the most popular choice among Lithuanians. Other popular screen resolutions in Lithuania in the first quarter of 2010 were 1280 x 800 and 1280 x 1024. Also, the screen resolution of 1440 x 900 has become more popular in recent years.

Chart 2 Top operating systems in Lithuania by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Lithuanian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)


Chart 3 Top search engines in Lithuania by share of visits made by internet users who visit Lithuanian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3.3. SEARCH ENGINES

Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Lithuania by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Lithuanian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)



148


According to the gemiusTraffic study, the most popular mobile device used to access web in Lithuania is the iPhone, which in July was responsible for 14% of page views generated by mobile devices on the average website. However, like on other markets its share is gradually decreasing and a loss of almost 2.5 percentage points could be observed

within May and July 2010. In contrast, the share of Apple’s latest product the iPad has increased by almost 2 percentage points within these two months. The three last positions among the top 5 mobile devices on the Lithuanian market are taken by Nokia devices, including the Nokia 5130 XpressMusic which is the most popular.


Association of Lithuanian

Communication Agencies (KOMAA)

www.komaa.lt

Description: KOMAA brings together

the largest and strongest creative

media agencies and full service

companies operating in Lithuania.

Members of the association accept

the Lithuanian Advertising Ethics

Code, follow its provisions and

have established the “Lithuanian

Advertising Bureau”. KOMAA’s mission

is to unite advertising agencies,

develop the advertising market,

raise the prestige of the industry and

make decisions which are of practical

significance to the advertising market.

KOMAA was established in 2002 and

now has 21 members.

Members: creative agencies (Adell

Taivas Ogilvy, ADVISION, DDB Vilnius,

Chart 5 Top 5 mobile devices in Lithuania by the website-averaged percentage share of page views generated by internet users from Lithuania who visit Lithuanian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10 **to 2010-07-25

3.5. MOBILE DEVICES


149

Grey Worldwide: Vilnius, Kredo R, Leo

Burnett Vilnius, Lowe Age, Milk, Not

Perfect Y&R, SAN Vilnius/JWT, TBWA\

Vilnius), full services agencies (Tarela,

VRS grupė) and media agencies

(Adcom, Carat, Creative Media

Services, Media House, Mediapool,

Mindshare, Omnicom Media Group,

Starcom).

Lithuanian Advertising Bureau

www.reklamosbiuras.lt

Description: The Lithuanian

Advertising Bureau’s mission is to

develop respectable, fair and honest

advertising practices in Lithuania,

basing on the Lithuanian Advertising

Ethics Code. The goal is to develop

the advertising sector in Lithuania,

to create and improve legally-binding

ethical self-regulation control in

advertising, honest competition,

which ensures the protection of

users and helps improve the general

concern of society directed against

the negative influence of advertising.

The Lithuanian Advertising Bureau was


Members: the arbitrage committee

includes representatives of various

fields: advertisers, advertising

agencies, TV, press, consumer rights

protection, competition, equal

opportunities, child rights protection.

Association of Internet Media

Description: The aim of the

Association of Internet Media is to

ensure the ethical and professional

work of internet media. It also

wants to guarantee readers ethical

expression of opinion in news portals.

The Association of Internet Media

was established in April 2009 by

Lithuanian’s largest eight news portals.

Members: The eight largest news

portals in Lithuania are Alfa.lt, Delfi.lt,

Bernardinai.lt, 15min.lt, Balsas.lt, Lrt.lt,

Lrytas.lt, portal group of

“Diena Media” (vilniausdiena.lt,

kaunodiena.lt, klaipeda.diena.lt).

Lithuanian Marketing Association

(LiMA)

www.marketingas.org

Description: The Lithuanian Marketing

Association unites marketing

specialists and people interested in

this field. It provides the possibility

for marketing specialists to exchange

knowledge and practical experience

and in this way to augment their

value on the market and also to raise

the general worth of the Lithuanian

market. It aims to unite Lithuanian

marketing specialists, create space

and possibilities for their professional

improvement, to raise their

professional abilities and knowledge,

popularize and represent the

marketing profession in society, and

contribute to the welfare of society

using professional knowledge. The

association was established in 2004.

Members: The association brings

together natural and legal entities.

At present, more than 200 marketing

specialists in various areas belong to

the association.

Association “LĮA” (“Langas į ateitį”),

also called Alliance “Langas į ateitį”

(Window into the Future)

www.langasiateiti.lt

Description: This alliance established

a unique project aimed at businesses

supporting the development of the

information society in Lithuania.

The mission of the “Langas į ateitį”


150



MAIN OFFICEADDRESS

CONTACT

1 AdClick adclick.lt

UAB ”Adnet”Verkių str. 5LT-08218 VilniusLithuania


2 Adnet adnet.lt

UAB ”Adnet”Verkių str. 5LT-08218 VilniusLithuania


3 Textads textads.lt

UAB ”Textads”Verkių str. 5LT-08218 VilniusLithuania


4 TradeDoubler tradedoubler.lt

UAB ”TradeDoubler”Verkių str. 34LT-08221 VilniusLithuania



alliance is to promote the use of

internet and e-Services in Lithuania

and thereby stimulate the growth of

living standards as well as Lithuania’s

competitiveness within Europe and

other countries of the world. “Langas

į ateitį” implements projects in three

main fields:

Establishment of public internet

access points (PIAPs)

Training of the population to use

information technologies

Encouragement to develop and

use e-services

It was established in May 2002.

Members: The founders and members

of the alliance are as follows: the

communications companies “Omnitel”

and “TEO” (2002-2005), “Swedbank”

and “SEB” banks, the IT companies

“Alna” (2002-2009) and “Atea”. As well

as the founders of the alliance and

the Ministry of the Interior of the

Republic of Lithuania, “Langas į ateitį”

integrates the following companies as

•

•

•

partners: Microsoft Lietuva, Lideika,

Petrauskas, Valiūnas ir partneriai/

LAWIN, PR Service/Edelman Affiliate,

the Institute of Public Policy and

Management.


151


Egidijus Sirvydis

Director, UAB “Adnet”



your local market?

Every year online advertising is used more frequently as a media tool.

However, according to budgets (in %), this media tool did not reach the level

of Western Europe, or even the level of our close neighbors such as Poland

and Estonia. Therefore, the use of online advertising will certainly grow during

the upcoming years.

The main disadvantage of the whole Lithuanian advertising market, as well

as the online advertising market is that the market is extremely small. The

price of creating more interesting solutions is similar to the one in other larger

markets, but a much smaller audience can be reached with the usage of these

solutions.

Another important issue on the Lithuanian market is its low conversion rate,

i. e. a small ratio of the people having seen an advertisement or having visited

a site to find out something about goods, comparing to those people, who

have actually bought any product or service. However, the increasing number

of companies working in the e-commerce field and the rising popularity of

online payments should cause an increase in the conversion rate. This would

allow the participants of the online advertising market to achieve a better

response and obtain maximum benefits from advertising.

Dominating trends



Lots of small, specialized and even niche e-shops selling various goods

from ecological products to equipment for agriculture have appeared on

the market. However, many of them do not have support from investors,

therefore such projects often do not have money for advertising, they cannot

advertise themselves to a wider audience and after half a year of activity they

simply disappear quietly. However, there are many successful examples where

companies slowly become more popular and then find opportunities to invest

in advertising and expand their business successfully. Therefore, looking to the

future, the number of such small clients will grow and they will have a greater

impact on the online advertising market in Lithuania.


152



The Lithuanian market and all three Baltic markets are too small for the global players, therefore only some of them expressly develop their activity in these countries. In most cases it comes naturally due to the worldwide popularity of these players. One of the most important examples could be the duel of one.lt and facebook.com. Facebook manages to attract an increasing number of visitors without any specific strategies for the local market, while the Lithuania’s most popular social network one.lt is unable to stop the decrease in the number of users. However, even whilst being one of the most popular webpages facebook.com does not actively participate in the advertising market in Lithuania and has no significant effect on it. This often happens with other international websites. Despite being popular, they are not actively involved in the Lithuanian online advertising market. This explains why, despite difficulties in fighting for the loyalty of users, there is no need for local players to struggle with global giants for advertising budgets as of yet.

Market specifics


The technical solutions and possibilities of the Lithuanian advertising market are very similar to other European markets. Both clients and websites use technology that is popular in Europe, implement specific solutions developed all over the world, and create them in Lithuania (e.g. broadcasting video advertisements online, etc.).

One of the unique features of the Lithuanian online advertising market is that the discount rate has a strong influence on the market. However, it is possible that the increasing number of advertisers on the internet and the shortage of high-quality online advertising space will reduce the influence of discounts.

It should also be mentioned that affiliate marketing has not become popular in Lithuania yet. One reason for this might be the above-mentioned low conversion rate. However, it is hard to say whether affiliate marketing will take a more significant chunk of online advertising marketing in such a small market like Lithuania, even if the situation gets better.

Ričardas BaltaduonisManaging Director, UAB “Lrytas”


What are the opportunities and obstacles for the online advertising market on your local market?


153

Last year was difficult for everyone. The internet as a media tool is not fully developed yet and this especially reflected in the massive decrease of advertising budgets in 2009.

When customers reduced their advertising budgets, the position and reaction of online advertising market players were clear: more advertisements were displayed, but less money was made. So why should customers spend more money if they receive the same and can plan smaller budgets?

Dominating trends


At this point it is important to distinguish two aspects: trend of website popularity distribution and the trend of technological innovations. With regard to the first, a very clear downward trend of one of the most popular social networking sites is obvious. This trend shows, once again (the first being MySpace), that social networking sites do not have a strong niche among users, therefore their future does not seem to be rosy and bright.

In terms of technological innovations, mobile compatibility will be at the forefront



Local portals/networks/websites will NEVER be able to compete with the global giants. You cannot compare a fly to an elephant. It is unfortunate, but the local players have no chance in competition with the global players. Only so called ‘niche’ activities remain. Any thoughts of becoming another Google, Apple or Facebook is simply impossible here in our local and small countries. This is determined both by the size of this market and other factors, such as the financing of projects and domestic consumption.

Elvijus GudžiūnasDirector, UAB “Epasas.lt“


What are the opportunities and obstacles for the online advertising market on your local market?

With regards to technical possibilities websites have their own programmer teams that can seemingly resolve any solution. Due to the small market (population rather than internet usage percent) the costs of production


154

and implementation often use up large part of the advertising budget and an alternative plan (based on more standard positions) can generate better results in advertising campaign.

Dominating trends


The concentration is noticeable on the online market; there are almost no small participants left on the market and the ones that remain have a minor influence.

Both now and in the future, solving quantitative issues (concentration, procurement of competitors, purchase of cheap advertising), leads to a greater concentration of qualitative factors (the improvement of content quality, attempts to transfer self advertising projects to press and TV). When the market settles down, it is possible to entrench niche e-projects. However, there might be more competition which will allow the quality of niche projects to rise. Similar processes exist in online advertising; concentration is under way. Customers have a wider choice among the larger market players; this makes things more convenient and it is then possible to get a better prices and better offers. The demand for rich media formats is noticeable on the market.



Quality has not fallen, but local online business is not moving to foreign business because:

There are no large turnovers that might allow players to obtain a large return on their investmentsLarger local investment companies in the meantime: make a greater profit investing in other business areas do not have a lot of knowledge about the internet, therefore there is no great willingness to invest.

1.

2.a)b)

Poland15.55minternet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_


4. BRANCHORGANIZATIONS_5. OPINIONSFROMTHEMARKET_

157157

158159

161162

163164

166166

166167

167167

168169



Do you CEE? Poland

157



PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 google.pl search engine 15 705 994 - - - 89%

2 onet.pl horizontal portal 12 364 940 3 416 046 567 276 05:51:42 70%

3 nasza-klasa.pl social network 11 810 889 - - - 67%

4 google.com search engine 11 451 490 - - - 65%

5 allegro.pl online auctions 10 831 038 5 198 862 613 480 04:51:33 61%

6 wp.pl horizontal portal 10 562 824 2 075 853 411 197 05:57:19 60%

7 youtube.com video sharing 10 442 867 - - - 59%

8 wikipedia.org online encyclopaedia 8 940 820 - - - 50%

9 interia.pl horizontal portal 8 341 410 916 745 046 110 03:02:10 47%

10 gazeta.pl horizontal portal 8 266 006 359 047 189 43 01:03:58 47%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Poland by reach level (Megapanel PBI/Gemius, March 2010 ); the ranking includes both, audited and non-audited websites: for non-audited websites, page views and time are not shown

The year 2009 was a time of many

significant changes within the ranking

of top 10 online players in Poland.

The three leading positions, similarly

to last year, are taken by the same

strongest brands: Google, Onet.pl and

nk (Nasza-Klasa). These three websites

have not only maintained their market

shares, but also strengthened their

reach, respectively: google.pl from

83% to 89% (in case of google.com it

was from 58% to 65%), onet.pl from

62% to 70% and nasza-klasa.pl, the

star of last season, from 59% to 67%.

On the other hand, some players did

not manage to stay on the course. It is

extremely important to note, however,

that the most visible shifts within

the presented ranking of websites

for Poland are caused by the update

of the Megapanel PBI/Gemius study

methodology. The ranking of websites

1. MAIN PLAYERS


by their reach in March 2010 includes

only selected domains, not the whole

groups of sites operating under the

wings of horizontal portals or online

publishers. In conjunction with this

change, the greatest loss has been

suffered by O2, a local portal. Within

the ranking by reach for March 2010,

the o2.pl domain did not find its

place among the top 10 websites. O2

gained a little more than 4.7 million

real users, which gave it less than 27%

reach among internet users in Poland.

The second loss has been noted by

one of the leading horizontal portals,

Gazeta.pl, whose reach dropped by

3 percentage points within last year.

Fortunately, the loss is only a result of

a general shake-up of market leaders.

Gazeta.pl achieved a reach of 47% and

attracted almost 8.3 millions of real

users. Yet, it is clear to see that this

result was not enough to retain its

Do you CEE? Poland

158


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 miastomuzyki.pl 647 432 17 13:15:21 4%

2 kurnik.pl 1 040 024 156 11:50:09 6%

3 wp.pl 10 562 824 197 05:57:19 60%

4 onet.pl 12 364 940 276 05:51:42 70%

5 prisonwars.pl 249 712 1096 05:51:23 1%

6 stooq.pl 91 000 178 05:40:07 1%

7 fotka.pl 1 950 443 523 05:05:25 11%

8 allegro.pl 10 831 038 480 04:51:33 61%

9 radiozet.pl 416 989 12 04:42:01 2%

10 open.fm 339 995 8 04:18:55 2%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Poland by average time spent per user (Megapanel PBI/Gemius, March 2010); the ranking includes audited websites only


former position. A similar loss has also

been experienced by another local

portal, interia.pl, which attracted

8.3 million real users in March 2010.

The spring of 2010 and the

improvement of the online audience

research methodology also brought

upward trends for almost every site.

One of the most significant ones is the

rise of allegro.pl, the biggest online

auction platform in Poland. Allegro.pl

is also a player active on 10 other

European markets. This group of

countries (at the beginning of 2009

consisting of Belarus, Bulgaria, the

Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Russia,

Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine and

Hungary) increased recently, when

Allegro launched its well-known online

service in Serbia. Yet, the success

of Allegro in Poland remains most

significant. In March 2010, allegro.pl

was visited by almost 11 million real

users in this country, which gave it

61% reach and 5th place within the

ranking of the top 10 websites on the

market. What is most important is that

this online auction platform overtook

Wirtualna Polska (wp.pl), one of the

leading horizontal portals in Poland.

When it comes to important increases

within the ranking of top players,

at the beginning of 2010 only few

other visible movements took place.

YouTube, gaining over 10 million real

users and 59% reach, took 7th place

in the ranking. A noncommercial

website, Wikipedia, attracted almost

9 million Poles and gained 50% reach

in March.

Do you CEE? Poland

159

1.3. TOP PORTALS


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 onet.pl 12 364 940 276 05:51:42 70%

2 wp.pl 10 562 824 197 05:57:19 60%

3 interia.pl 8 341 410 110 03:02:10 47%

4 gazeta.pl 8 266 006 43 01:03:58 47%

5 o2.pl 4 755 575 63 01:33:13 27%

Table 3 Top 5 portals in Poland by reach level (Megapanel PBI/Gemius, March 2010); all websites presented in the table are audited

The general picture of Polish online

market leaders becomes different

if the variable of time is taken into

account. It appears that in this

category the strongest horizontal

portal is wp.pl, which in March 2010

kept its users active for the longest

time (almost 6 hours). In the ranking

of top 10 websites by average time

spent per user in Poland, there are

two visible leaders: miastomuzyki.pl,

a website gathering online RMF FM

radio stations as well as kurnik.pl, the

casual games platform. In March 2010

average visitor of the latter website

spent almost 12 hours playing board

and card games with other internet

users. All other websites included

in the ranking (even such a player as

wp.pl) were visited by Poles for no

longer than 6 hours.

The radio and gaming websites won

most of user time. The number one

in March 2010 in this regard was

miastomuzyki.pl, the website of

all the online radio stations run by

RMF FM which operates within the

Interia Group. Both RMF FM (one of

the most popular traditional radio

stations in Poland) and interia.pl (one

of the major horizontal portals) have

the same owner, Bauer Media Invest

GmbH. The 9th and 10th positions

in the ranking were also occupied by

radio-related websites, respectively:

radiozet.pl (homepage of one of the

most popular offline radio stations)

and open.fm (an online radio platform

run by GG Network, owner of the most

popular instant messaging system in

Poland). Users of both websites spent

more than 4 hours in the analyzed

month surfing each of them.

On the other hand, the ranking also

covers two representatives of the

online gaming industry. In March 2010,

not including kurnik.pl, Poles spent

almost 6 hours playing Prison Wars,

an MMO game which is similar theme-

wise to the Prison Break TV series.

Excluding portals, games and online

radio stations, the websites which

engaged Polish users the most in

March were also the stock market

vertical portal, stooq.pl, the social

networking service based on the

‘hot or not’ formula, fotka.pl and

the biggest online auction platform,

allegro.pl.

Do you CEE? Poland

160

The leader among horizontal portals

in Poland is onet.pl, which is also the

second player on the whole domestic

online market. It operates within the

TVN Capital Group (one of the biggest

multimedia players in Poland), which

is incidentally its sole owner. Onet.pl

is also part of the ITI Media Group

and an active player, which (as well

as the portal) runs other interesting

business projects, for example zumi.pl

(a map-based localization online

service) or Dream Lab (a technological

company).

The second force on the Polish online

market is Wirtualna Polska (wp.pl),

the horizontal portal operating within

the Telekomunikacja Polska Group

(the main landline telephone operator

and former monopolist). This business

group also covers such companies as

Polska Telefonia Komórkowa Centertel

(the mobile phone network, which

since 2005 has been operating under

the Orange brand) or PayTel (an

electronic payment system provider).

Moreover, Wirtualna Polska runs

a successful online TV website (wp.tv),

which in March 2010 gained over 2.5

million real users and a reach of over

14%. Within the ranking by time per

user it takes the position of the most

engaging horizontal portal present

on the market (in the same period of

time its average user surfed longer by

5 minutes than the average user of

onet.pl).

The general balance of power among

the top 3 horizontal portals in Poland

did not change a great deal since the

beginning of 2009. Third position,

as before, is occupied by interia.pl,

a horizontal portal run by the

joint-stock company, INTERIA.PL S.A.

owned entirely by the Bauer Media

Group. Although launched in 2000,

the company’s origins date back to the

year 1999 when its first online service

(email) was launched. In 2000, the

basic version of the portal, covering

six sections, was introduced and after

gaining significant popularity, it has

never been outside the top 5 market

leaders in its category.

However, it would be quite inaccurate

to think that the ranking of top

horizontal portals has not changed

at all since last year. An interesting

shift took place in the group of portals

closing the peloton. This is also related

to the update in the way of presenting

results of the Megapanel PBI/Gemius,

thanks to which horizontal portals

began to be presented not only as

whole groups of websites, but as the

precise domains of particular players.

This change caused the significant

decline of O2 in favour of gazeta.pl,

which took fourth position within

the ranking of top portals in Poland.

O2 uses a specific business model

building its audience partly based on

its network of proprietary or partner

websites, for example wrzuta.pl

(the audio-video hosting service).

In March 2010 however, the O2

portal attracted less than 5 millions

real users, which gave it a reach of

only 27% and 5th position within

the ranking of horizontal portals.

Do you CEE? Poland

161

The Polish online social networking

services market remains dominated by

one, very strong player: nasza-klasa.pl.

The “Do You CEE” report for 2009

describes the incredibly fast growth

of this website, which has conquered

the local market not only effectively,

but also, apparently, permanently. In

March 2010, Nasza-Klasa, an online

service based on the ’classmates’

formula, was visited by almost 12

million real users. This result gave it

a reach of 67% and the position of

unquestionable market leader, far

ahead of its competitors.

However, 2009 was the year of the

emergence of another very serious

player, Facebook. The growth of the

largest and best known global social

networking brand in Poland was not so

spectacular, however during the last

15 months, it has managed to enter

the group of top players and take

a strong second position. In March

2010, Facebook was visited by more

than 5 million Poles and it gained

a reach level of 29%. The rapid growth

of this platform in Poland may lead

to a situation where in the future the

California-based player may well be

able to threaten Nasza-Klasa. However,



PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 nasza-klasa.pl 11 810 889 - - 67%

2 facebook.com 5 052 697 - - 29%

3 chomikuj.pl 4 116 695 34 00:46:25 23%

4 mojageneracja.pl 2 586 719 12 00:35:45 15%

5 fotka.pl 1 950 443 523 05:05:25 11%

Table 4 Top 5 social networking websites in Poland by reach level (Megapanel PBI/Gemius, March 2010); the ranking includes both, audited and non-audited websites: for non-audited websites, page views and time are not shown

at this point, such a possibility seems

unlikely.

Third position in the ranking of social

networking platforms in Poland is

taken by chomikuj.pl. This service,

operating within the Interia Group,

is another newcomer in the ranking,

but not because it has just appeared

on the market. Chomikuj.pl entered

the group of top social networking

sites in Poland due to two facts. The

first is that it has almost doubled its

reach among Polish internet users

since March 2009 (from almost 13%

to 23%). The second fact is that this

website evolved from a typical file-

sharing service (which it is often still

identified with) towards a particular

kind of social networking service.

The position of Chomikuj within the

ranking of top social networking

websites in Poland appears extremely

strong. The player snapping at its

heels, mojageneracja.pl (run by the GG

Network – owner of the most popular

instant messaging system in Poland),

attracted about 1.5 million real users

less than chomikuj.pl in March 2010

giving it a reach of 15%.

Do you CEE? Poland

162

Another interesting player among the

top 5 social portals is fotka.pl.

This website, based on the ‘hot or not’ formula, was visited by nearly 2 million Poles in March 2010 (11% of reach), but it is one of the most engaging projects on the Polish web. In the same period, its average visitor spent more than 5 hours generating a huge

number of page views – over 1 billion. Fotka.pl is one of the oldest social networking websites in Poland and it markets its services generally to young people, who publish their photos and allow them to be evaluated by other

users.


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 otomoto.pl 4 254 227 101 01:11:32 24%

2 gratka.pl 2 214 490 43 00:31:47 12%

3 gazetapraca.pl 1 976 458 24 00:19:08 11%

Table 5 Top 3 online classified ads in Poland by reach level (Megapanel PBI/Gemius, March 2010); all websites presented in the table are audited


The most popular online classified

ads service in Poland is otomoto.pl.

It is a website run by otoMoto

Sp. z o.o. from Poznań and it belongs

to the Allegro Group. OtoMoto is an

‘automotive’ service dedicated to

users who want to buy and sell a car

or motorcycle. In March 2010

it attracted 4.3 million real users

and gained a reach level of 24%.

Second place in this ranking is gratka.pl,

a service run by the Polskapresse

Publishing Group. The main set of

categories of classified ads covered

on the website include: automotive,

real estate, jobs and tourism, however

gratka.pl offers a great deal more

than just this. It cooperates with

automotive companies, as well as

real estate and HR agencies. The

main portal deals with professional

advertisements, however it provides

a subservice (ale.gratka.pl), which is

a database of solely classified ads.

Gratka.pl is also quite a mature brand,

present on the market since 2000.

In March 2010 it gained a reach of

12%, which means that in this period

it was visited by more than 2.2 million

Polish internet users.

In third place is gazetapraca.pl,

an online service which operates using

the ‘job board’ model. Gazetapraca.pl

is a part of Gazeta.pl Group, which

belongs to Agora SA, one of the most

significant Polish publishers. The

website contains information on job

market and offers advice helpful for

jobseekers. Gazetapraca.pl attracted

more than 1.9 million real users in

March 2010 gaining a reach of 11%.

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PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1

wp.pl (finance, currencies, stocks, pensions, financial passage, funds, financial calculator)

2 051 660 16 00:23:08 12%

2money.pl (finance)

1 981 810 13 00:18:39 11%

3gazeta.pl (money, stocks)

1 616 079 26 00:28:00 9%

Table 6 Top 3 finance sites in Poland by reach level (Megapanel PBI/Gemius, March 2010); all websites presented in the table are audited


The top financial websites in Poland

are dominated by services provided

by the largest horizontal portals. The

first position is held by wp.pl, whose

service focuses on economic issues

related to finance. In March 2010

this service was visited by more than

2 million real users. Such a large

audience gave the WP’s financial

section a reach of almost 12% and

the prime position in the ranking. The

third position in the ranking is taken

by a similar section of Gazeta.pl, which

attracted over 1.6 million real users

and gained a reach of 9%. As far as

financial subsections of portals are

concerned, another significant player

is the finance section of Onet.pl.

However, the domination of

horizontal portals is not total. The

second position is held by money.pl.

This vertical financial portal was

established in 2000 in Wrocław and

operates as an online magazine

devoted to financial and economic

issues. Since June 2009, the company’s

main shareholder has been the

German publishing house Handelsblatt

(70%), which belongs to the

Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck.

In 2009 this stock was taken by

another company owned by VGH,

Holtzbrinck Networks. The remaining

30% is owned by Arkadiusz Osiak,

co-founder and president of money.pl.

This seems like a good investment and

forward-moving company, especially

when Megapanel PBI/Gemius data is

taken into account. According to the

study, in March this year money.pl

attracted almost 2 million Polish

internet users who constituted 11%

of the whole online population and

generated more than 25 million page

views.

Beyond the top 3 ranking, there

are also such significant players

as eGospodarka.pl, bankier.pl or

gazetaprawna.pl.

Do you CEE? Poland

164

Unlike in many CEE markets,

majority of Polish internet users do

not live in the capital city or other

large metropolises. Exactly 31% of

the online population consists of

individuals who live in rural areas.

A comparable force within the online

area are individuals from small

towns and medium-sized cities (from

20,000 to 200,000 inhabitants), who

represent 30% of all internet users in

Poland. People from cities bigger than

200,000 inhabitants represent 25% of

the online population.

The majority of Polish internet

users are pupils and students. They

account for 31% of the whole online

population. The rest has a very flat

structure: almost all occupational

groups are represented equally (from

7% in the case of highly skilled workers

and freelancers, to 1% in the case of

unskilled workers). The last mentioned

group, as well as military and police

officers, are represented least

frequently on the internet.

2. ONLINE AUDIENCE

The Polish internet is the

second largest online market in the

CEE region; there are 17.7 million

internet users in this country. The

gender structure of this considerable

population remains extremely

balanced. In March 2010 there were

50.3% males and 49.7% females using

the internet in Poland. However, it is

worth remembering that this slight

difference in absolute numbers means

that Polish online area is populated by

almost 90,000 more men.

The majority of Polish internet

users are young or very young people.

More than half of the whole online

population in this country (exactly

52%) consists of individuals between

15 and 34 years old. On the other

hand, slow but constant growth is

characteristic of the oldest group of

internet users. The proportion of Poles

active within the online area and older

than 55 years has increased from 7%

in March 2009 to 8% in March 2010.

The education structure of the

Polish internet users might look quite

diversified, however a general pattern

is easily found. The population of

Poles using the internet regularly

is divided equally into three major

groups: individuals who possess an

education level from incomplete

primary to basic vocational (31%),

individuals with incomplete or

complete secondary education

(34%) and those who graduated

from schools above post-secondary,

including universities (34%). When

precise criteria of education are taken

into consideration, it appears that

the largest groups of Polish internet

users are secondary school graduates

(24%) and individuals with a higher

education (18%).

Do you CEE? Poland

166

2009, when those the two browsers

swapped positions.

The third most intensively used

browser in Poland is Opera, which

in the first quarter of 2010 was

responsible for 11% of all page

views generated by internet users

on websites monitored in the

gemiusTraffic study. The newest player

on the market, Google Chrome, during

the same period managed to gain only

4.84% of all page views.

Chart 2 Top operating systems in Poland by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Polish websites that are using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)


Chart 1 Top browsers in Poland by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Polish websites that are using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3. TOOLS

3.1. BROWSERS

3.1. Browsers

The web browser most intensively

used in Poland is Mozilla Firefox. In the

first quarter of 2010 the share of page

views generated by internet users

who visited websites monitored in the

gemiusTraffic study using this browser

was 52.27%, while the corresponding

share for Microsoft Internet Explorer

was 31.18%. The most significant

period for this part of the online

market was the second quarter of

Do you CEE? Poland

167

Chart 5 Top 5 mobile devices in Poland by the website-averaged percentage share of page views generated by internet users from Poland, who visit the Polish websites that are using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10 **to 2010-07-25

3.5. MOBILE DEVICES

Chart 3 Top search engines in Poland by share of visits generated by internet users who visit Polish websites that are using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3.3. SEARCH ENGINES

Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Poland by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Polish websites that are using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)



As with other CEE markets, the

unquestionable leader within the

ranking of operation systems in

Poland is Microsoft Windows. In the

first quarter of 2010 the share of

page views generated by visitors

surfing websites monitored in the

gemiusTraffic study who were using

Windows XP was 72.71%. During the

last two years, the market share of

this version of the Microsoft operating

system has been slightly decreasing

in favour of Windows Vista. In the

first quarter of 2010 its users were

responsible for almost 19% of all

page views generated on websites

monitored in the gemiusTraffic study.

3.3. Search engines

The online market in Poland is

dominated by the Google search

engine, which during the last three

years has not lost its leading position.

In the first quarter of 2010 exactly

97.05% of all visits made by Polish

internet users on Polish websites

monitored in the gemiusTraffic study

have their origins in Google search

results. During the same period, no

other search engine explored by

internet users in Poland (including

Microsoft’s MSN and the local

solution, NetSprint) was able to break

the barrier of a 1.3% share of all visits.



in Poland still remains 1024 x 768.

Nevertheless, it has lost its share since

the first quarter of 2007. At the same

time, 1280 x 800 resolution (used in

notebooks) is becoming increasingly

more popular (from 4.89% in the first

quarter of 2007 to 20.78% in the first

quarter of 2010).

Do you CEE? Poland

168


IAB Poland

www.iabpolska.pl

Description: IAB Poland is an

organization dedicated to interactive

marketing in Poland. Its main goal

is further education of the internet

market regarding different methods

for using the internet. Members

include internet portals and

advertising and interactive agencies.

The Internet Advertising Bureau

Poland was established in 2000 and

has since been an important player on

the Polish internet market.

Members: internet portals, advertising

agencies, interactive agencies,

research agencies (e.g. International

Data Group Poland S.A., Onet.pl

Group, nasza-klasa.pl, Agora S.A.).

Polish Internet Research

www.pbi.org.pl

Description: PBI is an organization

established by the main Polish

internet publishers and largest portal

owners. Its aim is to create standards

for internet research in Poland. PBI

promotes solid and reliable research

of the Polish internet as a vital tool for

companies that use online advertising.

PBI’s mission is to develop the Polish

internet as a medium that would

be reliable for Polish advertisers,

advertising agencies, investors and

other players who work with the

internet.

Members: leading Polish internet

publishers, internet portals owners

(Gazeta.pl, Interia.pl, Onet.pl,

Wirtualna Polska), PBI partners

(Gemius SA, IAB Polska, Internet

Standard, News Point, Grupa Cron,

MB SMG/KRC, Transmisje Online sp.

z.o.o.).

SMB – Polish Direct Marketing

Association

www.smb.pl

Description: SMB is an organization

that aims to create favorable

conditions for the development

of direct marketing in Poland in

accordance with regulations and work

ethics. The Polish Direct Marketing

Association brings together around

100 companies and is a member

of the Federation of European

Direct and Interactive Marketing


The Polish market of internet-

dedicated mobile devices is dominated

by the iPhone, which has a 17% share

of page views generated by internet

users from Poland, who visit the Polish

websites participating in gemiusTraffic.

However, what is interesting is that

among the top 5 most popular

devices, only one, the iPad, grew in

popularity and increased its share

by 3 percentage points. During the

same period iPhone’s share as well

as the popular Nokia devices’ share

decreased by around 2 percentage

points.

Do you CEE? Poland

169


Piotr Kowalczyk

Deputy Director of Advertising Products, Onet.pl



local market?

As far as the Polish online market is concerned, the same issues can be described

both as obstacles and opportunities. For instance, online penetration and media

consumption in Poland is still relatively low, which obviously is an obstacle. On the

other hand, this means that there is a lot of space for growth, which is a great

opportunity. There is also space for improvement in general advertising processes,

which is often underestimated. However, it is one of the factors taken into account

by marketers when deciding whether to spend more money online or not.

Another obstacle is that also seen in other countries around the world: the lack

of confidence in the internet and everything that is online as a good branding

vehicle. This of course is a great opportunity for the online industry. All that needs

to be done is to provide enough evidence for online branding effectiveness.

Another important issue is the necessity to learn new ways of managing brand

communication by marketers and breaking the routine in media planning based on

many years of offline experience.




The predominance of local players in Poland with respect to their global

competition is closely related to local support of business, which is still a great

need. Horizontal portals are a good example of this phenomenon. Global portal

brands practically do not exist on the Polish market, although a few of them have

attempted to enter the market and failed. However, from the perspective of

and International Federation of

Direct and Interactive Marketing.

The company plays a key role in the

identification, planning and resolution

of problems concerning the field of

direct marketing in Poland. Its goal is

to implement and maintain standards

on the market and to actively protect

companies and consumers.

Members: Companies dealing with

direct marketing, advertising and

marketing communications agencies,

database brokers, telemarketing

companies, catalogue and mail-order

firms, fulfillment companies, service

and manufacturing enterprises and

companies from the internet and new

media sectors; together approximately

100 member enterprises.

Do you CEE? Poland

170

the end user, some services, such as search engines and social networking

sites, after easy-to-conduct translation and localization into the local language,

immediately constitute valuable products. This explains why particular sectors tend

to be dominated by global players. The only exception are the local players who

have had enough time to dominate the market before the global players appeared

and who have had enough resources to develop services so that they can offer

competition to what the global players offer. This is the case with the Polish

e-commerce market.

Artur Waliszewski

Country Business Director, Google Poland



local market?

The small and medium-sized Polish businesses have greatly profited from the

internet: it provides access to cheap yet effective online advertising. On the other

hand, large players can also benefit from web-based video by strengthening its role.

The perspectives for further development of both these fields are great.

A barrier hindering market growth is the insufficient quality of available research

services and the practical non-existence of cross-media research. The lobby

interested in maintaining the status quo is very effective in feeding negative

stereotypes about online advertising.


Are your local market players strong enough to compete with the global giants?

What advantages and strategies do they adopt in this battle?

Yes and no. An internet service is defined by three factors: technology, content and

community. The major competitive advantage of Polish online businesses over the

global players is the local content they feature, and in this respect they have the

edge on competitors. On the other hand, where technology starts to play a key

role, global players have the upper hand. Furthermore, communities contribute

an element of unpredictability to the market.

Dominating trends


to develop most in future?

An increasing number of Polish companies, especially those operating on the

e-commerce market, are the ones focussed on export. These companies will

discover the chances offered by the free market (EU) and the internet, i.e. the

possibility to reach foreign clients quickly.

Do you CEE? Poland

171

What the future has in store for us is a rapid evolution of mobile devices and cloud

computing as well as the emergence of innovative apps and online services.

A combination of these two trends may give rise to interesting phenomena

on the market.

Market specifics


The Polish market is a relatively well-measured one, although it is still struggling to face up to expectations. It is large enough for local players to grow on a scale that will allow them to develop and maintain viability, it is quick to implement new trends and users are adventurous and open to novelties.

Joanna GajewskaCommunications Director, nk.pl



Local players are strong enough – this would be the simplest and probably the most correct answer. Brands such as Allegro, GG or NK (former Nasza Klasa) have shown that they are able to compete with global giants effectively (i.e. eBay, MSN, FB). Some of these above-mentioned battles are already finished, some are not, but basic strategies in case of Polish and foreign companies are pretty much the same. These things that make the difference are: better understanding of the local market, of its demanding customers and of client mood swings. These might be our local advantages.

Dominating trends


Since last two years, social networking projects have been the fastest-growing part of the online industry. Not only the number of new SNS projects present on our market is constantly growing, but also the number of people engaged in using them. According to the development paths that these entities have chosen it is reasonable suspicion that they will strengthen their positions.

The second strong trend is connected with marketing research run via the internet, especially if it comes to qualitative ones. The potential on this market is still untapped, but there are some prerequisites that let us assume that this situation will not last long.

Romania7.58minternet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_



171171

172176

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1.1. Top10websitesbynumberofuniqueclients_1.2. Top10websitesbyaudiencewithsocio-demographics_1.3. Top10websitesbyaveragetimespentperuniqueclient_1.4. Topportalsbynumberofuniqueclients_1.5. Topsocialnetworkingsitesbynumberofuniqueclients_1.6. Topfinancesitesbyreach_1.7. Topfinancewebsitesbynumberofuniqueclients_

3.1. Browsers_3.2. Operatingsystems_3.3. Searchengines_3.4. Screenresolutions_3.5. Pageimpressionsperuniqueclientandaverageviewtimeperuniqueclient_

Do you CEE? Romania

173

WEBSITE’S CATEGORY NUMBER OFUNIQUE CLIENTS

NUMBER OFPAGE IMPRESSIONS

PAGE IMPRESSIONS PER UNIQUE CLIENT

AVERAGE TIME PER UNIQUE CLIENT

1 hi5.com social network 4 617 621 2 336 670 870 506.0 12,657

2 trilulilu.ro video sharing 3 009 029 72 343 109 24.0 2,219

3 forum.softpedia.com forum 2 758 289 18 887 137 6.8 899

4 eva.ro women lifestyle 2 511 451 44 767 947 17.8 1,700

5 gsp.ro sports 1 759 471 42 498 615 24.1 3,570

6 realitatea.net general news 1 755 136 24 769 924 14.1 2,098

7 cancan.ro tabloid 1 692 567 42 484 069 25.1 2,500

8 acasa.ro portal/ search engine 1 673 830 12 184 065 7.2 493

9 bizoo.ro portal / search engine 1 672 231 21 157 708 12.6 664

10 libertatea.ro tabloid 1 664 521 48 054 953 28.8 3,191

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Romania by number of unique clients (SATI, by BRAT, Traffic measurement, March 2010)

1. MAIN PLAYERS

1.1. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY NUMBER OF UNIQUE CLIENTS

In order to provide a valuable and

complex analysis of the Romanian

online landscape, this chapter of the

report includes two rankings of the

top market players. The first is the

ranking of top 10 websites by traffic

figures (by the number of unique

clients, a cookie-based figure). It

is based on SATI, by BRAT, traffic

measurement results. The second

ranking is based on the results of

SATI audience measurement, and

it represents the weekly number of

persons visiting websites and their

socio-demographic profiles.

According to the SATI Traffic

measurement, the Romanian

section of hi5.com (only Romanian

IPs are measured) is the leader of

the general ranking for Romanian

websites, with more than 2 billion

page impressions per month and

more than 4,5 million unique clients

per month. The service is a social

networking site which is American

in origin and is dedicated mainly to

young people.

Second place belongs to trilulilu.ro,

a video sharing website. This website

saw an explosive increase in its

audience over the last 2 years and

in March 2010 it had over 3 million

unique clients.

Softpedia.com was established

nine years ago and through its

Forum, continues its history of good

performance, remaining in the top

3 of Romanian websites.

Eva.ro is a site for women. It is

a lifestyle service, which

Do you CEE? Romania

174

unexpectedly appeared within

the top 10 Romanian websites.

This was mainly due to the launch of

lumeacafelei.eva.ro, an interactive

game, which turned out to be

a significant success in March and

April 2010, transforming eva.ro into

the leader in the women lifestyle’

category.

A continuous presence in the Top 10

is maintained by gsp.ro in 5th place.

It is the most visited sports website.

In March 2010, gsp.ro had over

1,750,000 unique clients.

The leader in the ‘general news’

category is realitatea.net, on 6th

place among the top 10 Romanian

websites. It should be mentioned

that the ‘sports’ and ‘general news’

categories are some of the most

popular websites in Romania, all with

top quality content and increasing

competition.

Tabloids are represented by 2 websites:

cancan.ro and libertatea.ro, which

have over 1,650,000 unique clients.

Noteworthy is the performance of

the portals/search engines: acasa.ro

and bizoo.ro. Most recently acasa.ro

went through a re-branding process

and is now a lifestyle website.

Beside the traffic results (usually

technical metrics as page

impressions, visits, unique clients

- cookie based indicators), the results

of the audience for websites and

the socio-demographic profiles of

the visitors are available. The traffic

results are delivered in real-time,

while the audience and socio-

demographic results are provided

at six-month periods, representing

the audience values calculated for

the average week in a 6-month

period. The last delivery corresponds

to the period September 1st 2009

- February 28th 2010.

As presented in the above table,

the Romanian section of hi5.com

maintains first place, with almost

2 million persons visiting the website

in an average week. This corresponds

to a reach of 36.9% from the SATI

universe: 5.2 million persons.

The performances of trilulilu.ro,

forum.softpedia.com, cancan.ro and

libertatea.ro, in terms of traffic are

confirmed by their audience results.

Ejobs.ro, with 10 years in the job

sector, took 3rd place, convincing

483,000 persons on average per

week to visit its pages. The leaders

of the sports and general news

categories (gsp.ro and realitatea.net)

respectively took 7th and 8th places

in the top 10, followed closely by

their direct competitors, sport.ro and

stirileprotv.ro.

The socio-demographic profiles of

the visitors reveal a balance between

women and men for most of the

websites in the top 10, except the

1.2. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY AUDIENCE WITH SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHICS

GENDER (% FROM TOTAL VISITORS OF THE WEBSITE)

STE’S CATEGORY AVERAGE NUMBEROF VISITORS PER WEEK

VISITOR’S PAGE IMPRESSIONS PER WEEK

REACH % OF VISITORS (FROM THE UNIVERSE)

WOMEN MEN

1 hi5.com social network 1 919 000 435 025 000 36.9% 49.1% 50.9%

2 trilulilu.ro video sharing 602 000 10 884 000 11.6% 49.0% 51.0%

3 ejobs.ro job-board service 483 000 7 481 000 9.3% 53.6% 46.4%

4 forum.softpedia.com forum 472 000 3 238 000 9.1% 45.7% 54.3%

5 cancan.ro tabloid 436 000 6 552 000 8.4% 47.4% 52.6%

6 libertatea.ro tabloid 403 000 7 489 000 7.7% 48.7% 51.3%

7 gsp.ro sports 391 000 5 722 000 7.5% 32.6% 67.4%

8 realitatea.net general news 389 000 4 602 000 7.5% 46.6% 53.4%

9 sport.ro sports 358 000 5 294 000 6.9% 34.2% 65.8%

10 stirileprotv.ro general news 350 000 2 898 000 6.7% 45.8% 54.2%

AGE (% FROM TOTAL VISITORS OF THE WEBSITE) SOCIAL STATUS ESOMAR(% FROM TOTAL VISITORS OF THE WEBSITE)

14-24 YEARS

25-34 YEARS

35-44 YEARS

45-54 YEARS

55-64 YEARS

AB (HIGH) C (MIDDLE) DE (LOW)

1 hi5.com 42.6% 26.5% 18.6% 8.9% 3.5% 34.2% 45.3% 20.5%

2 trilulilu.ro 40.6% 25.8% 20.3% 9.2% 4.0% 33.1% 45.2% 21.7%

3 ejobs.ro 32.5% 30.2% 21.7% 11.4% 4.2% 38.0% 44.5% 17.5%

4 forum.softpedia.com 39.7% 27.4% 19.5% 9.4% 4.1% 37.2% 44.8% 18.0%

5 cancan.ro 32.6% 29.2% 20.9% 11.5% 5.8% 40.6% 43.9% 15.5%

6 libertatea.ro 31.1% 28.5% 21.0% 12.7% 6.7% 41.0% 43.7% 15.3%

7 gsp.ro 33.9% 30.2% 19.9% 10.3% 5.7% 39.4% 45.4% 15.2%

8 realitatea.net 27.8% 27.6% 22.4% 13.9% 8.3% 46.2% 41.5% 12.3%

9 sport.ro 40.6% 27.4% 19.5% 8.3% 4.2% 34.9% 47.1% 18.0%

10 stirileprotv.ro 41.7% 26.7% 19.0% 8.6% 4.0% 35.0% 46.2% 18.9%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Romania by audience (SATI, by BRAT, Audience measurement, September 2009 - February 2010, universe: 14-64 yo, urban, internet users)

TOP 10 WEBSITES BY AUDIENCE WITH SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHICS

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176

WEBSITE’S CATEGORY UNIQUE CLIENTS PAGE IMPRESSIONS

PAGEIMPRESSIONS PER UNIQUE CLIENT

VIEW TIME PER UNIQUE CLIENT (SECONDS)

1 agf.ro economy / finance 9 856 1 139 929 115.7 14,669

2 hi5.com social network 4 617 621 2 336 670 870 506.1 12,659

3 neogen.ro social network 1 019 772 217 752 324 213.5 9,001

4 conquiztador.ro online game 586 213 22 992 936 39.2 4,734

5 prosport.ro sports 1 068 899 30 944 930 28.9 4,150

6 sport.ro sports 1 366 747 33 874 095 24.8 3,683

7 gsp.ro sports 1 759 471 42 498 615 24.2 3,572

8 libertatea.ro tabloid 1 664 521 48 054 953 28.9 3,189

9 pgl.ro online game 53 671 3 000 760 55.9 2,918

10 mobile.ro auto / moto 497 815 46 948 849 94.3 2,696

Table 3 Top 10 websites in Romania by average time spent per unique client (SATI, by BRAT, Traffic measurement, March 2010)

sports websites, gsp.ro and sport.ro,

where men represent two-thirds of all

visitors.

Hi5.com has the youngest audience

in the ranking, with almost 69% of its

visitors between 14 and 34 years old.

The visitors of trilulilu.ro, ejobs.ro and

forum.softpedia.com have a similar

profile. They are young people in the

14-24 year-old segment. Ejobs.ro also

has a good affinity with the segment

of 25-34 year olds.

The tabloids, cancan.ro and

libertatea.ro have an audience with

a higher affinity with the middle-

aged segment who have a high social

status.

The general news websites realitatea.

net and stirileprotv.ro have similar

profiles, but realitatea.net more

often has visitors from the middle-

aged segment and the high social

status category. Stirileprotv.ro is more

popular among younger people.

It is of no surprise that the best

values in terms of viewtime per

client are reported for websites

recognized as forums, social networks

and sports websites. In March 2010

the best performance was noted for

1.3. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY AVERAGE TIME SPENT PER UNIQUE CLIENT

agf.ro, a forum of stock-exchange

players. Despite the fact that the total

audience is not particularly high,

each unique client spends more than

4 hours each month on agf.ro.

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177

UNIQUE CLIENTS PAGE IMPRESSIONS

PAGEIMPRESSIONSPER UNIQUE CLIENT


1 acasa.ro 1 673 830 12 184 065 7.2 494

2 bizoo.ro 1 672 231 21 157 708 12.6 665

3 rol.ro 1 627 150 14 560 849 8.9 521

4 apropo.ro 1 123 537 6 999 492 6.2 550

5 roportal.ro 1 053 431 3 430 826 3.2 312

Table 4 Top 5 portals in Romania by number of unique clients (SATI, by BRAT, Traffic measurement, March 2010)

1.4. TOP PORTALS BY NUMBER OF UNIQUE CLIENTS

Horizontal portals, which provide

a large variety of information,

have also attracted the interest of

Romanian visitors last year. Acasa.ro

confirmed its leading position from

2009, gaining more than

1.5 million unique clients each

month. Recently, acasa.ro was

rebranded and is now re-positioning

itself as a lifestyle website. Its main

competitor is bizoo.ro, a portal

targeted to a business audience,

providing services to companies.

The struggle between these two

players is clearly visible and in March

2010 bizoo.ro lost 1,600 unique

clients compared to acasa.ro, but

it beat its rival as far as all other

indicators are concerned.

Rol.ro, in third place, is one of the

oldest portals in Romania. However,

The Romanian section (only

Romanian IPs) of hi5.com takes

second place and in March 2010 its

users spent more than 3.5 hours on

this service. Next place is taken by

neogen.ro, whose unique clients

devote an average of around

2.4 hours per month for visiting

this service.

The results gained by the sports

websites on the metric viewtime per

user reveal strong competition among

the players in this category. Gsp.ro,

prosport.ro and sport.ro are of the

highest interest for the Romanian

online audience with regard to sports

content. The average value of about

1 hour per user for each of the sports

websites presented above speaks for

itself.

Other popular websites belong to

the ‘games’ category. First place

among them takes conquiztador.ro,

the online game where users conquer

virtual lands by answering questions.

10th place is taken by mobile.ro,

the international automotive

classified service.

Do you CEE? Romania

178

Romanian users are passionate

about social media, keen on

communication, and they like to

make friends and have fun. This

explains the tremendous success of

social networking sites in Romania.

These websites are well represented

by both international (hi5.com and

netlog.com) and local brands (tpu.ro,

neogen.ro, mysport.ro).

Measuring only visitors with

Romanian IPs, the Romanian section

of hi5.com manages to attract more

than 4 million unique clients each

month. Moreover its users generate

around 2 billion page impressions,

over 500 page impressions per

unique client and spent on average

3.5 hours per UC.

Tpu.ro is a question and answer

website. Being a relatively new

community, tpu.ro has grown

extremely quickly and sent neogen.ro

1.5. TOP SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES BY NUMBER OF UNIQUE CLIENTS




1 hi5.com 4 617 621 2 336 670 870 506.0 12,659

2 tpu.ro 1 061 704 5 410 137 5.1 438

3 neogen.ro 1 019 772 217 752 324 213.5 9,001

4 netlog.com 887 181 37 146 597 41.8 2,274

5 mysport.ro 127 964 2 424 403 18.9 1,207

Table 5 Top 5 social networking sites in Romania by number of unique clients (SATI, by BRAT, Traffic measurement, March 2010)

into third place. One of the oldest

social media brands in Romania,

neogen.ro, is not only a dating

platform, but also has the integrated

services which include classifieds,

destinations, events, and games.

the portal does not remain far behind

the leaders and in March 2010 its

unique clients amounted to 1,627,150

users.

The other two players apropo.ro and

roportal.ro, managed to exceed

1 million unique clients per month.

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179

Among the websites publishing small-

ads, those from the ‘jobs’ category

are visited most. Both ejobs.ro and

bestjobs.ro have over 1 million unique

clients each month.

The classifieds from the ‘auto’

category also generate significant

traffic. In March 2010, the leaders

in this category were auto.ro and

automarket.ro, with more than

600,000 unique clients.

Publi24.ro represents websites

publishing small-ads of all types (auto,

jobs, real estate, etc.), however it only

has about 286,000 unique clients each

month.

1.7. TOP FINANCE WEBSITES BY NUMBER OF UNIQUE CLIENTS




1 wall-street.ro 948 715 4 884 262 5.1 386

2 zf.ro 874 223 7 430 477 8.4 1,143

3 money.ro 675 282 3 743 291 5.5 743

4 avocatnet.ro 632 521 4 614 248 7.2 888

5 capital.ro 579 314 2 899 750 4.9 750

Table 7 Top 5 finance websites in Romania by number of unique clients (SATI by BRAT Traffic measurement March 2010)

1.6. TOP ONLINE CLASSIFIED ADS BY NUMBER OF UNIQUE CLIENTS




1 ejobs.ro 1 619 217 39 412 460 24.3 1,105

2 bestjobs.ro 1 076 429 37 458 490 34.8 1513

3 auto.ro 643 570 18 302 180 28.4 2052

4 automarket.ro 619 652 10 008 106 16.1 1050

5 publi24.ro 285 854 9 305 025 32.5 1 304

Table 6 Top 5 online classified ads in Romania by number of unique clients (SATI by BRAT Traffic measurement March 2010)

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180

accounted for 8%. School children of

grades 1 to 11 accounted for 15% of

the online population.

As in other CEE countries, the

majority of internet users in Romania

lives in the capital city (Bucharest)

or in other large cities (over 200,000

inhabitants); this amounts to

approximately 45% of all internet

users. 28% of the Romanian online

population live in cities with 50,000

– 200,000 people. The remaining

27% live in places with less than

50,000 inhabitants.

The managers or freelancers

with high level of education together

with students and pupils as well as

the entrepreneurs and independent

professionals with university degree

comprise 45.2% of Romanian

internet users.

2. ONLINE AUDIENCE


Romanian internet users is relatively

balanced, reflecting the general

structure of the population. Men

are only slightly better represented

than women according to SATI, by

BRAT. Men accounted for 50.7% of

the online population, and women

49.3%.

According to SATI (Audience

measurement, September 2009

- February 2010, universe 14-64

yo, urban), the Romanian online

market is dominated by young and

very young people; 70% of them are

under 40 years old. The number of

internet users decreases with age

with almost 2% of users over 60

years old.

Graduates of high schools and

universities are extremely well

represented among Romanian

internet users. According to SATI

(Audience measurement, September

2009 - February 2010, universe 14-

64 yo, urban) they constituted 77%

of the total number of the internet

users. Vocational school graduates

Providing financial news, articles

about banks, business opportunities

as well as information about

Romanian funds, ‘Business and

Finance’ is one of the categories

where competition is strong, with

more than 20 websites competing.

Wall-street.ro was the leader in

March 2010, with almost 950,000

unique clients. It belongs to Internet

Corp, an independent Romanian

publisher.

Zf.ro is the online platform of Ziarul

Financiar, one of the most successful

business newspapers in Romania.

After a year of its launch, the

business portal Money.ro came

third. With a loss of 43,000

compared to money.ro, avocanet.ro,

an online legal community, ranks

fourth. 5th place is taken by capital.ro.

Do you CEE? Romania

182

3. TOOLS

3.1. BROWSERS

Chart 1 Top browsers in Romania by share of visits made from each in total number of visits (SATI, by BRAT, Traffic measurement, 2007 Q4 – 2010 H1)

Chart 2 Top operating systems in Romania by share of visits made from each in total number of visits (SATI, by BRAT, Traffic measurement, 2007 Q4 – 2010 H1)


3.1. Browsers

For a long time the Romanian browser

market was dominated by Microsoft

Internet Explorer. However, MSIE’s

share has been decreasing over the

past few years. In the first half of 2010

it constituted only 43%. Moreover,

Firefox has been catching up with

MSIE and the distance between them

has been declining; in the first half of

2010 Firefox’s share on the market

amounted to 42%. Other browsers

used by Romanian internet users are

Chrome and Opera. However, their

market shares are not significant and

amounted to only 7% in the first half

of 2010.

Do you CEE? Romania

183

Chart 3 Top search engines in Romania by share of visits initiated by each in total number of visits (SATI, by BRAT, Traffic measurement, 2007 Q4 – 2010 H1)

3.3. SEARCH ENGINES

Chart 4 Top screen resolutions in Romania by share of visits with recognized resolutions used by visitors in total number of visits (SATI, by BRAT, Traffic measurement, 2007 Q4 – 2010 H1)



As with other CEE markets, the unquestionable leader among operating systems in Romania is Windows XP. In the first half of 2010 its market share accounted for 78% of the online audience and the situation does not allow to predict any changes in the nearest future. The second player on the market is the newcomer: Windows 7, which gained more than 9% over the last twelve months before the study.

3.3. Search engines

As in other CEE search engine markets, the leader in Romania is Google. In the first half of 2010 it was responsible for 96% of all visits made on websites monitored by BRAT and the situation has been relatively constant over several years. The other noteworthy search engine is Yahoo constituting 1.5% of the Romanian search market.


The distribution of screen resolutions has remained almost constant over the years; 1024 x 768 comes in first place with a 31% share, followed by 1280 x 1024 (18%). Also, the 1280 x 800 screen resolution is quite popular.

3.5. Page impressions and average time per user

In recent years, the Romanian internet has grown not only in terms of number of visitors, but also in terms of number of page impressions generated by users and average time spent by them on websites. Currently, an average user (unique client) in Romania generates about 523 page impressions per month and at the same time he or she spends more than 6.5 hours surfing the internet

each month. This visible change occurred in the last trimester of 2009, due to the Romanian branch of hi5.com, which at that time joined the SATI study.

Note: The above figures related to viewtime and page impressions/client are calculated only for Romanian websites, measured by SATI. The traffic on the large global websites (such as Google) is not included in the

calculation.

Do you CEE? Romania

184


BRAT

www.brat.ro

Description: The goal of the BRAT

association is to independently and

objectively verify the performance

indicators of various media products

based on conventional criteria,

standardized at the national level

and established by members of the

association. The information obtained

is intended for the advertising

industry. BRAT was established on

20 February 1998 by 33 founding

members. As a result of the total

transparency of BRAT, the number of

members has increased to 238. From

2007 BRAT has implemented the SATI

study (internet audience and traffic

research)

Members: Publishing houses, online

publishing houses, advertising

networks, advertising agencies,

advertising clients.

Asociatia IAB Romania

www.iab-romania.ro

Description: IAB Romania brings

together the most important members

of the media and advertising industry

in Romania. The goals of IAB are to

promote the interactive advertising

industry, impose international

standards, develop and promote

programs to educate advertisers and

publishers, IAB produces and supports

studies on the efficiency and power of

online advertising, as well as publishes

Chart 5 Page impressions and average time spent per user (unique client) in Romania (SATI, by BRAT, Traffic measurement, September 2007 - June 2010) of visits (SATI, by BRAT, Traffic measurement, 2007 Q4 – 2010 H1)

3.5. PAGE IMPRESSIONS PER UNIQUE CLIENT AND AVERAGE VIEWTIME PER UNIQUE CLIENT

Do you CEE? Romania

185

market data and analysis. Last but

not least, the organization formulates

and promotes a code of ethics for the

online advertising industry in Romania.

The IAB association in Romania was


Members: Online publishing houses,

advertising networks, advertising

agencies, advertising clients.

International Advertising Association

www.iaa.ro

Description: The International

Advertising Association is a unique

strategic partnership which defends

the common interests of all disciplines

in the whole spectrum of the

marketing communications industry

from advertisers to media companies,

agencies, direct marketing companies

and individual practitioners. The main

objectives of IAA are to promote

the role and benefits of advertising,

to protect and promote freedom of

commercial speech and consumer

choice, to encourage self-regulation

and practice of advertising and to offer

a forum for discussion of new topics

related to marketing communications.

IAA Romania was founded in 1993.

Members: Advertisers, media

companies, agencies, direct marketing

firms.

Romanian Council for Advertising

www.rac.ro

Description: Romanian Advertising

Council (RAC) is a professional,

non-governmental, non-profit and

independent organization. The activity

of the Council is self-regulation in

advertising. At present, the Romanian

Advertising Council is preparing to

offer copy advice. RAC was established

in 1999. It was the initiative of a union

in support of the advertising industry

in Romania which belonged to several

companies and to the International

Advertising Association (IAA). The

activity of the Romanian Advertising

Council is based on the Code of

Advertising Practice, developed by

its members. The Code is a set of

ethical rules to be respected by all

those involved in advertising and any

form of commercial communication.

The document’s purpose is to

support the development of honest

and decent business in Romania

by offering a guide to the form and

content of correct, honest and decent

information of the consumer and

the industry.

Members: RAC has 50 members:

companies, advertising agencies,

media and associations. In turn,

the Council is a member of other

European (EASA - European

Advertising Standards Alliance) and

global (IAA - International Advertising

Alliance) organizations.

Do you CEE? Romania

186




CONTACT

1 Ad Evolution adevolution.roStr.Turturelelor, nr 11A, et.5, corp C, sector 3, Bucuresti

Fax: +40 (0) 31-815-67-52Email: [email protected]

2 Apropo Media apropomedia.roStr. Tudor Arghezi nr. 3B, sector 2, Bucuresti

Phone: +40 (0)31-825-64-61Fax: +40 (0) 31-825-61-55Email: [email protected]

3 ARBOinteractive arbointeractive.roBlv. Iuliu Maniu, nr. 7, cladirea B, etaj 3, Sector 6, Bucuresti

Phone: +40 (0) 372-111-777Fax: +40 (0) 372-111-711Email: [email protected]

4 Beyond Media beyond.roStr.Turturelelor, nr 11A, cladirea Phoenicia Business Center, etaj 5, sector 3, Bucuresti

Phone: +40 (0) 37-401-39-00Email: [email protected]

5 Digital 4 People digital4.roStr. Nucsoara nr.13, bloc 32, sc. A, ap. 2, Sector 6, Bucuresti

Phone: +40 (0) 21-232-03-26Fax: +40 (0) 21-232-03 -6Email: [email protected]

6 Digital Ads digital-ads.roBlv. Pierre de Coubertin 3-5, Of-fice Building, Sector 2, Bucuresti

Phone: +40 (0) 21-209-53-33/ ext. 132Fax: +40 (0) 21-209-56-62Email: [email protected]

7 F5/X Media f5xmedia.roP-ta Presei Libere nr 1 , Casa Presei Libere Corp A3, et2, Sec-tor 1, Bucuresti

Phone: +40 (0) 21-549-37-90Fax: +40 (0) 21-310-31-29Email: [email protected]

8 HttPool httpool.roStr Av. Sanatescu 40, Sector 1, Bucuresti


9 IBU Pro TV ibu.roStr. Pache Protopescu nr 109, Bucuresti


10 Inform Media Informmedia.roCalea Torontalului DN6 Km 5-7,Cod postal – 300633, Timisoara

Phone: +40 (0) 259-410-115Fax: +40 (0) 259-436-639Email: [email protected]

11 Intact Interactive intactinteractive.roBlv. Ficusului nr. 44A, et. 3, corp A, cam. 16, sector 1, Bucuresti


12 Internet Corp Internetcorp.roStr. Putul lui Zamfir nr. 28, Sector 1, Bucuresti


13 Splendid Interactive splendidmediagroup.roStr. Panait Istrati nr. 55, Sector 1, Bucuresti

Phone 1: +40 (0) 21-665-75-99Phone 2: +40 (0) 21-665-75-55Fax: +40 (0) 21-665-75-12Email: [email protected]

14 ThinkDigital thinkdigital.gr/ro/Str. Dr. Staicovici, nr. 14, Bucuresti


15 TradeAds tradeads.euBlv. Unirii nr. 19, bl. 4B, parter, sector 5, Bucuresti, postal code: 040103


Do you CEE? Romania

187


Adina Vasilescu

New Media Publisher, Sanoma Hearst



your local market?

There are still lots of opportunities for online services and transaction based

models in many segments of Romanian cyberspace. If we look at top 20 websites

in Romania there are a lot of brand extensions from print media, which are

mainly content websites making money from advertising. The Romanian web is

still in the 1.0 phase, with some exceptions. The main problem is that despite

a good internet penetration rate, online advertising spendings remain modest.

Advertisers need first to understand the nature of online projects, then they will

learn to trust the web and began to spend real money online.

Dominating trends



On the one hand, social media, communities and all forms of user-generated

content are growing in popularity. On the other hand, the future of e-commerce

is promising and this will be key for both user and advertiser behavior within the

next 3-5 years.




battle?

There is little local strength compared to the large successes of international

companies. A long path awaits Romania in order to reach a comparable level of

development of other countries of the region (e.g. the Czech Republic, Hungary,

and Poland). As long as most of the successful local websites copy international

concepts, Romania will not be able to compete at the global level. What is

needed is more investment in innovation and the creation of models adapted to

the specifics of the Romanian market in areas where international concepts have

proved ineffective (e.g. online real estate).

Do you CEE? Romania

188

Market specifics



The Romanian online market cannot yet be termed fully ‘mature’ when

compared with other CEE countries and it stills lacks the necessary know-

how and vision. More entrepreneurs as well as experienced managers are

needed for this market to continue to develop. Fast and effective growth in

the online business most certainly lies in the future which means there are still

opportunities for investors in this market.

Alex Visa

Managing Partner, Hyperactive



your local market?

The global economic downturn has slowed down the Romanian advertising

market as a whole, and this has also affected the internet advertising market.

Compared to other European markets, which registered a 10% increase

compared to the previous year, Romania had a 5% to 10% decrease in 2009

compared to 2008. Even with this decrease, the internet has declined less than

other types of media, and may be considered the ‘winner’ among media types.

The share of spend dedicated to digital media has grown rapidly over previous

years, and is still expected to grow in the upcoming years. For 2010 we estimate

a 5% budget share dedicated to online media. Even so, this is well below the

18% average of other European countries.

Dominating trends



The era of treating online products as ‘add-ons’ to any campaign has already

peaked, and the growing trend is to have campaigns revolving around an ‘online

anchored 360 concept’. More major brands have started to take online seriously

and to develop campaigns and communications strategies around a well

rounded, online anchored concept. Social media usage is also growing rapidly

and will continue to grow.

Do you CEE? Romania

189




battle?

The situation is mixed in this matter. Medium- and small-sized local brands are,

in certain cases, more advanced than global giants. Nevertheless, global brands

are slower to start but faster to implement an integrated online anchored

campaign, and usually have larger budgets for such endeavors.

Laurentiu Pop

Deputy Managing Director, Httpool



your local market?

The Romanian online advertising market is blooming with opportunities at

the moment. There are new online advertising products available on the

market and advertisers are ready to use them and try new things. One of the

biggest advantages of the Romanian market is, of course, its high broadband

penetration and the increasing interest that Romanians of all ages have in

using the internet. The willingness and the necessity to communicate and

share information is characteristic for both users and advertisers, therefore it is

a positive environment for online advertising.

However, there is still some work to be done until the internet reaches the level

of awareness and credibility that it has gained in western countries, and that can

only be achieved through constantly educating of all the stakeholders involved

about the benefits online advertising can bring.

Dominating trends



The trends on the local market are influenced by the global climate and

economic environment. The first trend is connected to the professionalization

of the market by requesting full reports, by optimizing campaigns as they run

and using all data available in order to become increasingly more efficient.

The second trend is highlighted by large global advertisers that are developing

branding campaigns in their fight to gain a market share in the times of the

recession.

Do you CEE? Romania

190




battle?

Local players developed extremely well during the first years of the

implementation of the Romanian internet infrastructure so it is difficult for

global players access the main sectors such as Sports, Auto or Jobs. This is why

global players enter the Romanian market through the purchase of Romanian

players (for example, in the Jobs and Auto sectors). Of course, there are

exceptions in areas like E-mail or Search where the global players are too strong.

Market specifics



The people and geopolitical position of Romania is in itself unique. Firstly,

Romanian users are modern and keen on testing new products. Secondly,

Romania is the only Latin-based linguistic area in the region and this has had

a great impact of the way the internet market has developed so far and will

continue to influence the way it will develop in the future.

Cezar Paraschiv

Account Manager, Starcom Romania

Silviu Toma

Online Media Planner, Starcom Romania



your local market?

It is inevitable that we take as a benchmark what happens in other so-

called more ‘mature’ online industries. The internet is the same for all of

us (not including countries in the Middle East or China where parts of it are

banned) thus we all function on a level playing field and have almost the

same opportunities in terms of developing complex projects leveraging the

particularities of the medium. However, the ‘maturer’ countries are one step

ahead of Romania. This is because their marketing culture is some way ahead

of the Romanian one. One opportunity is the accessibility of online marketing

knowledge that is narrowing the gap between Romania and the West. Romania

will eventually move on from “intuitive online marketing” to “knowledge based

online marketing” but the lack of online professionals both in agencies and in

the marketing departments of clients is now the greatest obstacle. We must

not forget that we are functioning in a genuinely ‘idea’ field and of course great

ideas only succeed if they are shared by people with common visions.

Do you CEE? Romania

191

Dominating trends



In the past 3 years, specialists have claimed that mobile marketing is the ‘next

big thing’. However, experience has shown us that the mobile channel was and

continues to be poorly leveraged. This will change because of the smartphone

market boom. Smartphones are moving the internet to the streets. Once mobile

websites appear, mobile display advertising will explode.

Another local trend is the growing use of social media. Increasingly more clients

are moving from outbound marketing to inbound marketing.




battle?

Global giants have money, local players have flexibility. Global giants come with

a set of rules, and most of the time follow certain patterns when it comes to

online advertising. Local players can counterattack with intelligent projects that

can be cheap but extremely effective. After all, the internet is a medium which

offers a whole variety of possibilities.

Market specifics



The market still has many free niches for e-commerce or niches without a clear

leader in terms of volume of sales and brand perception (books, clothes,

vouchers etc). The volume of online transactions has doubled every year from

2004 to 2009.The best-selling products are from IT&C, fashion, entertainment,

tourism (plane tickets and package holidays). Hi5 is still the largest social

networking site in the country but Facebook is quickly growing (currently

1,500,000 users) and will probably overtake Hi5 (2,500,000 users) this year.

Twitter only has 30,000 users.

The Romanian market has more digital agencies than online success businesses.

There are several large investors like NCH and Naspers but they are only active

in online media and services like job sites or second hand car sites. There have

been no major investors in e-commerce and research so far.

Russia40.96minternet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_



193193

194195

196197

198198

200200

201201

201202

202203

204



Do you CEE? Russia

193



PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 Yandex horizontal portal 33 990 064 6 157 314 817 181 05:36:42 83%

2 Mail horizontal portal 31 835 999 9 711 805 546 305 06:35:34 78%

3 vkontakte.ru social network 23 099 316 41 925 538 754 1815 17:11:46 56%

4 Google search engine 18 739 727 1 194 681 324 64 01:29:29 46%

5 odnoklassniki.ru social network 17 925 656 3 383 276 223 189 03:45:18 44%

6 wikipedia.org online encyclopedia 14 240 047 156 275 754 11 00:17:44 35%

7 Rambler horizontal portal 13 520 218 1 020 410 546 75 01:34:30 33%

8 mozilla.com Corporate website 11 881 588 61 423 784 5 00:12:45 29%

9 marketgid.com e-shop catalogue 10 401 793 63 321 810 6 00:22:35 25%

10 microsoft.com corporate website 10 039 073 70 266 850 7 00:07:17 25%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Russia by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

The division into three groups,

as observed in 2009, is gradually

diminishing. A year ago, the first

group had a reach of around 70%

and included the websites Yandex

and Mail; the second group’s reach

oscillated around the 40% mark and

included Odnoklassniki, Google,

Rambler and Vkontakte and the third

group, which included Wikipedia,

Mozilla, Marketgid and Microsoft with

a reach around 25% of the Russian

audience. In 2010, apart from Yandex

and Mail, which consistently lead the

market, the majority of other players

shifted their positions. However,

during the last year there was no new

entry in the top 10 ranking.

Yandex.ru, a local search engine

and horizontal portal, dominates

the market. Since last year, its reach

grew by almost 5 percentage points

1. MAIN PLAYERS


and amounted to 83% in March

2010. Due to this domination of

domestic leaders, there is not much

room left for Google, which reaches

46% of the audience. Moreover, the

global giant lost almost 2 percentage

points last year. The sole field where

Google manages to outreach its local

competitors is with online videos,

i.e. youtube.com, the Google-owned

service. It outperforms the analogous

platforms of Yandex and Mail in terms

of reach.

Mail.ru, the major rival of both Yandex

and Google, is a horizontal portal

acquired by Digital Sky Technologies.

The company is said to control

significant share of the page views

generated on the whole Runet mostly

via Mail, Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte.

Moreover, it owns 5% of the

worldwide giant Facebook and also

Do you CEE? Russia

194


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 vkontakte.ru 23 099 316 1815 17:11:46 56%

2 Mail 31 835 999 305 06:35:34 78%

3 Yandex 33 990 064 181 05:36:42 83%

4 odnoklassniki.ru 17 925 656 189 03:45:18 44%

5 fotostrana.ru 4 163 547 137 02:48:30 10%

6 loveplanet.ru 2 701 523 159 02:07:50 7%

7 dating.ru 858 401 160 01:41:19 2%

8 Rambler 13 520 218 75 01:34:30 33%

9 rbc.ru 8 214 709 25 01:31:50 20%

10 Google 18 739 727 64 01:29:29 46%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Russia by average time spent per user (gemiusAudience, March 2010)


has some shares in the social network

games developer Zynga. Despite the

power of DST behind Mail.ru,

the service is still unable to regain

the leading position in the ranking

and catch up with Yandex. Although

its reach increased by almost

4 percentage points compared to

last year, the growth of Yandex was

1 percentage point higher.

The service that recorded the highest

increase (more than 10 percentage

points) over the past year was the

social networking site Vkontakte.

With a result of 56%, it now takes third

place in the reach ranking. At the same

time, its main rival, Odnoklassniki.ru,

is stagnating and its reach has

decreased by 1 percentage point from

March 2009. Competition between

these two social networking websites

is quite evident, despite the fact that

DST has a controlling interest in both.

The second most dynamic growth was

recorded by Wikipedia, whose reach

increased by 6 percentage points since

last year. It is now in 6th place in the

ranking.

The next position in the ranking was

taken by Rambler, a horizontal portal

which at the beginning of 2009 was

among the top 5 players on the

market, but since May 2009 has been

gradually losing ground, ending up

with a reach of 33% in March 2010.

As it was last year, 9th place was

taken by marketgid.com, an e-shop

catalogue, price comparison service

and advertising centre. Although the

service gathered more than 2,000,000

users last year, its reach remained

stable at 25%.

8th place was taken by mozilla.com.

Another global service, microsoft.com,

came in 10th.

Do you CEE? Russia

195

When taking into consideration ranking by average time per user, the leading position is taken by Vkontakte.ru with a clear result exceeding 17 hours monthly, giving each user more than half an hour daily. Such a high score is partly due to the applications available on this service as well as the large amount of streaming audio and video content available for network users. Streaming content is considered one of the major traffic drivers for Vkontakte.ru.

The second player in the ranking, Mail.ru, has an incredible 11 hours less than the leader. However, Mail outranks its main rival Yandex by almost one hour. 4th place is taken by Odnoklassniki.ru, but compared to last year its result is lower by two hours.

1.3. TOP PORTALS

The leaders among horizontal portals

are services that dominate the whole

Russian online market: Yandex and

Mail. The first was founded in 1997

and evolved into the largest Russian

search engine providing its users with

a targeted web search and information

retrieval services as well as an option

of limiting searches only to websites


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 Yandex 33 990 064 181 05:36:42 83%

2 Mail 31 835 999 305 06:35:34 78%

3 Rambler 13 520 218 75 01:34:30 33%

4 rbc.ru 8 214 709 25 01:31:50 20%

5 qip.ru 3 270 639 17 00:39:30 8%

Table 3 Top 5 portals in Russia by reach level (gemiusAudience March 2010)

outside the domestic internet. The

company also runs a horizontal portal

providing a wide range of additional

services including maps, traffic

information, images, a news and blog

search as well as a spam-free email.

Yandex’s main rival is Mail.ru, the

former market leader, which after

Social networking websites are over-represented in the top ranking by average time per user, where half of the services belong to this category. Apart from Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki we also find Fotostrana, another social networking website, and the dating services loveplanet.ru and dating.ru.

Rambler.ru, a horizontal portal (8th) and RBC.ru, a business portal (9th) are the next two sites in the ranking. Last place is taken by Google with a result of 1 hour and 29 minutes, which is almost 1 hour less than the previous year.

Do you CEE? Russia

196


The Russian social networking market

saw great changes last year. The

former leader Odnoklassniki, the

local version of classmates.com, lost

its place in favor of vkontakte.ru, the

Russian Facebook clone. This loss was


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 vkontakte.ru 23 099 316 1815 17:11:46 56%

2 mail.ru - MoiMir 18 925 661 142 03:40:50 46%

3 odnoklassniki.ru 17 925 656 189 03:45:18 44%

4 moikrug.ru 1 968 640 5 00:03:59 5%

5 facebook.com 1 939 727 39 00:24:24 5%

Table 4 Top 5 social networks in Russia by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

losing its position in September

2008 cannot catch up with Yandex.

On average Mail has around

a 5-percentage-point worse result

than Yandex each month. Mail was

created in 1998 as an e-mail web

service with an intention to be sold to

western companies. However, after

temporary open access for Russian

users, it grew in popularity. After a few

mergers and acquisitions, it is now

owned by Digital Sky Technologies.

It provides a wide spectrum of online

services such as the social networking

website [email protected]; a portal for

parents expecting a child [email protected];

mobile services [email protected];

a women’s glossy online magazine

[email protected]; a payment system

[email protected] with new capabilities

allowing users to access their

electronic money as well as many

other services. Mail also runs the

instant messaging service Mail.Ru

Agent, however after purchase of ICQ

by Digital Sky Technologies it is likely

that the third most popular messenger

on the Russian market will be merged

with this platform.

The third force among horizontal

portals is Rambler, reaching 33%

of the Russian audience. However,

nowadays it is not very successful and

is gradually losing its market share

(a loss of 11 percentage points

compared to last year) and the interest

of users.

In contrast, 4th place is taken by

the RBC.ru business portal, which

reach grew by 8 percentage points

compared to last year. It belongs to

the RBC media group which also owns

a dating network, messenger and

online payment system as well as the

website in 5th place, qip.ru, which was

created as a default starting page for

users who had installed QIP as instant

messenger.

mainly caused by the implementation

of paid services which discouraged

users. Even the offline ad campaigns

run by this portal did not help

and during last year its reach fell by

1 percentage point, while Vkontakte

Do you CEE? Russia

197


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 avito.ru 6 020 044 20 00:18:24 15%

2 mail.ru - avto 4 749 039 12 00:17:10 12%

3 mail.ru - job 4 317 592 7 00:08:24 11%

Table 5 Top 3 online classified ads in Russia by reach level (gemiusAudience March 2010)


The most popular classifieds service

in Russia is avito.ru, owned by

Contact East holding whose largest

shareholder is the investment banking

concern Kinnevik. It was launched in

2007 and is a leading multi category

classified ads service. The other two

services belong to mail.ru and are the

subdomains of this horizontal portal.

While the reach of both services is

almost equal, a huge discrepancy can

be observed in terms of user activity,

grew by 10 percentage points. Its

success may be partly attributed to

the fact that it is free and provides the

majority of the functions also available

on Facebook such as applications,

groups as well as a great amount of

audio and video streaming content

available for network users. Streaming

content is considered one of the

major traffic drivers for vkontakte.ru

(even including the Vkontake torrent

tracker). The second force among

the social networking websites is

MoiMir, owned by Mail.ru. It also

grew over the past year and its reach


Such a dynamic increase was partly

the result of several strategic changes

in the rules for application developers.

Now they can use links to external

resources, so they have additional

opportunities to make money through

cross-linking and adverting with other

applications. MoiMir became the first

project in RuNet to offer application

developers such functionalities.

What is characteristic about

the Russian market is the poor

performance of Facebook, which

neither gained a high reach level (5%),

nor grew dynamically (3 percentage

points year on year), while in some

other countries in the CEE region in

2009 it made it to the top 10 reach

rankings.

where auto.mail.ru is a great deal

more engaging. The average time

spent on this website per user, per

month exceeds the job service by

almost 9 hours.

Do you CEE? Russia

198

As far as the education structure

is concerned, users with a higher

level of education (38%) as well as

vocational training (32%) dominate

the market. However, it should be

highlighted that only users over

18 years old were taken into account

in the study. Moreover, as shown

on the next chart, a large amount

(21%) of Russian internet users live in

Moscow, where the amount of well

educated people is proportionally

higher than in the wider population.

Majority of Russian internet users

(34%) live in cities with less inhabitants

than 500,000. However, the Russian

online market is still capital-oriented

and the second most important group

2. ONLINE AUDIENCE

Males dominate the Russian

online market and account for

52%, which is characteristic of

less developed markets. However,

compared to last year, the gap is

gradually diminishing and the share of

females in the online population grew

by 1 percentage point.

Runet is still dominated by young

people aged 18-34, who account


However, the Russian online

population is getting older. Compared

to last year the amount of young

internet users 18-34 decreased by

one percentage point in favor of the

oldest group aged 55+, whose share


The most popular finance service

measured in the gemiusAudience

study is banki.ru. It was launched

in 2005 and aimed to establish

a permanent dialogue between

banks and their customers. It began

as a regular forum but is now

a ‘hotline’, where major Russian banks

communicate with their customers.

However, the service does not

attract a wide audience and its reach


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 banki.ru 692 380 14 00:16:21 2%

2 quote.ru 373 093 19 01:06:36 1%

Table 6 Top 2 finance sites in Russia by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)


amounts to only 2%. Second place is

taken by the quote.ru vertical portal

run by RBC, which has 1% of the

Russian online audience. However, its

users are highly engaged in the site

and devote an average of over 1 hour

per user on this website monthly.

Do you CEE? Russia

200

3.1. Browsers

In 2009 the crisis of Microsoft’s

browser was gradually deepening and

since last year its reach has decreased

by 13 percentage points. Although it

still leads the market, the difference

between its main rivals is diminishing.

During the same period, Opera as well

as Firefox have been growing and in

the first quarter of 2010 gained 29%

and 25% of the market respectively.

What is more, Google’s Chrome is

gradually gaining popularity with its

Chart 1 Top browsers in Russia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Russian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2008 – 1Q 2010)

3. TOOLS

3.1. BROWSERS

constitutes Moscow’s inhabitants

(21%). The second most important

city is St. Petersburg, where 7% of the

Russian internet audience lives.

Students and Specialist/

Chief Specialist are the two most

represented groups among Russian

internet users. Together they account


The Middle level manager/Project

manager category comes third with

9%. However, except the first two

occupation categories, the occupation

structure of Russian internet

population is rather flat.

market share growing by almost

3 percentage points within the last year.


Windows XP is the most popular

operating system in Russia. However,

its popularity is gradually decreasing.

In the first quarter of 2010 74%

of page views generated in the

gemiusTraffic study were made by

users of this system, compared to

88% two years ago. Windows XP is

being replaced by Microsoft’s latest

Do you CEE? Russia

201

Chart 2 Top operating systems in Russia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Russian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2008 – 1Q 2010)


Chart 3 Top search engines in Russia by share of visits made by internet users who visit Russian webs-ites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2008 – 1Q 2010)

3.3. SEARCH ENGINES

Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Russia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Russian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2008 – 1Q 2010)


operating system, Windows 7, which

in contrast to its older sister, Windows

Vista, gained more users and 9 months

after its market debut now has 9% of

the market.

3.3. Search engines

The Russian search engines market

is unique compared to other CEE

markets, where Google dominates.

The real power on this market belongs

to the domestic player, Yandex. In

the first quarter of 2010 its share

accounted for 67% of the market, and

this figure is still increasing. During the

same time, apart from a small growth

period in 2008, Google has been losing

its market position since the beginning

of 2009, with a final result of 24%.


The most popular screen resolutions

on the Russian online market used

to be 1024 x 768, however in the

first quarter of 2009 it was overtaken

by 1280 x 1024, which now leads

the market with a share of 27%. All

other screen resolutions are of less

significance.


The Russian mobile devices market is

unique compared to the CEE region

which is dominated by the iPhone.


the most popular mobile device used

to access the web in Russia is Nokia

6300, which in July was responsible

for 8% of page views generated

by mobile devices on the average

website. However, a wide variety of

mobile devices can be found on this

market and the five most popular

tools constitute only 24%. The

iPhone’s share accounted for 6% of the

market and fell by 1 percentage point

Do you CEE? Russia

202


ROCIT

www.rocit.ru

Description: ROCIT is a public

organization whose primary mission

is to facilitate the inclusion of Russia

in the global internet community. It

was created to make the interaction

between suppliers and consumers

of information more effective and to

establish an independent advisory

service. ROCIT was established in

1996.

Members: Private members and public

associations.

ISDEF

www.isdef.ru

Description: ISDEF is an association

of e-shops. The primary aims of the

association are to support software

development and promotion; to

facilitate the growth and development

of the e-commerce industry in the

area of software and to strengthen the

position of Russian developers in the

international software market. ISDEF

was established in 2002.

Members: e-shops (e.g. Softkey,

Alawar, Umisoft, Elcomsoft, Bitrix).

Chart 5 Top 5 mobile devices in Russia by the website-averaged percentage share of page views generated by internet users from Russia, who visit Russian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10 **to 2010-07-25

3.5. MOBILE DEVICES

compared to May 2010. However, the

popularity of the iPad is dynamically

growing and the share gained by this

device increased by 1 percentage

point over the past two months.

Do you CEE? Russia

203



CONTACT

1 Begun.ru begun.ru2 Gamsonovsky sidestr., bldg.8, Moscow, Russia


2 Yandex.ru yandex.ru16, Leo Tolstoy St., Moscow, 119021, Russia


3 RORER rorer.ru1 Arkhangelsky sidestr., office 605, Moscow, Russia

Phone: +7-495-514-21-42Fax: +7-495-514-21-42

4 Google google.ru7 Balchug st., Moscow, Russia

Phone: +7-495-644-14-00Fax: +7-495-644-14-01

5 TBN tbn.ru36\04 B.Novodmitrovskaya,Moscow, Russia


6 RLE rle.ru27 B, Kamennoostrovskiy str, bldg 3H, St. Petersburg, Russia


7 Soloway soloway.ru24, entrance 2, office 8, Radio str., Moscow, Russia


8 TradeDoubler tradedoubler.ru2 Gamsonovsky sidestr., bldg.1, Moscow, Russia

Phone: +7-495-988-09-94Fax: +7-495-988-09-94

9 iConText icontext.ru16, Krasnoproletarskaya st, Moscow, Russia

Phone: +7-499-929-85-95

10 Blondinka.Ru blondinka.ru24, office 703, Radio str.,Moscow, Russia

Phone: +7-495-980-71-10Fax: +7-495-980-71-10

11 ARBOmediaarbomedia.ru, v2media.ru

6, proezd Serebryakova, Moscow, Russia

Phone: +7-495-979-27-26

12 Kavanga kavanga.ru16, B.Monetnaya, office center #1, office 17, St. Petersburg, Russia

Phone: +7-495-66-37-12


Do you CEE? Russia

204


Andrey Sebrant

Product Marketing Director, Yandex

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are expected to

develop most in the future?

Video and SMM is on the rise, but are still small in volume. We can expect their

growth rates will be well above average for online advertising. More sophisticated

targeting will be used in traditional display and search advertising.




Local players are extremely strong, their advantage is the large audience and large

customer base. Their products and technologies meet all expectations of the clients,

therefore clients remain loyal even if they use global services.

Market specifics



In all the market segments of internet services (search, mail, social networks), the

local players are more popular than the global ones. Long term trends do not show

any great successes of the global players when competing with the local ones. The

Russian market is therefore much more self-sufficient than other markets, despite

the fact that it is open to international competition.

Alexander Kim

Head of Interaction for Group M Russia


What are the opportunities and obstacles for the Russian online advertising market?

Russian advertising spending in measured media is expected to grow by nearly

16%, to 7.4 billion USD in 2010 compared to 2009, when spending was down 42.3%

according to full year data. At the same time, internet spending (both in display

and contextual advertising) is showing consistent growth of nearly 32.5% in 2010.

Do you CEE? Russia

205

We forecast contextual spending will advance 40% (USD 497 million) and display

29.1% (USD 315 million) in 2010. Investment through the internet has benefited

from its more measurable and potentially cost efficient status. In a long run, online

advertising in Russia is also seen to be taking large sums of money from other

measurable media, especially TV and Print. According to the GroupM forecast,

online spending share is expected to grow up to 22% in 2020 – compared to 11%

in 2010.


Are your local market players strong enough to compete with the global giants?

What advantages and strategies do they have in this battle?

Local Russian sites are holding their top positions and seem strongly resistant to

the global challenge that is coming from Facebook, Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. There

is a significant market question if global sites can realistically aspire to leadership

in Russia in such areas as search and social. Some local players are inclined to

believe this scenario could eventually happen but not in the short term, and that

it would require a long and “exhausting war”, where the final winner will finally

be determined by the online consumer. To earn a position on the market, these

global players will have to innovate and adapt, thus helping to shape and drive

a developing interaction media scene. So as we look ahead, we see no slowdown in

the pace of innovation of mobile, of ad networks, on-line video, devices, platforms,

applications or the myriad of other applications of data.

Slovakia2.28minternet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_



207207

208209

210211

211212

214214

214215

215215

216216

217



Do you CEE? Slovakia

207



PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 azet.sk horizontal portal 1 541 206 1 462 631 868 949 12:40:31 67%

2 zoznam.sk horizontal portal 1 384 194 161 269 044 117 02:04:26 60%

3 sme.sk horizontal portal 1 221 599 69 127 588 57 01:29:52 53%

4 atlas.sk horizontal portal 1 209 063 45 006 974 37 00:33:40 52%

5 topky.sk news service 821 863 48 711 826 59 01:14:37 36%

6 aktuality.sk news service 755 017 29 510 473 39 00:48:13 33%

7 centrum.sk horizontal portal 746 336 95 415 370 128 02:21:04 32%

8 pravda.sk news service 635 330 27 147 096 43 00:54:21 28%

9 cas.sk news service 544 884 33 905 579 62 01:04:20 24%

10 markiza.sk news service 530 208 15 431 631 29 00:37:21 23%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Slovakia by reach level (AIMmonitor - AIM - Mediaresearch & Gemius, March 2010)

The Slovak internet market remained

stable last year and there was no new

entry in the top ten ranking by reach.

Like last year, this market is dominated

by horizontal portals and news

services. No other category is present

among the ten most popular websites.

The two unquestionable leaders on

the Slovak market are found in the

horizontal portal category. Like last

year, first place was taken by Azet.

However, its share decreased by

1 percentage point compared to March

2009. Second place is taken by Zoznam,

which belongs to Slovak Telekom a.s.

The portal used to lead the market

but after being overtaken by its main

rival, Azet, it has never regained

first place. Moreover, its reach has

decreased by 2 percentage points year

on year. Azet.sk, after defeating its

rival, systematically leads the market

1. MAIN PLAYERS


and keeps a constant (5-6 percentage

points) distance over Zoznam.

Sme.sk, the largest news portal in

Slovakia has recently developed by the

largest margin. Compared to March

2009, its reach grew by 4 percentage

points and since January 2010 it

remains in third position in the reach

ranking. Sme.sk is an online version

of the influential daily newspaper in

Slovakia run by the Pettit Press a.s

publishing house which belongs to the

Rheinische Post Media Group.

One of SME’s strongest rivals is the

offline Pravda, which also has an

online version that significantly grew

in size within the last year. Although

not as dynamic as in the case of

sme.sk, Pravda’s reach has increased

by 2 percentage points compared to

last year.


208

WEBSITE’S CATEGORY


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 azet.skhorizontal portal

1 541 206 949 12:40:31 67%

2 centrum.skhorizontal portal

746 336 128 02:21:04 32%

3 zoznam.skhorizontal portal

1 384 194 117 02:04:26 60%

4 autobazar.eu classifieds 424 598 153 02:00:14 18%

5 sme.skhorizontal portal

1 221 599 57 01:29:52 53%

6 topky.sk news service 821 863 59 01:14:37 36%

7 f1.sk sport service 43 365 51 01:10:41 2%

8 ephoto.sk photo sharing 37 996 68 01:04:21 2%

9 cas.sk news service 544 884 62 01:04:20 24%

10 profutbal.sk sport service 53 186 50 01:00:30 2%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Slovakia by average time spent per user (AIMmonitor - AIM - Mediaresearch & Gemius, March 2010)


Before January 2010, third position

was taken by atlas.sk, a horizontal

portal owned by Centrum Holdings,

which also runs centrum.sk, another

portal which took seventh position

in the ranking. In March 2010 these

services achieved reach of 53% and

32%, respectively. These results were

relatively stable during the last year.

Fifth place in the ranking is taken by

the topky.sk, a regular news service

owned by Zoznam s.r.o. Although

the number of its users increased

by more than 73,000 compared to

March 2009, the service’s reach

remained at the same level of 36%.

The next place is taken by aktuality.sk,

the news service belonging to

Azet.sk. Its reach increased by

1 percentage point year on year and

moved up from 7th to 6th place in

the ranking.

Cas.sk is an online version of the

most popular daily tabloid newspaper

in Slovakia run by Ringier AG, an

international media company. Despite

efforts taken to beat its main rival,

topky.sk, it constantly stands around

9th place with a reach exceeding

20%. However, the service may

be placed among the players that

attained the most significant growth:

its reach grew by 2 percentage points

compared to March 2009.

Last place, with a result of 23%, is

taken by markiza.sk, a news service

belonging to the largest television

station in Slovakia owned by Central

European Media Enterprises (CME).


209

Azet.sk leads the market when ranking

by average time per user is concerned,

gaining a result exceeding 12 hours.

However, it is mainly attributed to

Pokec, the social networking website

which is a part of the azet.sk node.

Compared to March 2009, Azet lost

around 5.5 hours, however, its lead

over other players is not under threat.

Apart from azet.sk, the other websites

do not achieve any spectacular results

with only centrum.sk and zoznam.sk,

popular horizontal portals, and

autobazar.eu, an online database

of used cars, register a time of

approximately 2 hours.

F1.sk the best news service dedicated

to Formula 1 grand prix races comes

in 7th, with an average time spent

1.3. TOP PORTALS

Portals and news services account

for the majority of the top ten Slovak

websites. All players of this category

occupy the leading places in the

general rankings. The most important

one is azet.sk, the largest horizontal

portal with a strong social networking

component (pokec.sk) and other

subservices such as zoznamka.sk

(dating community), videoalbumy.sk


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 azet.sk 1 541 206 949 12:40:31 67%

2 zoznam.sk 1 384 194 117 02:04:26 60%

3 sme.sk 1 221 599 57 01:29:52 53%

4 atlas.sk 1 209 063 37 00:33:40 52%

5 centrum.sk 746 336 128 02:21:04 32%

Table 3 Top 5 portals in Slovakia by reach level (AIMmonitor - AIM - Mediaresearch & Gemius, March 2010)

(video hosting), minihry.sk (casual

games) as well as others.

Second place is taken by zoznam.sk,

which is awaiting possible changes in

order to reclaim first place. The service

made some effort to launch a news

service for women, feminity.zoznam.sk,

however, this has not helped it to

reclaim first place.

per user of 1 hour 11 minutes.

It belongs to Point Network, which

also owns other sport websites such

as profutbal.sk and hokej.sk.

Apart from horizontal portals and

news services that are found among

the leaders, in the ranking by average

time per user there are also other

websites categories. For example,

ephoto.sk, dedicated to photography

with its own blogs and galleries, takes

8th position with a result of over one

hour.


210


First place among social networking

websites monitored in the study was

taken by the Azet-owned service,

pokec.sk, which reaches 48% of the

Slovak online audience. Though it

has changed its layout to resemble

Facebook, the service is stagnating.

The lack of further development is

partly caused by the strong entrance

of Facebook on the Slovakian market,

which took place in 2009.

The second force in this category is

a blog site belonging to sme.sk. It has

a stable position and a result of 19%.


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 pokec.sk 1 103 701 1126 14:03:25 48%

2sme.sk| Citatelsky obsah| blog.sme.sk

429 204 11 00:19:52 19%

3 birdz.sk 234 449 19 00:15:33 10%

4 zoznamka.sk 95 385 36 00:21:12 4%

5etrend.sk| blogy.etrend.sk

55 327 5 00:07:39 2%

Table 4 Top 5 social networking websites in Slovakia by reach level (AIMmonitor - AIM - Mediaresearch & Gemius, March 2010)

Another player is birdz.sk (owned by

Perex a.s. with its main title Pravda.sk),

a community portal dedicated to

a young audience. It systematically

gains a reach of 10%.

Another Azet-owned website,

zoznamka.sk, can be found among

the social networking services. It is

an online dating website with a reach

level accounting for 4% of the online

audience. Last place is taken by the

blog section of etrend.sk, a horizontal

portal gaining a reach level of 16%.

Among the horizontal portals, two

players, i.e. altas.sk and centrum.sk,

belong to the same owner, Centrum

Holdings. The first is more popular

with a reach of 52%, whereas

centrum.sk reaches 32% of the

audience. However, the latter

dominates in terms of average time

per visitor monthly with a figure

exceeding two hours. It cooperates

with ICQ on the Slovakian market.

Both services have their counterparts

on the Czech market.

Sme.sk which used to be the most

visited online news service, after

a number of acquisitions that took

place last year can now be defined

as horizontal portal. The service

developed very dynamically last year

and managed to gain more than

180,000 users from March 2009 to

March 2010.


211


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 profesia.sk 478 526 86 01:00:29 21%

2 autobazar.eu 424 598 153 02:00:14 18%

3 najnakup.sk 358 950 13 00:11:36 16%

Table 5 Top 3 online classified ads in Slovakia by reach level (AIMmonitor - AIM - Mediaresearch & Gemius, March 2010)


Profesia.sk dominates among the

classifieds services with a reach of

21%. It is the largest job portal. The

second is autobazar.eu, an auto

classifieds service, which significantly

outperforms others in terms of

average time spent per user with

a result of 2 hours. However, when

reach is taken into account, both

services are undergoing stagnation,

although according to local experts,

the general trend is that job classified

ads are moving from print to online


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 ekonomika.sme.sk 275 646 13 00:25:44 12%

2oPeniazoch. zoznam.sk

145 604 11 00:17:18 6%

3 peniaze.pravda.sk 98 341 5 00:06:59 4%

Table 6 Top 3 finance sites in Slovakia by reach level (AIMmonitor - AIM - Mediaresearch & Gemius, March 2010)


The most popular websites belonging

to the finance category are sections of

the popular horizontal portals or news

versions. Najnakup.sk, a service which

allows users to compare online shops

offers, takes last place among the

most popular classified ads websites

with a reach of 16%.

services. The unquestionable leader

on this market is ekonomika.sme.sk

with a reach of 12%. Second place


212

The largest share of Slovakian

internet users live in cities between

20,000 – 99,999 inhabitants and

these groups comprise 29% of the

online population. The second group

lives in towns with 1,000 – 4,999

inhabitants.

Almost every second (49%)

Slovakian internet user is not

employed, which is the result of the

significant number of young people

in the Slovakian online population.

Internet users working in the offices

are the second most represented

group (12%), followed by qualified

manual workers (11%) and highly

qualified specialists (8%). The other

occupation categories gain shares

oscillating between 1% - 5%.

2. ONLINE AUDIENCE


Slovakian internet population is

balanced, with a slight dominance of

males (51%), which is one percentage

point less than a year ago. Men can

also be found more often among

internet users over the age of

25, apart from age group 45-54,

where the gender share is equal

and accounts for 6% of the online

population.

Young people constitute a

majority in the Slovakian online

population. Internet users under

the age of 35 account for 61% of

the population, however, Slovakian

online society is growing older. The

share attained by the 14-34 age

group is now by 3 percentage points

lower than in March 2009. This loss is

in favor of the oldest group (over 55)

which comprised 8% in March 2010,

compared to 6% a year ago.

The majority of Slovakian

internet users have secondary

education and this group comprises

63% of the online population.

However, 23% of them do not have

a school leaving exam. The highest

educated group, who have

a university degree, increased by

1 percentage point compared to last

year.

with 6 percentages points less than

the leader, is oPeniazoch.zoznam.sk,

the finance section of zoznam.sk.

Compared to last year, the number

of its users decreased by almost

80,000. The top three is propped up

by peniaze.pravda.sk reaching 4% of

Slovak online audience.


214

Chart 1 Top browsers in Slovakia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Slova-kian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3. TOOLS

3.1. BROWSERS

Chart 2 Top operating systems in Slovakia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Slovakian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)


3.1. Browsers

Since the fourth quarter of 2008,

Firefox dominates the Slovakian

browser market. However, gaining

first place was not followed by

dynamic growth and both Firefox

and MISE have been gradually losing

their share in favor of Google’s

new product, Chrome, which since

the beginning of 2009 grew by

7 percentage points. During the same

period, Opera’s market share remains

stable, oscillating around 15%.


Windows XP constantly dominates

the operating systems used by

Slovakian users, however its share is

decreasing. It lost almost 11 percent

points in the first quarter of 2010

compared to the first quarter of 2009.

During the same period Windows

Vista stagnated, gaining a stable

result of 18% of page views generated

by internet users who visit Slovakian

websites using gemiusTraffic. Like

in other markets, the share of


215

Chart 3 Top search engines in Slovakia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Slovakian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3.3. SEARCH ENGINES

Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Slovakia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Slovakian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)


Microsoft’s latest product, Windows

7, is increasing by the largest amount

i.e. by 8 percentage points year on

year.

3.3. Search engines

Google is undoubtedly the leader on

the Slovakian search engine market

and its share is still increasing. In the

first quarter of 2010, 99% of visits

which began with gemiusTraffic-

participating websites via search

engines, started with Google.



1024 x 768, which used to have

over 60% of the market share at the

beginning of 2007, is now decreasing.

In the first quarter of 2010 only 28%

of page views generated by internet

users who visit Slovakian websites

using gemiusTraffic were made by

users with monitors of this screen

resolution.



the most popular mobile device

used to access the web in Slovakia

is the iPhone, which in July was

responsible for 27% of page views

generated by mobile devices on the

average website. However, compared

to May 2010 its share decreased

in July by 1.5 percentage points.

Unlike other CEE markets, the iPad

is not that popular in Slovakia and

the top 5 ranking is dominated by

Nokia devices, whose shares oscillate

around the 4-5% mark.

Chart 5 Top 5 mobile devices in Slovakia by the website-averaged percentage share of page views generated by internet users form Slovakia who visit Slovakian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10 **to 2010-07-25

3.5. MOBILE DEVICES


216


AIM – Association of Internet Media

www.aimsr.sk

Description: The Association of

Internet Media is a partnership

of Slovakian companies operating

in the Slovakian internet

and advertising sector. The

establishment of AIM came from

the need to create a platform for

interaction of those operating in

Slovakian internet advertising. The

Association aims to standardize

the ethical and legal rules for

internet advertising, support the

development of the internet as an

advertising medium and encourage

internet professionalization.

Members: Azet.sk, Inc., Centrum

Holdings - ATLAS.SK, Inc., Centrum

Holdings, Inc., CPress Media, LLC,

Creative Solutions, LLC, ECOPRESS,

Inc., Education, LLC, ETARGET SE

- affiliate member, EXPRES MEDIA,

LLC, Finance media, Inc., KONCEPT,

LLC, MAC TV, LLC, MARKÍZA -

SLOVAKIA, LLC, NARKS-INFOSERVIS,

Inc., Zoznam, LLC., PEREX, Inc., Petit

Press, LLC, POINT NETWORK, LLC,

Profesia, LLC, RINGIER SLOVAKIA,

Inc., Sanoma Magazines Slovakia,

LLC, SITA Slovenská tlačová agentúra,

Inc., SPOLOČNOSŤ 7 PLUS, LLC,

Travel.SK, LLC, TREND Holding, LLC.




MAIN OFFICEADDRESS

CONTACT

1 Sitelement sitelement.skKutuzovova 11, 831 03 Bratislava

Peter ŠtenclPhone: +421-903-259-260Email: [email protected]

2 web2media web2media.skVlárska 48/a, 831 01 Bratislava



217


Bc. Martin Kyncl

Sales Manager & New Business, SiteElement



your local market?

There are plenty of opportunities on the Slovakian local market. The most

common type of advertisement is the banner ad. We have also noticed intext

and invideo ads coming onto this market. Another opportunity is predictive

behavioral targeting of all types of ad formats. An obstacle is outsourced

technology, which is relatively expensive.




battle?

Local players are strong. Solely Slovakian local players are the largest media

representatives in Slovakia competing with foreign companies.

The opportunity is that foreign companies have is their experience from other

markets, verified technologies and larger budgets to invest in Slovakia. On the

other hand, they cannot orientate themselves on the market as well as local

companies.

Slovenia1.09minternet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_



219219

220221

222222

223225

225226

226227

225228228

228

1.1. Top10websitesbyreach_1.2. Top10websitesbyaveragetimespentperuser_1.3. Topportals_1.4. Socialnetworks_1.5. Onlineclassifiedadsbyreach_


Do you CEE? Slovenia

219



PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 24ur.com horizontal portal 658 705 110 611 008 168 06:27:22 55%

2 najdi.si search engine / horizontal portal 520 112 55 735 868 107 02:48:59 44%

3 siol.net horizontal portal 490 572 48 987 905 100 03:01:28 41%

4 rtvslo.si horizontal portal 445 388 39 388 972 88 02:58:22 37%

5 bolha.com classified ads / auctions 421 330 39 017 842 93 00:56:09 35%

6 itis.si telephone register 333 974 3 449 534 10 00:08:36 28%

7 zurnal24.si horizontal portal 320 472 33 109 562 103 01:45:46 27%

8 avto.net classified ads 318 230 97 440 460 306 02:58:12 27%

9 zadovoljna.si women portal 274 986 3 647 456 13 00:14:06 23%

10 sl.netlog.com social network 258 208 38 028 693 147 02:22:54 22%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Slovenia by reach level (Gemius/Valicon, gemiusAudience MOSS, March 2010)

The Slovenian online market is largely dominated by horizontal portals and their popularity is still growing. According to Gemius/Valicon, the gemiusAudience MOSS study from March 2010, the leader in the ranking by reach level was 24ur.com. Over the past twelve months its reach has increased by 8 percentage points (from 47%). The following three places were occupied by najdi.si, siol.net and rtvslo.si. All these horizontal portals are also significant players on the Slovenian online market; their reach levels amounted to 44%, 41% and 37%, respectively. Another horizontal portal in the study, zurnal24.si, ranked seventh in March 2010 and had 320,472 real users (27%) who generated more than 33.1 million page views.

Bolha.com and avto.net are two classified ads portals popular among

1. MAIN PLAYERS


Slovenian internet users. In March 2010, the first had a reach of 35% and the second gained 27%. Itis.si, a telephone and companies directory, came in 6th place in the top 10 ranking by reach level with 333, 974 real users.

Position 9 belonged to zadovoljna.si, a portal dedicated to women. Evidence of its growing popularity is the fact that according to the Gemius/Valicon, gemiusAudience MOSS study conducted in March 2010, compared with 2009 its reach level has increased by 11 percentage points, i.e. from 12% to 23%. It publishes information on fashion, beauty, fitness, etc. Moreover, it contains a special section for men as well as a forum.

The ranking was propped up by sl.netlog.com, a global social networking service with a reach level


220


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 24ur.com 658 705 168 06:27:22 55%

2 siol.net 490 572 100 03:01:28 41%

3 rtvslo.si 445 388 88 02:58:22 37%

4 avto.net 318 230 306 02:58:12 27%

5 najdi.si 520 112 107 02:48:59 44%

6 igre123.com 157 008 103 02:24:17 13%

7 sl.netlog.com 258 208 147 02:22:54 22%

8 ona-on.com 23 680 153 02:07:40 2%

9 nogomania.com 36 218 81 02:02:55 3%

10 finance.si 257 472 51 01:45:51 22%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Slovenia by average time spent per user (Gemius/Valicon, gemiusAudience MOSS, March 2010)


of 22%. Its members can create their own websites with blogs, photos, videos, events, etc. and share them with friends. It is currently available

The unquestionable leader on the

Slovenian online market in terms

of average time spent on the site

in March 2010 was 24ur.com. The

average user of this popular horizontal

portal visited the website for 6 hours

and 27 minutes over a month. It was

followed by three websites: siol.net,

rtvslo.si and avto.net, with results of

around 3 hours. The first one, siol.net,

is one of the leading Slovenian internet

portals, part of Planet 9, a Limited

liability company within the Telekom

Slovenia Group. In March 2010, its

average user spent there more than

3 hours. In the same period, users of

rtvslo.si which is a multimedia portal

of one of the national TV stations,

RTV Slovenia, and also avto.net - an

automotive classified ads service,

spent 2 hours 58 minutes visiting these

websites. Only 10 minutes less was

spent online by the visitors of najdi.si,

another popular Slovenian horizontal

portal and search engine.

Around 2 hours 24 minutes was spent

visiting igre123.com, a games portal.

It is part of Popcom Ltd, a company

that also owns the largest online video

community in Slovenia mojvideo.com

and photo service mojalbum.com.

Igre123.com offers its users free

games and a forum. According to the

Gemius/Valicon, gemiusAudience

MOSS study from March 2010, it had

a reach of 13%.

In the ranking there were 2 social

networking services: sl.netlog.com

in 20 languages and has millions of members across Europe, in Slovenia there are 258,208 members.


221

(7th) and ona-on.com (8th).

Users of the former service spent

almost 2 hours 23 minutes online,

whereas users of the latter 2 hours

and 8 minutes. Also visitors of

nogomania.com, a portal dedicated

to football fans, surfed this website

for over 2 hours in search of current

information on football events.

The top 10 ranking by average time

spent per user was propped up by

finance.si with a result of 1 hour

46 minutes. It publishes all kinds of

financial and business news and is

quite popular within the Slovenian

online population: in March 2010

its reach level amounted to 22%.

Finance.si is a part of Swedish Bonnier

Business Press.

1.3. TOP PORTALS

Horizontal portals have a strong

position on the Slovenian online

market. The unquestionable leader

in March 2010 was 24ur.com with

a reach level of 55%. It is dedicated

to all kinds of users and has the

largest commercial TV background.

As mentioned above, its popularity

has been growing, so it comes as no

surprise that the website is constantly

developing its multimedia content as

well as opening new, special websites

for different kinds of content (health,

women, gossip, amongst others).

According to the Gemius/Valicon,

gemiusAudience MOSS study from

March 2010, the second most

significant player on the portals


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 24ur.com 658 705 168 06:27:22 55%

2 najdi.si 520 112 107 02:48:59 44%

3 siol.net 490 572 100 03:01:28 41%

4 rtvslo.si 445 388 88 02:58:22 37%

5 zurnal24.si 320 472 103 01:45:46 27%

Table 3 Top 5 portals in Slovenia by reach level (Gemius/Valicon, gemiusAudience MOSS,March 2010)

market in Slovenia was najdi.si,

the largest local search engine

with a reach of 44%. It used to be

the leader on the Slovenian online

market and even its current second

place in the ranking is under threat

by siol.net (41%), another popular

horizontal portal. It publishes current

local and world news, business and

sports information and much more.

Moreover, it offers the SiOL Services

which include internet, TV and

telephony.

Rtvslo.si ranked fourth in the ranking

with a reach level of 37%. It is a typical

horizontal portal with news divided

into sections: news, sports, culture,

entertainment and travel. Since it is


222



PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 bolha.com 421 330 93 00:56:09 35%

2 avto.net 318 230 306 02:58:12 27%

3 mojedelo.com 100 717 34 00:25:33 8%

Table 5 Top 3 online classified ads in Slovenia by reach level (Gemius/Valicon, gemiusAudience MOSS, March 2010)


Social networks are relatively popular

amongst the Slovenian online audience.

Among the services included in the

Gemius/Valicon, gemiusAudience

MOSS study from March 2010, the

leader was sl.netlog.com with a reach

level of 22%. The service was followed

by genspot.com with a reach level

only 2 percentage points lower with

233,886 real users. It is mainly a blog

site where users can additionally

upload their videos and photos or chat

with friends.

a RTV portal, it concentrates largely

on developing its multimedia content.

The last place in the top 5 ranking was

occupied by zurnal24.si, an online

version of the free daily newspaper

delivering current news on a range of


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 sl.netlog.com 258 208 147 02:22:54 22%

2 genspot.com 233 886 23 00:13:42 20%

3 ona-on.net 59 369 21 00:17:21 5%

Table 4 Top 3 local social networking websites in Slovenia by reach level (Gemius/Valicon, gemiusAudience MOSS, March 2010)

The ranking was propped up by

ona-on.net, a dating service dedicated

to adult internet users, reaching 5%

of the Slovenian online audience.

diverse subjects. In March 2010 it had

a reach level of 27%.


223

The Slovenian online population

is especially fond of classified ads

services. The most popular, bolha.com,

had a reach level of 35% in March

2010 and took 5th place in the general

ranking by reach. Its announcements

are classified into four main

categories: auto-moto, real estate,

computer science and home. For the

majority of Slovenian internet users,

bolha.com is the first choice to buy or

sell both new and used products as

well as to offer or search for services.

The second player is avto.net,

a service specializing in automotive

classifieds. According to the Gemius/

Valicon, gemiusAudience MOSS study

from March 2010, it had 318,230 real

users.

Mojedelo.com is a leading Slovenian

employment portal dedicated to

people searching for a job and

employers who need new employees.

It not only contains job offers, but also

has a Career Centre section with tips

and advices on how to successfully

look for a job. In March 2010 it had

a reach level of 8%.

2. ONLINE AUDIENCE


Slovenian online population is

dominated by men. In March 2010,

according to the Gemius/Valicon,

gemiusAudience MOSS study, 56% of

Slovenian internet users were men;

women constituted 44%. Moreover,

the average man spent 14 hours

16 minutes online, while a typical

woman spent less than 11 hours

online.


significant group within the Slovenian

online population were people aged

25-34 who constituted 24% in March

2010. They were also the most active

individuals with 14 hours 8 minutes

spent online per user.

The second largest group, users

35-44 years old, accounted for 22%

of the online population. Also, young

people make up a significant group

of internet users in Slovenia; when

taken together, users aged 10-14 and

15-24 constituted 28% of the online

population. What is interesting about

Slovenian internet users is the fact

that there are a lot of people over

55 years old (11%).

In terms of the education level,

the most numerous group in March

2010 within the Slovenian online

population was those who had

completed four years of high school.

They accounted for 27% of the online

population. With 25% of the online

audience, users that were still in

school ranked second. Third place

belonged to users with three years of

high school completed(22%). Users

with a higher education constituted

20%.

Internet users with elementary

education or lower accounted for only

6% of the online population. However,

they spent the most time online with

an average of 14 hours and 18 minutes

a month.


225

The majority of the Slovenian

internet population lives in cities. In

March 2010 18% lived in Ljubljana,

7% in Maribor and 15% in other cities

with 10,000 – 100,000 inhabitants.

Quite a large part of the online

audience lived in places with less than

500 inhabitants, (16%), which means

that the internet is not only common

in densely populated areas but also in

the countryside.

The occupation structure of

the Slovenian online population

in March 2010 was dominated by

users employed in companies (40%).

Another significant group were those

Chart 1 Top browsers in Slovenia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Slove-nian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3. TOOLS

3.1. BROWSERS

3.1. Browsers

There seems to have been a fierce

battle between Mozilla Firefox and

Microsoft Internet Explorer on the

Slovenian online market with regard

to leadership of the browsers market.

Since the third quarter of 2009 the

winner was Firefox, and after the first

employed in public sector (12%),

children in elementary schools

accounted for 9% as well as the

students. The latter were also the

leaders in terms of average time spent

online with over 15 hours 10 minutes.

quarter of 2010 it attained 50% of

the market. MSIE ranked second with

a 42% share. Another popular browser

that has been gaining popularity over

the last year is Chrome (5%). Less

significant were, according to the

gemiusTraffic study from March 2010,

such browsers as Opera (2%) and

Safari (1%).


226

Chart 3 Top search engines in Slovenia by share of visits made by internet users who visit Slovenian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3.3. SEARCH ENGINES

Chart 2 Top operating systems in Slovenia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Slovenian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)



Like in other CEE markets, the leader

among operating systems in Slovenia is

Windows XP. After the first quarter of

2010 its share of the market, as studied

by gemiusTraffic, constituted 70%.

However, over the last two years its

share has decreased by 20 percentage

points. The second player on the

market, Windows Vista, has already

started to lose popularity and will most

probably no longer be able to keep its

position in the ranking. The newcomer

on the operating systems market,

Windows 7, managed to gain over 13%

of the market in less than a year.

3.3. Search engines

Like in other CEE markets, the most

popular search engine in Slovenia

is Google. After the first quarter of

2010 its share accounted for 87% of

the market and its popularity is still

growing. The second player on the

Slovenian market is najdi.si, a local

search engine, which popularity has

been declining over the past few years

and after the first quarter of 2010 had

a market share of only 12% (after the

first quarter of 2007 it was 33%).


227

Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Slovenia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Slovenian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)


Chart 5 Top 5 mobile devices in Slovenia by the website-averaged percentage share of page views generated by internet users from Slovenia who visit Slovenian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10 **to 2010-07-25

3.5. MOBILE DEVICES


There is no major leader on the

screen resolutions market in Slovenia.

In terms of share of page views

generated by internet users who visit

Slovenian websites using gemiusTraffic

the most popular ones, within the

Slovenian online audience, were

1024 x 768 (25%), 1280 x 1024 (22%)

and 1280 x 800 (14%).


A wide variety of mobile devices can

be found on the Slovenian market.

Five most popular tools have a share

of 35%. However, as with the majority

of the CEE markets, in Slovenia the

leadership of this market belongs to

iPhone. According to the gemiusTraffic

study, in July iPhone was responsible

for 13% of page views generated by

mobile devices on the average website

and its position remains stable. At the

same time, Apple’s latest product,

the iPad, is consistently gaining

popularity, and has increased its share

by 5 percentage points since May

2010. Slight growth might also be

observed for the iPod, whose share

grew by 0.5 percentage points during

this period. Three other positions are

taken by Nokia’s devices amongst

which the Nokia 5800 is the most

popular gaining a share of 5%.


228


SOZ - Slovenian Advertising Chamber

www.soz.si

Description: The Slovenian Advertising

Chamber is a non-governmental

organization which protects the

interests of advertisers, advertising

agencies and publishers. It is

a member of IAB Europe.

Members: publishers and agencies

(e.g. 24ur.com, najdi.si, siol.net, rtvslo.

si, httpool, media pool, bolha.com,

avto.net, genspot.com, zurnal24.si)




MAIN OFFICEADDRESS

CONTACT

1 Httpool httpool.siCesta v Gorice 8, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia


2 Iprom iprom.siUlica Ivice Pirjevčeve 16, 1211 - Lj-Šmartno, Slovenia


3 Adlink Meida adlinkmedia.siVojkova 63, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia


4 Interactive.agency interactive-agency.siBravničarjeva ulica 13, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia



Radoš Skrt

Internet Project Director, Studio Moderna



local market?

Several years ago having a presence on the internet was a must for all companies

and now if the company cannot be found among the first hits given in a search

engine, we could say that it virtually doesn’t exist. The fact is that internet users


229

search for products, services and businesses via search engines, and that about

80% of all clicks occur on the first page of search results. Of course, companies

can also draw much attention using other forms of online communication, but

we must be aware that banner blindness is more and more prevalent. People

are becoming less responsive to ads and the presence of users on the web is

extremely scattered.

Dominating trends



Those companies which want to be successful will have to find or carve out a place

on the market. This means that they will have to choose the appropriate (target)

media to be highlighted, and that they should be able to attract the attention of

internet users with creative solutions and innovative approaches. It is more than

evident that the phenomenon of social media companies will not be able to avoid

two-way communication with customers (this is a necessity in this day and age)

and that they should also encourage interaction with customers.

The inclusion of both parties (advertisers and users), taking into account their

desires and needs as well as collecting databases and their efficient usage, will

most certainly be crucial factors and the main key to success in the near future.

Turkey21.60minternet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_



231231

233234

235236

236237

239239

240240

241241

242243

243



Do you CEE? Turkey

231



PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 blogcu.com blogging platform 10 110 262 113 287 594 11 00:13:52 43%

2 mynet.com horizontal portal 8 325 109 1 455 728 525 175 02:01:10 36%

3 izlesene.com video hosting 8 305 237 269 004 160 32 00:45:47 36%

4 ekolay.net horizontal portal 7 173 983 315 354 463 44 01:04:30 31%

5 hurriyet.com.tr news service 6 844 277 864 751 686 126 01:57:09 29%

6 milliyet.com.tr news service 6 207 491 714 288 388 115 02:21:51 27%

7 antoloji.comliterary service / online bookstore

3 725 207 27 801 789 7 00:06:50 16%

8 kraloyun.com casual games platform 3 652 623 177 785 406 49 01:05:08 16%

9 haberler.com news service 3 509 221 55 715 690 16 00:16:02 15%

10 sabah.com.tr news service 3 125 297 170 728 985 55 00:47:05 13%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Turkey by reach level (Gemius SA / Ipsos KMG: IAB Turkey’s Internet Audience Measurement, March 2010)

Given the large size of the Turkish

online market, the major internet

players in this country have relatively

large audiences. Among the websites

participating the IAB Turkey’s

Internet Audience Measurement

conducted by Gemius and Ipsos,

the most popular one is blogcu.com,

a blogging platform created by Nokta,

a company established in 2002,

which operates both in Turkey and

the United States. Nokta specializes

in search services and search-

based advertising solutions. Web

2.0 projects are its latest area of

business. According to IAB Turkey’s


conducted by Gemius and Ipsos, in

March 2010 blogcu.com attracted

over 10 million real users, thereby

gaining a market reach of 43%.

1. MAIN PLAYERS


Over half of the websites included

in the ranking of the top 10 major

players on the market by reach are

portals and news services. The most

popular horizontal portal, mynet.com,

came second in March 2010 with

a reach of 36% and an audience of

over 8 million real users. Mynet.com

operates based on a horizontal

platform model, as does ekolay.net

(4th place in the ranking with a reach

of 31%). Significant positions on the

market are also held by four popular

and well developed news services:

hurriyet.com.tr (5th place with

29% reach in March 2010),

milliyet.com.tr (6th place with 27%

reach), haberler.com (9th place with

15% reach) and sabah.com.tr (10th

place with 13% reach during the

same period).

Do you CEE? Turkey

232

The core business models used by the above-mentioned players is the sale of online advertising, however it is undertaken in several different ways. One can identify three basic approaches. The first is the self-conducted sale of advertising, which is applied by Mynet and Sabah. The second and most common practice are sales conducted by a subsidiary network or media house (belonging to the same holding as the publisher). Ekolay.net, milliyet.com.tr and hurriyet.com.tr are good examples of players working this way: all of their sales activities are operated by one advertising network, MedyaNet, which is (as they also are) a company owned by the Dogan Media Group. Haberler is the only website among the above-mentioned representing the third approach. Its advertising activities are operated by ReklamZ, an independent company and one of the largest internet advertising networks in Turkey. ReklamZ was established in 2002 and currently provides various advertising solutions for many large and significant local players. Apart from Haberler, among the websites operated by ReklamZ and participating in IAB Turkey’s Internet Audience Measurement in March 2010 one can also find such players as komikler.com (an aggregator of humorous content), hastane.com.tr (a significant health/medical website), ajansspor.com (one of the leading sports news providers), posta.com.tr (the website of Turkey’s best-selling newspaper) and hi5.com (a well-known social networking service). ReklamZ also represents such websites as eksisozluk.com (the oldest online community in Turkey) and fizy.com (a leading online music provider).

Interestingly, the internet in Turkey also contains very locally-specific online projects, which make it a very interesting market. One of the best examples of this is a website which

comes very high in the ranking of Turkey’s top players. It is a video hosting service named izlesene.com which not only works like YouTube, but also resembles this Google-owned service. Izlesene is another website released by Nokta. Its success owes much to the fact that it fills a tremendous market gap. In 2007, following much media attention associated with movies available on YouTube, the world famous video website was banned in Turkey. Izlesene, its local equivalent, is therefore doing very well. According to IAB Turkey’s Internet Audience Measurement conducted by Gemius and Ipsos, in March 2010 it gained an audience of over 8 million real users and has a reach level of 36%.

The second peculiar and rare website (especially when it comes to close leadership of local players) active on the Turkish market is antoloji.com. It operates using a hybrid model of a literary online service, head offline news aggregator and internet bookstore. It is basically a website devoted to the written word. As its creators themselves say, antoloji.com is an art portal focused on the cultural life of the country. Antoloji publishes both poetry and prose written by professionals and amateurs. It also provides a variety of Web 2.0 solutions, like groups, clubs and message boards. The popularity of this project is an interesting phenomenon. While on most markets information and entertainment make up the backbone of online mass-media websites, this particular cultural service in Turkey is able to gain 7th place in the general ranking of websites by reach. According to IAB Turkey’s Internet Audience Measurement conducted by Gemius and Ipsos, in March 2010 Antoloji had almost 4 million real users interested in this niche topic, with

a reach of 16%.

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233


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 webgazete.net 2 381 51 06:34:40 0.01%

2 80630.com 30 773 586 06:21:49 0.1%

3 gazeteoku.com 802 660 47 03:58:11 3%

4 pexu.com 17 077 166 03:07:02 0.1%

5 siberalem.com 653 468 111 02:29:29 3%

6 milliyet.com.tr 6 207 491 115 02:21:51 27%

7 gamyun.net 440 905 134 02:11:04 2%

8 mackolik.com 2 232 298 65 02:02:48 10%

9 mynet.com 8 325 109 175 02:01:10 36%

10 hurriyet.com.tr 6 844 277 126 01:57:09 29%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Turkey by average time spent per user (Gemius SA / Ipsos KMG: IAB Turkey’s Internet Audience Measurement, March 2010)


If we look at the Turkish online

market from the perspective of time

spent per average internet user on

each website, the ranking of the

most significant websites takes on

a completely different perspective

and the dominant roles are not played

(unlike in many markets) by the largest

players. Even such an engaging service

as izlesene.com (the local YouTube

equivalent) with almost 46 minutes

average time spent per user does not

find its place among the most time-

consuming websites in Turkey. In turn,

first place in the presented ranking

is held by one of the less popular

websites, webgazete.net, an online

newspaper service run by Aktif Haber

Yayın Grubu. According to IAB Turkey’s


conducted by Gemius and Ipsos, it

gained barely 0.01% of reach among

all internet users in March 2010, but

at the same time its average visitor

(there were 2,400) spent more than

6.5 hours on the website. During the

same period a similar result (almost

6 hours 22 minutes average time per

user) was obtained by 80630.com,

which is an exclusive social networking

platform (not accessible for non-

registered users) similar to Facebook.

Majority of the most engaging

websites in Turkey keep their users

active for 2-4 hours. Among them,

one can find such websites as a news

aggregator (gazeteoku.com), gaming

platforms (pexu.com and gamyun.net),

a social networking service (siberalem.

com) or a sport news service

(mackolik.com). The most ‘addictive’

websites in Turkey include three

portals, both horizontal and news-

based. The 6th ranking position of top

10 websites by average time spent

per user is held by milliyet.com.tr. The

whole list was propped up by the most

popular horizontal portal and most

popular news service, mentioned in

Do you CEE? Turkey

234

1.3. TOP PORTALS

The Turkish online market is filled with

many well developed news services

and internet equivalents of traditional

newspapers which, from a practical

point of view, often play the role

of horizontal services. Despite this

fact, among the top 10 most popular

websites participating in IAB Turkey’s


conducted by Gemius and Ipsos, there

are only two pure horizontal portals:

mynet.com and ekolay.net.

According to the results of the above-

mentioned study for March 2010, the

leading horizontal portal in Turkey was

at the same time the second most

popular website on the market with

36% reach among all internet users.

Mynet.com is run by the company of

the same name. It was established in

1999 by Emre Kurttepeli. Presently,

it is a private company employing

approximately 250 specialists, mainly

engineers. The mynet.com portal is

not only a very successful project as

regards the Turkish market, but also

because considering the size of the

local internet in this country, which

ensures that it has a constant monthly

audience of over 8 million real users,

the previous section. The average user

of mynet.com, the portal which took 9th

place in the ranking, spent over 2 hours

on the website in March 2010 and the


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 mynet.com 8 325 109 175 02:01:10 36%

2 ekolay.net 7 173 983 44 01:04:30 31%

Table 3 The two most popular portals in Turkey by reach level (Gemius SA / Ipsos KMG: IAB Turkey’s Internet Audience Measurement, March 2010)

this website also figures highly in

international rankings for the whole

region.

The second most popular portal

participating in IAB Turkey’s Internet

Audience Measurement conducted

by Gemius and Ipsos is ekolay.net.

Its monthly audience oscillates around

7.2 million real users. Ekolay.net is run

by Doğan Elektronik İçerik Tasarım

Hizmetleri ve Yayıncılık A.Ş., a part of

Doğan Şirketler Grubu Holding A.Ş.

(Doğan Holding Group of Companies

Inc) founded in 1980 in Istanbul. Doğan

Holding is a large organization that

invests not only in media, but also

in energy, finance and tourism.

The company owns many significant

Turkish newspapers which, incidentally,

have their own online versions,

for instance hurriyet.com.tr and

milliyet.com.tr. Ekolay is one of the

company’s most popular websites,

which in March 2010 had a reach

of 31%.

average user of hurriyet.com.tr spent

almost two hours reading current news

during the same period.

Do you CEE? Turkey

235


The unquestionable leader among all



conducted by Gemius and Ipsos is

blogcu.com, a blogging platform

which in March 2010 had over 10

million real users, gaining 43% reach

and dominating all its competitors.

Blogcu is the most successful website

run by Nokta, one of the most active

companies on the Turkish online

market. Among the top 5 social

networking websites in this country,

we can also find two native players.

The first is siberalem.com, a dating

service run by EBI (Elektronik Bilgi

İletişim Hizmetleri Reklamcılık ve Tic.

A.Ş.), a company established in 1998,

whose portfolio covers such websites

as: idefix.com (an online media/book

store), itiraf.com (a discussion board)

or evlilikmerkezi.com (a wedding

service). Siberalem gained over

650,000 real users in March 2010,

which gave it a reach level of 3%.

Another native player which found

its place among the top 5 most

popular social networking websites

in Turkey monitored by Ipsos and

Gemius is hocam.com, an extended


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 blogcu.com 10 110 262 11 00:13:52 43%

2 tr.netlog.com 1 981 046 84 00:57:17 8%

3 siberalem.com 653 468 111 02:29:29 3%

4 hi5.com 587 895 106 00:36:34 3%

5 hocam.com 167 250 159 01:56:32 1%

Table 4 Top 5 social networks in Turkey by reach level (Gemius SA / Ipsos KMG: IAB Turkey’s Inter-net Audience Measurement, March 2010)

and multipurpose social networking

platform run by Hocam Interaktif.

Despite the quality of the website,

its popularity is still low, as clearly

evidenced by the results of the study,

according to which Hocam attracted

less than 170,000 real users in March

2010 giving it a mere 1% reach.

According to IAB Turkey’s Internet

Audience Measurement conducted

by Gemius and Ipsos, internet users

in this country also visit international

social networking websites. In the

top 5 ranking above we can find such

brands as Netlog and Hi5. The Turkish

section of Netlog attracted almost

2 million real users in March 2010,

which ensured a safe 2nd place in the

ranking. Its market reach amounted

to 8%. In turn, Hi5 gained less than

600,000 real users in March 2010,

which gave it a reach of 3%.

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236


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1finans.mynet.com

1 090 039 24 00:30:46 5%

2bigpara.ekolay.net

505 713 58 03:11:38 2%

3 doviz.com 464 460 9 00:57:25 2%

Table 6 Top 3 finance sites in Turkey by reach level (Gemius SA / Ipsos KMG: IAB Turkey’s Internet Audience Measurement, March 2010)



PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 arabam.com 1 836 519 60 00:25:21 8%

2 hurriyetemlak.com 1 213 832 66 00:53:46 5%

3 hurriyetoto.com 990 352 16 00:13:01 4%

Table 5 Top 3 online classified ads in Turkey by reach level (Gemius SA / Ipsos KMG: IAB Turkey’s Internet Audience Measurement, March 2010)


Online classified advertising seems

to be relatively popular in Turkey.

According to IAB Turkey’s Internet

Audience Measurement conducted by

Gemius and Ipsos, the most frequently

visited website of this kind in March

2010 was arabam.com which attracted

over 1.8 million real users with

amarket reach of 8%. Arabam.com

is an extensive online database of car

sales announcements. In March its

visitors remained active for an average

of 25 minutes.

In the same period 1.2 million real

users visited hurriyetemlak.com,

a classified advertising website

containing real estate announcements.

Users searched for homes on average

twice as long as those who were

interested in buying a car (almost

54 minutes per user). Hurriyetemlak.

com gained 5% reach, just one

percentage point more than the other

automotive online service included in

the ranking, hurriyetoto.com.

The latter attracted just over 990,000

real users in March 2010 and took

3rd place with a reach of 4%.

Do you CEE? Turkey

237

Furthermore, 75% of the whole online

population consisted of individuals

under 34 years old. Users aged

55 years old and more represent only

4% of the total online population. Such

distribution is characteristic for less

developed online markets, which are

not experiencing the phenomenon

of getting older along with their

users. However, compared to other

countries, the high increase of the

proportion of individuals over 45 and

55 years old may be expected.

Within the whole online

population of this country, there

are three major groups of users:

individuals with primary education or

less (30%), secondary school education

(25%) and those who graduated from

high school (31%). At the same time

individuals with university education

The area of finance on the Turkish

internet is dominated by the

horizontal portals Mynet and Ekolay.

The dedicated sections of these two

players hold first and second place,

respectively in the ranking of finance



conducted by Gemius and Ipsos.

The financial section of Mynet

(finans.mynet.com) was visited by

more than one million real users in

March 2010, which gave it a reach of

5% among all internet users. During

the same period the equivalent

finance section of Ekolay (bigpara.

ekolay.net) was visited by over

500,000 real users, which gave it a

reach of 2%. Internet users visiting this

section of Ekolay remained active for

more than 3 hours.

The 3rd ranking position among

finance websites in Turkey is held

by doviz.com, a relatively small and

simple website run by Nokta. Doviz

means “foreign exchange” and the

website actually focuses exclusively

on publishing current exchange rates

as well as the prices of gold and fuel.

In March 2010 it gained an audience

of over 460,000 real users, which gave

it a market reach of 2%.

2. ONLINE AUDIENCE

Unlike in the majority of CEE

markets, the gender structure of the

online population in Turkey is not

balanced. According to the Ipsos

KMG study for March 2010, 57% of

internet users in this country are

men and only 43% of the whole

online population are women. Such

a visible disproportion seems to be

caused by two factors. The first is the

‘immaturity’ of the online market,

where men are usually the first to

capture new technologies. The second

factor is related to certain cultural

specifics which may have a significant

impact on the gender structure of

the Turkish online population.

Internet users in Turkey are very

young. According to the Ipsos KMG

study in March 2010 48% of users

were between 12 and 24 years old.

Do you CEE? Turkey

239

or scientific degrees comprise only 14% of the whole online population. Nevertheless, this figure is impressive compared to the general Turkish population, where the proportion of individuals with a university education is 7 percentage points lower.

The largest group of Turkish internet users lives in urban areas,

Chart 1 Top browsers in Turkey by share of page views generated by Internet users who visit Turkish websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3. TOOLS

3.1. BROWSERS

3.1. Browsers

In terms of web browsers popularity, the Turkish online market is both unique and interesting compared to most CEE countries. It is completely dominated by Microsoft Internet Explorer which holds the consistently largest share. According to gemiusTraffic, in the first quarter of 2010 this browser was used by visitors responsible for almost 79% of all page views generated on websites monitored in the study. During the same period Mozilla Firefox generated only 15% of all page views. The third most intensively used web browser in

Turkey is Google Chrome (4.9% of all page views in the first quarter of 2010). Other solutions do not enjoy significant interest among Turkish internet users.


The group of Turkish internet users which generated the largest amount of page views (74%) in the first quarter of 2010 used Windows XP. According to the gemiusTraffic study, the second most frequently indentified operating system on the Turkish market is

Windows Vista. During the same period

its users were responsible for 17% of

which is congruent with the distribution observed for the whole population. However, compared to the total population, the share of individuals living in urban areas among internet users is higher by 11 percentage points.

Do you CEE? Turkey

240

Chart 3 Top search engines in Turkey by share of visits generated by Internet users who visit Turkish websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3.3. SEARCH ENGINES

Chart 2 Top operating systems in Turkey by share of page views generated by Internet users who visit Turkish websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)


all page views generated on websites

monitored by Gemius. Microsoft’s

newest product, Windows 7, comes

last. In the first quarter of 2010 it was

installed on computers of internet

users who were responsible for almost

8% of all page views recorded in the

gemiusTraffic study. To compare, the

share of page views generated by Mac

OS X users equaled to only 0.5%.

3.3. Search engines

There is no doubt as to which search

engine dominates the Turkish market

– it is Google. In the first quarter

of 2010, the world’s best known

search engine was a starting point

for almost 99% of all visits which

took place on websites monitored

in the gemiusTraffic study in Turkey.

The second player on the market,

Microsoft MSN (an engine used by

MSN itself as well as live.com and

Bing), managed to gain a share of only

1.2% for the totality of visits during

the same period. The Yahoo search

engine and all other search engine

solutions have an insignificant share

on the Turkish market.

Do you CEE? Turkey

241

Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Turkey by share of page views generated by Internet users who visit Turkish websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)


Chart 5 Top 5 mobile devices in Turkey by the website-averaged percentage share of page views generated by internet users form Turkey who visit Turkish websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10 **to 2010-07-25



in Turkey is 1280 x 1024. In the first

quarter of 2010, it was recognized

on computers of users responsible

for almost 43% of all page views

made on websites monitored in the

gemiusTraffic study. Other top screen

resolutions on the market are less

popular. In the first quarter of 2010

their shares oscillated between 18%

(for 1280 x 800) and 4.6% (for 1152

x 864).



the most popular mobile device used

to access the web in Turkey is the

iPhone, which was responsible for 35%

of page views generated by mobile

devices on the average website in

July. The second most popular mobile

device was the Nokia 5800.

Its users generated 12% of the mobile

traffic on the average Turkish website

using gemiusTraffic. The other Apple

product, the iPad, had a 5% share.

However, its popularity is growing

and over two months has gained


3.5. MOBILE DEVICES

Do you CEE? Turkey

242


IAB Turkey

www.iab-turkiye.org

Description: IAB Turkey was

established in 2007 and acts as

a reference center for interactive

advertising and the digital marketing

industry in Turkey. Its mission is

to contribute to the development

and growth of the interactive

industry; by setting standards,

organizing networking initiatives

and activities, coordinating internet

audience measurement research and

organizing educational programs.

Members: At present, IAB Turkey

has 109 members including media

agencies, publishers, interactive

agencies and advertisers.

Mobile Marketing Association

mmaglobal.com

Description: The Mobile Marketing

Association established its local

branch in Turkey in 2009. The

objective of MMA Turkiye is to

foster the burgeoning mobile

marketing industry in Turkey through

local participation from industry

stakeholders, driving the early

integration of global standards and

industry guidelines across the mobile

channel in the country and providing

a powerful platform for knowledge

sharing.

Members: At present MMA Turkiye

has 29 members.

Turkish IPTV Association

www.iptv-der.org

Description: The Turkish IPTV

Association represents the next

generation of the TV broadcasting

platform in Turkey. As a non-profit

organization, the association aims to

develop technologies and standards

that might help streamline and

accelerate deployments of IPTV,

which will help maximize the benefits

of IPTV for consumers, network

operators, content providers, service

providers, consumer electronics

manufacturers and home and

network infrastructure providers.

Online Media Association (OMA)

www.internetmedyasi.org

Description: The Online Media

Association (OMA) aims to establish

digital media as a respected and

reliable marketing channel. OMA

makes the effort to be the leading

and standard setting organization in

Turkey especially for online publishing

and journalism.

Members: The Association has

365 members, all online content

providers.

Do you CEE? Turkey

243




CONTACT

1MedyaNet İletişim Reklam Pazarlama ve Turizm A.Ş.

medyanet.com.trEski Büyükdere Cad. Ayazağa Ticaret Merkezi C Blok No:11 Giriş Kat 34398 Maslak/İstanbul

Phone: +90-212-304-21-00 (01)Fax: +90-212-328-05-84Email: [email protected]

2Logaritma Internet ve Bilgi Teknolojileri Tic. Ltd. Şti.

logaritma.com.trBüyükdere Cad Tevfik Erdönmez Sokak Gül Apt 2/23 Esentepe/ İstanbul


3Medyaguru Reklam Hiz. Ve Tic. A.Ş.

medyaguru.comBarbaros Bulvarı Morbasan Sokak Koza İş Merkezi B Blok No:12 Kat:3 Balmumcu - Beşiktaş / İstanbul

Phone: +90-212-266-96-96 Fax: +90-212-213-80-82Email: [email protected]

4Rgte İletişim Reklam Paz. ve Tic. A.Ş.

netbookmedia.comEsentepe Mah.Talatpaşa Cad. No.5 Kat 3 Şişli / İstanbul

Phone: +90-212-324-00-60Fax: +90-212-324-20-62Email: info@ netbookmedia.com

5Reklamz İnternet Reklam Hiz. ve Bilişim Tekn. A.Ş.

reklamz.comLeylak Sok. No: 26 Nursanlar İş Merkezi A Blok K:7 No:26 Mecidiyeköy-Şişli-İstanbul


6 Turkuvaz turkuvazyayin.com.trBarbaros Bulvarı No:153 34349, Beşiktaş-İstanbul

Phone: +90-212-354-30-00

7 Yeni Medya yenimedya.com.trİsmail Paşa Sk. No:27 Koşuyolu İstanbul

Phone: +90-216-339-09-98Fax: +90-216-339-09-58

8Nokta Medya İnternet Hizmetleri San. ve Tic. A.Ş.

nokta.comGökırmak Sokak No:2 Beysukent ANKARA 06800


9Linkz Internet Reklam Hiz. Ve Bilişim Tekn. A.Ş.

linkz.netKuştepe Mah. Leylak Sok. Nursanlar İş Mrk. K:1 N:6 Şişli, İstanbul


10Magnet Bilgi Teknolojileri ve Sistemleri A.Ş.

magnetdijital.comEski Üsküdar Cad. Çayıryolu Sok. Partaş Center No: 1/16 İçerenköy-İstanbul

Phone: +90-216-577-33-11

11Maksimum İletişim Hizmetleri A.Ş.

maksimum.netMeclis-i Mebusan Cad. No:23 Dursun Han Kat:134433 Tophane-İstanbul

Phone: +90-212-243-45-28Fax: +90-212-243-45-29


Orkun Tekin

Chairman, reklamz.com, semtr.com, linkz.net, fizy.com


What are the opportunities and obstacles for online advertising on your local

market?

We can observe many opportunities for the online advertising market in Turkey.

This is mainly because of the rapid growth of internet advertising spending since

Do you CEE? Turkey

244

2002. According to the Advertisers Association, in the first quarter of 2010 internet

advertising spending grew by 63% compared with total advertising budgets.

We predict that this acceleration will continue for at least the next five years.

What is more, as the majority of the Turkish population is between the ages of

1-24, we assume that internet usage will continue to grow. The reason for this is

that the young generation is becoming more accustomed to using the internet for

everyday activities. The same can be observed in all digital sectors.

The greatest opportunity in the Turkish online internet advertising sector is its

tendency to bring together all advertising means under one digital platform. All

offline advertising products are becoming more digitalized every day. Publications

are becoming internet advertorials, TV content is becoming digital video

broadcasts, audio products, and radio broadcasts are being digitalized. On the flip

side, there is a gap in education and the experience of human resources who are

employed both in media planning agencies and in the advertising departments

of major brands. This causes problems in understanding the effectiveness,

advantages and new trends by both agencies and brands.

Dominating trends



We can observe three main periods in the trends on the Turkish market. Prior

to 2007, an era of standard banner display based on impressions was evident.

Following this, in 2008, there was an era of rich and interactive media products

as well as performance advertising. From 2009 agencies have tended to focus on

special projects capturing users beyond base advertising means.

When we look at the first quarter of 2010 such special projects have continued to

grow. Brands are interested in unique, interactive ideas connecting them to their

target audience. Also, advertisers’ concerns have switched from basic banner

display to seeing beyond performance. Display to diversion and from diversion

to conversion has gained major importance. The urge of advertisers to take ROI

measures into account has forced Ad networks to include performance targets into

their calculations. CPX ad models become more and more economically feasible

thus creating a necessity in the evolving Turkish internet usage practices.

In general, there are 3 main trends that drive the internet advertising sector.

The first of them is video advertising. Brands see video advertising to be an

effective way to reach their target audience as a result of usage in TV advertising

habits. Every day, increasingly more people watch video content on the internet.

Video content is more valuable on digital platforms since it is more precisely

measurable, it is easier to segment the audience and also report outcomes

in terms of ROI. Digital video content (which is different from TV advertising)

is interactive and continues to capture the target audience even after video

content is presented. Through clickable video content, users are diverted to the

advertiser’s website to continue interacting with the brand.

Do you CEE? Turkey

245

Another trend which drives the internet advertising sector is social media

advertising. Many global and local brands interact with users in Turkey through

social media accounts. Facebook users originating from Turkish IPs have

reached a level of 4 million a day. As a result, more than 5 agencies have offered

professional services on social media like account management and seeding.

Brands have started to employ social media specialists. From another perspective,

social media platforms have started to offer a complete interactive package

including image, video and audio content. Digital sharing, idea creation and social

movement have all become hot topics. Information sharing and branding has

followed naturally.

Another trend is mobile advertising. With the launch of smart phones and more

advanced mobile devices capable of high speed internet connection, internet

users have started to use the mobile internet in their everyday life. Today there are

11.4 million 3G users in Turkey. Therefore, display budgets in the ‘mobile’ category

have reached to $150,000 per month. What is more, several mobile agencies are

trying to expand this market. Reklamz launched a new set of products under a new

company called “MobileZ“ to respond to this demand.

Regarding the future, it should be said that trendy products in the video, social

media and mobile categories will continue to grow, as they will become the new

hot spots in information sharing. Most importantly, digital advertising is becoming

increasingly more independent of offline advertising with its own methodology,

vision and technology.

In general, products that are structured on the basis of audience targeting will

continue to grow. Identifying, capturing, tracking and interacting with the target

audience and the technological capabilities thereof will be a necessity rather than

a demand in the upcoming years.




The strongest global players are Facebook and MSN. Dailymotion is another media

giant that has entered the Turkish market. All these publishers supply specific

content, which competes and, in most cases, dominates the fields they enter. Their

edge usually lies in the technology they use and the new methodologies that are

extremely well constructed and tailored to the audience. Their products are well

designed as a result of well-evolved user segmentation abroad.

Internet search is completely dominated by Google and there is no competition

in SEM. In mobile advertising, local sales houses dominate the market. There are

several reasons for this. First of all, inventory is restricted, so that publishers do

not use blind basis mobile display networks. Secondly, agencies are in the learning

phase. This means that salespeople in the dominant sales houses are convincing

media planners to move to mobile display therefore budgets are dividing inside

these sales houses.

Ukraine8.92minternet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_


4. BRANCHORGANIZATIONS_5. OPINIONSFROMTHEMARKET_

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Do you CEE? Ukraine

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PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 mail.ru horizontal portal 5 170 428 804 602 875 156 03:56:17 58%

2 yandex.ua (*) horizontal portal 4 350 184 365 007 925 84 03:52:58 49%

3 marketgid.com e-shop catalogue 3 217 384 39 277 914 12 00:50:12 36%

4 meta.ua horizontal portal 2 586 042 69 090 816 27 00:37:01 29%

5 i.ua horizontal portal 2 341 812 119 043 456 51 01:02:53 26%

6 tochka.net horizontal portal 1 818 973 17 419 775 10 00:09:14 20%

7 bigmir.net horizontal portal 1 673 814 67 863 776 41 01:07:28 19%

8 gismeteo.ua weather portal 1 658 453 37 326 182 23 00:20:01 19%

9 redtram.com.ua news service 1 472 170 12 430 345 8 00:37:58 17%

10 online.ua horizontal portal 1 433 729 32 761 772 23 00:31:38 16%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Ukraine by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

In March 2010 the ranking of the most

popular websites by reach in Ukraine

was dominated by horizontal portals.

They occupied 7 out of the top 10

places and together generated almost

1.5 billion page views. Mail.ru

(58%) and yandex.ua (49%) are the

leaders on the Ukrainian online

market. What is interesting is that

they both originate from Russia. Other

popular horizontal portals among

the Ukrainian online population are

meta.ua with a reach of 29%, i.ua with

26% and tochka.net with 20%. They

are described in detail in the table 1.3

Top portals.

One of the non-portal sites in

the gemiusAudience ranking was

marketgid.com. In March 2010 its

reach amounted to 36%. It is an

e-shop catalogue operating in Russia,

Germany, Poland and Romania. There

1. MAIN PLAYERS


is no Ukrainian language version, but

as with the horizontal portals, the

Russian version is popular among

internet users in Ukraine. Yet its

popularity, in comparison to March

2009, fell by 2 percentage points.

The 7th ranking position was occupied

by bigmir.net, a horizontal portal

owned by the number one media

holding in Ukraine, KP Media. It

offers services typical for this kind of

site, i.e. news, a mail service, blogs,

photo and video sections as well as

a dating service. In March 2010 it

gained a reach level of 19% (it has

lost 4 percentage points of its reach

level over the last twelve months)

and has only a slightly advantage

over gismeteo.ua, which is a popular

weather portal that belongs to

the Russian company Map Maker

(www.mapmakers.ru). It ranked eighth

(*) In March 2010 on the Ukrainian market the node yandex.ua consisted of the portals’ main page and search page only.

Do you CEE? Ukraine

248


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 football.ua 305 634 175 04:17:26 3%

2 mail.ru 5 170 428 156 03:56:17 58%

3 yandex.ua 4 350 184 84 03:52:58 49%

4 connect.ua 247 857 216 02:26:53 3%

5 ria.ua 996 942 115 01:59:00 11%

6 quest.ua 11 647 61 01:49:47 0.1%

7 minfin.com.ua 26 688 55 01:47:23 0.3%

8 basket.com.ua 17 058 66 01:42:28 0.2%

9 photographers.com.ua 22 900 109 01:22:52 0.3%

10 bigmir.net 1 673 814 41 01:07:28 19%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Ukraine by average time spent per user (gemiusAudience, March 2010)


and had over 1.6 million real users,

who on average spent 20 minutes on

the service in March 2010.

The last two positions in the ranking

belonged to a news aggregator,

redtram.com.ua (17%) and another

horizontal portal, online.ua (16%). The

first enables its users to find the latest

news they are interested in thanks to

a variety of searching criteria available.

Moreover, redtram.com aggregates

news in English, French, German,

Spanish, Italian, Polish, Chinese,

Russian and Ukrainian.

In March 2010 online.ua had over

1.4 million real users. The portal

includes such services as mail, a search

engine, a catalogue of websites,

an online TV schedule amongst others.

It is slowly gaining popularity and

compared to March 2009 its level of

reach increased by 1 percentage point.

The sites included in the top 10

ranking by average time spent

per user, on the basis of the


2010, are diversified in terms of site

categories. The leader with 4 hours

17 minutes was football.ua, a sports

portal dedicated to football fans. Its

owner is Ukrainian Media Holding,

whose portfolio of internet projects

also includes the news portals kp.ua

and focus.ua as well as dengi.ua,

a business and finance service.

In March 2010 second and third

positions were occupied by Russian

horizontal portals mail.ru (3 hours and

56 minutes) and yandex.ua (3 hours

53 minutes). They are both successful

in Ukraine.

Connect.ua is a local social network

whose popularity is on the decline. In

March 2010 its reach level amounted

to 3%, yet, in terms of average time

spent per user it ranked fourth with

a result of 2 hours 27 minutes.

Do you CEE? Ukraine

249

5th place belonged to the classified

ads website ria.ua, with an average

user spending almost 2 hours on

this service in March 2010. Only 10

minutes less was spent by the average

user of quest.ua, i.e. 1 hour 50

minutes. This site is dedicated to the

community of Quest players, which is

an offline game where players need

to use their wit and creativity to find

a hidden code hidden somewhere in

their city. Quest.ua had over 11,600

real users in March 2010.

There was also a place for a financial

portal in the ranking, namely

minfin.com.ua. It publishes news

concerning finances, banks, currencies

and the stock exchange. According to

the gemiusAudience study from March

2010, it had 26,688 real users and

the average viewer spent 1 hour and

1.3. TOP PORTALS


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 mail.ru 5 170 428 156 03:56:17 58%

2 yandex.ua 4 350 184 84 03:52:58 49%

3 meta.ua 2 586 042 27 00:37:01 29%

4 i.ua 2 341 812 51 01:02:53 26%

5 tochka.net 1 818 973 10 00:09:14 20%

Table 3 Top 5 portals in Ukraine by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

Horizontal portals are very popular

among Ukrainians. According to the


2010, the leader, with a reach level

of 58%, was mail.ru. It is a Russian-

based horizontal portal, once a free

email service that evolved into one

of the biggest players on the post-

Soviet online markets. Although the

47 minutes online there. The average

user of basket.com.ua, which occupied

the next position in the ranking,

spent only 5 minutes less online.

Basket.com.ua is a service dedicated

to basketball with a forum where

fans can exchange their views and

comments on current sports events.

With a result of 1 hour and 23 minutes

photographers.com.ua came 9th in the

ranking. It is a network of professional

photographers. They can upload their

photos to a gallery and let others

comment on them. In March 2010 it

had 22,900 real users, however, its

popularity has been growing (in March

2009 it was 11,371). The ranking was

propped up by the above-mentioned

bigmir.net, whose average user spent

1 hour 7 minutes there.

Ukrainian office was opened in 2008, it

did not become very active until 2009,

when the head of the Ukrainian office

changed. Mail.ru has from that point

been taking an ever larger proportion

of the market.

Second place was occupied by

yandex.ua, another Russian-based

Do you CEE? Ukraine

250


The only local social network in

Ukraine worth mentioning is

connect.ua. According to the

gemiusAudience study, in March

2010 its reach level amounted to

3%, 2 percentage points less than a

year before. However, this does not


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

connect.ua 247 857 216 02:26:53 3%

Table 4 Local social network measured in the gemiusAudience study (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

portal popular in the post-Soviet

countries. Yandex.ru started its career

as a search engine in September 1997

and has since been constantly gaining

new audience. Today it is the only

real competitor to Google in Ukraine

and Russia. Though the ranking from

March 2010 presents statistics for

home page and search page only, its

reach level amounted to 49%, i.e. more

than 4.35 million users. Moreover,

it is no longer simply a search engine.

On the home page users can find

news, weather and traffic information,

exchange rates and much more.

Meta.ua (29%) is a Ukrainian

horizontal portal and search engine.

It became influential on the Ukrainian

online market despite the fact

that its head office was in Kharkiv,

not in Kyiv (which is quite unusual

among Ukrainian online publishers).

It offers its users basic services

such as a searching system on the

Ukrainian segment of the internet and

a catalogue of sites, search engine

for e-shops and pricelists, a system

for news monitoring, information

services amongst others. Moreover,

there is a communication section with

a postal system, a forum, blogs and

the suchlike.

With a 26% reach i.ua ranked fourth

in the top 5 portals in the Ukraine

ranking. The developer of this

internet portal is the internet agency

Mi[6], which offers a wide range of

advertising services on the internet.

The horizontal portal includes a mail

service, a website catalogue, weather

forecasts, a translator, photos, blogs,

dating services and much more.


tochka.net, which in March 2010

had a reach level of 20%. It seems

to be a very promising player on the

Ukrainian online market. It is owned

by digital ventures, an online media

holding, which launched several

websites in 2008, then bought some

more in 2008-2009 and by the end of

2009 restructured them and created

one portal, tochka.net.

mean that Ukrainians are not fond

of social networking services. Two

Russian social networking websites

are quite popular: vkontakte.ru

and odnoklassniki.ru. Due to the

shared history of both countries as

well as tight business and cultural

Do you CEE? Ukraine

251


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 ua.all-biz.info 1 124 647 10 00:09:15 13%

2 prom.ua 1 083 169 11 00:10:36 12%

3 ria.ua 996 942 115 01:59:00 11%

Table 5 Top 3 online classified ads in Ukraine by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)


The leader in the top 3 online

classified ads in Ukraine by reach

ranking was, in March 2010,

ua.all-biz.info with a reach level of

13%. It is a business directory for

companies, which provides free

profile registration and paid profiles

with more advanced options.

Moreover, it allows its users to

upload their price lists, announce

tenders and helps to find contractors

or business partners. This Ukrainian

site has mirrors in several other

countries, including Russia, Poland,

Moldova, Kazakhstan, Spain and

Turkey.

The other significant player

on the Ukrainian classified ads

market is prom.ua. According to

the gemiusAudience study from

March 2010, it had over 1 million

real users and a reach level of only

1 percentage point lower than the

leader’s. Like ua.all-biz.info, prom.ua

is a business directory for companies

with practically the same scope of

services.


ria.ua with an 11% reach. It contains

free offers classified into three main

categories: automotive, real estate

and job announcements.

The service belongs to Aukro

(Allegro Group), which during

2008-2009 bought most of

the largest online auctions,

e-commerce websites, free

classified websites and industrial

catalogues.

or even family connections, Russian

and Ukrainian markets are closely

interconnected.

What is more, Facebook’s popularity

is growing in Ukraine. According to

Facebook Statistics, it had 425,680

users (July 2010) in Ukraine. Its success

stemmed from its internationality and

technological advances, in particular

its integration with Twitter, YouTube,

etc.

Do you CEE? Ukraine

252


PAGE VIEWS PER USER


REACH

1 liga.net 1 154 514 9 00:14:32 13%

2 finance.ua 526 025 19 00:32:18 6%

3 ligazakon.ua 249 941 5 00:06:22 3%

Table 6 Top 3 finance sites in Ukraine by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)



study from March 2010, there was one

leading finance site in Ukraine, liga.net.

Its reach level amounted to 13% that

is over 1.1 million real users. The site

belongs to LigaBusinessInform, one of

the largest Ukrainian news agencies.

It is a respected source of information

for Ukrainians. It offers its users with

news and up-to-date financial market

information. Moreover, they can visit

a forum and exchange their views

or ask for advice from other visitors.

Liga’s main source of income is

advertisements.

In second place of the top 3 ranking is

finance.ua, owned by the Infinservice

Agency (www.ifs.kiev.ua), which

specializes in collecting and diffusion

of operational information for

financial market operators. Finance.

ua is a respected business news

service with an online audience of

over 526,000 users. Since it is one

of the oldest sites in this category,

its position is well established and

therefore has one of the most

expensive online ad venues in Ukraine.

In March 2010, another popular

finance site among the Ukrainian

population was ligazakon.ua.

Like liga.net, it is owned by

LigaBusinessInform. Its reach level

amounted to 3% and the average

user spent 6 minutes on the service.

The site has an online database

of documents, laws and analyses

available on demand, after a payment.

2. ONLINE AUDIENCE

The Ukrainian gender structure of

the online population is dominated by

men. Although women constitute the

majority of the Ukrainian population,

in March 2010 men accounted for

56% of the online audience. However,

the average woman spent around 20

minutes more online than the average

man.

In terms of age the most

significant group within the Ukrainian

online population was young people

aged 15-24, who in March 2010

constituted 37%. The second largest

group, users aged 25-34, accounted

for 28% of the online population. The

share of successively older groups falls

with age and users over 55 constitutes

Do you CEE? Ukraine

254

62% of Ukrainian internet users live in cities with over 500,000 inhabitants. This was 3 percentage points less than in March 2009. Only 7% of the online population (2 percentage points more than a year before) lived in villages. When it comes to average time spent online, internet users from cities with 101,000 – 500,000 inhabitants came top.

In March 2010 the most numerous group in terms of occupation (26%) among Ukrainian internet users were highly qualified specialists. Second place belonged to students, who accounted for 23% of the online population.

only 3% of the market. However, what is interesting is that the oldest internet users in Ukraine spent the most time per user online, i.e. almost 10 hours on averange.

Ukrainian internet users are well-educated. The majority of Ukrainian internet users have higher education. According to the gemiusAudience study from March 2010 they accounted for 47% of the online population in Ukraine. The next significant group were users with incomplete higher education (28%). Together they accounted for 75% of the online audience. Bearing in mind that Ukrainian internet users are young, the fact that 17% of them graduated from secondary school bodes well for the future educational structure of the Ukrainian online population.

Chart 1 Top browsers in Ukraine by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Ukrai-nian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3. TOOLS

3.1. BROWSERS

3.1. Browsers

For many years the leader on the

Ukrainian browsers market was

Microsoft Internet Explorer. However,

recently MSIE’s share of page views

generated by internet users who visit

Ukrainian websites using gemiusTraffic

is decreasing. At the end of 2009 it

was overtaken by Opera. Moreover,

Do you CEE? Ukraine

255

Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Ukraine by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Ukrainian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)


MSIE’s 2nd position is threatened

by the growing popularity of Firefox.

During the past twelve months its

share of the market has increased by

4 percentage points, while during the

same period MSIE’s has decreased by

13.

Another browser used by Ukrainian

internet users is Chrome, whose

market share after the first quarter of

2010 amounted to 4%.


As on the other CEE markets, the

leader among operating systems in

Ukraine is Windows XP. After the

first quarter of 2010 its share of the

market, studied by gemiusTraffic,

constituted 83% and its position

seems to be unthreatened. However,

the newcomer, Windows 7, gained

almost 9% of the market in less than

a year. Windows Vista did not meet

the Ukrainian online audience’s

expectations and after a short period

of growth its market share is now

declining. After the first quarter of

2010 it amounted to 6%.

3.3. Search engines

What is interesting about the

Ukrainian search engine market is

that it is not as dominated by Google

as are the markets in other CEE

countries (except Russia). After the

first quarter of 2010 it accounted for

62% of the visits made by internet

users who visit Ukrainian websites

using gemiusTraffic. The second force

was Yandex with a market share of

34%. Other search engines, i.e. Meta,

Rambler and MSN, were not popular

among Ukrainians (2%, 2% and 1%,

respectively) and therefore do not

pose any threat to the two main

players.

Chart 2 Top operating systems in Ukraine by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Ukrainian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)


Chart 3 Top search engines in Ukraine by share of visits made by internet users who visit Ukrainian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3.3. SEARCH ENGINES

Do you CEE? Ukraine

256

Chart 5 Top 5 mobile devices in Ukraine by the website-averaged percentage share of page views generated by internet users from Ukraine, who visit Ukrainian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10 **to 2010-07-25

3.5. MOBILE DEVICES


Like other CEE online markets,

the market share of 1024 x 768

monitor screen resolutions has been

decreasing over the past few years.

However, unlike the other markets,

it is no longer the most popular

choice among Ukrainians. After the

first quarter of 2010 the leader was

a screen resolution of 1280 x 1024.

Other popular ones in the first quarter

of 2010 were 1280 x 800 and

1440 x 900.


The most popular mobile device used

to connect the web on the Ukrainian

market is the iPhone, which has

a market share of more than 7%.

However, it is gradually losing its

position in favor of the iPad, which is

constantly becoming more popular,

increasing its share by 2 percentage

points within the past two months.

The growth within these last two

months could be observed also for

Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, which takes

second position and according to the

gemiusTraffic study was responsible

for 6% of page views generated by

mobile devices on an average website

in July 2010.

Do you CEE? Ukraine

257


Ukrainian Association Of Internet

Advertising (UAIR)

http://uair.org.ua/

Description: The mission of the

Ukrainian Association Of Internet

Advertising is to create conditions

for effective development of the

advertising market in Ukraine in order

to meet the needs of advertisers,

consumers and users of internet

resources on a global level, as well

as to increase the share of advertiser

budgets. To achieve this, UAIR has

begun a full study of the Ukrainian

internet. UAIR was established in

2007. In the autumn of 2010 the

association will be expanding and

changing its structure and it is planned

that it will fulfill a wider range of

regulatory tasks on the market.

Members: Portals, international

marketing and advertisement

networks representatives (e.g.

LigaBusinessInform, Bigmir-Internet,

META, GoupM, Initiative, Publicis).

Association of Participants of

Electronic Business of Ukraine

http://uelbu.org/

Description: The public organization

„Association of Participants of

Electronic Business of Ukraine”

(UELBU) was founded in May 2008

in Kyiv. The association operates

as a non-state noncommercial

organization, and is a voluntarily

association of businesses and

other legal entities conducting

their business in the sector of

information technologies. The

aim of UELBU is to form a healthy

social, economic, technological and

political environment in Ukraine,

which supports development of the

Ukrainian internet.

The Association carries out rule-

making functions and supports the

development of modern IT products

and technologies; it assists in the

organization of a dialog between

representatives of business and

state structures with the aim of the

development of the national electronic

market as one of priority industries of

economy of Ukraine.

Members: Unicom Systems Ltd;

Monexy Ltd; OSMP Ltd; Payment

Systems Ltd; Private entrepreneur

physical person Kurshynov V.V. Project:

myEshop; UnIT Ltd; Interkassa Ltd;

Dizex Company Limited; Private

Enterprise NeoVen; Private Enterprise

2pay; Private Enterprises Grushetski

D.A Projekt: HostService; Private

entrepreneur-physical person Kirilov

S.O. Platform for Internet shops:

Shopium.ua.

Do you CEE? Ukraine

258


Dmytro Sholomko

Director of Google Ukraine



local market?

Ukraine is one of the fastest growing online markets in Europe; there are still many

opportunities for everyone involved in online business. Services, even basic ones,

are not yet professionally developed, so there is much room for growth. However,

there are many obstacles: first of all, there is the lack of e-commerce mechanisms

on the market (like payment solutions) and also an absence of support from the

government on the legislative level.

Dominating trends



E-commerce projects and SMBs are segments that are growing fastest in the

online advertising market in Ukraine. There are no signs that the pace of growth

will fall in the nearest future.




There are no strong local players on the market, growth is mostly driven by

international companies and foreign investment.

Market specifics



Ukraine is a bilingual market, with both Ukrainian and Russian languages freely

used in online activities (with Ukrainian usage growing slightly faster). The market

is also influenced by different trends:

in content, Ukrainian users spend much time on Russian websites, while

in business practices, they follow the Polish model, with Polish companies

being one of the top market players developing e-commerce in Ukraine.

•

•

Do you CEE? Ukraine

259

It is important to consider these factors while planning business development

in Ukraine, as many market players find them confusing and cannot operate

effectively.

Sergey Petrenko

General Director of Yandex.Ukraine



local market?

The online market in Ukraine is still not fully developed and small. According to

the assumptions of the Ukrainian Advertising Coalition (UAC), the share of online

advertising will account for 3.4% of total adspends in Ukraine. However, at the

same time, online ads are growing faster than other media in Ukraine: a 58%

increase in 2009 vs. 2010. In 2010, the UAC expects 230 million hryvnas to be

spent on online advertising, where 130 million will be spent on display ads and

100 million on context and classifieds advertising. In general, the online market in

Ukraine is developing, and increasingly more key advertisers use the internet as an

important and efficient media channel.

Market specifics



At present, internet penetration on the Ukrainian internet market is one of the

lowest in Europe. However, this makes the market unique, because the number of

internet users in the upcoming years will grow and new users will not necessarily

behave the same way as current ones. Even now, according to the latest research,

new internet users behave differently than old UAnet users: they prefer other

resources, use other services; therefore those market players, who manage to

guess the desires of these novices will score a considerable advantage in

the future.

Do you CEE? METHODOLOGICAL NOTE

260

SOURCE DATE NUMBER OF WEBSITESINCLUDED

AGE GROUP

Belarus gemiusAudience March 2010 124 15+

Bulgaria gemiusAudience March 2010 306 15+

Croatia Gemius/Valicon, gemiusAudience March 2010 285 12+

Czech Republic NetMonitor – SPIR/Mediaresearch/Gemius March 2010 483 10+

Estonia gemiusAudience March 2010 37 15+

Hungary gemius/Ipsos Audience March 2010 2161 15+

Latvia gemiusAudience March 2010 189 15+

Lithuania gemiusAudience March 2010 125 7-74

Poland Megapanel PBI/Gemius March 2010 13954 7+

Romania SATI, by BRAT Traffic measurement March 2010 over 300 14-64

Russia gemiusAudience March 2010 266 18+

Slovakia AIMmonitor – AIM – Mediaresearch & Gemius March 2010 95 14+

Slovenia Gemius/Valicon, gemiusAudience MOSS March 2010 117 10+

Turkey gemiusAudience March 2010 154 12+

Ukraine gemiusAudience March 2010 296 14+

The general market descriptions provided in the report are based upon data

acquired by the gemiusAudience study. For each country, reach rankings of the

top ten websites included in this study are presented. Additional statistics from

gemiusAudience study further enrich the information in the rankings. Romania

constitutes the only exception, where the ranking according to SATI, by BRAT

Traffic measurement was presented.

METHODOLOGICAL NOTE

DATA SOURCES

Another type of data presented in the report originates from gemiusTraffic. This

concerns information on browsers, operating systems, search engines, screen

resolutions and mobile devices. Data for web browsers and operating systems

of low popularity is aggregated in groups consisting of all versions of a particular

browser or operating system.

The description of each market was supported with the experience and knowledge

of Gemius local representatives present in each of the countries included in the

report.


261

Gemius sets the standard for online audience and internet application

measurement (gemiusAudience) in almost half of all European countries.

The gemiusAudience study integrates offline research, site-centric measurement,

on-site questionnaire surveying and user-centric measurement to provide media

sellers, planners and buyers with online media planning data. The data is provided

once per month, reporting on a weekly or monthly basis.

The cookie files are recorded for a user upon a first page view generated in

a measured month. The files present data for cookies that have been ascribed

to a particular country until the end of the month. Panellists who are enrolled

in a software panel (where such is available, i.e. Hungary, Poland and Russia),

are recruited from a particular country only, based on their geolocation details.

More information on this study can be found on www.gemius.com and

www.audience.gemius.pl.

ABOUT gemiusAudience

The gemiusTraffic study provides information on internet users’ web site behaviour

and technical characteristics of their computers. The data is gathered with the use

of counting scripts, which are embedded in the code of sites included in the study.

For more information go to www.gemius.com and www.rankingcee.com websites.

Rankings concerning web browsers, operating systems and screen resolutions are

based on the number of page views generated on the monitored sites. For each

browser, operating system and screen resolution we calculate the total number of

page views on all sites, so that we can obtain the percentage share of page views

from this browser, operating system and screen resolution relative to all page views

identified in the study.

Search engine ranking is calculated using the percentage of visits made from search

engines on a given country’s sites included in gemiusTraffic. An average from the

percentage of visits made on the measured websites is calculated for each search

engine. The outcome is the position a search engine takes in the ranking.

A ranking of mobile devices that are used by persons connecting from Poland

with Polish web sites. The ranking is created on the basis of the website-averaged

percentage share of page views on sites participating in gemiusTraffic.

ABOUT gemiusTraffic

The “Opinions from the market” section, which contains forecasts concerning the

future of the internet in the researched countries, consists of direct citations of

the opinions expressed by local market experts.

Data on the overall number of internet users presented at the beginning of each

country chapter is for March 2010. Further reference can be found below Charts

1,2 and 3 in Online Landscape chapter.


262

Real users – the number of individuals in a given month who visited a selected

web site at least once. This number represents the reach of a researched website

and shows the actual number of people – not computers or cookies, which are

often understand as visitors – that visited the web site. The socio-demographic

profile of these people can be determined too.

Page View – loading of a WWW document of a given internet web site. When

an internet user views a web page, this generates a page view. The page view is

recorded through a special tracking script that has been placed in the code of

the relevant web page.

Reach – the indicator is expressed as a percentage and constitutes the ratio of

the number of visitors (real users) who generated at least one page view on

the selected web site within the given time period, to the total number of internet

users within that time period.

Average Time Spent per Real User – the total time spent by the average real user

from the given target group on the selected web site or web sites.

Average Number of Page Views per Real User – the number of page views on

the selected web site generated by the average Visitor from the given target group

within a given time period.

Horizontal portal [1] – an internet portal site (not a group of owners) offering

a broad range of publisher generated content and services. Essentially, a horizontal

portal contains information and links to websites featuring diverse subjects,

contrary to a vertical portal, which is focused on a particular topic. Moreover,

a horizontal portal should provide access to an email service, as well as community

features such as: a forum, chat or social networking tools. The term “portal”

as used in the report, refers to the horizontal portal.

Social networking service [2] – is an online platform focused on building networks

connecting people, e.g. persons who share interests or are involved in similar

activities. A social network service essentially consists of a representation of each

user (profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services. Most social

network services provide means for users to interact with each other, such as

messengers or chats.

GLOSSARY

[1] The conditions of choosing players presented in section devoted to portals may vary slightly depending on the official categorization implemented in gemiusAudience study in given country as well as on the market standards.

[2] The conditions of choosing players presented in the section devoted to social-networking services may vary slightly depending on the official categorization implemented in gemiusAudience study in given country as well as on the market standards.


263

Gemius - an international research agency, the leader and forerunner in the field of research of the internet and on the internet in Europe. The Company offers professional research solutions, analytical and advisory services, from site-centric and user-centric studies to technologically-advanced tools for studying internet user behaviour on chosen websites (gemiusTraffic), internet user socio-demographic profiles (gemiusProfile), the quality of WWW page usage (gemiusUsability) and the effectiveness of internet advertising campaigns (gemiusEffect). Gemius also conducts research related to subjects submitted by customers (gemiusAdHoc). Apart from the above mentioned research services, Gemius offers a study on the behaviour of users who view online multimedia content (gemiusStream) and a research tool for immediate measurement and presentation of all clicks made by internet users on a website (gemiusHeatMap). Gemius sets the standard for online audience and internet application measurement (gemiusAudience) in almost half of all European countries.

Gemius, established in Poland in 1999, is active on over 20 markets in Europe and the Middle East.

For more information, please see www.gemius.com

ABOUT GEMIUS

IAB Europe exists to support and promote the growth of the European digital and interactive marketing industry.

Representing 21 country members across Europe and over 5000 companies, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Europe is the trade association of the European digital and interactive marketing industry. Supported by every major advertiser, media group, agency, portal, technology and service provider, the power of IAB Europe comes from its extensive membership.

IAB Europe exists to promote the growth of Europe’s interactive advertising markets, to protect the interest of the industry, to regulate practices on the market and to educate the stakeholders in the digital landscape. To achieve these goals, IAB Europe coordinates activities across the region including public affairs, benchmarking, research, setting standards and best practices.

The member countries are Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK. Our corporate members include Adobe, Alcatel-Lucent, BBC.com, comScore Europe, Ernst & Young, Fox Interactive Media, Gemius, Goldbach Media Group, Google, Hi-Media-AdLink, InSites Consulting, Koan, Microsoft Europe, Netlog, News Corporation, Nugg.ad, Nielsen Online, Orange Advertising Network, Publicitas Europe, Sonnenschein, Truvo, Turner/CNN and United Internet Media and zanox.

For more information, please see www.iabeurope.eu

ABOUT IAB

Do you CEE? SATI Methodology

264

SATI Universe is composed of 5.203.000 persons represented by Romanian

population aged between 14 and 64 who live in urban areas and used the internet.

The methodology used for SATI was chosen by BRAT and belongs to the German

company Spring GmbH. It comprises several stages: traffic measurement,

collecting data necessary to define the audience and the profiles of the visitors,

a complex mathematical algorithm defining the persons visiting a website in

a given period of time. The key phases of the methodology are described below.

SATI Methodology

The data used to calculate the audience and the socio-demographic profiles of

the visitors are resulted by mixed methods of data collection, in an attempt to

take the best advantage of each method. The results of the traffic measurement

and of the online survey are combined in order to size the number of visitors of

a website:

a technical measurement of each website’s traffic, providing essential data for

determining unique clients. A database will store each monthly set of Unique

Clients for all the websites measured in SATI,

a survey is carried out on each website, by posting an invitation to take part

in the online survey and displaying an online questionnaire in order to get

information about the websites’ visitors, the persons who have already used

the computers/browsers assessed before,

the data revealing the dimension of the universe and the structure used

to weigh the data collected through the online survey are measured by

SNA FOCUS - a face-to-face survey, carried out on a representative sample

for urban population aged 14-64 years in Romania.

•

•

•

DATA COLLECTING

The technical measurement of the traffic serves as a basis for audience sizing.

The Unique Clients measured by the traffic measurement system is the basic

information for further identification of single visitors. The Unique Clients are

the browsers/computers used by a visitor to see a particular website. The data

about the Unique Clients are obtained using cookies, as well as other combination

of variables. To reduce the risk of double measurement of a Unique Client due to

inaccurate identification (for instance due to cookie deletion,), the Unique Clients

obtained from the measurement are then filtered through a specific statistical

procedure, resulting a number of unique qualified clients.

TRAFFIC MEASUREMENT

Do you CEE? SATI Methodology

265

The sample for the online research is randomly drawn out from the group of the

unique qualified clients on a monthly basis. If a user selected in the sample returns

to any of the websites in the study, an invitation to take part to the online survey is

sent to him/her.

A complex system of sample administration allows for displaying invitations to

complete the online questionnaire to the same single client on many different

websites, at different hours, so that an optimal response rate can be obtained.

The esponses collected from that unique client will be then attributed to the

entire list of websites he/she visited during the research period.

A complex process of data-mining and transformation will compensate

the distortion occurred due to ‘heavy’ users and will also solve the multi-client

and ulti-user issues.

ONLINE SURVEY

Number of Visitors per week – the average number of visitors (persons,

not browsers) visiting a website per week in the measured period.

Number of Unique Clients – the number of Unique Clients visiting a website at

least once in the reporting time period, calculated on the basis of cookies or other

variables in case of a cookie-disabled browser (IP, user-agent, etc). A Unique Client

basically translates into a browser.

Number of Page Impressions – the number of pages of a website, displayed in

a browser at the request of a visitor.

Number of Visits – the number of series of one or more page impressions sent to

the visitor’s browser, as a result of a visitor’s request. A visit ends when the period

between 2 page impressions is longer than 30 minutes.

MAIN INDICATORS AND THEIR DEFINITIONS

http://www.gemius.com

iab gemius do_you_cee

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