Ten websites and internet applications have averaged 500 million minutes or more in the last year with three managing to top the one billion mark, according to ratings company Nielsen
Online.
The research also showed that the top ten sites accounted for 30% of all our internet use. Given the diversity and volume of the content out there, that's a pretty incredible
number.
And when you consider eBay is the only e-commerce site among them (discounting iTunes as an application/e-commerce site), with the rest being ad-funded, the question over the
sustainability of solely ad-funded web companies rears it ugly head again.
Leading websites/applications by average total monthly UK minutes: June 2007 - May 2008
Source: Nielsen Online, UK NetView, home
& work data, including applications, June 2007 - May 2008. E.g. From Jun 07-May 08, MSN Messenger
averaged 2.6 billion UK
minutes each month = 8% share of online-related* time
As
Neilsen's Alex Burmaster points out: "The thousands of other sites are competing for a
much smaller share of the pie than they might think. If you also take into
account that Britons aren't spending significantly more time online, yet there
are more sites springing up all the time, it shows how increasingly competitive
and cut-throat the online sector is becoming."
You
can almost guarantee that, if anything, the gap will widen; fewer, bigger
players taking an increasing share of the spoils. The internet has democratised
many things and, mercifully, relative newcomers Facebook and Bebo make the top
ten. But I can't help thinking the idea that ‘the biggest company in the world in
ten years time probably hasn't been thought of yet' will soon become an
unreachable ideal, not a glorious certainty.
