Social Networking Sites Set to Hit the Big Time in Hong Kong
Following on from news this month that MySpace is now the most-visited website in the US, Hitwise Hong Kong reports that top social networking site Xanga has increased its traffic by more than 30% over the past 12 months.
Xanga (www.xanga.com) is the highest-trafficked social networking site in Hong Kong, far outstripping competitors MySpace (www.myspace.com) and Bebo (www.bebo.com). It is currently ranked at #3 out of all sites monitored by Hitwise in Hong Kong, just behind Yahoo! Hong Kong (hk.yahoo.com) and Yahoo! Hong Kong Search (search.hk.yahoo.com).
Over the past 12 months, Xanga's market share has rocketed from 2.49% to 3.22% (based on monthly data from June 2005 - June 2006), while traffic levels of its nearest competitor, Yahoo! Hong Kong Search, have stayed relatively stable, hovering around the 3.45% mark. Like the networking phenomenon as a whole, Xanga shows no sign of slowing down - and if its star continues to rise it may follow the footsteps of MySpace in the US to become the highest-ranked site in Hong Kong.
In addition, the Blogs sector has also experienced a phenomenal rise over the past year. Traffic to sites in the Hitwise Blogs & Personal Websites category in Hong Kong has increased by 52% from June 2005 to June 2006 based on monthly data. Xanga is the highest-ranked website in the Blogs category, consuming a massive 72.22% of market share. Its closest rival is MSN Spaces (spaces.msn.com) with a mere 6.93% of market share for week ending July 15.
Fast Mover: Coldplay
www.coldplay.com
Position on July 1: 28,613
Position on July 14: 2,020
Positions jumped: 26,593
As chart-topping band Coldplay performed their first-ever concert in Hong Kong on Thursday July 13, Internet users flocked to the band's official website (www.coldplay.com) to see what the fuss was all about.
Coldplay.com received a massive surge in visits according to Hitwise daily data for Friday July 14, resulting in the band's website becoming the fourth most-visited site in the Hitwise Music - Bands & Artists category with 2.88% market share.
Overall, the site increased its rank by more than 26,000 places out of all sites monitored by Hitwise, ranking just outside the top 2,000 sites on Hitwise Hong Kong on July 14.
The website of Coldplay's favourite charity, UK-based Make Trade Fair (www.maketradefair.com) also received a surge in visits on July 14. Following on from comments by lead singer Chris Martin to the Hong Kong press on Thursday, the site increased its market share by 150% in the Hitwise Community - Humanitarian sector.
Category Spotlight: Education
This category includes almost anything of an educational nature, including the websites of educational institutions, companies selling educational material, and reference sources. The data below is based on All sites » Weekly rankings for the week ending 22/07/2006 » Ranks by 'Visits'.
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Copyright Hitwise Pty Ltd, July 2006
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Hitwise Hong Kong Newsletter - July 2006
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