Year on year growth in regional Aviation
According to Hitwise Singapore industry data, online visits to regional websites in the Aviation - Commercial Airlines category grew significantly during 2004. As the market share of the category increased by a remarkable 100.9 percent, visits from Singapore Internet users increased to 41.8 percent by January 1, 2005.
New entrants to the discount airline market were quick to build on the effectiveness of the Web as a sales channel. Cheap tickets across the Asian region, including Phuket and Bangkok were promoted online by newcomer, Tiger Airways (www.tigerairways.com). The performance of their website contributed to the huge spike in traffic in the Aviation - Commercial Airlines category in September 2004. Valuair (www.valuair.com.sg) also had a significant impact in April 2004, reflecting the popularity of their flights to Bangkok, Hong Kong and Jakarta. The websites of both carriers have steadily increased their profile amongst Singapore Internet users, with Tiger Airways ranking #2 and Valuair placed at 4, week ending February 5, 2005.
Jetstar Asia Airways' website (www.jetstarasia.com) recently debuted in the Aviation - Commercial Airlines category at 13 on October 23, 2004. The website jumped to its highest ranking of 2 on December 11, grabbing 14.83 percent of traffic to the category. The airline is a Singapore-based operation partly owned by Qantas, extending the Australian Jetstar brand into the Asian region.
Also driving regional growth were Malaysian-based airlines, Airasia.com (www.airasia.com) and Malaysia Airlines (www.malaysiaairlines.com), whose websites had respective rankings of 3 and 9, for the week ending February 12, 2005. Beyond Southeast Asia, the website of new Indian carrier, Kingfisher Airlines (www.flykingfisher.com) is one to watch out for. The airline launches its services in May 2005 with its first commercial flight between Mumbai and Delhi.
Singapore Airlines (www.singaporeair.com) continues to pull the greatest share of online traffic, with 27.69 percent market share, week ending February 12, 2005. Hitwise Search Term data indicates that "singapore airlines" was the most popular key phrase to the Aviation - Commercial Airlines category over a 24-week rolling period.
Category Spotlight: Aviation - Commercial Airlines
Commercial airlines, including aircraft charter companies and helicopter services operating a commercial venture. The information below is based on Local websites, Weekly rankings for the week ending 12/02/2005 - Ranked by 'Visits'.
Fast Mover - MSN Search Singapore
search.msn.com.sg
Position January 8, 2004 - 116
Position February 5 - 36
Positions jumped - 80
As Microsoft entered the lucrative search market this month, MSN Search Singapore (search.msn.com.sg) attracted new traffic in the Hitwise Computers and Internet - Search Engines and Directories category:
The website jumped up 12 positions to #5 for the week ending February 5, with a market share of 3.31 percent. The local version of MSN Search outperformed the global site (search.msn.com) which ranked at #6 with 2.85 percent, indicating a need for localised search results.
The new search offering from Microsoft allows users to build their queries based on advanced search preferences, including the ability to weight results according to popularity, time of update and approximate match.
The Hitwise Clickstream Industry report indicates that prominent categories are directing traffic to MSN Search Singapore. For the week ending February 5, these categories included: Entertainment - Games (2.57 percent), Business and Finance - Banks and Financial Institutions (1.42 percent), Lifestyle - Dating (2.41 percent) and Shopping and Classifieds - Auctions (0.63 percent).
The most popular News and Media website visited prior to MSN Search Singapore was Channel News Asia (www.channelnewsasia.com) with 0.28 percent upstream share.
Hitwise Media Monitors found 137 references to MSN Search in the past two weeks, reflecting significant media build-up around the release.
Hitwise Industry Statistics confirms that competition within the search market remains intensely concentrated, with 78.2 percent of traffic distributed amongst the Top 10 search engines.
Hitwise at Work
How a popular television talk show and a bank used Hitwise data to measure the effectiveness of Advertising & Promotions.
A popular television talk show website partnered with a leading bank website to give viewers the chance to win $1 Million dollars. To enter, viewers were directed via offline and online advertising, to a promotional website and asked to register within 24 hours.
In 24 hours, the promotional website jumped a massive 67 positions to become the 2nd most popular television program website in the Hitwise Television category - marking an increase of 775% in market share of visits.
With the Hitwise daily reporting tool, the television producers were able to instantly see the effects that both online and offline advertising had on traffic to their website, in relation to their competitors. In addition, the banking institution was able to see that through their affiliation with the promotion, they had achieved significant brand awareness by sponsoring this activity. Their competitors from all industries, could also benchmark the effects that the promotion had on the show's popularity, and subsequently, the website's popularity, the very next day!
Media queries at Hitwise
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Additionally - if you require assistance with statistics or content, please feel free to contact James Borg at james.borg@hitwise.com.
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Copyright Hitwise Pty Ltd, February 2005
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Hitwise Singapore Newsletter - February 2005
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