Hitwise

With tax return season upon us this month, studious Singaporeans have been swamping the IRAS website (mytax.iras.gov.sg) to file their e-tax returns before the April deadline.

The Singapore Government's MyTax portal (mytax.iras.gov.sg) has experienced a dramatic surge in traffic during March as taxpayers make use of the website to submit their tax returns online. The site's traffic increased by over 48% between March 4 and March 11 alone, rising from 3.94% of the Government category to 5.86%. This figure is slightly higher than for the same week of last year, where the site achieved a market share figure of 5.71% of the Government category for the week ending March 12 2005, suggesting that Singaporean taxpayers are increasingly looking to the Internet for a speedy solution to their tax issues.

Coinciding with this increase in traffic to the IRAS website, traffic to sites in the Hitwise Accountancy category has also recently peaked. The week ending February 25 saw the highest market share figure for the Accountancy category since the start of the year, with the category claiming 1.15% of all traffic to the Business & Finance sector. This increase in traffic has eased in recent weeks, claiming 0.94% of all Business Finance related traffic for the week ending March 11.

Fast mover: Ikea Singapore

www.ikea.com.sg

Position week ending March 4: 1,145
Position week ending March 11: 753
Positions jumped: 392

One of the fastest-moving retail websites in Singapore this month belongs to iconic Swedish furniture store Ikea. The company's March sale on home furnishings, which has seen its already-low prices drop to rock-bottom rates, has encouraged budget-conscious Singaporeans to flock to www.ikea.com.sg.

The opening day of the sale, March 10, saw the Ikea website almost triple its ranking on Hitwise, jumping from 53 in the Shopping & Classifieds category on Thursday March 9 to #20 on Friday 10th March. The site recorded a rise of 200% market share for all Shopping sites in Singapore, increasing from 0.22% to 0.66% over the same period.

On Sunday 12th March, www.ikea.com.sg reached its highest-ever market share figure in the Shopping & Classifieds - House & Garden category, achieving a massive 28% market share.

Category Spotlight: Shopping and Classifieds - Department Stores

This category includes sites that offer a wide range of goods. If a site sells goods across more than 50% of the Hitwise shopping categories, then it is deemed a department store. This category includes both online and offline department stores. The data below is based on All sites » Weekly rankings for the week ending 25/03/2006 » Ranks by 'Visits'.

Top 10 Shopping and Classifieds - Department Stores sites for Singapore audiences		Local Competitiveness Index
Amazon.com Amazon UK YesAsia.com Mustafa Online Joyo.com Metro Singapore Amazon Japan Courts Singapore Shop at Home Carrefour Singapore		16.7% of traffic to this category was directed at domestic sites.

Business Development

Because Hitwise monitors the performance of over 500,000 websites across over 160 industry categories every day, only Hitwise can provide sales teams with in-depth analyses of prospective and current customers to help increase sales.

Identify new and potential clients, learn more about their online activities and evaluate the success of your relationship. Some of the business development questions Hitwise can help answer are:

Who are all the key players in a specific industry?

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What are the new websites in the industry?

Since conducting business with my company, have my clients' online performances improved?

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Copyright Hitwise Pty Ltd, March 2006