Hebrew daily "Yediot Ahronot" website ynet narrowed the gap on Walla Communications Ltd., strengthening its weekly exposure rate by 8.5% in December 2008 and by 6.6% in the second half of the year, whereas Walla's weekly exposure rate weakened by 0.4% in December and by 1.1% in the second half, according to the TIM survey for the second half of 2008.
The survey indicates that the gap between ynet and Walla! has narrowed to 108,000 surfers. Google is still number one, with a weekly exposure rate of 88.8%, down 0.8% in the second half.
Facebook's weekly exposure rate rose by 30% in the second half to 31.3%, and it rose to fifth place. Channel 2 website, Mako increased its weekly exposure rate by 123% during the second half to seventh place, with a weekly exposure rate of 27.8%.
Among the websites that weakened substantially during the last six months was MSN Israel, whose weekly exposure rate fell by 20.6%, although it gained 5.6% in December. The decline can presumably be attributed to the changes in control of the portal and its restructuring following its full takeover by Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT).
Among financial sites, "Globes'" greatly strengthened its weekly exposure rate both in December and in the second half as a whole. Its weekly exposure rate grew by 32.3% in December, boosting it to 15th place. Rival "TheMarker's" weekly exposure rate fell by 4.7% to 17th place. In the past six months, "Globes" has increased its weekly exposure rate by 25%, opening a 10% gap versus "TheMarker".
The TIM survey also examined the weekly exposure rate of e-commerce sites. Walla Shops had the highest weekly exposure rate of 16.6%. Olsale lagged far behind, with a weekly exposure rate of 6.1%, and Nana Shops was in third place, with 5.1%, making the rankings for the first time after bypassing P1000 and Get It.
MSN Messenger leads the battle for instant messaging, with a weekly exposure rate of 32.8%, compared with 20.4% for ICQ. Yahoo! Messenger lags far behind, with a weekly exposure rate of 2.3%.
The TIM survey found that penetration and consolidation of social network sites as a major Internet activity is continuing. 50% of surfers said that they were members of at least one social network, compared with 39% of surfers a year ago. The proportion of membership on social networks is higher among teenagers than older people. 77% of respondents aged 13-17 are members of social networks compared with 49.4% a year ago.
The monthly survey by TNS Teleseker unit TIM is a nationwide representative sample of Internet users aged 13 and above. The December survey was the 35th. It included 1,352 respondents nationwide representing the Jewish population.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 19, 2009
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