NIELSEN//NETRATINGS SERVICE FIRST TO MEASURE AND REPORT JAPAN INTERNET AUDIENCE ACTIVITY

Japan Internet Ratings for Week Ending February 27

Ranks Yahoo No. 1 and NEC as No. 2 Web Property

TOKYO, March 6, 2000 - Nielsen//NetRatings, the audience measurement service of ACNielsen Corporation Japan and NetRatings Japan Inc., today announced the first delivery of Internet audience information based on a representative panel of 14,000 Japanese Internet users, the largest Internet panel under measurement internationally. Top Properties, Top Advertisers and Average Usage information included here are the first findings ever published in the Japanese market.

The Nielsen//NetRatings comprehensive, real-time audience measurement service relies on the superior methodology and best practices of ACNielsen and the leading Internet measurement technology of NetRatings to deliver the most accurate, reliable information about what people and businesses are doing on the Internet. The Nielsen//NetRatings service has the world’s largest Internet panel, with 85,000 users under measurement worldwide in the United States, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Ireland.

"With 15 million users and high Internet penetration, Japan is of major economic importance," said Tatsuzo Uewaki, executive director of ACNielsen in Japan. "Businesses and advertisers need accurate, up-to-date information to make critical decisions about their Internet strategies in this region. With Nielsen//NetRatings, now they have it."

 

Nielsen//NetRatings Japan: Top 25 Web Sites by Property
Week ending Feb 27, 2000

Ranking of the Most Visited Web Properties

	Property	Unique Audience	Reach %	Time Per Person
1.	Yahoo	3,445,019	54.49	19.5
2.	NEC	1,876,204	29.68	9.27
3.	MSN	1,666,279	26.36	7.55
4.	Sony Online	1,580,060	24.99	7.83
5.	GeoCities	1,553,820	24.58	11.2
6.	Dream Train Internet	1,259,550	19.92	6.73
7.	Nifty Corporation	1,216,440	19.24	4.68
8.	Lycos Network	1,038,379	16.42	5.67
9.	Hi-Ho Internet Service	862,192	13.64	7.47
10.	Goo	837,826	13.25	3.4
11.	GO Network	828,454	13.1	4.37
12.	Mediabank Corporation	800,339	12.66	4.53
13.	Bekkoame Internet	680,382	10.76	4.93
14.	Open Data Network	631,649	9.99	4.57
15.	Just Systems Corp.	624,152	9.87	4.37
16.	AOL Websites	611,032	9.66	4.57
17.	Open Computer Network	597,911	9.46	5.63
18.	Atson Inc.	594,163	9.4	3.47
19.	RimNet Corp.	560,425	8.86	3.73
20.	Microsoft	547,304	8.66	5.18
21.	Excite@Home	539,807	8.54	5.02
22.	Internet Initiative Japan Inc.	537,933	8.51	2.47
23.	Freeweb Service	536,058	8.48	7.1
24.	Grr Homenet Inc.	515,441	8.15	5.77
25.	Communication Online	492,949	7.8	6.32

Example: The data indicate that nearly 1.9 million home Internet users visited at least one of the NEC-owned sites during the week, and each person spent, on average, a total of almost 9 minutes there.

Notes: Rankings are based on audience measurement of people who have access to the Internet from home. A property is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs owned by a single entity. Reach is a measure of the unduplicated audience that visits a property. The data are expressed as the percentage of the total universe of Internet users who logged onto the Internet at least once during the reporting period.

Nielsen//NetRatings: Top Ten Advertisers
February 20-27, 2000

	Advertiser	Impressions	Reach %
1.	Microsoft	12,736,072	27.0
2.	Yahoo!	8,685,645	21.7
3.	Communication Online Inc.	7,311,761	6.4
4.	The Nomura Securities Co. Ltd.	7,253,657	10.5
5.	Goo	6,419,580	16.7
6.	ERGO-BRAINS. LTD	6,307,120	20.4
7.	Okasan Securities Co. Ltd.	6,286,503	2.8
8.	E*TRADE Japan Securities Inc.	6,243,393	3.6
9.	Sofmap Co.Ltd.	6,211,530	28.3
10.	Daiwa Securities Co. Ltd.	6,082,201	2.9

Nielsen//NetRatings' syndicated advertising research report. An impression is counted each time an ad banner is fully loaded onto a user’s screen.

 

Nielsen//NetRatings: Average Internet Usage
February 20-27, 2000

Data below represent activity for the average Internet user during the designated weekly period.

	Current Week
Number of Sessions per Week	5
Number of Unique Sites Visited	6
Page Views per Week	266
Page Views per Surfing Session	49
Time Spent per Week	2: 31: 05
Time Spent During Surfing Session	0: 30: 13
Duration of a Page viewed	0: 00: 37
Average Click Rate for top Banners	1.96
Active Internet Universe	6,322,115
Current Internet Universe Estimate	21,213,667

Comprehensive Information Collected

Across all global regions, Nielsen//NetRatings service collects uniform and comprehensive user activity information as follows:

• Site activity (by property, domain and unique site): Audience information on each site includes: Sites visited, duration, duration and frequency of sessions/ Also, unique audience size and demographic profile of the unique audience, site rank, % reach, page views, pages per person, time per person and % of pages from browser cache.

• User Demographics: Age, gender, education, occupation, single/married, residence form, and income.

• User’s Site Tracking Information: Referring sites, destination sites, pages rating information.

• Advertising Activity (by impression, advertiser, domain): Reports show the most popular ad banners, the top advertisers and the top domains with the most advertising. Data includes: actual banner image, banner rank, unique audience size, % reach, impressions and click rate.

Nielsen//NetRatings audience measurement service (AMS) enables site publishers, advertisers and agencies to track audience exposure to Internet ads, target specific demographic groups, do extensive campaign analysis and analyze competitors’ advertising and campaigns. Also, the service is an essential research tool for the investment community, geared to meet the specific needs of market analysts, institutional investors, brokers, venture capitalists-and those involved in tracking the development of commercial Internet enterprises and sectors.

Following the AMS launch, the companies plans to offer analytical services currently available in the United States: E-commerce Service Strategies, Internet Investment Service Strategies and Internet Media Strategies.

Global Service
The Nielsen//NetRatings service has been available in the US since March 1999. Through a global venture announced in September 1999, ACNielsen Corporation and NetRatings Inc., will also market their services globally under the Nielsen//NetRatings brand through their joint venture, known as ACNielsen eRatings.com. The service will be available in Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom and Ireland at the end of the first quarter 2000, with other markets rapidly coming online thereafter. By the end of 2001, the service is scheduled to cover more than 30 countries and more than 90% of the world’s Internet audience.

 

###

 

ACNielsen Corporation (NYSE: ART) is the global leader in market research, information and analysis for the consumer products and services industries. With 1999 revenues of $1.5 billion, ACNielsen provides services to over 9000 clients in more than 100 countries. ACNielsen uses sophisticated technology and broad-based marketing techniques to track and predict consumer-purchasing behavior through these key services:

NetRatings (Nasdaq: NTRT) provides Internet audience measurement and analysis services that enable its customers to make informed decisions regarding their Internet strategies. NetRatings delivers accurate and timely information collected from a representative sample of Internet users and augments it with detailed, flexible reporting and in-depth analyses. The company has strategic relationships with Nielsen Media Research, the leading television audience measurement company in North America and ACNielsen (NYSE: ART), a leading provider of market research and analysis to the consumer products and services industries. Nielsen Media Research is a majority investor in NetRatings, and a subsidiary of VNU N.V., one of the world’s leading publishing and information companies.