Top Portals Turn Eyeballs into Dollars

NEW YORK, NY – July 18, 2000

Top portals have effectively leveraged their audiences’ captive attention for e-commerce, offering consumers a one-stop virtual shop for all Web users’ needs.  The top portal-affiliated shopping site, Yahoo! Shopping, attracted 5.8 million unique home-based visitors during the month of June – equating to just under seven percent of all Internet users during the month.  AOL’s Shopping Channel drew more than 3.4 million and AltaVista’s shopping area captured the attention of 2.6 million unique visitors.  MSN’s shopping section engaged 1.2 million unique shoppers.

“Portals have matured in their role on the Internet and have capitalized on their audience traffic, turning eyeballs into dollars,” said Lisa Ann Strand, senior Internet analyst at NetRatings.  “Previously, portals served as large directories that helped users find places to go on the Internet; these home bases now serve as communities offering their own content, services and tools to help enrich a user’s Web experience.”

Source:  Nielsen//NetRatings, June 2000