America has always been reluctant to embrace the world of soccer, but recent findings by Nielsen//NetRatings seem to indicate a possible change in this trend. The official World Cup site, FIFAWorldcup.com, saw 149% growth in weekly U.S. traffic compared to the first two weeks of the World Cup played in 2002.
FIFAWorldcup.com received 555,000 hits for the first week of the event this year, which was more than five times the 101,000 hits received during the first week back in 2002. AOL’s World Cup pages grew 181%, while Yahoo!’s World Cup pages grew 138%. For the week ended June 18, 1.9 million users visited FIFAWorldcup.com during the work week, which was a 132% jump from the week before. This made FIFAWorldcup.com the fastest growing site at work.
Hitwise, a research firm, found that the official World Cup site received 4.05% of U.S. online visits to sports sites. This compares favorably to the 5.33% that ESPN (the leader in sports sites) received during the first two weeks of the event.
Since the World Cup’s opening match, more U.S. Web users have visited FIFAWorldcup.com consistently than they have visited the official site of Major League Baseball, MLB.com.
“Hitwise data confirms that even though the U.S. team is no longer in the tournament, U.S. interest in the World Cup remains high,” said Bill Tancer, General Manager of Global Research at the firm.
Sources:
http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=17442&hed=
FastStats%3a+Games+and+Gains
http://www.webpronews.com/insiderreports/marketinginsider/
wpn-50-20060630WorldCupInHighDemandOnline.html
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