MWEB takes the lead

Jean-Philippe Farinha, general manager of MWEB Studios, says: "Our success in part, can be attributed to our vast selection of quality content and services which makes it an appealing online destination to a diverse audience.

"However, it also needs to be said that South African surfers are becoming more sophisticated and increasingly adventurous online and, are proactively searching for safe environments such as mweb.co.za in which to test out new technologies. For example, our users are avid online samplers and we've seen a dramatic increase in the use of broadband content such as movie trailers and new music releases on the site - an area in which we're particularly strong."

Conducted in association with independent Internet ratings company Nielsen//Netratings, the report tracked the Internet readership results of South Africa's top 22 online publishers for the duration of July. This was achieved through geographically coding local Internet users' IP addresses and analysing site traffic generated by those addresses within the country.

In this manner, MWEB has built a clear picture of the average mweb.co.za visitor in South Africa. He (59%) as opposed to she (41%) visits the site six times per month, for seven minutes per visit and is more likely to access the internet at home (45%) than at work (42%). He is likely to be English speaking (68%) and, between 18 and 40 years of age. He works full time (77%) in a professional (23%) or executive/ managerial (16%) capacity with some form of further education under his belt. Being married (54%), this homeowner (65%) has a freestanding house (64%) in Johannesburg (29%). His household of four (22%) generates a total annual household income before tax of R400 000 or more (22%).