'Yahoo! top Indian News Site; ToI leading local brand'
Press Trust of India / New Delhi Dec 15, 2009, 13:09 IST
Yahoo! News has emerged as the top destination for news in India on the web and Times of India the most engaging local brand news site with maximum visitors, reveals a study.
According to a study by research firm comScore, traffic to online news sites reached a record 15.8 million visitors (aged 15 and older), up 37 per cent in October 2009 against the same month in the previous year.
"The number of online news and information consumers in India surged 37 per cent in the past year, more than double the rate of growth of the total online audience in India," comScore Executive Vice President (Asia-Pacific) Will Hodgman said in a statement today.
Multi-national brands Yahoo! and New York Times ranked as the most visited destinations in the news category.
While Yahoo! News led all news sites with 4.2 million visitors (up 26 per as against October 2008), New York Times Digital with nearly 3.9 million visitors saw an increase of 67 per cent in visitation in 2009.
Local brands made up a significant portion of the top news sites and some of the fastest growing. TOI captured the third spot in terms of visitation reaching 2.6 million visitors during the month (up 78 per cent from October 2008), while Oneindia.In surged 148 per cent to 2.4 million visitors.
The Hindu Group, the fifth most visited news property in India, reached nearly 1.6 million visitors (up 19 per cent)in October.
Hodgman said, "India, as the world’s seventh largest Internet market and one of the fastest growing, represents fertile ground for both local and multinational publishers hoping to expand their audience footprint."
This, however, excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.
Visitors to HT Media Ltd, which includes Shine.Com and Hindustantimes.Com, averaged 11.5 minutes on the site, consuming 24 pages of content in October, while visitors to NDTV and The Economic Times averaged 11.3 minutes and 10 minutes, respectively in October 2009.
"Online news is a fast-growing market segment among the increasingly technology-oriented Indian population and news sites offer advertisers a touch point for reaching millions of engaged consumers in a branded environment," Hodgman said.
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