Measuring systems compete for websites

April 16th, 2009 in Online Marketing- Middle East

Tom Gara, The National

Two competing internet audience measurement systems will begin producing audited data for the Middle East in the coming months, giving the best view yet into the state of web audiences.

The lack of transparent, audited traffic numbers for websites has been a common complaint among online advertisers and internet industry professionals in the region.

The Nielsen Company, one of the world’s largest media and market research companies, yesterday launched two of its internet measurement systems. The systems will compete with Effective Measure, another web measurement service recently launched by the Dubai-based market research consultancy, Real Opinions.

Both companies acknowledge that with advertisers seeking a single, standardised way to compare visitor profiles and traffic at different websites, it is likely that one service will dominate.

“With this kind of market, you have to become the official currency,” said Brendon Ogilvy, the chief operating officer of Real Opinions. “Once you become the currency, that’s it.”

Himanshu Vashishtha, the director of consumer research for Nielsen in the region, agreed. “Media buyers want one set of data,” he said, “so it is more efficient, and more likely, for one player to survive.”

Web audience measurement systems, which are installed into sites by internet publishers, produce reliable data on popularity and demographic appeal of the sites.

The Effective Measure system is already being tested by more than 70 online publishers in the region. Initial data from the service would be available to advertisers and media buyers this month, said Mr Ogilvy.

Maktoob, the Jordanian company that runs the Arab world’s most popular internet portal, was announced yesterday as the first publisher in the region to sign on for Nielsen’s services.

Mr Vashishtha said the first results of its service would be distributed by June.

Maktoob, which originally was named as an early trial partner of the Effective Measure system, appears to have switched to the rival service.

“We’re encouraging websites to test both solutions, and see how they both stack up,” Mr Ogilvy said. “Once we have the data, I know, given the comments from media planners, that they will insist on publishers using Effective Measure, including Maktoob.”