Nielsen//NetRatings is Launched in Argentina; Nearly 3.9 Million Argentinians Have Internet Access From Home.

Business Editors

STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 21, 2001

Nielsen//NetRatings, the world's fastest-growing Internet audience measurement service, today published initial data on the at-home surfing behavior of Internet users in Argentina.

In July, 3.9 million Argentinians had access to the Internet from home, and about 1.9 million were active on the Net, visiting global web properties such as Yahoo! and MSN and spending an average of 7 hours and 20 minutes online over the month.

Nielsen//NetRatings tracks the entire spectrum of Internet user behavior: who's online, where they're going, what ads they're viewing and clicking on and how much time they spend. This information is derived from randomly selected consumer panels of home Internet users, continually refreshed to reflect the most current Internet universe. Argentina is the third Latin American market measured by Nielsen//NetRatings, which is now reporting data on 28 countries worldwide.

Tolis Vossos, CEO, IBOPE eRatings.com, said: "Nielsen//NetRatings is now measuring Internet audience activity in Latin America's three major Internet markets: Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. There are 18 million people in these three countries with home-based Internet access, even though having household Internet access is a relatively new phenomenon in Latin America. We estimate that seven million additional households will gain Internet access over the next 12 months, and Nielsen//NetRatings will be there to track the region's growth from this early stage."

Average Usage

Similar to the Internet audience in Brazil and Mexico, the Internet audience in Argentina is majority male, with men comprising 55% of the audience in July. "Proportionally, slightly more males than females have Internet access across the Latin American countries, though access is more equitable in Argentina than elsewhere," Vossos said.

Argentinians spent less time online in July than Brazilians or Mexicans (see Table 1), and viewed fewer pages per surfing session, though they visited more unique sites than other Latin American surfers. "This translates to so-called shallow surfing," Vossos said. "Argentinians are visiting more sites but viewing fewer pages per site, meaning they're just skimming the top of the content for the sites they see. However, it is interesting that the average click rate for top banners in Argentina is the highest among the three Latin American countries, showing a good interactivity with online advertising."

    Table 1 Nielsen//NetRatings : Average Usage, At-Home, July 2001

                                Argentina    Brazil   Mexico     US
Number of sessions per month       13          13       10          20
Number of unique sites visited     18          17       17          11
Pages viewed per month            520         626      474         715
Pages viewed per surfing
 session                           39          47       47          37
Time spent per month          7:21:47     8:10:48  7:37:26    10:19:06
Time spent per session        0:32:57     0:37:08  0:45:02     0:31:44
Duration of a page viewed     0:00:51     0:00:47  0:00:57     0:00:51
Average click rate for top
 banners                         0.57       0.49      0.36        0.60
Active Internet universe    1,872,249  6,038,867 1,670,201 102,077,288
Current Internet universe
 estimate                   3,882,526 11,937,559 3,419,075 165,180,807

Source:  Nielsen//NetRatings

Vossos also noted that, similar to the other Latin American countries, the Argentinian Internet audience is fairly young, with the relative majority of its audience - 43% - between the ages of 18 and 34 years, and young adults in the 18 to 20 age group spending the most time online - nearly 10 hours - in July. The Argentinian Internet audience is also predominantly from the highest socio-economical levels, with 48% of the surfers having university degrees.

The top five Internet properties in Argentina in July were mainly global properties (see Table 2), with only one Argentinian property - Clarin Global, a media conglomerate, appearing on the list.

"Our ongoing study of the Internet population in Argentina reveals that close to half the adults in homes with fixed line telephones have access to the Internet from some location," Vossos said. "However, of every possible location from which they could access the Internet, Argentinians are least likely to surf from work. This is reflected in the top five properties for July, as search engines and portals and news and information properties ranked highest, indicating that surfers are still fairly casual in their Net use and are not yet exhibiting the more specific, research type of web use that work users tend to exhibit."

Table 1. Nielsen//NetRatings: Top 5 Properties, Argentina,
At-Home, July 2001

   Property                   Unique Audience    Reach
                                               %(Active)
1  Yahoo!                        1,171,836        62.59
2  MSN                           1,120,400        59.84
3  Clarin Global                   803,871        42.94
4  AOL Time Warner                 701,150        37.45
5  Terra Networks                  649,349        34.68

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

About Nielsen//NetRatings

Nielsen//NetRatings reports on Internet audiences and advertising in 28 countries worldwide, representing more than 91 percent of the global Internet audience universe. In addition to Argentina, the countries are: the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Brazil, Mexico, Germany, the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, South Korea, Taiwan, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Israel and South Africa. The total estimated Internet audience in these countries combined is more than 414 million users.

Nielsen//NetRatings uses unique technology capable of measuring both Internet use and advertising to provide the most timely, accurate and comprehensive Internet usage data and advertising information in the global marketplace. Nielsen//NetRatings tracks the entire spectrum of Internet user behavior, leveraging proprietary data-collection technology from NetRatings, Nielsen Media Research's 50 years of expertise in research and audience measurement, and ACNielsen's international leadership in offering market research information covering more than 100 countries. IBOPE eRatings.com is a strategic alliance between ACNielsen eRatings.com and IBOPE Media Information in Latin America. For more information, please visit www.nielsen-netratings.com.

About ACNielsen eRatings.com

ACNielsen eRatings.com is a venture between ACNielsen and NetRatings Inc. (Nasdaq: NTRT). ACNielsen, a company of VNU N.V., is the world's leading market research firm, offering measurement and analysis of marketplace dynamics, consumer attitudes and behaviour, and new and traditional media in more than 100 countries. NetRatings is the leading provider of Internet audience measurement technology and analysis. Through the Nielsen//NetRatings service, ACNielsen eRatings.com is creating the first global service for tracking audiences, advertising and user activity on the Internet in more than 30 countries worldwide.

About NetRatings, Inc.

NetRatings (Nasdaq: NTRT) provides Internet audience measurement and analysis services that enable its customers to make informed decisions regarding their Internet strategies. NetRatings delivers accurate and timely information collected from a representative sample of Internet users and augments it with detailed, flexible reporting and in-depth analyses.