Online dating on the rise, says Red Sheriff
- — 17 July, 2001 15:49
Online auctions, online trading, adult lifestyle and shopping sites are growing steadily, according to latest Red Sheriff findings.
It seems more people are going online to meet that special someone as internet measurement specialist Red Sheriff's stastics for June reveal a significant growth in adult lifestyle sites, such as dating site's rsvp.com.au and Ninemsn's personal site (personals.ninemsn.com.au) and sex toy site Adultshop.
Rsvp topped the adult lifestyle category; supported by an offline radio campaign it grew 38.8 per cent with 168,000 unique visitors to the site in June. Personals.com.au and Adultshop.com.au ranked second and third consecutively.
Other categories recording growth include auction sites, trading sites and the Australian Taxation Office site.
Bolstered by its relationship with the reality TV show Big Brother, eBay lead the sway in the online auction category with a 59.7 per cent growth, or 559,000 unique visitors. Big Brother, through eBay, is auctioning memorabilia from the show to raise money for charities.
Sold.com.au also experienced growth of 14.1 per cent with 364,000 unique visitors, while recently closed Gofish ranked third in the online auction category with 26.7 percent growth, or 119,000 unique visitors.
The growth in the online trading category and increased traffic to the Australian Taxation Office site (ato.gov.au) coincides with the end of the financial year. The tax site experienced massive growth of 76.1 per cent with 442,000 unique visitors.
Red Sheriff said the growth in online trading category may have been strengthened by the activity of traders selling poor performing stocks to counteract any capital gains tax incurred.
Trading sites of Commonwealth Bank (comsec.com.au), Westpac (broking.westpac.com.au) and etrade.com.au all experienced growth in June.
Ninemsn, Yahoo and Telstra continue their reign as the top three sites. Westpac and Bigpond sites dropped out of the top 10, although they recorded traffic growth in June.
Employment, TV, automotive and government categories declined slightly in the month.
