Interview with MEDIA Magazine (posted by "Campaign" website

Interview with Media Week in the UK

Monster.com.hk becomes most preferred job search site in HK

HONG KONG, 24 May 2002 - As the tough times continue to bite in Hong Kong, at-home Internet users are heading in increasing numbers to job search sites, according to latest information from Nielsen//NetRatings, the global standard in Internet media and market research. The total audience visiting job search sites grew 40 percent in April 2002 compared to the same period in 2001.

"More and more at-home Internet users are heading to job search sites in the hope of finding that elusive next career step. Close to half a million people in Hong Kong visited one in April alone, up 40 percent on the same time last year", said Peter Steyn, director of sales and marketing, Nielsen//NetRatings Hong Kong. "This compares to a growth of only 20 per cent in the total active Internet universe over the same period."

Nielsen//NetRatings' job search analysis included the top 30 job search sites accessed by Hong Kong Internet users from home.

"The clear leader in terms of unique audience is monster.com.hk, which this year takes first place as the most visited job search site in Hong Kong, compared with 13th place last year," said Peter Steyn (see Table 1). "Nielsen//NetRatings data suggests that monster.com.hk's appearance at the top of the list of most visited sites is due in large part to its online marketing efforts. The site demonstrates the result of a clear effort by the site owner to heavily market themselves and their online job search brand to job hunters during these tough economic times."

Jobsdb.com continues to hold its runner up position, with jobs.gov.hk moving up to the third spot, followed by jump.mingpao.com - the recent rebranded mpgoldenet.com -- rising from ninth last year to take fourth place this year. Part-time.com, last year's top visited site, dropped to fifth place."

Nielsen//NetRatings found the demographic profile of those visiting job search sites to be in line with that of the Hong Kong Internet users profile overall, with a small skew towards men.

SORRY...TABLE CAN'T FIT IN. GO TO WEBSITE:

Table 1: Unique Audiences, At-Home, Online Job Search
Hong Kong (April 2001 vs. April 2002)

	Top 5 Job Search Sites/Domains April 2001	Unique Audience		Top 5 Job Search Sites/Domains April 2002	Unique Audience
	Total Job Search Category	331,778		Total Job Search Category	463,321
1	part-time.com	134,325	1	monster.com.hk	183,020
2	jobsdb.com	89,596	2	jobsdb.com	112,884
3	careertimes.com.hk	67,233	3	jobs.gov.hk	99,262
4	careers.scmp.com	61,487	4	jump.mingpao.com	79,218
5	pandacareer.com	49,451	5	part-time.com	77,154

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

Globally, the number of people with access to the Internet via a home PC increased from 498.2 million people in Q4 2001 to 531.3 million in Q1 2002.

The findings are from the Nielsen//NetRatings Global Internet Trends service, a quarterly subscription service reporting information on worldwide Internet access and usage trends drawn from surveys conducted in January 2002 using consistent research methodology. With the Q1 2002 reports, Nielsen//NetRatings has expanded the range of topics covered in the survey, now reporting on the top Internet Service Providers by country, speed of connection to the Internet and online activities such as email, chat, instant messaging and online radio usage.

Travel sites take off as traffic triples

Thursday, July 11, 2002
SIDNEY LUK

Traffic to Hong Kong travel sites has tripled in the past year, with e-commerce portals leading the sector.

Internet research company NetValue said the number of people visiting travel and tourism sites increased from 110,400 in the first quarter of last year to 341,900 this year.

Students were the biggest group with 36.5 per cent, followed by professionals, managers, executives and businessmen at 30.3 per cent.

Excluding airlines, the name-your-price ticketing site Priceline.com.hk, which was launched in April, took first place among local travel portals, followed by wingontravel.com and China Travel's chinatravelone.com.

NetValue Hong Kong sales director Tony Tan said there was less than a 5 per cent difference between the top three sites.

"We see the majority are going for more information but we do see a high increase of those doing online transactions," Mr Tan said.

Priceline Hong Kong chief executive Alfredo Gangotena said the number of people buying travel online was catching up with the United States, where travel is the No 1 form of e-commerce. "In Asia, it is third and growing fast," he said.

"The convenience and ease of buying travel through the Internet is impossible to better through traditional channels. Moreover, more and more Asians are seeking an alternative to the old-fashioned package tours."

Priceline.com.hk is a 65:35 joint venture between Hutchison Whampoa and Priceline.com. Cheung Kong and Hutchison together hold about 30 per cent equity in the US portal.

NetValue research consultant Yong Soo Keong said future travel portals would have to provide more competitive packages and a faster service than their offline counterparts.

"This will be even more prevalent when the online travel industry reaches a maturity stage, where pricing and other information barriers are significantly reduced," he said.

However, a study by Nielsen//NetRatings found that since its launch, Priceline's popularity had dropped.

Priceline ranked first in May with 52,080 unique visitors, followed by Cathaypacific.com with 50,621. But Cathay regained its No 1 spot last month with 37,405 visitors. The airline was followed by Chinatravelone and Wing On Travel. Priceline ranked fourth.

The research firm's Hong Kong director Peter Steyn said Priceline's drop in popularity might be due to lack of local interest in online shopping. "They find it just as convenient, and more secure, to conduct the transaction across the street at their favourite travel agent," he said.