Web Hosting Provider Akamai Launches Online News Consumption Index

HostReview.com
Thursday, August 18, 2005; 12:54 PM

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (www.akamai.com), a provider for accelerating content and business processes online, today announced the Akamai Net Usage Index for News, the world's first and only daily Web traffic report with information on aggregate total visitors per minute to news portal sites and from where in the world news is being consumed.

The Internet is generating a major transformation in how the world learns of and follows news events. Increasingly, the Internet is becoming the primary daily source of news for a global audience.

The Akamai Net Usage Index (www.akamai.com/netusageindex) is updated every five minutes, and posts data for the analysis of trends and shifts in news portal Web traffic during major news events.

Akamai is not collecting data on individual end users, nor releasing specific traffic levels for any particular news source. Rather, the Akamai Net Usage Index measures Internet traffic dedicated to news consumption by geography, as well as the world as a whole.

"The manner in which news is consumed in aggregate online provides a wealth of new information about reader interest," said Dana Gardner, principal analyst at Interarbor Solutions, LLC.

"In today's 'demand economy' a new generation of online consumer has emerged who is in the position to control how they consume entertainment, communications and commerce," said Akamai President and CEO, Paul Sagan.

Akamai has been in business for seven years, and today distributes over one billion page views daily for news information sites. More than 100 global news and information portals trust Akamai to support the delivery of their content and applications.

Reports show that of the most common activities conducted on the Internet, consuming/accessing news is surpassed by only a few activities such as using e-mail and conducting a search.