COUNSELORS:

Alain Heureux, Filip Pieczyński,

Jarosław Sobolewski

AUTHORS:

Małgorzata Dudko, Michalina Pelc,

Bartosz Wardziński

CONTRIBUTORS:

Tamás Ács, Vesselin Angelov, Mikhail

Doroshevich, Catalin Emilian, Tomáš
Gregor, Vladimir Houba, Vlad Ionescu,
Ľuboš Ivanič, Vibor Kalogjera, Marta
Klepka, Alexander Levshin, Dmytro
Lysiuk, Gökhan Mertay, Gregor
Nišavič, Toms Panders, Jolita Reidman,
Natalia Szymańska, Judit Völgyesi,
Paap Peterson, Ieva Knāķe

SUPPORT:

Marcin Dukat, Dawid Fillmann, Łukasz

Urbański, Katarzyna Zagórska

The authors of „Do you CEE? The Internet Market of Central and Eastern Europe
in 2010” wish to thank Romanian Audit Bureau of Circulations (BRAT) for providing
access to data concerning the Romanian internet and for preparing the chapter
on the online market in Romania.

WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO:

Ričardas Baltaduonis, Tomáš Búřil, Joanna Gajewska, Dmitry Gizhdevan, Elvijus

Gudžiūnas, Hristo Ivanov, Jan Jilek, Plamen Kalinikov, Edgars Kalniņš, Alexander
Kim, Piotr Kowalczyk, István Kürti, Martin Kyncl, Tomáš Lauko, Gergana Marinova,
Péter Novák, Cezar Paraschiv, Sergey Petrenko, Laurentiu Pop, Igor Rõtov, Viktors
Rožkalns, Andrey Sebrant, Dmytro Sholomko, Petar Simeonov, Egidijus Sirvydis,
Saša Škorić, Radoš Skrt, Aleksander Stelmakh, Orkun Tekin, Silviu Toma, Gabor
Tóth, Tomáš Varga, Adina Vasilescu, Dilyan Velichkov, Meelis Vill, Alex Visa, Artur
Waliszewski, Jurij Ziccer Anatoljewicz
ALAIN HEUREUX
IAB Europe President and CEO

After the enormous success of the first Do you CEE? report produced in
collaboration with Gemius, I’m delighted to get back to the industry with
a second report explaining the dynamics of the CEE region in 2010. Other
regional reports will be provided by IAB Europe in response to the positive
feedback from the members.

CEE remains a special region for us, as we can feel the energy, innovation,
creativity and strong growth of these markets. Jarosław Sobolewski (Manager
of IAB Poland, Board member IAB Europe and Regional Manager on the CEE
Region) and Martin Radelfinger (International Business Director Goldbach
Media-Adconion) are working closely with the European team, the Board as
well as partners like Gemius in supporting the growth, training local IABs and
Partner associations and providing information to the industry. This report
serves as a source of valuable information not only for marketers, media houses
and advertisers who are looking for new areas for expansion, but also for
the younger markets to measure their own progress and identify areas where
they can continue to develop and grow.

FILIP PIECZYŃSKI
Gemius Management Board Vice President

Gemius has the great pleasure to present you Do you CEE? The Internet Market
of Central and Eastern Europe in 2010. This is already our second compendium
of knowledge on the CEE online reality. The last year’s report proved to be
immensely popular and revealed the scale of demand for credible and unbiased
compilation of data concerning the entire region. The report has also become
one of the most eminent and prestigious projects carried out by Gemius.

Like in 2009, this year’s report presents a landscape of the region and
an overview of each CEE market, discussing its main players, online audience
and most popular tools. Those familiar with the 2009 version of the report
will appreciate the inclusion of interesting data from two more markets into
the analysis: Belarus and Turkey. It is in these countries that Gemius successfully
started its operations in the years 2009 and 2010.

I would like to thank our partner in this and last year’s project, IAB Europe,
as well as all those whose effort made the creation of the report possible.
I cordially invite you to join us in analysing the online reality of Anno Domini 2010
– a year marked by the growing importance of video content, invariable
popularity of social networking websites and a battle of web browsers.

Do you CEE?
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

10 CEE Online Landscape

24 Belarus

40 Bulgaria

58 Croatia

72 Czech Republic

88 Estonia

102 Hungary

120 Latvia

138 Lithuania

156 Poland

172 Romania

192 Russia

206 Slovakia

218 Slovenia

230 Turkey

246 Ukraine

260 Methodological Note

264 SATI Methodology

10
ONLINE LANDSCAPE
The online market in Central and
Eastern Europe is developing;
therefore the dynamics of its growth
is still one of the key factors indicating
its great potential. Despite the fact
that differences in the development of
the internet in various CEE countries
are visible, an increase in the number
of new users in the whole region is
not losing momentum. In this respect,
the Central and Eastern European
online market is growing from
strength to strength and appears to
be a forward-moving and extremely
promising business sector. To better
understand its nature and general
MARKET SIZE
Central and Eastern Europe is a market
of over 300 million people, therefore
the online area has tremendous
opportunities for growth. According
to the gemiusAudience study, at the
beginning of 2010 in all CEE countries
(plus Turkey) there were over
117 million internet users. However,
this region is extremely diverse and
the differences in sizes of these
markets are great. The largest market
is Russia, where in January 2010
exactly 40.1 million individuals were
using the internet on a regular basis.
The second largest and attention-
drawing online market is Turkey
(almost 22 million internet users),
however, it is often not counted
among the relevant CEE markets. Such
uncertainty does not concern Poland,
where almost 15 million people
regularly use the internet.
All other markets are proportionately
smaller and the size of each online
population in most cases reflects the
actual size of each particular country.
Do you CEE? Online Landscape
characteristics, let us look at the data
describing the landscape of this fertile
online land.
The comprehensive description of
the online area in Central and Eastern
Europe should focus on three basic
and interrelated elements: size of
market, its level of development and
its business potential. In this chapter
all three approaches will be presented
and discussed.
Ukraine is one of the exceptions.
At the beginning of 2010 there were
over 45 million people in the country
and less than 8.4 million internet
users. At the same time the online
population in Romania was 7.6 million,
in the Czech Republic it was slightly
over 5.2 million and in Hungary almost
4.2 million. In contrast, the CEE region
also covers such small online markets
as Latvia (1.2 million internet users),
Slovenia (1.1 million internet users)
and Estonia (0.8 million internet
users). However, the absolute number
of internet users is only the first step
in an exhaustive description of the
market.
It is extremely important to note
that what makes the online markets
interesting is also the dynamics of
their growth.
 11
Milions of users Internet population

Chart 1 Internet population in the CEE region (January 2010);

source of data: Ukraine: gemiusAudience; Hungary: gemius/Ipsos Fusion Data; Latvia: gemiusAudience; Belarus: gemiusAudience; Turkey:
gemiusAudience; Czech Republic: NetMonitor - SPIR - Mediaresearch & Gemius; Romania: Mercury Research; Slovakia: AIMmonitor - AIM
- Mediaresearch & Gemius; Bulgaria: gemiusAudience (data collected using Synovate research); Poland: Megapanel PBI/Gemius;
Slovenia: gemiusAudience; Russia: Gemius estimation based on FOM statistics/gemiusAudience Data; Estonia: gemiusAudience (data
collected using TURU-UURINGUTE AS research); Lithuania: gemiusAudience; Croatia: gemiusAudience [age groups – CEE: 15+; Russia: 18+;
Romania: 14-64; Lithuania: 15-74]
 12
Since the beginning of 2009 the
general online population in the
whole region of Central and Eastern
Europe (together with Turkey) grew
by over 9 million new internet
users. That is more than the entire
population of Slovakia. Even more
important is the fact that when
growth dynamics are taken into
consideration, it becomes obvious
that the largest internet markets are
not those which develop fastest. In
2009, as in the previous year, Ukraine
was the country which experienced,
relatively speaking, the greatest
increase in the number of internet
users (15%). During the same period
the online population of Hungary
increased by 13% and in Latvia by
12%. It is worth noting that the
Latvian market is one of the smallest
in the whole CEE region.
As for the largest markets, the
dynamics of their development seem
to be inversely proportional to their
size. From January 2009 to January
2010 the number of internet users in
Poland increased by 8% and in Russia
by barely 6%.
The slowest online population growth
in 2009 was observed in Lithuania
and Croatia. In both countries the
number of regular internet users
increased by 3% (from 1.45 to 1.49
million) and 2% (from 1.63 to 1.66
million), respectively.

Internet users 2009-2010

Milions of users

Growth 2009 - 2010

Chart 2 Internet population in the CEE region – growth (January 2009 – January 2010);
source of data: Ukraine: gemiusAudience; Hungary: gemius/Ipsos Fusion Data; Latvia: gemiusAudience; Turkey: gemiusAudience; Czech
Republic: NetMonitor - SPIR - Mediaresearch & Gemius; Romania: Mercury Research; Slovakia: AIMmonitor - AIM - Mediaresearch &
Gemius; Bulgaria: gemiusAudience (data collected using Synovate research); Poland: Megapanel PBI/Gemius; Slovenia: gemiusAudience;
Russia: Gemius estimation based on FOM statistics / gemiusAudience Data; Estonia: gemiusAudience (data collected using TURU-
UURINGUTE AS research); Lithuania: gemiusAudience; Croatia: gemiusAudience [age groups – CEE: 15+; Russia: 18+; Romania: 14-64;
Lithuania: 15-74]

Do you CEE? Online Landscape


MARKET DEVELOPMENT
The size and speed of growth attest to
the potential of the CEE online market.
However, in answer to the question
of the state of its development,
another indicator may be useful, i.e.
internet penetration. If one takes
into account the differences in the
size of CEE countries, it becomes
possible to determine the real level
and diversification of the development
of the internet infrastructure in the
region.
The general observation does not
refer directly to the data. When
comparing the CEE online market as
a whole with its western counterpart,
it becomes evident that this region still
does not display a penetration level
similar to that found in more ‘mature’
economies. However, as in other
13
equally promising parts of the world,
the situation is improving fast.
This is the case in Ukraine, which
for several years has been the most
dynamically developing online market
and in the following comparison holds
the last position with its internet
penetration level at a mere 21%.
According to the gemiusAudience
study, a quite low internet penetration
level is also found in Belarus
(35%) and Russia (36%), which,
as a large and extremely diverse
market, still faces many obstacles
to the development of its internet
infrastructure. Similarly, Turkey, one
of the newest markets participating in
the gemiusAudience study, recorded
an internet penetration level of 40%
at  he beginning of 2010.
14
Internet penetration
Internet penetration [%]

Chart 3 Internet penetration in the CEE region (January 2009 – January 2010)
source of data: Ukraine: gemiusAudience; Hungary: gemius/Ipsos Fusion Data; Latvia: gemiusAudience; Czech Republic: NetMonitor
- SPIR - Mediaresearch & Gemius; Romania: Mercury Research; Slovakia: AIMmonitor - AIM - Mediaresearch & Gemius; Bulgaria:
gemiusAudience (data collected using Synovate research); Poland: Megapanel PBI/Gemius; Slovenia: gemiusAudience; Turkey: Ipsos
KMG; Russia: Gemius estimation based on FOM statistics/gemiusAudience Data; Estonia: gemiusAudience (data collected using
TURU-UURINGUTE AS research); Lithuania: gemiusAudience; Croatia: gemiusAudience; Belarus: gemiusAudience (February 2009,
January 2010); Romania: Mercury Research; [age groups – CEE: 15+; Russia: 18+; Romania: 14-64; Lithuania: 15-74]

Interestingly, the highest level of Should this result be regarded as

internet penetration in Central
and Eastern Europe is the domain
of small and very small countries,
which have already managed to cope
with a host of challenges associated
with infrastructural and business
development. In this respect, Estonia
appears to be the undisputed leader
of the whole region. In January 2010
internet penetration in this country
reached a level of 71%. At the
forefront of the list are the other
Baltic countries: Latvia (65%) and
Lithuania (57%), as well as Slovenia
(62%) and the Czech Republic
(58%). In turn, the average internet
penetration for the whole region
at the beginning of 2010 equaled 49%.
satisfactory? Yes, especially seeing
that no country in this part of the
world is sluggish when it comes to
internet penetration growth. Since
last year this indicator has increased
in all CEE markets. The greatest
growth took place in Belarus.
Between January 2009 and January
2010 internet penetration in this
country increased by astounding
9 percentage points. Significant
growth of internet penetration in
2009 has also been observed in
Poland (7 percentage points) and
Latvia (6 percentage points). In turn,
for the Czech Republic, Croatia,
Hungary and Romania 2009 was
a year of moderate development,

Do you CEE? Online Landscape

 16
as internet penetration grew on
these markets by 5 percentage
points. Incidentally, the average
increase of internet penetration
for the entire region was also exactly
5 percentage points.
While considering the problem of
internet development in Central
and Eastern Europe, the issue of
broadband internet penetration
cannot go unnoticed. It is worth
remembering that the share of
modern, high-speed internet
connections on the market is not
only a precise illustration of its
status, but also a key foundation
for its future development.
Apart from Estonia, where
broadband internet penetration
per household amounted to 62%
in 2009, the share of high speed
internet connections on other
Broadband penetration - 2009
Broadband penetration [%]
Chart 4 Broadband internet penetration per households in the CEE region and Western Europe;
sources of data: Eurostat, broadband.ua, Gemius calculations based on ITU, Ipsos, Turkey census, Russian census, National Statistical
Committee of the Republic of Belarus and ANCOM (National Authority for Administration and Ruling in Communications of Romania)
Do you CEE? Online Landscape
CEE markets is much lower than
in Western European countries.
The leading position in Europe
in this respect belongs to the
Nordic markets (Iceland, Sweden,
Norway, Denmark, and Finland),
small countries like the Netherlands
or Luxembourg, as well as ‘mature’
economies such as the United
Kingdom.
In the CEE region there is one
small, yet very interesting and
stigmatic market. Croatia, which is in
question, appears to have a virtually
brand new internet infrastructure.
The ‘online boom’ on that market
began suddenly and caused a
massive flood of completely new
technologies. Croatia did not have
time to develop the infrastructure
of the internet gradually; it began
with the introduction of the newest
possible solutions available.
 17
This is rather an extreme example;
however, it shows clearly one of
the most important characteristics
of the whole region. Despite the fact
that the penetration of broadband
internet remains lower than in
Western Europe, it is crucial to
remember that the whole online
industry in CEE began to develop
later than in western economies.
Due to this fact, the natural process
of improving and exchanging old
internet technologies, practically
speaking, does not apply to most
countries in this part of Europe.
This is one of the features which
make this region a place with
extraordinary potential. The CEE
online market is something akin
to a half-written book. In the near
future it will be filled only with
the newest content.
18

MARKET POTENTIAL
When a new medium creates a space
for lucrative business activities,
it immediately becomes a huge
industry. This stage of development
has already taken place for the
internet in Central and Eastern Europe.
For years the ultimate indicator of its
development has been - and still is
- money. And whenever money met
the internet, online advertising always
triumphed.
Currently, there is no need to convince
anybody in the CEE region that online
advertising is the future and the basis
for commercial operations within
digital media. Year on year, advertisers
spend more money on the internet,
often making significant shifts within
general budgets for all types of media.
Although the global economic crisis
has led to a slowdown in the dynamics
of online adspending on some CEE
markets, the general trend has been
maintained. It is important to note at
this point that the interpretation of
data for online adspends must precede
awareness that the methodology used
to measure it differs from country to
country and depends on the research
company. However, the overall picture
of online adspends in this region
appears to be quite clear.
In 2009 on all CEE markets included
in this summary over 1.3 billion Euro

Online adspends

Chart 5 Online adspends in the CEE region (2008-2009);

source of data: TNS Gallup; BG Piero & Argent; SPIR (Admonitor); TNS Emor; IAB Europe; PricewaterhouseCoopers; TNSMI; lra.lv; Ukra-
inian Advertisement Coalition; AKAR; marketing.by; Gemius; (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia,
Slovenia, Turkey: gross values; Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine: net values)

Do you CEE? Online Landscape


was spent for various kinds of online
advertising. This equates to a 11%
increase of online adspends compared
to the previous year. The largest
amount of online ad-money is found
on the largest markets, like Russia,
where in 2009 advertisers spent
almost 494 million Euros. During
the same period in Poland the volume
of online advertising expenditures
equaled slightly more than 296 million
Euro, while in the Czech Republic
almost 250 million Euro was spent.
This market recorded the second
largest increase in online advertising
expenditures, 32% to be exact.
The most rapid increase of online
adspends in the period between 2008
and 2009 was observed in Ukraine.
In 2009 almost 15 million Euro
was spent on this market, which is
an increase of 45%.
19
Due to the global economic collapse,
2009 was also a year of significant
declines in online advertising spends.
The greatest falls were observed
in Lithuania (-33%), Latvia (-32%)
and Estonia (-22%). Thankfully,
the prognosis for 2010 is very
promising. For example, a 15%
increase in Romania and a 16%
increase in Lithuania are expected
within the next year.
As it is the case with describing online
market size, one should remember
that in estimating business potential,
absolute values represent only a half
of the truth. When the total volume
of online adspends is compared with
the number of internet users living in
each country, the juxtaposition of CEE
markets leaders changes profoundly.
20
Online adspends per internet user

Chart 6 Online adspends per internet user in the CEE region (2009);
source of data: TNS Gallup; BG Piero & Argent; SPIR (Admonitor); TNS Emor; IAB Europe; PricewaterhouseCoopers; lra.lv; Ukrainian
Advertisement Coalition; AKAR; marketing.by; Gemius; (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia,
Turkey: gross values; Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine: net values)

Although the largest amount of spent barely one Euro per average
money on online advertising is spent Belarusian internet user last year.
in Russia, the industry fights for the Great hopes are pinned on the recent
average internet user most fiercely campaign aiming to activate the
in the Czech Republic, where 48 Euro Belarusian internet industry. One thing
was spent on this purpose in 2009. is certain: this market is definitely
In the same period, advertisers in worth fighting for.
Poland and Hungary spent 20 Euro
to attract and acquire one customer
on the internet. Russia comes fifth
among all CEE markets with a result
of 12 Euro per average internet user.
A similar amount of money for online
advertising is spent in Slovakia (11
Euro).

Finally, the weakest market in

the CEE region is Belarus. In 2009
only 4.3 million Euro was spent on
online advertising in this country.
The rapid increase in the number
of internet users has caused the
amount of money available to shrink
in a relatively constant manner.
It is noteworthy that advertisers

Do you CEE? Online Landscape

22

A STEP FORWARD
It is easy to demonstrate that
the online market in Central and
Eastern Europe is a very interesting
and promising area of business.
It is also one of the fastest-growing
markets. The internet industry in this
part of the world is already relatively
strong and year on year is becoming
larger, more developed and more
affluent.

Moreover, the most important

feature of the CEE online market is
that it is extremely diverse, colorful
and unique. This market not only has
much more room for new media and is
a fertile ground for new investments,
but is also a perfect field to conduct
complex and valuable research
studies.

To summarize, the objectives can

differ, but one simple need is common:
it is worth knowing as much as
possible about the CEE online market
because in the near future it will
most certainly play one of the most
significant roles in the global network
which we know as the internet. Thus,
it is hard to understate the value of the
present report. It includes a detailed
description of the online industry in all
CEE countries. In this document one
can find the detailed characteristics of
the major internet players, the online
audiences, the most significant online
industry organizations operating in
the region and much, much more.
We hope that this year’s Do You CEE?
report will be absorbing, practical and
useful.

Do you CEE? Online Landscape

Belarus
3.09m
internet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_25
1.1. Top10websitesbyreach_25
1.2. Top10websitesbyaveragetimespentperuser_26
1.3. Topportals_28
1.4. Social networks_29
1.5. Onlineclassifiedadsbyreach_30
1.6. Topfinancesitesbyreach_30
2. ONLINEAUDIENCE_32
3. TOOLS_34
3.1. Browsers_34
3.2. Operatingsystems_34
3.3. Search engines_35
3.4. Screen resolutions_35
3.5. Mobiledevices_35
4. ADVERTISINGNETWORKS_36
5. OPINIONSFROMTHEMARKET_37
 25

1. MAIN PLAYERS

1.1. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY REACH

WEBSITE’S CATEGORY NUMBER OF REAL NUMBER OF PAGE PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USERS VIEWS USER USER

1 mail.ru horizontal portal 1 155 292 203 421 963 176 04:23:36 37%

2 onliner.by new technologies portal 351 367 30 300 784 86 01:41:32 11%

3 kp.by news portal 242 600 2 310 352 10 00:20:27 8%

4 irr.by classified ads 226 648 15 174 480 67 00:51:12 7%

5 readme.ru news aggregator 201 415 1 626 006 8 00:20:31 7%

6 naviny.by news portal 160 206 1 052 255 7 00:09:23 5%

7 rbc.ru news portal 146 605 2 384 651 16 00:48:33 5%

8 loveplanet.ru dating service 111 857 17 789 718 159 02:21:29 4%

9 utro.ru news portal 110 218 512 713 5 00:06:51 4%

10 relax.by entertainment directory 103 822 1 620 685 16 00:16:20 3%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Belarus by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

Two of the most significant features According to the gemiusAudience

illustrating the Belarusian online
market can be easily revealed by
analyzing the above ranking of top
online market players. The first is that,
according to the gemiusAudience
study, 50% of the top 10 most
popular places on the web visited
by local internet users are Russian
websites. The second characteristic is
that only two websites covered
in the above ranking are something
other than portal or news services.
The strong market position of
horizontal platforms is a common
phenomenon observed in many CEE
countries; however the great popularity
of news services may be especially
symptomatic for the Belarusian
online area, where free and objective
information seems to be of great value
and is sought after by many internet
users.
study results, in March 2010 the
greatest number of Belarusian internet
users visited mail.ru, one of the
leading Russian horizontal portals,
which takes second place on its own
domestic market. However, the other
places on the ranking are occupied by
local players. The second website in
Belarus is onliner.by, which is a vertical
portal and extended discussion forum
focused on new technologies and
lifestyle. In March 2010 it gained
a reach level among Belarusian
internet users of 11%. In turn, the
third place was taken by kp.by, the
most popular classical news service.
The website irr.by heads the group of
most popular online sites in Belarus
outside the top three in March 2010.
This internet database of classified
ads took fourth place among the most

Do you CEE? Belarus

26
popular websites, attracting over
220,000 real users and gaining
a reach of 7%. Despite the fact that
this website is dedicated to a local
audience and has a .by domain,
it cannot be considered as a purely
local project. Irr.by is owned by
BELPRONTO, which is the Belarusian
branch of the famous Russian media
holding, Pronto-Moscow.
One of the most interesting top
websites in Belarus is naviny.by,
a news portal run by BelaPAN,
a private local information agency
providing political, economic,
commercial and financial news. This
site, established by Ales Lipai, was in
2006 the first Belarusian website to
win the Runet prize, a distinction given
by the Russian Federal Agency for
Press and Mass Communications.
Finally, what kind of internet activities
are popular among Belarusian internet
users? They most certainly read news
on Russian websites. The 5th, 7th and
9th place in the ranking of websites by
reach are respectively: a Russian news
aggregator, readme.ru (7% reach), and
two Russian news portals: rbc.ru
(5% reach) and utro.ru (4% reach).
However, when it comes to fun and
entertainment, Belarusians seem
to trust their own local solutions.
Although 4% use the Russian dating
service loveplanet.ru, the ranking
of top 10 websites on the market is
propped up by the local website
relax.by. This website is an extended
online directory of places to go
out in Minsk (related to cultural
and entertainment activities). Its
database includes information on
cafes, restaurants, clubs, cinemas,
bowling centers, hotels, casinos and
much more. This website seems to
maintain a visible interest of the
online audience. According to the
gemiusAudience study, in March 2010
it gained a reach of 3%. At the same
time, its users spent an average of
more than 16 minutes on the site.

1.2. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY AVERAGE TIME SPENT PER USER

NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME REACH

REAL USERS USER PER USER

1 mail.ru 1 155 292 176 04:23:36 37%

2 torrents.by 58 905 143 02:30:01 2%

3 loveplanet.ru 111 857 159 02:21:29 4%

4 semeistvo.by 57 455 85 01:52:45 2%

5 borda.ru 26 090 72 01:46:54 1%

6 onliner.by 351 367 86 01:41:32 11%

7 sng.by 4 739 50 01:33:33 0,2%

8 charter97.org 100 646 48 01:18:27 3%

9 belaruspartisan.org 60 696 40 01:14:47 2%

10 football.by 19 645 41 00:56:45 1%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Belarus by average time spent per user (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

Do you CEE? Belarus


Among the websites participating in
the gemiusAudience study in Belarus,
three of the top ten most popular ones
are Russian. According to the results
of the above-mentioned research for
March 2010, the average internet user
in Belarus spent almost 4.4 hours and
generated over 170 page views using
a Russian horizontal portal, mail.ru.
The last six months in Belarus were an
extremely successful period for this
brand, which experienced over 10%
growth without bearing any significant
costs. The high quality of this product,
the similarity of both languages
(Russian and Belarusian) and a lack
of local alternatives have made its
development possible and, to some
extent, natural.
Mail.ru is not the only Russian website
which Belarusian internet users seem
to love. ’Love’ is the apt word here
because the website in 3rd place is
a Russian dating platform, loveplanet.ru.
Despite the fact that this website
enjoys only a 4% reach among
Belarusian internet users, those who
used it in March 2010 remained active
for over two hours while looking for
‘love’ or casual acquaintances.
In this top ten, there is also one very
interesting player from Russia,
borda.ru. This website is not
particularly popular in Belarus – only
1% of the general audience (slightly
more than 26,000 real users) visited
it in March 2010. However, those
individuals spent an average of almost
2 hours chatting and exchanging
information with others during this
period. Considering the fact that the
Belarusian market is still undeveloped
but is growing extremely fast, the
position of this player cannot be
deemed strong or enduring. The
revival of local forces, the inflow
of capital and the development of
infrastructure and local initiatives will
27
certainly lead to a situation where
native products and solutions will take
over from foreign players.
How about Belarusian websites
which presently engage local internet
users most often? They seem to be
developing at a rapid rate and look
and operate more professionally,
although most of them use very
simple business models. The most
‘engaging’ Belarusian website, which
holds second place in the above
ranking, is a torrent tracker. Torrent.by
was created almost one year ago
and it is a file exchange database
dedicated to Belarusian internet users
only. As its administrators explain,
the outbound traffic of this website
is closed not because of legal issues
or internal regulations, but because
of the cost ($3 per 1GB transmitted
outside Belarus). Indeed, the
telecommunications market in Belarus
is still dominated by Beltelecom, which
is a government-controlled monopoly.
This example is an excellent illustration
of the problems local online
developers and publishers in Belarus
must continue to struggle with.
Among all the websites monitored in
the gemiusAudience study in Belarus,
such sites as: semeistvo.by (an online
forum for parents, especially mothers,
run by a private individual), sng.by
(a small but strong online community
of gamers) and football.by (a vertical
portal devoted to football with only
1% reach) can be defined as the most
engaging ones. However, the ranking
of the top 10 websites by average
time spent per user also includes
three other significant and interesting
players.
Let us begin with Onliner, a Belarusian
portal devoted to lifestyle and
new technologies. It is owned by
a private unitary enterprise „Onliner”.
Do you CEE? Belarus
28
This website was established in 2001
and was initially an online forum,
then, after the implementation of
ICT-News, a directory and many
other subservices, became more of
a regular horizontal platform. From
its beginnings, onliner.by has not lost
its lifestyle character, but has grown
and gained significant popularity.
According to the gemiusAudience
study, it is currently the second largest
website in Belarus with a reach among
internet users of 11%.
The 8th and 9th places in the above
ranking belong to particularly
interesting players, charter97.org
and belaruspartisan.org. These two
news websites have very specific
1.3. TOP PORTALS
NUMBER OF REAL
USERS
1 mail.ru 1 155 792
2 onliner.by 351 367
3 naviny.by 160 206
4 myminsk.com 77 447
Table 3 Top 4 portals and news services in Belarus by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)
Among all the portals participating in
the gemiusAudience study in Belarus,
the unquestionable leader is mail.ru,
which in March 2010 gained a reach
of 37%. However, the largest
horizontal platform on the market
is tut.by, which, according to some
estimates, is said to attract around
2 million users (understood as unique
visitors) each month. Tut.by is a typical
information portal.
Russia plays a significant role on the
Belarusian online market, in particular
Do you CEE? Belarus
characteristics (at least in terms of
the local market). They operate as an
opposition, partisan in some manner,
to other sources of information on
the Belarusian internet. It is no secret
that independent media in Belarus is
still a thorny issue, therefore (despite
the high quality of information and
engagement of users) advertisers
are afraid to use these websites as
placements for their online campaigns.
It is a pity, considering that the results
of the gemiusAudience study indicate
that in March 2010 the average
internet user spent more than an
hour on each of these two websites.
This would be a particularly long
exposure time for any potential piece
of advertising.
PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER USER
176 04:23:36 37%
86 01:41:32 11%
7 00:09:23 5%
3 00:03:00 3%
Russia’s greatest player, Yandex.ru.
What is most interesting is that the
high interest in Yandex’s search
services in Belarus has caused the
Moscow-based service to prepare
full entry into this market. Yandex
announced last year its intention to
open an office in Minsk and run
a dedicated search engine in the .by
domain. According to the results of
gemiusTraffic, Yandex enjoys more
than half of all visits which are begun
(with gemiusTraffic-participating
websites) using any search engine.
 29
However, this excellent result is covers mainly local news, classified
decreasing year on year in favor of advertising as well as cultural and
Google. Therefore, Yandex must hurry. entertainment information. In March
2010 it attracted almost 80,000 real
Apart from onliner.by and naviny.by, users with a reach of 3%.
the sector of internet portals in
Belarus also includes sites such as
open.by (the oldest Belarusian portal
run by the Open Group, the owner of
the largest Belarusian e-commerce
platform, shop.by) and interfax.by
(a news portal of the well-known
information agency). Another Russian
portal, rambler.ru, also has a relatively
strong market position. The ranking
of top portals measured in the
gemiusAudience study is propped
up by myminsk.com, a small website
for Minsk citizens. This city portal

1.4. SOCIAL NETWORKS

The social networking sector in
Belarus does not differ from other
parts of online market in this country
in terms of the major players. Like the
whole online area, foreign services
also visibly dominate here. The leaders
are, of course, Russian. Based on the
reliable estimates, the most popular
social networking website in Belarus
is vkontakte.ru and second place
is held by another Russian service,
odnoklassniki.ru. In turn, the third
major player on the Belarusian social
networking market is livejournal.com,
the blogging platform owned by
LiveJournal, Inc., but licensed and
operating in Russia by SUP, a media
company founded in Moscow in 2006
by Andrew Paulson and Alexander
Mamut. Its ownership is split between
Mamut, the Kommersant Publishing
House and the management.
Apart from these three social
networking websites, another service
from Russia is also found on the
Belarusian market. The community-
based subservice of the mail.ru
horizontal portal (my.mail.ru), attracts
more Belarusian internet users than
the most popular social networking
platform in the world, Facebook,
which is the top global player on this
developing online market. Despite the
worldwide popularity of services such
as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, at
present they do not have any chance
to compete with the Russian brands.
However, they successfully compete
with Belarusian community websites,
such as i.tut.by (the online community
run by tut.by portal) and vceti.by.
At this point in time, only one
Russian online community service,
habrahabr.ru is less popular than
these two sites.

Do you CEE? Belarus

30

1.5. ONLINE CLASSIFIED ADS BY REACH

NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH

USERS USER USER

1 irr.by 226 648 67 00:51:12 7%

2 slanet.by 71 350 9 00:06:43 2%

3 migom.by 65 902 13 00:11:29 2%

Table 4 Top 3 online classified ads in Belarus by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

Classified advertising seems to be onliner.by, which on its site runs

a perfect activity for local players
in Belarus. Among the three most
popular websites of this kind there are
no Russian or global sites. According
to the gemiusAudience study results
for March 2010, the leading classified
advertising service is irr.by, which is
also generally one of the most popular
websites in Belarus (it takes fourth
place in the ranking of top 10 websites
by reach). Second and third place,
taken by slanet.by and migrom.by,
gained over 71,000 and almost 66,000
users, respectively during the same
period, which gave them identical
reach levels of 2%.
a section devoted to this kind of
advertising, catalog.onliner.by. The
Belarusian online market is also
filled with well performing thematic
classified advertising services. The
best example of this is kosht.com,
which aggregates computer hardware
announcements. According to
gemiusAudience, it attracted almost
68,000 real users in March 2010
gaining slightly more than 2% reach.

It is worth noting that a significant part

of the internet classified advertising
market belongs to the second most
popular horizontal portal in Belarus,

1.6. TOP FINANCE SITES BY REACH

NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH

USERS USER USER

1 afn.by 60 634 21 00:35:14 2%

2 ej.by 30 651 9 00:13:05 1%

3 belmarket.by 12 926 6 00:07:06 0,4%

Table 5 Top 3 finance sites in Belarus by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

Do you CEE? Belarus


The area of finance seems to be
an unfilled niche on the Belarusian
internet. Apart from the journalistic
activity of rbc.ru, which holds
a strong position on the market,
the popularity of websites devoted
to these topics is still very low.
The greatest one measured in the
gemiusAudience study, afn.by, gained
a reach of barely 2% in March 2010,
however, at the same time its users
were active for an average of over
35 minutes. AFN (АФН) has been
operating on the information market
since 1995 providing financial news
regarding the Belarusian, Russian and
Ukrainian economy.
The second most popular financial
website participating in the
gemiusAudience study in Belarus
is ej.by, which in March 2010
gained only a reach of 1%. Ej.by
(Ежедневник) basically operates as
an internet-based economic magazine
(available in PDF) and extended
economic news service. Its creators
claim that it is the first e-press project
in Belarus and is a response to the
huge gap in the market.
31
belmarket.by attracted just under
13,000 real users, which gave it less
than 0.5% market reach.
Another interesting website in
Belarus is rbcard.com; it is devoted
to banking and dedicated primarily
to individuals owning various kinds
of payment and credit cards. RBCARD
was established in 2002, but during
the last eight years did not manage
to gain any significant popularity.
According to the results of the
gemiusAudience study, in March 2010
it attracted slightly more than 7,000
real users and kept them active for an
average of 4 minutes. However, there
are also much more successful and
better performing financial services
on the Belarusian online market,
namely infobank.by and select.by,
both operating since 2007.

Among the finance websites

participating in the gemiusAudience
study in Belarus there is yet
another player worth mentioning:
belmarket.by, an online version of the
economic newspaper „Belarusians
and the Market” (“Белорусы и
рынок”), formerly “Belarusian
Market” (“Белорусский рынок”),
established in 1990. This weekly
magazine is considered the first
independent newspaper in Belarus,
which started to deal with complex
economic analyses, problems in the
country, new businesses. It promotes
democratic institutions within society.
According to the gemiusAudience
study results, in March 2010

Do you CEE? Belarus

32
2. ONLINE AUDIENCE
As on most other CEE markets,
the gender structure of the online
population of Belarus is also
very balanced. According to the
gemiusAudience study for March 2010
almost 51% of internet users are men
and just over 49% of the whole online
population are women. Internet use
in Belarus remains equally distributed
among both genders and no significant
fluctuations within this area are being
observed.
Internet users in Belarus
are very young. According to the
gemiusAudience study for March
2010, almost 40% are aged between
15 and 24 years. Moreover, almost
68% of the whole online population
consists of individuals younger than
34 years old. On the other hand,
users aged 55 years or over represent
only 1.6% of the all internet users.
This visible disproportion is caused
mainly by the immaturity of the
Belarusian online market, which is not
yet experiencing the phenomenon of
aging (along with its users). It is highly
probable that in the near future the
share of individuals older than 45 and
55 years will rise year on year.
The educational structure of
Belarusian internet users does
not differ a great deal from those
characteristic of other CEE markets.
Within the whole online population
of this country there are three major
groups of users: individuals with a
high education (32%), vocational
education (26%) and those who have
graduated from a secondary school
(22%). However, when broader
categories are taken into account, it
becomes very clear that the dominant
group of internet users in Belarus
consists of people connected with
Do you CEE? Belarus
the academic environment, from
students with incomplete higher
education to individuals with science
degrees (together making up 46%
of the total). The least represented
group of internet users in Belarus
are individuals with an MBA degree,
making up only 0.34% of the whole
online population.
The largest group of Belarusian
internet users (exactly 38.3%) live in
the Minsky region. The high density
of users in this region is due to the
fact that in Belarus the majority of
people who are active on the internet
live in the capital city (as with other
young and underdeveloped markets).
According to the gemiusAudience
study for March 2010, almost 33%
of the whole online population of
this country consists of individuals
who live in Minsk. Individuals from
other regions of Belarus represent
a proportionally smaller share within
the internet user population, that is
from 16% in the case of Gomelsky
region to a mere 9% in the case of
Mogilevsky region.
Three biggest groups of
Belarusian online population are
students, specialist/chief specialists
and engineers/technical workers. They
constitute nearly 50% of internet users
in this country. The other half consists
of other occupations with almost
equal shares.
34

3. TOOLS

3.1. BROWSERS

Chart 1 Top browsers in Belarus by share of page views generated by internet users who visit the
Belarussian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2009 – 1Q 2010)

3.1. Browsers the market at the end of first quarter

The web browser most intensively
used in Belarus is Opera. According
to gemiusTraffic, in the first quarter
of 2010 almost 49% of all page views
generated by Belarusian users on
websites monitored in the study have
been made using this browser. In this
regard the Belarusian online market
is similar to Ukraine, where Opera is
also the dominant software used for
web browsing. In Belarus, Opera won
of 2009, when it beat off its rival -
Mozilla Firefox. The third force on the
market is Microsoft Internet Explorer.
In the first quarter of 2010 its users
were responsible for 19.4% of all page
views recorded in the gemiusTraffic
study.
3.2. Operating systems
Internet users in Belarus are not an
exception when it comes to the usage

3.2. OPERATING SYSTEMS

Chart 2 Top operating systems in Belarus by share of page views generated by internet users who
visit the Belarussian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2009 – 1Q 2010)

Do you CEE? Belarus

 35
of operating systems. Windows XP
head the list and the whole market 3.3. SEARCH ENGINES
is dominated by Microsoft products
(non-MS Windows operating systems
hold less than a 3% share). According
to the gemiusTraffic study, in the first
quarter of 2010, Windows XP was
responsible for almost 83% of all page
views monitored in the study, while
the second most intensively used
operating system, Windows 7, was
responsible for slightly more than 10%
of all page views. Interestingly, the
latter is experiencing dynamic growth Chart 3 Top search engines in Belarus by share of visits made by internet users who visit the Belarus-
on the Belarusian market. At the sian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2009 – 1Q 2010)

beginning of 2009 it was completely

absent in Belarus, in the second
3.4. SCREEN RESOLUTIONS
quarter of 2009 it gained 0.67% of all
page views and by the first quarter of
2010 its market share had increased
more than 15 times.

3.3. Search engines

The search engine most frequently

used in Belarus is Russian-based
Yandex. According to gemiusTraffic, in
first quarter of 2010 more than 56%
of all visits on websites monitored
Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Belarus by share of page views generated by internet users who visit
by Gemius in this study have their the Belarussian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2009 – 1Q 2010)
origins in Yandex search results.
The second search engine most
frequently used by Belarusians is
3.5. MOBILE DEVICES
Google, which accounts for more
than 41% of all visits on websites
monitored by gemiusTraffic. Other
engines, including Microsoft MSN,
have a negligible market share and
are single-handedly unable to break
the 1% barrier.

3.4. Screen resolutions

The most popular screen resolution

in Belarus is 1280x1024, the visitors
of which generated nearly 28% of all
page views on websites monitored
in the gemiusTraffic study in the
first quarter of 2010. What is most
Chart 5 Top 5 mobile devices in Belarus by the website-averaged percentage share of page views
generated by internet users form Belarus who visit the Belarusian websites using gemiusTraffic
(gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10
**to 2010-07-25

Do you CEE? Belarus

36
important is the fact that at the
beginning of 2010 there was no
screen resolution which could be
identified as strongly dominant on the
Belarusian market (the shares of the
most popular ones are distributed in a
very balanced manner).
the average Belarusian website using
gemiusTraffic. The other devices in
the top 5 ranking were SonyEricsson
products and each gained around a
3% share.

3.5. Mobile devices - models

Unlike the majority of CEE countries

where the iPhone dominates the
mobile devices market, according
to the gemiusTraffic study, the most
popular mobile tool used to access
the web in Belarus is Nokia 6300. In
July 2010 it was responsible for 8%
of page views generated by mobile
devices on the average website.
Apple’s iPod had a 5% share which
gave it second place in the ranking.
However, the popularity of both
market leaders is gradually decreasing
and over two months both products
lost approximately 1 percentage
point. The third most popular mobile
device was Nokia 5800. Its users
generated 4% of the mobile traffic on

4. ADVERTISING NETWORKS

GENERAL CONTACT INFORMATION

FULL NAME HOMEPAGE URL REACH MAIN OFFICE CONTACT
ADDRESS ADDRESS

Phone: +375-17-222-3204
416-14,
1 Mediacode mediacode.by 24% Fax: +375-17-222-3204
Pervomaiskaya Street, Minsk
Email: manager@mediacode.by

Phone: +375-17-217-02-42
109 - 24/2
2 Red red.by N/A Fax: +375-17-217-02-42
Pervomaiskaya Street
Email: admin@red.by

Phone: +375-17-296-62-62
214-5.
3 Webody webody.by N/A Fax: +375-17-296-62-62
Oktaybrskaya Street, Minsk
Email: welcome@activemedia.by

Do you CEE? Belarus

 37

5. OPINIONS FROM THE MARKET

Aleksander Stelmakh
Director, Onliner.by

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the Belarusian online
advertising market?

The online market is still extremely small; worth only about $3 million in
2009. Moreover, rapid growth is not expected in 2010. This is partly due to
the tardiness of the whole advertising market (including TV, radio „Outdoor”
advertising amongst others) compared to, for example, the Ukrainian
market, even if the discrepancy in population sizes is taken into account.
Advertising is a sign of activity in the economy. In Belarus most companies
depend on the government in some form or another, which (with a few
exceptions) promotes products and services using „kuplyay Belarusian”
methods (national products don’t need advertisement). However, the
advertising market is still at a low level and no changes in the short term are
expected.

In addition, we should not have any illusions about the purchasing power
of the population even in the capital, Minsk. The average household here
operates with a budget of approximately $673 (2 million BYR) per month.
The main problem of the local market is a fixation on media advertising.
Banners, which are sold daily, are at the level of the past decade and
publishers forget that there are more efficient ways to direct monetization
than banners.
The market faces many difficulties and not all of them are related directly to
the online sphere.

Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete
with the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this
battle?

The local players do not have much chance to compete unless they provide
the services that are truly demanded. One well-known site in Belarus
formerly positioned as a search portal with a mail service and various
subsites, also became popular as a content aggregator, gathering news
from other services. The portal then tried to create their own content, but

Do you CEE? Belarus

38
its quality was low, even when compared to Belarusian counterparts. The
service has lost users in favour of Russian sites like vkontakte.ru and mail.ru.
This could lead to greater losses in user numbers unless the portal changes
its development strategy.

Yury Zisser
Founder and co-owner, Tut.by

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the Belarusian online
advertising market?

Share of internet advertising in total advertising is growing each year. In the

crisis period this share rose from 4.5% in 2008 to a surprising 7% in 2009
(the entire media market fell by 21.4% while the internet grew by 16%).
Another serious obstacle to dynamic growth is the modest size of the private
sector, the lack of small- and medium-sized businesses.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are
expected to develop most in the future?

In 2009 a new trend appeared on the market: the transfer of ads sales
to specialized structures, sales houses which form a professional market
using clear rules. Position of sales houses will strengthen in the future.
Market will grow, technology will improve. Role of mobile, contextual and
video advertising and advertising with possibility of targeting using socio-
demographic profiles will grow.

Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete
with the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this
battle?

Successful local players use brand strategy to create powerful local brands.
The lion’s share of advertising sales is held by Belarusian players. All the
efforts of foreign players, mostly Russian, have not as yet been
successful. Global brand expansion in Belarus has not happened and will not
come soon due to the small capacity of the Belarusian market.

Do you CEE? Belarus

 39
Market specifics

What makes your local online market unique? Are there any specifics that
make it different from others in the CEE region?

Due to the above mentioned weakness of small- and medium-sized business,

search advertising is not well developed in Belarus. Its share in Belarusian
internet advertising does not exceed 20% and over the last years there has
been slow increase. There is a concentration of advertising budgets around
the main players: the Belarusian portal tut.by which accounts for one third
of all the budgets of banner advertising or about half the budgets of all
media advertising on the Belarusian internet.

Do you CEE? Belarus

 Bulgaria
3.28m
internet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_41
1.1. Top10websitesbyreach_41
1.2. Top10websitesbyaveragetimespentperuser_42
1.3. Topportals_44
1.4. Social networks_45
1.5. Onlineclassifiedadsbyreach_46
1.6. Topfinancesitesbyreach_47
2. ONLINEAUDIENCE_48
3. TOOLS_50
3.1. Browsers_50
3.2. Operatingsystems_51
3.3. Search engines_51
3.4. Screen resolutions_51
3.5. Mobiledevices_51
4. BRANCHORGANIZATIONS_52
5. ADVERTISINGNETWORKS_53
6. OPINIONSFROMTHEMARKET_54
 41

1. MAIN PLAYERS

1.1. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY REACH

WEBSITE’S CATEGORY NUMBER OF REAL NUMBER OF PAGE PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USERS VIEWS USER USER

1 abv.bg mail service 1 954 947 335 065 970 171 02:34:07 60%

2 dir.bg horizontal portal 1 340 402 89 431 095 67 01:18:54 41%

3 gbg.bg horizontal portal 945 424 15 177 123 16 00:25:48 29%

4 start.bg horizontal portal 893 066 7 247 182 8 00:09:41 27%

5 btv.bg horizontal portal 777 131 20 184 745 26 00:21:54 24%

6 svejo.net social bookmarking 761 397 5 547 144 7 00:09:45 23%

7 vesti.bg news portal 745 950 14 796 523 20 00:29:02 23%

8 bg-mamma.com lifestyle portal 674 676 26 259 938 39 01:00:44 21%

9 mobile.bg auto classified ads 669 052 149 438 163 223 01:57:50 20%

10 sportal.bg sports portal 659 510 47 819 851 73 01:49:03 20%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Bulgaria by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

The most popular website in Bulgaria package of searching options including

measured by gemiusAudience is
abv.bg, a free web mail service. It not
only reaches 60% of the audience,
but also outnumbers other players
in terms of user engagement, with
a result of over 2.5 hours spent by
average user monthly. The service is
owned by NetInfo, the digital media
company, which in turn belongs to
Sanoma Media International. Apart
from the mail service it also provides
its users with a search option, news,
weather forecasts and entertainment.
With a 41% reach, dir.bg, the largest
and trusted Bulgarian portal, takes
second place. The top 3 is propped up
by the web directory gbg.bg, which
reaches 29% of the Bulgarian online
audience. The site, created in 1997,
belongs to the same owner as abv.bg.
The website offers its users a complete
a huge bank of images as well as video
content. Gbg.bg gathers over 47,000
selected sites and their number is
constantly increasing. The next player,
start.bg, had a reach level of 27%.
Among the market leaders there are
also two news services: btv.bg and
vesti.bg that gained reach levels of
24% and 23% respectively in March
2010. The first is the site of the most
popular private TV station in Bulgaria,
and at the beginning of 2010 it was
bought by CME, the international
media company. The second, vesti.bg
is third among the four players present
in the ranking owned by NetInfo. The
last site is svejo.net, which ranked
6th in March 2010. It is a social
bookmarking portal reaching 23% of
the audience.

Do you CEE? Bulgaria

42
The second significant group within
the Bulgarian online market includes
specific portals such as bg-mamma.
com and sportal.bg. The first is mainly
dedicated to women and contains
a great deal of useful information
related to children, health, beauty
and lifestyle. The strongest part of the
site is its forum, where women can
exchange views and ask other users
for their opinion. In March 2010, the
website had almost 660,000 real users
and the number is growing.
The second website, sportal.bg, is
a portal containing sports news,
especially popular among the male
online audience. The site offers
detailed information about different
sports events as well as the Sportal
TV service with a large amount of
HD videos. In March 2009 its reach
level amounted to 11% but in March
2010 this grew to 20%. Its rising
popularity makes it a preferable site
for advertisers.
Another popular site on the
Bulgarian online market in March
2010 was mobile.bg, a classified ads
service specializing in automotive
advertisements. It had almost 670,000
real users, who constituted a reach
level of 20%. In terms of average
time spent per user, mobile.bg, came
second among the top 10 websites by
reach level with almost 2 hours
a month spent per user.

1.2. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY AVERAGE TIME SPENT PER USER

NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME REACH

REAL USERS USER PER USER

1 ladypopular.bg 132 271 602 07:13:40 4%

2 aha.bg 374 559 1,005 07:03:59 11%

3 impulse.bg 598 852 483 07:03:56 18%

4 prodavalnik.com 47 095 239 04:40:30 1%

5 forum.levski.com 5 289 259 04:10:04 0.2%

6 focus-news.net 224 209 81 03:29:48 7%

7 conquiztador.bg 68 653 472 03:17:56 2%

8 abv.bg 1 954 947 171 02:34:07 60%

9 mobile.bg 669 052 223 01:57:50 20%

10 novsport.com 111 604 47 01:52:04 3%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Bulgaria by average time spent per user (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

Three major groups can be
distinguished in the ranking of top
10 websites by average time spent
per user. The first one includes
ladypopular.bg, aha.bg and impulse.
bg. These are sites on which the
average user spent more than 7 hours
in March 2010.
Like in other CEE online markets,
people in Bulgaria tend to spend most
of their online time making friends

Do you CEE? Bulgaria


and having fun. Ladypopular.bg is
an online game for girls who dream of
becoming popular. Users create
a ‘lady’, follow her career, take care
of her pet and organize virtual garden
parties. The game has a pleasant
design and is available after free
registration. Moreover, the site is
available in 25 languages. The other
two sites with an average time per
user of over 7 hours, aha.bg and
impulse.bg, are social networking sites
with reach levels of 11% and 18%.
The second group consists of sites
with average online time per user of
3-5 hours a month. Prodavalnik.com is
an online auction mainly for women,
with a great deal of information about
babies, gardening, home and family.
Moreover, there are direct links to
other websites with the same theme:
clothes, baby toys, etc. In March 2010
this site had on average 239 page
views generated by each of the more
than 47,000 real users.
The next website in this group is forum
levski.com. Although in March 2010 its
reach level amounted to only 0.2%,
it ranked fifth in the ranking presented
above, with 4 hours and 10 minutes
spent by the average user. It is a
forum for FC Levski supporters, where
they can exchange views, meet other
fans and be up-to-date with news
concerning their favorite football
team.
43
The last player in this group is
conquiztador.bg, with a result of
3 hours 18 minutes spent on average
on this website by users. It is an online
game, where users have to answer
questions to conquer new territories
on a virtual map.
The last group of sites includes ones
with an average time spent online per
user of around 2 hours. One of them is
mobile.bg, the previously-mentioned
automotive classified ads website,
which is very popular in Bulgaria.
Abv.bg, the market leader in terms
of reach, does not dominate as far
as the average time spent per user is
concerned and ranks 8th with a result
of just over 2.5 hours. This is mainly
due to the fact that abv.bg is primarily
a mail service.
The last website is a sport site:
novsport.com. It presents news
concerning sports events, teams and
players. Moreover, it keeps statistics of
match results, covers live games and
contains many helpful links for sports
fans.

A news service can also be found

in this group: focus-news.net. It is
a part of the first Bulgarian private
information agency FOCUS. One of the
greatest advantages of focus-news.net
is the fact that it offers news, analysis
and comments not only in Bulgarian
but also in English 24 hours a day. In
March 2010 its reach level amounted
to 7%.

Do you CEE? Bulgaria

44
1.3. TOP PORTALS
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER
USERS
1 dir.bg 1 340 402
2 gbg.bg 945 424
3 start.bg 893 066
4 btv.bg 777 131
5 vesti.bg 745 950
Table 3 Top 5 portals and news services in Bulgaria by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)
The importance of horizontal portals
and news services in Bulgaria can be
demonstrated by the fact that the five
most popular ones were also included
in the top 10 websites by reach.
In March 2010, the leading position
belonged to dir.bg, which is just like
the year before. It is seen as
a trustworthy portal containing
a variety of information and catering
for the needs of visitors in terms
of entertainment, discussion
forums, classifieds; it also includes
communication tools.
According to the gemiusAudience
study, gbg.bg ranked second with
a reach level of 29%. This portal was
created in 1997 and since that time
has been offering a wide range of
options enabling its users to search
for online content. Moreover, it has
a huge bank of images and videos
and its directory contains over 47,000
selected sites.
The 3rd player in this category is
start.bg, a horizontal portal and the
largest online catalog, owned by
Investor.BG AD, a leading internet
media company in Bulgaria with
Do you CEE? Bulgaria
REACH
USER USER
67 01:18:54 41%
16 00:25:48 29%
8 00:09:41 27%
26 00:21:54 24%
20 00:29:02 23%
14 websites including blog.bg,
dnes.bg and snimka.bg. In 2004 it
was listed on the Bulgarian Stock
Exchange and is said to have a market
share of almost 10%. Start.bg has
links classified into 22 categories and
approximately 1,900 topics, which
enables its users to search for any
information they may need. In March
2010 its reach level amounted to 27%
(in March 2009 it was 32%).
Btv.bg is a website run by the
most popular private TV station
in Bulgaria. On the 1st June 2000
bTV broadcasted for the first time
thus breaking the monopoly of the
national public TV station. Over
the years it has established its
position as the most watched TV
channel in Bulgaria. According to the
gemiusAudience study, its reach level
amounted to 24% in March 2010
giving it the third place in the top 5
portals ranking. bTV has been present
on the market for almost two years.
In February 2010 an agreement for
its sale was reached. It was bought by
Central European Media Enterprises
(CME), one of the leading radio and
television groups in Central and
Eastern Europe.
 45
The last place in the ranking is
taken by vesti.bg, formerly known
as Netinfo.bg, which in March 2010
had a reach level of 23%. The site
provides its users with current news
from Bulgaria and the world. Thanks
to a modern and user-friendly design,
visitors can quickly find everything
they are searching for. Moreover, the
site offers a section with the most
popular news for busy users.

1.4. SOCIAL NETWORKS

NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS AVERAGE TIME REACH

REAL USERS PER USER PER USER

1 impulse.bg 598 852 483 07:03:56 18%

2 dir.bg-CLUBS.dir.bg 493 509 15 00:10:59 15%

3 dir.bg-GLOG.dir.bg 420 138 15 00:10:32 13%

4 teenproblem.net 404 388 17 00:15:45 12%

5 aha.bg 374 559 1,005 07:03:59 11%

Table 4 Top 5 social networking sites in Bulgaria by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

There is no dominant leader on the Clubs.dir.bg and glog.dir.bg both

local social networking market in
Bulgaria. Although in March 2010
impulse.bg had the greatest reach
level (18%), it was only 3 percentage
points higher than clubs.dir.bg,
which ranked second. However, as
mentioned before, impulse.bg is
undoubtedly the leader when it comes
to number of page views per user.
In terms of average time per user
it took second position, right after
aha.bg. Impulse.bg is a typical social
networking site offering its users
the possibility to make new friends
or retain old ones. It also includes
a section devoted to classified ads,
clubs with users grouped together by
interest with access to almost 60,000
topics as well as a games section.
belong to dir.bg. The first includes
clubs, in which people with the same
interests are grouped together. In
March 2010, clubs.dir.bg had almost
500,000 real users who spent an
average of 11 minutes online a month.
Glog.dir.bg enables its users to create
their own profile and use it to stay in
touch with friends or make new ones.
Its reach level of 13% gave this social
networking site 3rd place in the top 5
ranking.
The last two most popular Bulgarian
social networks, measured in the
gemiusAudience study in March
2010 were teenproblem.net (12%)
and aha.bg (11%). They both belong
to Investor Group (start.bg, blog.bg,

Do you CEE? Bulgaria

46
etc.). Teenproblem.net is popular with gives its users a chance to meet new
young people. On the website they people, exchange messages, create list
can find answers to their questions of friends and watch music videos.
and problems, including some
embarrassing ones, as well as general
info about anything that can be of any
interest to a teenager. The site is very
user-friendly and is designed to attract
young online audience.

The second site, aha.bg, has a more

diversified user structure with users
aged 19-35 predominating. This
popular social networking website

1.5. ONLINE CLASSIFIED ADS BY REACH

NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH

USERS USER USER

1 mobile.bg 669 052 223 01:57:50 20%

2 imot.bg 219 376 104 01:12:24 7%

3 karieri.bg 202 899 6 00:06:35 6%

Table 5 Top 3 online classified ads in Bulgaria by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

Each of the top 3 online classified ads The third place belonged to karieri.bg.
in Bulgaria specializes in a different It had over 200,000 real users
field. Number one in March 2010 interested in job offers. Beside regular
with a reach level of 20% was job advertisements, there are also
mobile.bg. It is the most popular offers of training sessions, educational
Bulgarian site where people can buy courses and the like.
or sell a car. The site also contains
many other automotive
advertisements of different kinds,
from VIP to regular. The price is related
to the ad’s type.

The second player on the Bulgarian

classified ads market is imot.bg, whose
reach level amounted to 7%. Users and
dealers publish ads related to buying
and selling real estate. Like other sites
of this kind, there are various kinds
of advertisements and their prices
depend on what options are used.

Do you CEE? Bulgaria

 47

1.6. TOP FINANCE SITES BY REACH

NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH

USERS USER USER

1 econ.bg 304 865 16 00:03:54 9%

2 odit.info 256 078 20 00:24:55 8%

3 investor.bg 214 850 24 00:39:36 7%

Table 6 Top 3 finance sites in Bulgaria by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

According to the gemiusAudience and on average 20 page views per

study from March 2010, there visitor. It is a popular website owned
was no definite leader among finance by Economedia, which publishes the
sites in Bulgaria. Although the reach most current information especially
level of econ.bg gave it first place, for accountants. There is a section
the difference between it and the with notices on courses and seminars
reach levels of odit.info (2nd) and as well as a forum.
investor.bg (3rd) was just 1 percentage
point. In terms of average time spent Another important finance site in
online per user, the leader is investor.bg Bulgaria was investor.bg with a reach
with almost 40 minutes a month per level of 7% in March 2010. It is a
user. site with business information from
Bulgaria and the world. Apart from
Econ.bg is a business portal with typical financial sections such as
over 300,000 real users. The site was Exchange or Forex, it also has a section
created through the cooperation of dedicated to lifestyle.
the Center for Economic Development
(CED) and the United States Agency
for International Development (USAID)
and was launched in April 2001. Apart
from presenting business news from
Bulgaria and the world, its users
can also find interviews, analyses,
classified ads and a law section here.
An additional feature is the English
version of the site. Even though it
contains information which is often
2 months old, it is a useful source of
information for English-speaking users,
especially considering the fact that
econ.bg gives its users free access to
an archive of all information uploaded
on the site since its creation in 2001.

The second significant player, odit.info,

had over 250,000 users in March 2010

Do you CEE? Bulgaria

48

2. ONLINE AUDIENCE

The gender structure of the 2010, 27% of the Bulgarian online

Bulgarian internet population is quite
balanced and does not differ much
from those observed on other CEE
markets. In March 2010, women
constituted 51.5% of the online
population, while men comprised
48.5%. However, what distinguishes
the Bulgarian online population from
other CEE countries is the fact that
men on average spent one hour more
than women surfing the web.
Undoubtedly, the Bulgarian online
market is dominated by young people.
According to the gemiusAudience
study, in March 2010 people aged
15-24 accounted for 29% of the online
population. Moreover, they spent
the greatest amount of time surfing
the studied websites, i.e. 19 hours.
Increasingly more elder people have
become interested in the internet
during the last twelve months. In
March 2009 the share of people over
55 years old was 5%, and in March
2010 it was 9%.
population lived in Sofia, the capital
of Bulgaria. Cumulatively, users living
in cities with over 100,000 citizens
accounted for 60% of the online
population. Another significant group
of users (19%) lived in cities, in which
there are 20,000 – 99,999 people.
With regards to occupation
the most numerous group among
Bulgarian internet users in March 2010
were specialists and office workers.
The second force on the internet was
the group made up of unemployed
internet users. The unskilled
workers accounted only for 1% of
the researched internet audience,
however this occupation group was
the most active and in March 2010 the
average user from this group spent
over 19 hours surfing the web.

The Bulgarian online population is

quite well-educated. In March 2010 a
mere 1% of internet users had primary
or no education. The majority had
graduated from secondary school and
27% had a degree. With regards to
average time spent online per user, in
March 2010 the groups of users with
basic or lower education consistently
spent approximately 21.5 and 18.5
hours online, whereas users with
higher education spent only 10 hours
and 44 minutes online.

As it is the case in the majority

of CEE countries, the greatest
number of internet users in Bulgaria
live in big cities. According to the
gemiusAudience study from March

Do you CEE? Bulgaria

50

3. TOOLS

3.1. BROWSERS

Chart 1 Top browsers in Bulgaria by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Bulga-
rian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3.1. Browsers the top browsers in Bulgaria. The

There are two main players on the
Bulgarian browser market. Number
one is Firefox with a market share of
46%. At the end of 2009 it overtook
Microsoft Internet Explorer, whose
popularity has been declining for some
time already. After the first quarter
of 2010 its market share was 42%
giving MSIE the second place among
popularity of Opera and Chrome is
not of any significant value. However,
it is important to note that Chrome is
gaining popularity extremely quickly.
Also, while Opera’s market share grew
during the past year by 0.5 percentage
point, Chrome’s market share rose by
4 percentage points.

3.2. OPERATING SYSTEMS

Chart 2 Top operating systems in Bulgaria by share of page views generated by internet users who
visit Bulgarian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

Do you CEE? Bulgaria

 51
3.2. Operating systems
3.3. SEARCH ENGINES
Like in the other markets in Central
and Eastern Europe, the most popular
operating system in Bulgaria was
Windows XP with an 82% share in the
first quarter of 2010. However, this was
9 percentage points less than a year
ago. This is mainly due to Windows 7,
Microsoft’s newest operating system
launched in the second quarter of
2009. Since then it has been constantly
gaining popularity, and in the first
quarter of 2010 its market share
accounted for 9% overtaking Windows
Chart 3 Top search engines in Bulgaria by share of visits made by internet users who visit Bulgarian
Vista with its 8% share. The market websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)
share of Linux is relatively stable at the
level of 0.3%.
3.4. SCREEN RESOLUTIONS
3.3. Search engines

Google is the leader of the Bulgarian

online search engine market. In the
first quarter of 2010 its share of the
market accounted for almost 99%.
Second place belonged to MSN, and
third to Yahoo. However, their market
shares declined during 2009 and
according to the gemiusTraffic study
they did not even exceed 1% in the first
quarter of 2010.
Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Bulgaria by share of page views generated by internet users who visit
Bulgarian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)
3.4. Screen resolutions

The market share of 1024 x 768 3.5. MOBILE DEVICES

monitor screen resolutions has
been decreasing over the last years.
However, in the first quarter of 2010
it was still the most popular choice
among Bulgarians. Other popular
screen resolutions among internet
users who visit Bulgarian sites using
gemiusTraffic were 1280 x 1024 and
1280 x 800. Also, the screen resolution
of 1440 x 900 has been gaining
popularity in recent years and after the
first quarter of 2010 its market share
was 6%. There is also a newcomer,
1366 x 768, whose popularity has
Chart 5 Mobile devices in Bulgaria by the website-averaged percentage share of page views genera-
been growing and during one year this ted by internet users from Bulgaria, who visit Bulgarian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic,
resolution gained a market share of 4%. 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10 **to 2010-07-25

Do you CEE? Bulgaria

52
3.5. Mobile devices - models
A wide variety of mobile devices can
be found on the Bulgarian market.
The five most popular tools constitute
less than 50%. However, like in
majority of CEE markets, Bulgaria’s
top mobile device is the iPhone,
which in July 2010 had a share of
over 17%. However, compared to the
previous month, it decreased slightly.
The next three positions were taken
by Nokia devices among which the
Nokia 5530 XpressMusic is the most
4. BRANCH ORGANIZATIONS
Interactive Association Bulgaria
www.iabulgaria.bg
Description: The mission of IAB
is to show the advantages and
possibilities of interactive marketing:
targeting, on-line measurement,
high effectiveness, a great variety of
formats and different approaches
and to the internet as one of the
main channels of communication,
next to TV, radio, press and outdoor
advertising.
Members: The greatest rivals and
leading internet players include:
Darik News, Dir.bg, Economedia,
Investor.bg, NetInfo.bg, mail.bg and
an associate member, ABC Design and
Communication.
Bulgarian e-commerce association
www.baet.bg
Description: The main objective
of the Bulgarian e-commerce
Do you CEE? Bulgaria
popular. During the same period,
Apple’s latest product, the iPad, has
been consistently gaining popularity,
increasing its share by 3 percentage
points from May 2010.
association is to protect the interests
of its members with regard to the
development of e-commerce and
also to enhance public confidence
in it. Moreover, BEAT aims to create
professional ethical standards to
be followed by its members. BEAT
also concentrates on cooperation
with public authorities in creating
laws and regulations relating to
internet trade and in monitoring their
implementation.
Members: BGPRINTER Ltd., JAR
Computers Ltd., Interminds Ltd., SILA
BG, Store Ltd., SuperHosting.BG, Bw
Time Ltd.
Bulgarian Web Association
www.bwa.bg
Description: The Bulgarian Web
Association (BWA) is an internet
industry association, representing
the interests of web companies and
professionals in Bulgaria. At present,
the Bulgarian Web Association

(BWA) is the only association with
activities directed to the benefit
and protection of legal entities and
natural bodies, working on the design,
arrangement, organization, realization
and hosting of internet sites, web
design and internet advertisement.
All activities of the Bulgarian Web
Association (BWA) are in the service
of the interests of the Bulgarian web
market operating in the free economy
environment.
Members: associated web studios:
Studio 3B, Etaligent.Net, You Eye
Design Ltd, Blekbord Studio Ltd.,
By BG Ltd., DOTmedia DZZD, Dream
Studio Ltd., DriymMediya Ltd., Exsisto
Ltd., Leks.BG AD, MediaBasket OOD,
Need BG Ltd., Stenik Group Ltd.,
Studio IDA, associated web media:
Inteldey Solutions Ltd., Programme
Media Group Ltd., associated
5. ADVERTISING NETWORKS
FULL NAME
1 Httpool
2 Easy Trader
3 User Media - Student.forums
4 User Media - Autoforums
5 User Media - Sportforums
6 Direct
7 E- target
53
web services: User Media Ltd.,
DIDZHITREYS Ltd., ESRI Bulgaria Ltd.,
ET-MarMaN Mario Mankov, Ripped
Ltd., Imaynd Ltd.
GENERAL CONTACT INFORMATION
HOMEPAGE URL MAIN OFFICE CONTACT
ADDRESS ADDRESS
61 Vitosha Blvd, Phone: +359-2-988-09-75
httpool.bg
1000 Sofia, Bulgaria Email: info@httpool.bg
Nikola Vaptzarov Blvd 29,
Phone: +359-2-962-29-94
stat.easytrader.bg et. 2, floor B, ap.13,
Email: ivanchev@easytrader.bg
1407 Sofia, Bulgaria
Solunska 59, et. 4, Phone: +359-2-954-29-70
usermedia.net
1000 Sofia, Bulgaria Email: reklama@usermedia.net
Solunska 59, et. 4, Phone: +359-2-954-29-70
usermedia.net
1000 Sofia, Bulgaria Email: reklama@usermedia.net
Solunska 59, et. 4, Phone: +359-2-954-29-70
usermedia.net
1000 Sofia, Bulgaria Email: reklama@usermedia.net
7, Danail Dechev st.
direct.dir.bg Phone: +359-2-969-45-33
1407 Sofia, Bulgaria
70, Tsaribrodska Blvd,
Phone: +359-2-489-50-63
etarget.bg office 3,
Email: business@etarget.bg
Sofia 1309, Bulgaria
Do you CEE? Bulgaria
54

6. OPINIONS FROM THE MARKET

Hristo Ivanov
Market Research and Analyses specialist, Netinfo

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the Bulgarian online advertising
market?

The economic environment has led to a serious decline in advertising expenditure

in all types of media. Only the internet succeeded in keeping the same level as in
2008. The largest advertisers: automotive and finance, brought their investments
in advertising for the past year to a relative standstill.

We believe that this situation will remain unchanged for the next year or two.
Online video and social media advertising together with rich media will lead
the development of the online market in Bulgaria. Advertisers will learn to use
different channels for different goals: e-mail and social media marketing for
customer loyalty, keyword search ads for direct responses and display ads for
building brand awareness.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are expected
to develop most in the future?

The financial crisis slowed down the development of the internet market in
Bulgaria during the last year and the market players were forced to focus on their
main and most profitable products. This led to ever increasing competition in
certain internet categories such as news and information (including sports), dating,
entertainment, and the suchlike. Internet penetration in Bulgaria continued to
increase but at a slower growth rate compared to previous years. Furthermore,
the largest publishers have invested time and money in the mobile versions of
their websites following the latest trends on global markets.

Petar Simeonov
Head of Internet Department, Piero97

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the Bulgarian online advertising
market?

The world economic crisis did not overlook Bulgaria in 2009. The growth of
internet advertising budgets was 60% during the previous three years, but in 2009
this shrunk to a mere 4%. On the backdrop of a total ad market decline of about

Do you CEE? Bulgaria

 55
14%, this is a good result, although expectations were for at least 20% growth.
In 2008 the gross internet advertising budgets in Bulgaria were 32.3 million Leva
(16.5 million Euro), and in 2009 they were 33.4 million Leva (17 million Euro). This
data do not contain the budgets spent on Google advertising and other media
situated outside of the country, due to the fact that this data are unobtainable.

There were other positive results on the internet market in general, for instance
significant growth in the number of internet users: at the end of 2009 there were
already 3.413 million in Bulgaria (45% penetration). The internet share in the total
media mix is also on the rise: in 2008 it was 2.7%, in 2009 3.4%, and a rise of 5% is
predicted for 2011.

The steepest decline in the advertising budgets of 2009 was noticed in the
telecommunications sector. Surprisingly, it was overtaken by the financial
and banking sector, which was also hit by the crisis, but tried to regain client
confidence via various marketing and advertising incentives. A similar situation
was observed in the construction and automotive businesses.

News sites and portals drew the largest part of advertising budgets, in third place
were social networking sites, followed by sport sites. Facebook attracted great
interest with 1.2 million subscribers at the end of 2009.

A significant growth in online advertising (approximately 20%) is expected for

2010, as well as substantial growth in video advertising on the internet.

The numbers used in the above text have been collected

by Piero97 Media Agency.

Plamen Kalinikov
Marketing Director, Argent media agency

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the Bulgarian online advertising
market?

We had anticipated that the global financial crisis would lead to significant
budget allocation on traditional media channels: TV, radio, print as well as
OOH would face a major drop at the expense of digital advertising. Alas, net
online investments for 2009 in Bulgaria retained the same levels as those from
the ‘extremely successful’ year of 2008. The growths of 50 to 100% from the
aforementioned 2008 would later become something to dream about over the
following years. The main players on the market decided not to take risks and
kept their investments allocated to the media channel that responded in the most
appropriate way to the economic realities and the fiscal deficit. They stayed with
TV. The national TV channels lowered their prices and boosted bonuses, and thus
kept the lion’s share in the media mix. Digital advertising comprises about 10% of
the Argent media agency portfolio but the average for the market percentage does

Do you CEE? Bulgaria

56
not exceed 5%. The long-awaited arrival of the largest global advertisers like P&G,
Henkel, and Kraft Foods meant that the digital market has (again) been put on hold
for an uncertain period of time. Most committed advertisers in the digital domain
are from the financial, automotive, as well as telecommunications sectors but they
also have the most experience in internet advertising. Most companies diverted
about 10-20% of their online budgets to cheap CPC solutions and in consequence
they delivered millions of impressions.

Market specifics

What makes your local online market unique? Are there any specifics that make it
different from others in the CEE region?

internet usage
The combination of ADSL by Vivacom and cable internet furthered broadband
penetration even in the smallest towns and villages. However, advertisers still
have to understand that 95% of the most difficult-to-get audience in the 15-24 age
bracket is on the web.

publishers
Bulgaria is no exception regarding the development of social networking and the
most popular site, Facebook, has more than 1.5 million users. Unfortunately,
the stability of the banking system and the great number of debit and credit
cards have not smoothed out the progress of e-commerce and e-shops. Bulgarian
publishers could well offer advertisers anything their creative agencies could
think of.

Gergana Marinova and Dilyan Velichkov

Marketing Director, Zed Digital Cybermark

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the Bulgarian online advertising
market?

Despite the general upward trend during the last 10 years and the expectations
for even faster growth during the recession, in 2009 and early 2010 the Bulgarian
online advertising market experienced its first year of an almost complete halt.
Instead of trying to optimize their budgets through the use of internet as a more
effective medium, as foreseen by specialists in the field in 2008, advertisers
preferred to ‘play it safe’, investing most of their budgets in the ‘good old media’,
such as press, radio and television. This led to the small growth of the online
advertising market of 4%, as estimated by a leading Bulgarian media house.

In 2009 the online media in Bulgaria continued their development of new forms
of online advertising as well as the process of creating better opportunities for
advertisers. This trend is expected to continue, following general technological
developments.

Do you CEE? Bulgaria

 57
Moreover, many cost-effective buying solutions in the online media were
introduced last year. This was a simple response to the unclear expectations and
fears of advertisers, but it led to certain deviations in general pricing and buying
models. Finally, it caused some chaos on the market. Buying banner positions
using both CPM and CPC is common practice for advertisers and for a short period
the cost-per-click model flourished. However, most media soon recognized that
selling ad space using CPC as a mistake and corrected this by either increasing
their prices per click, or returning to CPM.

The interest of advertisers in professional online measurement opportunities

continued to grow. Precise advertising tracking tools started to be treated not as
an extra option but as both a common and essential part of online campaigns.

Despite the obstacles caused by the world recession, the Bulgarian online
advertising market as a whole continued its development and maintained an
upward trend, albeit at a slower pace.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are expected
to develop most in the future?

A continued and natural trend in 2009 was the extremely fast growth of Facebook.
Its Bulgarian audience continued to increase by over 100% on year to year. This
had a strong negative impact on the local social media, which had so far also been
developing quickly. Although internet users keep spending more time on social
networking sites, a relatively small percentage of advertising budgets is invested
therein. In 2009 and at the beginning of 2010, Bulgarian advertisers together
with agencies were still unable to find the most suitable way to take advantage of
the increasing usage of social media. They rely mostly on traditional advertising
formats, while rarely trying to utilize social media in a more unconventional and
creative way.

Another trend continued in 2009 was the growth of online search investments,
driven to a large extent by small advertisers entering this market for the first time.

Do you CEE? Bulgaria

 Croatia
1.67m
internet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_59
1.1. Top10websitesbyreach_59
1.2. Top10websitesbyaveragetimespentperuser_60
1.3. Topportals_61
1.4. Social networks_62
1.5. Onlineclassifiedadsbyreach_62
1.6. Topfinancesitesbyreach_63
2. ONLINEAUDIENCE_64
3. TOOLS_66
3.1. Browsers_66
3.2. Operatingsystems_66
3.3. Search engines_67
3.4. Screen resolutions_67
3.5. Mobiledevices_67
4. BRANCHORGANIZATIONS_68
5. ADVERTISINGNETWORKS_68
6. OPINIONSFROMTHEMARKET_68
 59

1. MAIN PLAYERS

1.1. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY REACH

WEBSITE’S CATEGORY NUMBER OF REAL NUMBER OF PAGE PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USERS VIEW USER USER

1 net.hr horizontal portal 829 372 158 273 571 191 04:32:15 49%

2 index.hr horizontal portal 755 780 76 327 847 101 03:09:12 45%

3 tportal.hr horizontal portal 735 631 69 055 950 94 02:07:32 43%

4 forum.hr forum site 655 139 27 588 585 42 01:01:32 39%

5 24sata.hr news portal 631 918 89 223 037 141 02:02:18 37%

6 jutarnji.hr news portal 600 535 48 851 538 81 01:53:06 35%

7 njuskalo.hr classified ads 548 991 72 245 870 132 01:15:26 32%

8 blog.hr blog site 536 094 4 896 194 9 00:12:55 32%

9 bloger.hr blog site 473 324 8 601 594 18 00:24:22 28%

10 vecernji.hr news portal 456 003 19 800 231 43 00:53:11 27%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Croatia by reach level (Gemius/Valicon gemiusAudience March 2010)

Majority on the Croatian online a news portal of one of the leading

market is made up of horizontal
portals and they lead in the ranking
taking the first three positions.
Net.hr dominates the market reaching
almost every second Croatian internet
user. With a reach 4 percentage points
lower than the leader, second position
is taken by index.hr, a portal which
has reinforced its position within the
last year. The top 3 is propped up by
tportal.hr, which reaches 43% of the
audience. At the beginning of 2008,
this service headed the market. After
a significant decrease in 2009, it will
probably gain second place by the end
of 2010.
The second important group of players
includes news services. The first,
24sata.hr, in fifth place, has a reach
level of 37%. In sixth place is jutarnji.hr
with a reach of 35%. Vecernji.hr,
newspapers Večernji List, owned by
Styria Media Group AG, comes in at
tenth in the ranking.
Apart from portals and news services
among the market leaders there is also
a forum site (forum.hr), classified ads
service (njuskalo.hr) and two blogging
platforms (blog.hr and bloger.hr).
Forum.hr is the most popular, multi-
thematic forum site which like index.hr
does not belong to any large media
group. It reaches 39% of Croatian
online internet users who on average
spent 1 hour on this service monthly.
Njuskalo.hr, which ranks seventh,
owned by Styria, is the most popular
classified ads service.
First among the blogging platforms,
blog.hr, was bought by NOVA (the
Croatian commercial television

Do you CEE? Croatia

60
Network) 2 years ago. At the beginning case of the second player, blogger.hr,
of 2009, it reached almost 37% of the which lost 3 percentage points in
Croatian online audience; however, March 2010 compared to March 2009.
after one year its reach has declined
by almost 5 percentage points.
A similar situation can be observed in

1.2. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY AVERAGE TIME SPENT PER USER

NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME REACH

REAL USERS USER PER USER

1 net.hr 829 372 191 04:32:15 49%

2 index.hr 755 780 101 03:09:12 45%

3 1klik.net 2 419 49 02:24:36 0,17%

4 business.hr 73 578 36 02:15:04 4%

5 tportal.hr 735 631 94 02:07:32 43%

6 igre123.net 175 810 98 02:03:35 10%

7 24sata.hr 631 918 141 02:02:18 37%

8 fotozine.org 12 527 219 01:57:36 1%

9 jutarnji.hr 600 535 81 01:53:06 35%

nogometni-maga-
10 44 585 60 01:30:38 3%
zin.com

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Croatia by average time spent per user

(Gemius/Valicon, gemiusAudience, March 2010)

The players that engage Croatian
internet users most are the popular
portals that take the lead in terms of
reach. Net.hr dominates in the ranking
with a result of 4.5 hours. At the same
time, its main rival, Index, has over
one hour less than Net.hr. Tportal.hr
does not significantly lag behind its
two major rivals in terms of number of
users, but has two hours less than the
leader when average time spent per
user is taken into account.
Third position is taken by 1klik.net,
a website catalog and search domain
based on the Google engine. Though
the average time spent per user equals
almost 2.5 hours, the service’s reach
is very limited, lower than 1%. The
next position, with a result of 2 hours
15 minutes, is taken by a popular
business portal, business.hr.
What is interesting is that there are
hardly any entertainment websites
present in the ranking. The only
gaming service, igre123.net, comes in
6th place with a result of 2 hours.
Croatian users also devote much of
their time online to news services and
two of them, 24sata.hr and jutarnji.hr,
are the listed in the ranking with
a result oscillating around the 2 hours
mark.

Do you CEE? Croatia

 61
Among the leaders in terms of average
time spent per user, there is also
a service dedicated to photography,
fotozine.org, where its users spent on
the site almost 2 hours monthly on
average.

The ranking is propped up by

nogometni-magazin.com dedicated to
football. Though its audience is limited
to users interested in football they
spent on average of 1.5 hours on the
website monthly.

1.3. TOP PORTALS

NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH

USERS USER USER

1 net.hr 829 372 191 04:32:15 49%

2 index.hr 755 780 101 03:09:12 45%

3 tportal.hr 735 631 94 02:07:32 43%

4 24sata.hr 631 918 141 02:02:18 37%

5
jutarnji.hr 600 535 81 01:53:06 35%

Table 3 Top 5 portals in Croatia by reach level (Gemius/Valicon, gemiusAudience, March 2010)

All of the portals and news services
are listed among the most popular
players on the market. The first, net.hr,
was formerly known as iskon.hr, the
portal of the ISP provider. It has been
leading the market since the beginning
of 2008. This website, owned by
Centrum Holdings (75%) and Proficio
(25%), is operated by Adriatic Media.
Apart from news, the portal offers
a wide variety of services such as free
mail, and chat.
The second is index.hr, a portal
with a tabloid character. Apart from
news, it offers also a forum, nightlife
information, video content, a blog
platform and more. Index does not
belong to any large media house and
Index promocija d.o.o. is the sole
owner of the portal.
Index’s main rival is tportal.hr,
a service which at the beginning
of 2008 used to lead the market.
It belongs to the largest ISP provider
T-com. Tportal provides its users
with news as well as entertainment.
Although the discrepancy in terms
of reach between Index and Tportal is
not that significant and accounts
for a mere 2 percentage points,
the latter loses out in terms of average
time per user with a result over one
hour worse than Index.

Do you CEE? Croatia

62
The last two services included in the
ranking are more news services than
horizontal portals. The first, sata24.hr,
is a news portal run by a leading
daily tabloid. It belongs to Styria
Media Group AG and has a unique,
interactive design, which distinguishes
it from other services. 24sata.hr
reaches 37% of the Croatian audience
who on average spent 2 hours monthly
using this service.
The ranking is propped up by jutarnji.hr,
the news portal of a popular
newspaper “Jutarnji List”. It belongs
to Europapress Holding (EPH),
a media company operating in Croatia
and Southeastern Europe. It owns
5 daily newspapers and more than
30 magazines.

1.4. SOCIAL NETWORKS

NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH

USERS USER USER

tulumarka.com 57 152 9 00:05:53 3%

Table 4 Local social networking site measured by Gemius/Valicon, the gemiusAudience study by
reach level (Gemius/Valicon, gemiusAudience, March 2010)

Unlike other CEE online markets, their market share. For example, the
Croatia has no strong local player that share of the second important local
would attract a wide group of internet player, Tulumarka, fell by 1 percentage
users. The most popular community point last year, losing almost 15,200
site is Iskrica. Even though it has been users from March 2009 to March
present on the market for more than 2010.
10 years, its reach is estimated at only
a few percent. Currently, Facebook is
the strongest social networking site
on the Croatian online market and
its position is still growing. Due to its
domination, local players are losing

1.5. ONLINE CLASSIFIED ADS BY REACH

NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH

USERS USER USER

1 njuskalo.hr 548 991 132 01:15:26 32%

2 oglasnik.hr 232 790 48 00:33:03 14%

3 auti.hr 184 722 107 01:08:32 11%

Table 5 Top 3 online classified ads in Croatia by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

Do you CEE? Croatia


The unquestionable leader among
online classifieds is njuskalo.hr,
a service presenting itself as
a „marketplace”. It contains a wide
spectrum of categories beginning with
automotive to tourism. The service
is extremely popular among Croatian
internet users and comes in at 7th
place in the general reach ranking
with a reach level of 32%. The second
player is oglasnik.hr which also has
63
a print version, Plavi Oglasnik, and
is the oldest site in this category.
It is owned by Trader Media East and
publishes more than 300,000 new ads
every month. However, the service is
not performing as well as njuskalo.hr
and gained a reach of 14%. Last place
is taken by the auti.hr, auto classified
service with a reach level of 11%
which also belongs to TME.

1.6. TOP FINANCE SITES BY REACH

NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH

USERS USER USER

1 poslovni.hr 149 786 28 00:42:12 9%

2 limun.hr 81 728 24 00:55:38 5%

3 business.hr 73 578 36 02:15:04 4%

Table 6 Top 3 finance sites in Croatia by reach level (Gemius/Valicon, gemiusAudience,

March 2010)

Among Croatian finance websites, the leading financial services is business.hr,

unquestionable leader is poslovni.hr, which seems to be most engaging
the vertical portal of the first Croatian for its users who spent an average
daily business newspaper Poslovni of more than 2 hours monthly on
Dnevnik. The portal has a large online this website. Moreover, the portal is
community of users centered around supported by a printed newspaper.
financial and business topics, along
with current affairs and analysis.
Poslovni.hr provides an overview
of trading on regional stock exchanges.
Moreover, it offers many business
and professional titles available
through an online bookstore.
The second site, limun.hr, belongs
to Raiffeisen Consulting d.o.o.,
a company specializing in business
consulting and brand management.
This site is devoted to economic news
and advanced financial services.
According to Gemius/Valicon, the
gemiusAudience study, it reached 5%
of the Croatian online audience in
March 2010. Last in the ranking among

Do you CEE? Croatia

64

2. ONLINE AUDIENCE

The Croatian gender structure – 24,999 inhabitants (19%). 11% of

of the online population is quite
balanced, like on most other CEE
markets. In March 2010 men
accounted for 52% of the online
audience. Moreover, the average man
spent over 2 hours more online than
the average woman.
In terms of age, the most
significant group within the Croatian
online population are young people
aged 15-24. According to the Gemius/
Valicon gemiusAudience study
from March 2010, they constituted
35% of the population. The second
largest group, users 35-44 years old,
accounted for 23% of the population.
People aged 25-34 accounted for
1 percentage points less of the online
population.
the online population lived in villages
and small towns with less than 1,000
inhabitants.
According to the Gemius/Valicon
gemiusAudience study from March
2010, the largest group among
Croatian internet users in terms
of occupation consisted of people
employed in companies. They
accounted for 26% of the online
population. Second place belonged
to students, who accounted for 22%
of the online population. Another
significant group is users employed in
the public sector (18%).

Croatian internet users are quite

well-educated. Majority of Croatian
internet users graduated from
secondary school. According to the
Gemius/Valicon gemiusAudience study
from March 2010, they accounted
for 48% of the online population in
Croatia. The next significant group
consisted of users who were still in
school or faculty (29%). Only 3% of the
Croatian online population had at best
primary education.

In March 2010, 27% of Croatian

internet users lived in cities with over
100,000 inhabitants. What is more,
these users were also the most active
ones, spending over 14 hours online.
The second most important group of
internet users lived, according to the
Gemius/Valicon gemiusAudience study
from March 2010, in towns with 5,000

Do you CEE? Croatia

66

3. TOOLS

3.1. BROWSERS

Chart 1 Top browsers in Croatia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit the
Croatian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3.1. Browsers by Croatian internet users worth

For many years, the leader on Croatian
browsers market was Microsoft
Internet Explorer. However, over the
past few years the MSIE’s share of
page views generated by internet
users who visit Croatian websites using
gemiusTraffic has been decreasing.
At the beginning of 2010 it reached
a level of 43% and was overtaken
by Firefox. Other browsers used
mentioning are Chrome (6%) and
Opera (4%). They are gaining a larger
share of the market, though the
process is slow.
3.2. Operating systems
Like on other CEE markets, the leader
among operating systems in Croatia
is Windows XP. After the first quarter
of 2010, its share of the market as

3.2. OPERATING SYSTEMS

Chart 2 Top operating systems in Croatia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit
Croatian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

Do you CEE? Croatia

 67
analyzed by gemiusTraffic, constituted
77%, and its position does not seem to 3.3. SEARCH ENGINES
be threatened in the nearest future.
However, Windows 7 gained almost
12% of the market in less than a year,
leaving Windows Vista behind.

3.3. Search engines

The Croatian search engine market

is as dominated by Google as other
CEE markets. After the first quarter
of 2010, it accounted for 99% of the
visits made by internet users who visit
Chart 3 Top search engines in Croatia by share of visits made by internet users who visit Croatian
Croatian websites using gemiusTraffic, websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)
leaving hardly any room for its rivals,
MSN and Yahoo.
3.4. SCREEN RESOLUTIONS
3.4. Screen resolutions

The share of 1024 x 768 monitor

screen resolutions in Croatia has been
decreasing for the last few years.
However, it is still the most popular
choice among Croatians with a share
of 32%. Other popular ones in the first
quarter of 2010 were 1280 x 1024,
1280 x 800 and 1680 x 1050.

3.5. Mobile devices - models

Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Croatia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit
Croatian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)
Among the mobile devices used to
connect to the network, leadership
on the Croatian market belongs to
3.5. MOBILE DEVICES
the iPhone, which according to the
gemiusTraffic study, was responsible
for 54% of the page views generated
by mobile devices on an average
website in July. Despite such a high
result, its popularity is gradually
falling: a 2-percentage-point decrease
was observed over the past two
months. Like on other markets, this
loss is in favor of the iPad, Apple’s
latest product, which during the same
period improved its market share by
2 percentage points. The share gained
Chart 5 Top 5 mobile devices in Croatia by the website-averaged percentage share of page views
by other devices in the top 5 oscillates generated by internet users from Croatia who visit Croatian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraf-
around 2-3%. fic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10 **to 2010-07-25

Do you CEE? Croatia

68

4. BRANCH ORGANIZATIONS

IAB Croatia (INAMA) by offering stimulation and guidance

www.inama.hr
Description: IAB Croatia is a local non-
profit, non-governmental organization
dedicated to interactive marketing.
It was founded with the objective of
helping the development of interactive
marketing communication in Croatia
for the industry. It was formerly known
as INAMA or ‘the association for
interactive marketing’. It received an
IAB license in 2008.
Members: publishers and agencies
(e.g. net.hr, tportal.hr, OMG)

5. ADVERTISING NETWORKS

GENERAL CONTACT INFORMATION

FULL NAME HOMEPAGE URL MAIN OFFICE CONTACT
ADDRESS ADDRESS
Boškovićeva 13A, Phone: +385-1-30-30-430
1 E-Target etarget.hr
10 000 Zagreb, Croatia Email: marketing@etarget.hr
Phone: +385-1-55-95-380
Livanjska 11,
2 Xclaim xclaim.hr Fax: +385-1-38-40-700
10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
Email: welcome@xclaim.hr
Phone: +385-1-55-95-383
Livanjska 11,
3 AdNet ad-net.hr Fax: +385-1-38-40-700
10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
Email: info@ad-net.hr

6. OPINIONS FROM THE MARKET

Jan Jilek
President of IAB Croatia

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the online advertising market on your
local market?

The economic situation in the world and in Croatia has decreased advertising
expenditures in general, although the only medium that grew was the internet.
On the other hand, the crisis resulted in lower prices of other media, mostly TV,
which is already the most represented medium in total advertising Adex (60%). In
conclusion, the greatest problem regarding online advertising in Croatia is the fact

Do you CEE? Croatia

 69
that the global crisis is still ongoing here. In short, it is hard for the online market
to be competitive in these conditions.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are expected
to develop most in the future?

As with many other markets, social media marketing had the highest growth in
Croatia and this is expected to continue. Many advertisers began using Facebook
and Twitter creating applications, fan pages, etc.

Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete with
the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this battle?

Google and Facebook are the most popular global players in Croatia and have
more than 90% of the search and social media markets, respectively. Croatian
companies cannot compete with this. Local players stick to news and portal
information as they have an advantage with regards to local current affairs. The
top three players in Croatia are all horizontal portals.

Market specifics

What makes your local online market unique? Are there any specifics that make it
different from others in the CEE region?

The Croatian market is unique due to the extremely low price of TV advertising
compared to other countries. This inhibits the growth of other media, including
the internet. Although the internet is the only medium that can compete with TV
and is growing, this is not happening as fast and as much as it could.

Saša Škorić
Director, OMG

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the online advertising market on your
local market?

The lack of research on online advertising investment is the main obstacle for the
greater growth of advertising on the Croatian market. This is the main reason why
only 2% of the advertising budget is online, although the real figures are much
higher. Despite the fact that Croatians are a little behind in the standardization of
advertising formats and prices, Croatian users are fast in accepting new trends that
come from so-called more ‘developed’ countries.

Do you CEE? Croatia

70
Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are expected
to develop most in the future?

Social networking sites have become the main subject of discussion with regard to
advertising and almost all online campaigns include some forms of advertising and
user engagement on social networking sites, primarily Facebook. Geo-targeting
services and mobile advertising is expected to become more developed and
popular in the months to come.

Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete with
the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this battle?

The strength and character of competition between global and local players
depends basically on the particular business field. Although local players have
strong positions in some segments like ‘classifieds’ or ‘publishing’ (horizontal
portals), in the ‘search’ or ‘social networking’ fields local players have almost
disappeared with the huge growth of Google and Facebook. Knowledge of the
local market and user habits as well as local sales forces are the main advantages
of local players, who still hold the greatest shares within particular segments.

Market specifics

What makes your local online market unique? Are there any specifics that make it
different from others in the CEE region?

Croatian users have embraced some global services on a larger scale and more
intensely than in the majority of other countries. On the other hand, fear of online
payment is still relatively high and the main reason why some online projects have
failed in Croatia.

Do you CEE? Croatia

 Czech Republic
5.29m
internet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_73
1.1. Top10websitesbyreach_73
1.2. Top10websitesbyaveragetimespentperuser_74
1.3. Topportals_75
1.4. Social networks_76
1.5. Onlineclassifiedadsbyreach_77
1.6. Topfinancesitesbyreach_78
2. ONLINEAUDIENCE_78
3. TOOLS_80
3.1. Browsers_80
3.2. Operatingsystems_81
3.3. Screen resolutions_81
3.4. Mobiledevices_81
4. BRANCHORGANIZATIONS_82
5. ADVERTISINGNETWORKS_84
6. OPINIONSFROMTHEMARKET_84
 73

1. MAIN PLAYERS

1.1. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY REACH

WEBSITE’S CATEGORY NUMBER OF REAL NUMBER OF PAGE PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USERS VIEWS USER USER

1 seznam.cz horizontal portal 4 779 928 2 924 611 713 612 18:47:51 84%

2 novinky.cz news portal 3 152 036 222 189 189 70 01:47:06 55%

3 centrum.cz horizontal portal 3 046 395 453 637 700 149 02:59:39 53%

4 idnes.cz news portal 3 021 952 306 990 826 102 01:56:20 53%

5 firmy.cz company catalogues 2 469 792 60 832 571 25 00:25:36 43%

6 super.cz news portal 2 430 318 140 331 585 58 00:50:33 42%

7 mapy.cz maps 2 298 139 51 914 825 23 00:25:01 40%

8 stream.cz video content portal 1 860 614 35 977 914 19 00:25:20 33%

9 sport.cz sports portal 1 758 540 59 189 200 34 00:40:40 31%

10 estranky.cz webhosting and web creation 1 713 221 41 406 635 24 00:19:51 30%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in the Czech Republic by reach level (NetMonitor - SPIR/Mediaresearch/Gemius, March 2010)

According to the NetMonitor - SPIR/
Mediaresearch/Gemius study in March
2010 the top 10 ranking by reach was
dominated by a varied set of portals.
The unquestionable leader was
seznam.cz with a reach level of 84%,
1 percentage point more than a year
ago. This site is also top when it comes
to the number of page views per user,
with a result of 612. The following
three places were occupied by
websites with reach levels of around
50% - novinky.cz (55%), centrum.cz
(53%) and idnes.cz (53%). They are
all popular Czech portals and news
services.
The next group of sites reached
approximately 40% of the Czech
online audience. Among them, the
most popular one, Firmy.cz, a business
catalogue with a database of company
contacts, ranked fifth and its reach
level amounted to 43%. The next
are: Super.cz, a news portal with
over 2.4 million real users, and mapy.
cz, the most popular map site in the
Czech Republic.
The last group includes websites
with an approximate 30% share of
the market. With 1.86 million users,
stream.cz ranked eighth and was the
number one Czech portal with audio
and video content as well as TV shows.
Its users are not only able to watch
available videos, but also upload their
own. Moreover, there is a special
section for kids. Another portal in the
ranking was sport.cz (31%), an online
magazine with sports news from
Seznam.cz and a daily newspaper
Právo. The ranking was propped up
by estranky.cz, which is a site dealing
with web hosting and web creation.

Do you CEE? Czech Republic

74
It enables its users to create a website
in 5 minutes, easily and, what is more,
for free. In March 2010 it had a reach
level of 30%.

What is interesting about the websites

from the top 10 ranking list is the fact
that half of them: seznam.cz, novinky.cz,
firmy.cz, sport.cz and mapy.cz belong
to the same owner, Seznam.cz.

1.2. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY AVERAGE TIME SPENT PER USER

NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME REACH

REAL USERS USER PER USER

1 seznam.cz 4 779 928 612 18:47:51 84%

2 lide.cz 1 690 541 406 04:34:14 30%

3 onlajny.cz 109 019 148 04:30:56 2%

4 livesport.cz 126 363 80 03:31:53 2%

5 warforum.cz 94 749 125 03:18:57 2%

6 rande.cz 61 759 279 03:18:51 1%

7 geewa.cz 18 195 85 03:11:20 0.3%

8 centrum.cz 3 046 395 149 02:59:39 53%

9 seznamit.cz 52 868 212 02:53:39 1%

10 aukro.cz 1 566 095 327 02:46:34 27%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in the Czech Republic by average time spent per user (NetMonitor - SPIR/
Mediaresearch/Gemius, March 2010)

In March 2010 the ranking of the networking service lide.cz. It was

top 10 websites by average time
spent per user included sites that are
entertaining or enable their users
to stay in touch with their friends.
Not surprisingly the leader again
was seznam.cz. Its lead over other
websites seems to be unthreatened.
In March an average user spent there
almost 18 hours and 48 minutes.
In second place, but with much lower
result of 4 hours and 34 minutes spent
by its users monthly, was the social
followed by onlajny.cz, which provides
online results and commentary on
various sports events e.g. football, ice
hockey and handball. It had a reach
level of 2%, but its popularity is
growing regarding the Olympics and
football championships. A similar
Czech portal is livesport.cz, whose
users spent on average 3 hours and
32 minutes on the service. As with
onlajny.cz, it publishes sports news
and live match results. Moreover,
there is a chat room where visitors can

Do you CEE? Czech Republic


comment on current sports events or
simply share information with others.
The 5th and 6th positions were
occupied by warforum.cz and rande.cz
respectively, sites where users spend
almost 3 hours and 19 minutes
a month. Warforum.cz is a forum
divided into various sections such as
Movie Hall or Music Hall and they
are further subdivided into forums
and themes. In order to read or post
comments users have to register.
In March 2010 this forum had almost
94,750 users. Rande.cz, on the other
hand, is a website dedicated to
internet users who are searching for
a friend or a relationship.
1.3. TOP PORTALS
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS
1 seznam.cz 4 779 928
2 novinky.cz 3 152 036
3 centrum.cz 3 046 395
4 idnes.cz 3 021 952
5 super.cz 2 430 318
Table 3 Top 5 portals in the Czech Republic by reach level (NetMonitor - SPIR/Mediaresearch/Ge-
mius, March 2010)
Since portals and news services are
very popular among Czechs, the
services from the top 5 ranking also
occupy the leading positions in the
general ranking by reach. The most
significant one is seznam.cz, a market
leader on the Czech online market not
only in terms of reach (84%), but also
in average time per user (18 hours
and 48 minutes). The portal offers the
usual services to its users such as free
mail, current news, weather forecasts,
exchange rates, etc. This horizontal
75
With 3 hours and 11 minutes geewa.cz
ranked seventh. It contains a collection
of online games grouped into
categories. However, it is not very
popular among Czechs and its reach
level in March 2010 amounted to only
0.3%.
The last three places were occupied by
sites where users spent little less than
3 hours online a month. These were
centrum.cz, a popular Czech horizontal
portal, seznamit.cz, another dating site
(like rande.cz) and the aukro.cz online
auction, whose popularity among the
Czech online population is growing.
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER USER
612 18:47:51 84%
70 01:47:06 55%
149 02:59:39 53%
102 01:56:20 53%
58 00:50:33 42%
portal allows its users to personalize
the main page according to their
interests in a user-friendly way.
In March 2010 the second player
within the Czech online market was
the news portal novinky.cz with
a reach level of 55%. It is an online
magazine created in cooperation
with a daily newspaper Právo and
Seznam.cz. It was launched in 2003
and instantly jumped to the top of the
popularity rankings. Thanks to its rich
Do you CEE? Czech Republic
76
content, it has a firm position in the
Czech Republic with over 3.15 million
real users, who in March spent an
average of 1 hour and 47 minutes on
this service.
The third place was occupied by the
horizontal portal centrum.cz. In March
2010 its reach level amounted to
53%. In comparison to last year its
reach grew by 2 percentage points,
but it is still far behind seznam.cz.
However, this portal is extremely user-
friendly and its users can find typical
services for this kind of site here i.e.
mail, news, a TV schedule, free SMS
gateway, horoscopes and much more.
Idnes.cz was ranked fourth with over
3 million users and almost 307 million
1.4. SOCIAL NETWORKS
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER
USERS
1 lide.cz 1 690 541
2 blog.cz 1 664 116
3 spoluzaci.cz 1 139 332
4 idnes.cz|Rajce.net 822 533
5 libimseti.cz 634 750
Table 4 Top 5 local social networks in the Czech Republic by reach level (NetMonitor - SPIR/Media-
research/Gemius, March 2010)
The popularity of local social networks
measured by NetMonitor in the Czech
Republic is declining. Lide.cz and blog.cz
were, according to the NetMonitor
- SPIR/Mediaresearch/Gemius study,
the most popular ones. However, in
comparison to last year, their reach
level decreased by 5 percentage points
and in March 2010 accounted for 30%
and 29%, respectively. Lide.cz is a part
of Seznam.cz, dedicated mainly to
Do you CEE? Czech Republic
page views. It has been present on
the Czech online market since 1998,
when it published its first news online.
24 hours a day its editorial team is
preparing reliable news from home
and abroad, culture, sport, economy
and finance. Moreover, its users can
visit specialized sub-services dedicated
to particular interest groups such as
the automotive industry, lifestyle,
health or travel.
The ranking from March 2010 was
propped up by super.cz, which had
a reach level of 42%. It is a joint
project of Seznam.cz and Stratosféra
and it contains articles from magazines
of the Stratosféra publishing house.
REACH
USER USER
406 04:34:14 30%
40 00:34:54 29%
63 00:30:44 20%
25 00:19:43 14%
173 02:23:01 11%
the younger generation – the average
age ranges from 12 to 19 years old.
It is divided into several categories,
including a popular instant messaging
service, discussion forums, dating
service and blogs. Blog.cz, on the
other hand, is a web application for
creating blogs. It was launched in 2005
and soon became the largest blog
service on the Czech online market.

The other player on the Czech social
networking market is spoluzaci.cz.
Its popularity is decreasing and over
the last twelve months its reach
declined by 8 percentage points, down
to 20%. The site enables its users to
stay in touch with their classmates.
Within the service, there is a database
of primary and secondary school
classes available in the Czech Republic.
The fourth place in the ranking was
occupied by rajce.net, part of MAFRA,
a.s. (which owns idnes.cz) dedicated to
sharing photos. Its users can create
a free account with unlimited space
for photos that can be easily uploaded
to the site with simple software.
1.5. ONLINE CLASSIFIED ADS BY REACH
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS
1 sbazar.cz 1 044 789
2 hyperinzerce.cz 941 032
3 bazos.cz 615 046
Table 5 Top 3 online classified ads in the Czech Republic by reach level (NetMonitor - SPIR/Media-
research/Gemius, March 2010)
The leader on the classified ads
market in the Czech Republic in March
2010 was sbazar.cz with a reach level
of 18%. It is the largest Czech portal of
this kind. One can buy and sell as well
as participate in auctions on the site.
As many as 200,000 classifieds are
grouped into 20 categories. Moreover,
sbazar.cz allows an immediate
communication between buyer and
seller. It is a part of Seznam.cz.
Second place belonged to
hyperinzerce.cz, a classified ads site
with over 1.2 million offers.
77
In March 2010 its reach level
amounted to 14%.
Libmiseti.cz, a community portal,
was ranked fifth and with a reach level
of 11% it is another significant player
on the Czech online market. It offers
to its users custom profiles, photo
albums, a chat and e-mail service,
competitions and much more.
In March 2010 its average user spent
2 hours and 23 minutes on
the website.
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER USER
50 00:32:46 18%
18 00:14:46 16%
116 01:01:28 11%
In comparison to March 2009 its reach
level increased by 3 percentage points
and in March 2010 accounted for
16%. The last website in the ranking,
bazos.cz, has also been gaining
popularity and its reach level grew
by 2 percentage points over the last
twelve months. Bazos.cz is trying to be
as simple and user friendly as possible
and this strategy seems to be working
very well: its users add around 11,000
new ads daily.
Do you CEE? Czech Republic
78
1.6. TOP FINANCE SITES BY REACH
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER
USERS
novinky.cz-rubrika
1 1 330 776
Ekonomika
idnes.cz
2 Ekonomika 724 322
a Finance iDNES
centrum.cz
Aktualne.cz
3 390 404
Ekonomika/
Finance
Table 6 Top 3 finance sites in the Czech Republic by reach level (NetMonitor - SPIR/Mediaresearch/
Gemius, March 2010)
When it comes to finance sites, there
is no significant independent player.
The popular sites are parts of the
leading Czech portals: novinky.cz,
idnes.cz and centrum.cz.
The first place in the ranking, based on
the NetMonitor - SPIR/Mediaresearch/
Gemius study from March 2010,
belonged to Ekonomika (part of
2. ONLINE AUDIENCE
The gender structure of the online
population in the Czech Republic
is quite balanced. According to the
NetMonitor - SPIR/Mediaresearch/
Gemius study from March 2010, men
constituted 52% whereas women
48%. Also in terms of average time
spent online per user there was no
major difference between the male
and female audience. On average
men were surfing the web for only 12
minutes longer than women.
In terms of age, the most
numerous group within the Czech
Do you CEE? Czech Republic
REACH
USER USER
7 00:10:21 23%
18 00:24:21 13%
17 00:16:31 7%
novinky.cz) with a reach level of 23%.
It was followed by Ekonomika and
Finance of iDNES, whose reach level
amounted to 13%. The top 3 ranking
was propped up by finance.aktualne.
cz, which is a part of centrum.cz and in
March 2010 it had over 390,400 real
users. It publishes business news on
the stock exchange, the RM system,
currency rates, commodities etc.
online population were people aged
25-34, with a share of 24%. They
were also the group of users who
spent most time online, i.e. 32 hours
and 32 minutes a month. The second
largest group, users aged 15-24, who
in 2009 accounted for 28%, in March
2010 constituted only 22%. At the
same time the share of people over 55
increased by 2 percentage points.
In March 2010 the highest
percentage of the Czech online
population had completed secondary
education (the group also included
80
extension studies). This amounted to
39%. Moreover, they were the most
active internet users and on average
spent almost 34 hours online per
user. The second significant group
within the Czech online audience were
people with secondary education but
without completing a ‘leaving exam’.
All in all, these two groups together
constituted 61%.
Users with higher education amounted
to 16% in March 2010, 5% had
abachelor degree and 11% graduated
from university. According to the
NetMonitor - SPIR/Mediaresearch/
Gemius study, users aged 12-14
accounted for 7% of the online
population in the Czech Republic, thus
it comes as no surprise that there is
also a high percentage of internet
users with incomplete primary
education (11%).
over 100,000 inhabitants, with 13%
in Prague alone. Another 23% of the
online population lived in cities with
20,000 – 99,999 inhabitants. 16% of
the online population lived in villages
and small towns with up to 999
inhabitants.
In the Czech Republic, the most
significant group in March 2010 in
terms of occupation (37%) among
internet users were employees.
Second place belonged to pupils,
students and trainees, who accounted
for 24% of the online population.
Another major group of the online
audience were businessmen and sole
traders with 17%.

According to the NetMonitor

- SPIR/Mediaresearch/Gemius study
from March 2010, 23% of Czech
internet users lived in cities with

3. TOOLS

3.1. BROWSERS

Chart 1 Top browsers in the Czech Republic by share of page views generated by internet users who
visit Czech websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

Do you CEE? Czech Republic

 81
3.1. Browsers
3.2. OPERATING SYSTEMS
Microsoft Internet Explorer has been
the leader on the Czech browser
market for many years. However, over
the past few years, MSIE’s share of
page views generated by internet users
who visit the Czech websites using
gemiusTraffic has been decreasing
(over the past twelve months it lost
7 percentage points) and its advantage
over other browsers declined. The
second player on the Czech market
with a market share of 35% in March
2010 was Firefox. Unlike MSIE, its Chart 2 Top operating systems in the Czech Republic by share of page views generated by internet
users who visit Czech websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)
popularity has been growing for a long
time now and soon a change in the
leader position may be expected. 3.3. SCREEN RESOLUTIONS
According to the gemiusTraffic study,
after the first quarter of 2010, Opera
had 6% of the market. The newcomer,
Chrome, already managed to gain 4%
of the Czech browser market.

3.2. Operating systems

Similarly to other CEE markets,

the unquestionable leader among
operating systems is Windows XP.
After the first quarter of 2010 its share
Chart 3 Screen resolutions in the Czech Republic by share of page views generated by internet users
of the market accounted for 71%. Yet, who visit the Czech websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)
its popularity has been declining for
some time. Quite a significant share
of the market (18%) belonged to
3.4. MOBILE DEVICES
Windows Vista. Windows 7, launched
in the Czech Republic in October 2009
gained in 1Q 2010 8% of the market in
less than a year.

3.3. Screen resolutions

The most popular choice among

Czechs when it comes to screen
resolutions has for a long time been
1024 x 768. However, its popularity
has been declining for years. According
to the gemiusTraffic study its share of
Chart 4 Mobile devices in the Czech Republic by the website-averaged percentage share of
the market went down 9 percentage page views generated by internet users from the Czech Republic who visit Czech websites using
gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months)
points over the last twelve months. *from 2010-05-10 **to 2010-07-25

Do you CEE? Czech Republic

82
After the first quarter of 2010 other
popular screen resolutions were 1280
x 1024 (18%) and 1280 x 800 (17.5%).
3.4. Mobile devices - models
The unquestionable leader on the
Czech market of internet mobile
devices is the iPhone. According to
the gemiusTraffic study, in July 2010
iPhone was responsible for 22% of
page views generated by mobile
devices on an average website. Second
4. BRANCH ORGANIZATIONS
SPIR
www.en.spir.cz
Description: SPIR is a professional
association active in the field of
internet advertising since 2000. The
membership base of the association
currently accounts for 66 members.
Alongside operating integrated,
widely respected research into visitor
numbers and sociodemographic
profiling of internet visitors via
NetMonitor, it also implements an
internet advertising monitoring
project, AdMonitoring, organizes
the IAC professional conference on
internet marketing, and provides
expert analysis of internet market
development in the Czech Republic.
Members: Internet Media (e.g.
ARBOinteractive, spol. s r.o.; Centrum
Holdings; CET 21, spol. s r.o.; Internet
Info, s.r.o.; MAFRA; Ringier ČR, a.s.;
Sanoma Magazines Praha, s.r.o.;
Seznam.cz, a.s.), Internet Advertisers
(e.g. Mediaedge:cia Czech Republic,
s.r.o.; MindShare, s.r.o.; OMD Czech,
a.s.; Starcom MediaVest Group, s.r.o.).
Do you CEE? Czech Republic
position was taken by Apple’s latest
product, the iPad. Even though in July
2010 its share equaled a mere 4%, it
grew by 2 percentage points during
the past two months. The next three
positions belong to Nokia and HTC
devices, all oscillating around 3%.
APEK
www.apek.cz
Description: The Association for
Electronic Commerce (APEK) is
an association of more than 200
companies, entrepreneurs and
experts in electronic commerce.
APEK’s main goal is the analysis
and study of electronic commerce.
Members include the largest internet
shops, leading software companies
and financial institutions.
The association was founded in 1998
as an independent organization
that supports the development of
electronic commerce in the Czech
Republic.
Members: the biggest internet
retailers, e-marketplaces, IT service
providers, consultants, logistics
companies, financial service providers
(e.g. kasa.cz; invia.cz; cedok.cz; datart.
cz; dhl.cz; InternetMall; Mironet;
Retail Info).

Association of Internet
Solutions Providers
www.asociace.biz
Description: Asociace.biz brings
together IT and web agencies
specializing in the development
of internet and intranet solutions.
Asociace.BIZ organizes seminars and
conferences, publishes professional
publications providing world news
and internet solutions. The aim of
Asociace.BIZ is to provide inspiration
for advertisers and companies
as well as ideas on how to use
interactive media in e-commerce and
marketing campaigns, to streamline
work through corporate intranets
and systems built on modern web
technologies. The association was
established in 2002.
83
and has 43 members. The Association
has a special section dedicated to
the internet – SVIT, which has run
as an independent operation since
2002. Its mission is the creation and
enforcement of standards for the
internet environment.
Members: members of SVIT section:
Centrum Holdings, Epravo.cz,
Euronews, IDG Czech, MAFRA, Ringier
ČR, Sanoma Magazines Praha, Trade
& Leisure, Publications, Vltava Labe
Press.

Members: IT companies and internet

agencies (e.g. AARON GROUP spol.
s r.o.; AMI Praha a.s.; ET NETERA
a.s.; FG Forrest, a.s.; Internet Projekt
a.s.; Lundegaard spol. s r.o.; Mather
Advertures, s.r.o.; MEDIA FACTORY
ČR a.s.; OgilvyInteractive, Onlio, a.s.;
První multimediální, s.r.o.; SYMBIO
Digital, s.r.o.; WDF - Web Design
Factory, spol. s r.o.).

UVDT Czech Publishers Association

www.uvdt.cz

Description: The Association is the

sole representative association of
entrepreneurs and employers in the
sector of periodicals and the provision
of content via the internet in the
Czech Republic. The Association brings
together most publishers of national
and regional newspapers and a large
majority of publishers of relevant
magazines. It was founded in 1990

Do you CEE? Czech Republic

84

5. ADVERTISING NETWORKS

GENERAL CONTACT INFORMATION

FULL NAME
1 Impression Media, s.r.o.
2 AdActive s.r.o
3 VISIBILITY s.r.o.
HOMEPAGE URL MAIN OFFICE CONTACT
ADDRESS ADDRESS
Phone: +420-224-409-270
Nad Petruskou 63/1,
impressionmedia.cz Fax: +420-222-512-016
120 00 Praha-Vinohrady
Email: info@impressionmedia.cz
Phone: +420-234-676-410
U Hellady 697/4,
adactive.cz Fax: +420-234-676-338
140 00 Praha 4
Email: info@adactive.cz
Phone: +420-235-358-508
Lužná 716/2,
visibility.cz Fax: +420-235-364-124
160 00 Praha-Vokovice
Email: obchod@visibility.cz

Hálkova 1629 / 11, Phone: +420-720-755-839

4 Admarket, a.s. admarket.cz
Praha 2, 120 00 Email: reklama@admarket.cz

5 Best Online Media, s.r.o.
6 ARBOinteractive, spol. s r.o.
Vinohradská 2396/184,
online-media.cz
130 00 Praha-Vinohrady
Janáčkovo nábřeží 51/39,
arbointeractive.cz
150 00 Praha 5
Phone: +420-270-005-076
Fax: +420-737-283-091
Email: zuzana@online-media.cz
Phone: +420-277-775-670
Fax: +420-251-082-105
Email: internet@arbointeractive.cz

outdoornet.cz Senovážné náměstí 1984/10, Phone: +420-608-745-533

7 Media House, s.r.o.
familynet.cz 110 00 Praha-Nové Město Email: info@mediahouse.cz

Vítězné náměstí 576/1, Phone: +420-724-317-131

8 AMEDIA media, s.r.o. amediamedia.cz
160 00 Praha 6 Email: ib@amediamedia.cz

9 Internet BillBoard a.s.
Novoveská 1262/95,
nternet.billboard.cz
709 00 Ostrava - Mariánské Hory
Phone: +420-553-615-555
Fax: +420-553-620-667
Email: info@billboard.cz

6. OPINIONS FROM THE MARKET

Tomáš Lauko
Digital & Business Development Manager, ZenithOptimedia – CEE

Tomáš Varga
Head of ZED Digital, Zed Digital (part of ZenithOptimedia)

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the Czech online advertising
market?

The Czech market will most certainly grow. It has great potential (the 3rd largest
advertising market in the CEE region) and is certainly one of the most developed
CEE markets. The latest Advertising Expenditures forecast of ZenithOptimedia

Do you CEE? Czech Republic

 85
(July 2010) predicts increasing investment in the Czech internet from the current
11% (2009) to 14% in 2010 (prices from price list), which will ensure for the Czech
Republic a place in the top three countries in the CEE region, excluding Estonia
and Latvia.

The greatest obstacle for the Czech market is the lack of understanding as many
people pervceive the internet as a cheap medium.

The second greatest obstacle is that the total online Audio-Visual potential
cannot be fully measured (YouTube, Google and Facebook are missing here).

Regarding investments in the internet market, search marketing (as a type of

performance marketing) has the greatest potential in the short term with mainly
text, but also display, starting to develop its full potential. Thanks to the crisis,
also the small companies choose more often the CPC model, but on the other
hand the large companies still choose the CPM model.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are expected
to develop most in the future?

To summarize in three points: The cost per action payment model (ROI), social/
online listening and mobile marketing. We can already see the first steps,
testing and a shift from TV to AV (Audio Visual) after analyzing the first report of
multimedia content measurement in the Czech Republic. It will be interesting
to look at the mobile marketing measurement in the second part of 2010.

Facebook, YouTube and performance marketing in general will continue to

expand on the Czech online market. There is also great and still untapped
potential in social/online listening. In most cases the brands do not realize their
potential and do not know how to embrace and take full advantage of it.

The most interesting work force in the nearest future will be analysts,
copywriters, and people with ‘soft’ social skills.

Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete with
the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this battle?

The strength of global players is growing and the last important market bastion
in the Czech Republic is Seznam with many users impatiently waiting for its API.
Seznam is strong enough and will be able to compete with global companies, but
its weakness lays in relatively slow implementation of innovations. On the other
hand, the cooperation of Seznam with Microsoft shows that the vision of how to
fight competition is clear.

Do you CEE? Czech Republic

86
Another bastion of the Czech internet are local social networking sites, whose
position has become weak (for example, the popularity of the Czech portal
Libimseti.cz has fallen) and these sites will have to fight hard with such social
networking sites as Facebook to regain ground.

Market specifics

What makes your local online market unique? Are there any specifics that make it
different from others in the CEE region?

One of the greatest advantages is the popularity of everything that is ‘Czech’.

Czech Google can even build its success on this. The great advantage of the
Czech online market is the high developed measurement here. We can see the
breakthrough in multimedia content monitoring in the Czech Republic and the
measurement of mobile marketing, in which the Czech Republic has a prominent
position in the region.

What the Czech Republic still lacks compared to other countries in the CEE region
is self-promotion. There are already a great number of talented people on the
market, as well as know-how, possibilities, tools for testing and implementing
innovations in communication on the internet. However, unfortunately this is still
not reflected in reality and in the image of the Czech Republic in CEE markets.

Tomáš Búřil
Director of Sales and Marketing, Centrum Holdings

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the Czech online advertising market?

We can see that the online market in the Czech Republic in 2010 is growing, mainly
due to direct clients. They are investing in the internet a larger part of their ad
budgets than the major clients by media agencies. We expect that the total online
advertising market could reach its pre-crisis level in 2012, the level of 2008. At that
time, we also expect a balanced level of ad spending to online and print media.
Currently, the biggest obstacle to fast growing investment is the great caution
of the largest advertisers and their predilection for traditional media, although,
according to the surveys, the time spent on the internet is growing compared with
declining print media and television.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are expected
to develop the most in future?

The main trends concern the following areas: media consolidation (into larger
units), a greater emphasis on news quality and local content and the high use

Do you CEE? Czech Republic

 87
of email, social media and instant messaging. In the future, search and PPC
advertising will certainly be top of the list, but that does not mean that display
advertising (banners) will lose their meaning, rather the opposite will happen.
These two things, in combination with specialized verticals, will be the main source
of income on the internet in the future, where it will be not just ‘advertising’ but
the entire business chain from addressing client to direct selling.

Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete with
the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this battle?

The local players are certainly strong enough because of their local content and
more personal ‘Czech’ approach to clients and customers. However, those who
concentrate purely on the technological battle with the global players will not
succeed. It is just a matter of time when users realize this and start demanding
a better service. The successful combination of both the local approach and
content with global technologies and know-how is a strong possibility.

Market specifics

What makes your local online market unique? Are there any specifics that make
it differ from others in the CEE region?

The Czech market is the most developed market in Central and Eastern Europe,
due to the fact that all members of the local joint industry committee SPIR
(the Czech Association for Internet Advertising) have agreed on the same point of
view, how to develop the whole market in a transparent way and how to profile
online advertising. Another specific feature is Seznam and its strong position,
which has a great influence on the market, on business conditions and ‘user
standards’. What normally works in other countries may not necessarily work in
the Czech Republic.

Do you CEE? Czech Republic

 Estonia
0.81m
internet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_89
1.1. Top10websitesbyreach_89
1.2. Top10websitesbyaveragetimespentperuser_90
1.3. Topportals_91
1.4. Social networks_92
1.5. Onlineclassifiedadsbyreach_93
2. ONLINEAUDIENCE_94
3. TOOLS_96
3.1. Browsers_96
3.2. Operatingsystems_96
3.3. Search engines_97
3.4. Screen resolutions_97
3.5. Mobiledevices_97
4. BRANCHORGANIZATIONS_98
5. ADVERTISINGNETWORKS_99
6. OPINIONSFROMTHEMARKET_99
 89

1. MAIN PLAYERS

1.1. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY REACH

WEBSITE’S CATEGORY NUMBER OF REAL NUMBER OF PAGE PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USERS VIEWS USER USER

1 delfi.ee horizontal portal 511 230 92 743 974 181 04:15:31 63%

2 postimees.ee horizontal portal 372 864 39 573 318 106 03:15:39 46%

3 sloleht.ee horizontal portal 295 111 27 276 398 92 02:04:37 37%

4 elu24.ee horizontal portal 263 236 11 296 684 43 00:52:29 33%

5 rate.ee social network 222 082 157 172 820 708 06:48:28 28%

6 mail.ru horizontal portal 179 646 55 733 268 310 07:44:34 22%

7 ilm.ee weather portal 169 503 3 608 057 21 00:15:22 21%

8 everyday.com horizontal portal 155 634 6 012 955 39 01:14:13 19%

9 buduaar.ee portal 128 562 24 961 666 194 02:20:52 16%

10 fotoalbum.ee photo sharing website 125 826 23 176 640 184 00:46:41 16%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Estonia by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

In March 2010 the top 10 ranking
of Estonian websites included in the
gemiusAudience study was dominated by
portals. The most popular one is delfi.ee
with a reach level of 63%. It is the largest
internet portal in the Baltic States, which
popularity within the Estonian online
population is steadfast. In comparison
to March 2009, it increased its reach by
1 percentage point, which considering
the ever growing number of internet
users in Estonia means that it is
constantly gaining new audience.
The next three places are occupied
by portals belonging to Eesti Media,
the largest media group in Estonia.
In March 2010, the most popular one:
postimees.ee had a reach level of 46%.
It used to be the online version of
a newspaper but with time developed
into a successful independent portal.
Such huge discrepancy between the first
two players may be due to differences
in the construction of these sites. While
delfi.ee develops each of their new
subsection (women, motoring, etc.)
under one domain, postimees.ee builds
its services on separate domains. One of
its elements is elu24.ee, ranked fourth
with a reach level of 33%. They are both
very popular among the Estonian online
audience, as is the printed version of the
“Postimees” newspaper.
The other Eesti Media Group portal
is sloleht.ee. According to the
gemiusAudience study from March
2010 it had almost 300,000 real users.
Similarly to postimees.ee it used to be
only an online version of the newspaper,
but now is probably more popular
than the original. In this day and age,
increasingly more people choose to take
advantage of new technologies instead
of traditional media. Online newspapers
are not only handy, but also save money
and time.

Do you CEE? Estonia

90
The 6th place in the ranking belonged
to mail.ru, a Russian horizontal portal.
Although the site is only available in
Russian, it had almost 180,000 real users
in Estonia. This is due to the fact that the
Russian speaking part of the population
is very active in Estonia. Mail.ru offers
its users not only a mail service, but also
current news, weather information and
various entertaining content. In March
2010 an average user spent almost
7 hours and 45 minutes visiting the
website making it a leader in terms of
user activity among Estonian websites.
With a 21% reach ilm.ee took 7th place
in the ranking. It is a popular weather
portal in Estonia. Thanks to its pleasant
design and user-friendliness, more than
3.6 million page views were generated
on this site in March 2010. The site
is available in Estonian, Russian and
English.
Everyday.com, a horizontal portal, came
8th , followed by buduaar.ee, a popular
women’s portal with lots of gossip,
lifestyle and diet advice, a forum and
useful links. Moreover, the site offers
its users many contests with attractive
prizes. In March 2010 the site recorded
almost 25 million page views.
In the top 10 ranking from March 2010
there were only two non-portal sites.
One of them was the social networking
service rate.ee. It is the largest and only
important local social networking site
with a reach level of 28%. However,
because of strong competition from
global sites, it has been losing its
audience and in comparison to March
2009 decreased by 7 percentage points.
The ranking was propped up by
fotoalbum.ee, a photo sharing website
with a reach level of 16%. Registered
users can create profiles and publish
their photos to show to their friends.
In spite of competition from global sites,
fotoalbum.ee is not losing popularity
and its number of real users remains
constant.

1.2. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY AVERAGE TIME SPENT PER USER

NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME REACH

REAL USERS USER PER USER

1 mail.ru 179 646 310 07:44:34 22%

2 rate.ee 222 082 708 06:48:28 28%

3 delfi.ee 511 230 181 04:15:31 63%

4 postimees.ee 372 864 106 03:15:39 46%

5 perekool.ee 66 441 137 02:51:17 8%

mangukoobas.
6 65 723 166 02:26:30 8%
lahendus.ee
7 buduaar.ee 128 562 194 02:20:52 16%

8 lastekas.ee 44 917 118 02:12:50 6%

9 sloleht.ee 295 111 92 02:04:37 37%

10 gamefriik.ee 20 971 99 01:56:20 3%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Estonia by average time spent per user (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

Do you CEE? Estonia


In terms of average time spent online
per user the leader on the Estonian
online market in March 2010 was
mail.ru with almost 7 hours and 45
minutes. Also, users of the social
networking service rate.ee were very
active online (6 hours and 48 minutes).
The subsequent two places were
occupied by the horizontal portals
delfi.ee and postimees.ee.
Perekool.ee came in 5th place in
the ranking. It is the most popular
Estonian family portal, where
users can find articles dedicated to
pregnant women and parents of
small children. In the forum section,
users can exchange views or ask other
parents for advice on raising children.
Moreover, there is a marketplace
for used children’s clothes, toys etc.
According to the gemiusAudience
study in March the site’s visitors spent
more than 2 hours and 50 minutes
online.
Mangukoobas.lahendus.ee was
ranked sixth with a result of 2 hours
and 26 minutes. It is the number one
entertainment platform in Estonia with
mainly flash games for children and
young people. Games are available
for free and no registration is needed.
Apart from games, there is also a
section where children can find helpful
1.3. TOP PORTALS
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS
1 delfi.ee 511 230
2 postimees.ee 372 864
3 sloleht.ee 295 111
4 elu24.ee 263 236
5 mail.ru 179 646
Table 3 Top 5 portals in Estonia by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)
91
material to study different school
subjects. In order to gain access to this
material users have to ‘pay’ a certain
amount of points/stars.
7th place was occupied by buduaar.ee,
mentioned above, and followed by
an online-games site, lastekas.ee.
As opposed to Mangukoobas,
its target group is much younger (it is
the only website in Estonia dedicated
to such a young audience). In March
2010 its reach level amounted to 6%
and an average user spent almost
2 hours 13 minutes online here. There
are many interactive games that kids
can play not only in order to have fun
but also to learn.
Another horizontal portal in this
ranking, sloleht.ee, in March 2010
had over 295,000 real users
who on average spent 2 hours
and 5 minutes on this site. The 10th
ranking position was occupied by
gamefriik.ee, a computer games portal
with almost 21,000 real users who
spent almost 2 hours online a month.
It is dedicated to an older audience
than Mangukoobas and Lastekas.
Apart from games there is also
a forum and a video section.
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER USER
181 04:15:31 63%
106 03:15:39 46%
92 02:04:37 37%
43 00:52:29 33%
310 07:44:34 22%
Do you CEE? Estonia
92
The most popular portals in Estonia
also occupy leading positions in the
general rankings by reach and by
average time spent per user.
The leader in the Baltic States, delfi.ee,
provides its users with the latest news
and what is more it contains a blog,
chat, webmail service and other
information related to entertainment
and lifestyle. Moreover, it has
a games section, a forum and a video
section, where users can either watch
available video content or upload
their own. Thanks to these features,
delfi.ee has a devoted audience of
over 500,000 users, who according
to the gemiusAudience study,
generated more than 92.7 million
page views in March.
The second player on the Estonian
portals market is postimees.ee.
“Postimees” is the most popular daily
in Estonia. It is considered to have high
quality content and a rather serious
profile. Its users can find current
business, science and sports news,
information about cultural events
and much more on the site. Moreover,
it offers a subscription option. The site
is also available in Russian, making
1.4. SOCIAL NETWORKS
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS USER
1 rate.ee 222 082
2 keskus.ee 32 788
Table 4 Top 2 social networks in Estonia by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)
Local social networking services are
losing popularity in Estonia. They are
not able to fight with global brands
such as Facebook. The reach level of
rate.ee decreased in comparison to
Do you CEE? Estonia
it popular among the Russian-speaking
Estonian online audience. Postimees.ee
is dedicated mainly to well-educated
users who visit the site in order to be
up-to-date. In turn, elu24.ee has
a more entertaining profile. It publishes
eye-catching news, gossip and info
about mass events taking place around
the world. It has a gallery and a video
section. In March 2010, elu24.ee had
a reach level of 33%, which gave it the
4th position in the top 5 portals by
reach ranking.
With a 37% reach sloleht.ee ranked
third. In terms of its content the portal
is somewhere between postimees.ee
and elu24.ee. 50% of it is owned by
Eesti Meedia and 50% by the Ekspress
Group. It presents business news and
current affairs as well as light-hearted
photos and videos. Moreover, it has
a blog section and a TV guide.
The ranking from March 2010 was
closed by mail.ru with a reach level
of 22%. In terms of number of page
views, mail.ru is the unquestionable
leader with 310 page views per user
a month.
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER
708 06:48:28 28%
19 00:13:05 4%
last year by 7 percentage points and
the 4% reach of keskus.ee makes it
hardly a non-marginal player on the
Estonian online market.
 93
Rate.ee is dedicated mainly to young gadgets and information from various
people, who want to stay in touch with sources. Users can trace their friends’
their friends or meet new ones. Users activities, upload photos or create and
can upload their photos and videos, participate in different interest groups.
which can be commented on by their
friends. Moreover, they can join clubs
with people who have the same
interests or create a new one. There
are also games and tests accessible for
registered users only.

The second local social network in

Estonia, keskus.ee, enables its users
to create advanced profiles with
a personalized webpage containing

1.5. ONLINE CLASSIFIED ADS BY REACH

NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH

USERS USER USER

1 kv.ee 107 239 52 00:54:21 13%

2 cvonline.ee 99 551 60 00:37:43 12%

Table 5 Top 2 online classified ads in Estonia by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

There are two classified ad sites in service is for free, whereas publishing
gemiusAudience study from March advertisements by employers is only
2010: kv.ee and cvonline.ee. The first possible after paying a fee. The job
one, with a 13% reach, contains over offers are classified into categories to
30,000 real estate ads published by enable its users to find the job they
private users as well as by companies. are interested in quickly and easily.
Moreover, there is a news section
with market overviews, analysis and
advice. From February 2008 users can
follow the kv.ee Index characterizing
the Estonian real estate market.
The website is available not only in
Estonian but also in Russian, Finnish
and English.

In March 2010 cvonline.ee had a reach

level of 12%, 1 percentage point more
than in March 2009. This classified ads
site is dedicated to people searching
for jobs and employers looking for
employees. For job-seekers, the

Do you CEE? Estonia

94

2. ONLINE AUDIENCE

In Estonia, the gender structure Specialists and office employees

of the online population is not as constituted the most numerous group
balanced as in other CEE markets. in terms of occupation (23%) among
In March 2010, women constituted Estonian internet users in March 2010.
54% of the online population, while Second place belonged to students,
men comprised 46%. Additionally, an who accounted for 20% of the online
average man spent 16 minutes more population. Workers also constituted
online than an average woman. a significant part of the Estonian
online population.
The age structure of the Estonian
online population is quite balanced.
The highest percentage of users (24%)
is in the group of people aged 15-
24. Yet the percentage differences
between particular age groups are not
very significant. In March 2010 the
group of users aged 25-34 accounted
for 23% of the online audience and
the group aged 35-44 years old 22%.
Even the group of internet users over
55 constituted 15%, which is a large
proportion in comparison to other CEE
online populations.

The majority of Estonian internet

users are high school graduates.
According to the gemiusAudience
study from March 2010, they
accounted for 38% of the online
population in Estonia. The next
significant group are users with
a university degree (25%). 15% of the
internet users in Estonia have only
elementary or unfinished high school
education. However, this is the group
that leads in terms of the average time
spent online with almost 13.5 hours
a month.

The majority of Estonian internet

users (30%) live in Tallinn, the capital
of Estonia. In March 2010, the
counties with the largest share of the
internet population were Tartumaa
(14%), Harjumaa (11%), Pärnumaa
(8%) and Ida-Virumaa (7%).

Do you CEE? Estonia

96

3. TOOLS

3.1. BROWSERS

Chart 1 Top browsers in Estonia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Esto-
nian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3.1. Browsers 7.5 percentage points. The third

For many years the leader on the
Estonian browser market has been
Microsoft Internet Explorer. However,
the growing popularity of Firefox
seems to threaten its position.
Over the last year MSIE’s share of
page views generated by internet
users who visit Estonian websites
using gemiusTraffic decreased by
12 percentage points, whereas
the Firefox’s share increased by
most popular browser is Chrome
followed by Opera. According to the
gemiusTraffic study, during 2009,
Chrome gained 4 percentage points
and this trend remains stable. Another
browser used by Estonian internet
users is Safari. Although, it may not
be the most popular browser, its
popularity is still slowly growing. After
the first quarter of 2010 its market
share amounted to 1.5%.

3.2. OPERATING SYSTEMS

Chart 2 Top operating systems in Estonia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit
Estonian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

Do you CEE? Estonia

 97
3.2. Operating systems
3.3. SEARCH ENGINES
Similarly to other CEE markets, the
most popular operating system in
Estonia is Windows XP. In spite of
the fact that its popularity has been
decreasing for the last few years, after
the first quarter of 2010 its market
share (as analyzed by gemiusTraffic)
constituted 67%. The greatest threat
and Windows XP’s replacement is
deemed by some to be Windows
Vista. However, it did not meet
users’ expectations and after initial
Chart 3 Top search engines in Estonia by share of visits made by internet users who visit Estonian
growth has started to lose its share websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)
to Windows 7. In less than a year this
newcomer has managed to grab
a market share of 9%.
3.4. SCREEN RESOLUTIONS
Mac OS X and Linux are slowly gaining
popularity, however their respective
market shares are not significant
(2% and 1%).

3.3. Search engines

There have been no significant

changes over the last 12 months on
the search engine market in Estonia.
Since the second quarter of 2008,
Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Estonia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit
when Google overtook NETI, it has Estonian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)
been the unquestionable leader
with a market share of 72% after the
first quarter of 2010. However, NETI
is no longer losing its market share
3.5. MOBILE DEVICES
and during the last three months
2009 it gained 2 percentage points
and reached a 22% share of the
market. Other search engines, i.e.
MSN, Yandex, Delfi, Yahoo, are not
particularly popular among Estonians
and therefore they do not pose any
threat to the two main players.

3.4. Screen resolutions

The market share of monitors with

a resolution of 1024 x 768 has been Chart 5 Top 5 mobile devices in Estonia by the website-averaged percentage share of page views
decreasing for the last few years. generated by internet users form Estonia who visit Estonian websites using gemiusTraffic
(gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10
However, it is still the most popular **to 2010-07-25

Do you CEE? Estonia

98
choice among Estonians. Other
popular screen resolutions among
internet users who visit Estonian sites
using the gemiusTraffic in the first
quarter of 2010 were 1280 x 800 and
1280 x 1024. Also screen resolutions
of 1440 x 900 and 1680 x 1050 have
been gaining popularity in recent
years. 1366 x 768 is a new screen
resolution, which in one year has
managed to take 3% of the market.
3.5. Mobile devices - models
The most popular mobile device
used to connect to the internet on
the Estonian market is the iPhone.
However, it is visibly losing its share
4. BRANCH ORGANIZATIONS
Estonian E-commerce Union
www.e-kaubanduseliit.ee
Description: E-commerce Union’s
mission is to help develop the e-
commerce market in Estonia as well
as to work on unifying standards
and making the process of shopping
online easier and safer for customers.
E-commerce Union was established
in spring 2009 and currently has 44
members. It costs to join as a member.
Members: In June 2010 there were 44
members. CDMarket AS, Despal SJ Ltd,
Interbauen Ltd, Neolor Ltd, Kindershop
Ltd, Baltic IT Solutions Ltd, Onshop
AS, OX Estonia OÜ, Time Squared
Ltd, Internet Revolution Ltd, Personal
Trade Ltd., Nordwise Ltd., Catwalkers
Ltd., Petsec Trading Ltd., Rattle Ltd.,
E Boutique Ltd., Helfors Trade Ltd.,
Riveante Ltd., Sopso.com Ltd., IS
Commercial Ltd., Nesting Project Ltd.,
Nature Mobilis Ltd., Finest Fashion
Do you CEE? Estonia
and comparing the results from
May 2010 to July 2010, its share has
decreased by more than 8 percentage
points. The other Apple product that
has lost its market share is the iPod,
gaining nearly 9% in July 2010. During
the same period, the iPad consistently
gained the interest of users and its
share grew by more than 4 precentage
points within the past two months.
The last positions are taken by Nokia
devices, responsible for around 10%
of page views generated by mobile
devices on an average website.
Group Ltd., Baumax Estonia OÜ,
Adelor Ltd., Kids First LLC, Autoladu.ee
Portal Ltd., Text Elle OÜ, Maronek Ltd.
Estonian advertising agencies union
www.eral.ee
Description: The Estonian advertising
agencies union was founded in 1998
and was formed to protect members’
interests, as well as to award the
best agencies annually with the
“Kuldmuna” awards. ERAL’s vision is of
a better environment through better
ideas.
Members: The Estonian advertising
agencies union has very influential
members (approximately 99% of
the largest players on the market).
In June 2010 it had 41 members.
These agencies include: AGE McCann,
AD Angels, Artwerk, Blumberg,
Brilliant, DDB Eesti, Direct Group OÜ,
 99
Ecwador, Euro RSCG Idea, Inorek & Ogilvy, The Division AS, Tank, Vatson
Grey, TBWA\Guvatrak, Kala Ruudus, Wunderman.
Kontuur Leo Burnett, Plektrum Studio,
Refleks, SAN Korpus JWT, Smile Design
& Advertising, Zavod BBDO, Taevas

5. ADVERTISING NETWORKS

GENERAL CONTACT INFORMATION

FULL NAME HOMEPAGE URL ADDRESS MAIN OFFICE CONTACT
ADDRESS

Roo 42-7, Phone: +372-51-27-125

1 Smartad smartad.ee
Tallinn, Estonia Email: priit.kivinurm@smartad.ee
Phone: +372-66-17-970
Pärnu mnt 147,
2 Adnet adnet.ee Fax: +372-66-17-979
Tallinn, Estonia
Email: adnet@adnet.ee
Endla 69, Phone: +372-61-05-896
3 Klikivabrik klikivabrik.ee
Tallinn, Estonia Email: info@klikivabrik.ee

6. OPINIONS FROM THE MARKET

Meelis Vill
Sales Director, Delfi Estonia

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the Estonian online advertising
market?

The advertising market is liberal and flexible towards the needs of clients. The
majority of main publishers are flexible regarding specific solutions. One obstacle
could be the high price of specialized solutions which limits the creativeness of
advertisements.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are expected
to develop most in the future?

Banners are getting larger. In addition to the day-based price model it is possible to
buy impressions from all major publishers.

Do you CEE? Estonia

100
Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete with
the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this battle?

Most of the adspends of large international companies are at the moment being
spent on television. It would be important to find possibilities and arguments to
show television commercials on the internet.

Igor Rõtov
CEO, Äripäev AS:

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the Estonian online advertising
market on your local market?

We are expecting little growth in internet advertising, which will bring an increase
in its general share. The trend at the moment is to direct advertisements to exact
target groups. Those who have very general target groups will lose their market
share whereas those players who can gain smaller market segments or maintain
positions of niche leaders will win. The testing of innovative solutions and
technical possibilities will continue.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are expected
to develop most in the future?

News publishers will primarily try to offer paid content. Mobile applications, iPad
and e-readers are set to become more popular. On the other hand, consumers will
stay conservative and money will not be spent easily.

Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete with
the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this battle?

Local players have a good position to win this battle. Estonia is too small market
for Google, Microsoft or other major global players to especially invest here. Local
players on the other hand have the substantive and technical expertise, resources
and motivation to strengthen their positions.

Do you CEE? Estonia

Hungary
4,30m
internet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_103
1.1. Top10websitesbyreach_103
1.2. Top10websitesbyaveragetimespentperuser_104
1.3. Topportals_106
1.4. Social networks_107
1.5. Onlineclassifiedadsbyreach_108
1.6. Topfinancesitesbyreach_108
2. ONLINEAUDIENCE_109
3. TOOLS_111
3.1. Browsers_111
3.2. Operatingsystems_112
3.3. Searchengines_112
3.4. Screenresolutions_113
3.5. Mobiledevices_113
4. BRANCHORGANIZATIONS_114
5. ADVERTISINGNETWORKS_115
6. OPINIONSFROMTHEMARKET_117
 103

1. MAIN PLAYERS

1.1. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY REACH

WEBSITE’S CATEGORY NUMBER OF REAL NUMBER OF PAGE PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USERS VIEWS USER USER

1 google.hu search engine 3 927 644 - - 08:10:01 91%

2 youtube.com video sharing 2 777 829 - - 03:10:32 65%

3 iwiw.hu social network 2 771 643 1 764 264 408 637 05:24:32 64%
horizontal portal / web
4 startlap.hu 2 287 189 - - 03:00:52 53%
directory
5 freemail.hu mail provider 1 948 731 136 630 017 70 01:54:35 45%

6 facebook.com social network 1 910 368 - - 04:40:15 44%

7 blog.hu blog site 1 902 768 36 799 044 19 00:34:31 44%

Microsoft’s interactiv
8 live.com 1 668 642 - - 00:35:18 39%
services platform
9 origo.hu horizontal portal 1 630 868 55 484 691 34 02:00:06 38%

10 microsoft.com company site 1 563 662 - - 00:10:11 36%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Hungary by reach level (gemius/Ipsos Audience, March 2010)

The ranking of the most popular
websites in terms of the number
of real users in Hungary provides
an interesting picture of internet
users. Global websites, such as
google.hu (91%), youtube.com
(65%), facebook.com (44%), live.
com (39%) and microsoft.com (36%)
are very popular among Hungarians.
Moreover, unlike on many other
CEE online markets, local horizontal
portals and news services are not
websites with the highest reach
level in Hungary.
A local site with the largest number
of real users is a social networking
service, iWiW.hu, with a reach level
of 64% in March 2010, which gave
it third place in the top 10 ranking
of websites. The second popular
service of this kind is the global
service Facebook. Its reach level in
March 2009 amounted to only 10%
and this year it was 44%.
With a reach level of 53% startlap.
hu ranked fourth. It is the most
popular local web directory, which
includes links to social networking
websites, articles and all kinds of
useful information. Fifth place in
the ranking belongs to the mail
provider, freemail.hu. Its reach
level amounted to 45% in March
2010, according to gemius/Ipsos
Audience. It is not only an e-mail
service, but also has a gallery where
users can upload photos.
In 7th place, in terms of reach level,
was blog.hu with 44%. Blog.hu, part
of the portfolio of Central European
Media and Publishing, is the leading

Do you CEE? Hungary

104
Hungarian blogging platform with
more than 70,000 active blogs.
The 9th ranking position was held
by origo.hu, the most popular
Hungarian portal with news and
services (the only one in the top
10 ranking). However, its popularity
is declining and in comparison
to March 2009 its reach level
decreased by 5 percentage points.
In terms of publisher-level reach of
media portfolios, Sanoma Budapest
(startlap.hu, citromail.hu, nlcafe.hu
etc.) and Central European Media
and Publishing (blog.hu, index.hu,
velvet.hu etc.) are the next biggest
local online media players after
Origo.

When describing the situation on

the Hungarian internet market,
it is crucial to take into account
the ownership structure of the
top websites. From this point
of view it can be easily noticed
that, apart from global players,
the undisputable leader in
terms of reach is Origo Média és
Kommunikációs Zrt., which
is a member of the Magyar Telekom
Group. This company owns 3 sites
in TOP10: iWiW.hu, freemail.hu and
origo.hu.

1.2. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY AVERAGE TIME SPENT PER USER

NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME REACH

REAL USERS USER PER USER

1 tagged.com 52 464 - 12:07:07 1%

2 battleknight.hu 92 344 - 09:07:11 2%

3 google.hu 3 927 644 - 08:10:01 91%

4 hirlista.hu 31 791 - 07:49:00 1%

5 love.hu 137 860 848 07:36:10 3%

6 myvip.com 1 336 069 756 06:04:55 31%

7 freelove.hu 48 216 - 05:56:54 1%

8 kapu.hu 479 249 - 05:53:53 11%

9 iwiw.hu 2 771 643 637 05:24:32 64%

10 donna.hu 64 932 739 05:17:48 2%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Hungary by average time spent per user (gemius/Ipsos Audience,
March 2010)

Do you CEE? Hungary


In terms of average time spent online,
the indisputable leaders are social
networking websites. According to
data from gemius/Ipsos Audience,
in March 2010 Hungarian internet
users spent more than 12 hours
visiting tagged.com. It is a different
kind of social networking website,
which enables its registered users
to meet new people through social
games, friend suggestions, browsing
profiles and group interests. Its reach
level amounted to only 1%, which is
worrying considering the fact that in
March 2009 it was 3 percentage points
higher.
Second place, with over 9 hours,
belonged to battleknight.hu, a free
online game created by a German
company Gameforge AG. Users can
choose whether they want to play as
a paladin in a shining armor or a dark
robber knight. There are 33 versions
of this game available for people from
different countries.
An average google.hu visitor spent
over 8 hours on this serch engine site
in March 2010, and only little less,
i.e. 7 hours 50 minutes, was spent by
visitors of hirlista.hu. It is a site which
collects news from several other
Hungarian news sites and provides
link to them. Thanks to the site,
users no longer need to visit many
different news portals, but click on the
most interesting links and are then
redirected to the original site where
the news was first published.
The next three places are occupied by
social networking websites: love.hu,
myvip.com and freelove.hu. They give
users the opportunity not only to stay
in touch with old friends, but also meet
new people. Love.hu and freelove.hu
serve mainly as dating sites, whereas
myvip.com has a more entertaining
105
character with lots of media content.
In March 2010 their users visited
the site for almost 6 hours or more
(love.hu – 7 hours 36 minutes).
Other social networking websites in
the ranking were iwiw.hu, the most
popular one in Hungary with almost
5 hours and 25 minutes spent per user,
and donna.hu, for young women with
a result of almost 5 hours and
18 minutes. The latter provides articles
on women topics, forums with expert
advice and a chat room. Moreover,
visitors can browse the classified ads.
One can join through an invitation
from a member or by permission of
the community if he is a man. What is
interesting is the fact that Facebook
was not included in this ranking.
Although it is a very popular social
networking service on the Hungarian
online market, its users spent less time
online here than the users of local
social networking websites.
In March 2010, one more Hungarian
site with users spending almost 6 hours
was kapu.hu. In this web directory
users can find links to social sites, news
services, and websites with diversified
topics. According to the gemius/
Ipsos Audience study, its reach level
amounted to 11% in March 2010.
Do you CEE? Hungary
106
1.3. TOP PORTALS
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS
1 startlap.hu 2 287 189
2 origo.hu 1 630 868
3 index.hu 1 332 998
4 port.hu 1 322 314
5 nlcafe.hu 1 069 158
Table 3 Top 5 portals in Hungary by reach level (gemius/Ipsos Audience, March 2010)
The leader among portals on the
Hungarian online market is startlap.hu,
which in fact is a combination
of a web directory and a service
aggregator, but is recognized as the
most popular portal in Hungary with
a reach level of 53% in March 2010.
It enables users to access e-mails,
search engines, social networks, radio
programs as well as dictionaries.
The second player in the category is
origo.hu. It is the most popular news
portal in Hungary as far as the number
of users is concerned. In addition to
the facilities typical for such portals,
it contains a section with holiday
offers and, furthermore, it has its
own online store and software
download section. Moreover, there
is a search engine that allows one to
browse through the yellow pages and
a telephone book. The reach level
of this service amounted to 38% in
March 2010 according to gemius/
Ipsos Audience.
With a 31% reach, index.hu was the
third most popular portal in Hungary.
It is owned by Central European
Media and Publishing. Among the
Hungarian portals, it has the most
Do you CEE? Hungary
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER USER
- 03:00:52 53%
34 02:00:06 38%
77 04:59:41 31%
60 0:34:19 31%
- 00:25:51 25%
engaged audience in terms of time
spent on the site (04:59:41 per
user). Apart from news on politics,
economics, technology, culture and
sports Index also offers direct access
to its community services (Inda) from
its front page, e.g. a blogging platform
(blog.hu), video (indavideo.hu) and
photo sharing (indafoto.hu) sites.
The forth position, with 31% reach
in the ranking, is taken by port.hu.
Established in 1996, the service aims
to provide culture-oriented content
programme and leisure information.
Port.hu presents data from official
and primary sources such as TV
channels, cinemas, theatres, and its
own content: reviews of films, photos
from concerts, etc. The company
belongs to PORT-network, a website
with subsidiaries in Romania, Slovakia,
Serbia and Croatia. Their main
function is providing internet and
other electronic content concerning
cultural offer information.
Another significant player in Hungary
is nlcafe.hu, which ranked fifth in the
top 5 portals ranking. It is an online
magazine for women, which provides
many features typical for such portals,

such as a blog platform, online games,
multimedia galleries, online shopping
and a dating service. According to the
gemius/Ipsos Audience study, more
than 1,000,000 users visited the site in
March 2010.
1.4. SOCIAL NETWORKS
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS
1 iwiw.hu 2 771 643
2 facebook.com 1 910 368
3 myvip.com 1 336 069
4 hotdog.hu 1 026 115
5 network.hu 677 737
Table 4 Top 5 social networks in Hungary by reach level (gemius/Ipsos Audience March 2010)
With regard to social network
communities, the leader is the local
website iWiW.hu, which dominated
websites participating in the gemius/
Ipsos Audience study. In March 2010,
it attracted an audience of over 2.7
million real users, which is 100,000
more than a year ago. However,
the reach level fell by 8 percentage
points. Apart from the typical
networking features, it also provides
its users with classified ads. A huge
advantage of iWiW.hu is easy access
from mobile devices.
Although there are many social
networking sites in Hungary, for
a long time there was no significant
competition to iWiW.hu. However,
the past year has shown major
growth in the reach level of
Facebook. In March 2009, its market
share slightly exceeded 10%, but
a year later it reached a level of 44%.
107
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER USER
637 05:24:32 64%
- 04:40:15 44%
756 06:04:55 31%
- 01:30:22 24%
- 00:19:38 16%
Another important player is myvip.com,
with a reach level of 31%. In March
2010, the site was visited by over
1,300,000 real users. In comparison
to March 2009, its reach decreased
by 2 percentage points. Like iWiW.
hu, myvip.hu is an exclusive network
where users can only sign in when
they are invited by a member.
Myvip.hu is run by a company
specializing mainly in online
entertainment, Generál Média Kft.
Great attention is paid to the site’s
media content, therefore, users are
able to share their photos and videos.
Moreover, the service publishes video
material itself, also in HD format. In
terms of monthly average time spent
online per user, myvip.hu ranked first
with more than 6 hours.
In 4th place we find hotdog.hu,
a Hungarian social networking
website for young people. Users are
Do you CEE? Hungary
108
able to communicate with each other,
play games, read news or search for a
job. Moreover, the site offers a dating
service, forums and blogs.
They can share photos, videos, links
and articles. However, its market
share decreased by 8 percentage
points in comparison to March 2009.

The ranking is propped up by

network.hu, another Hungarian social
networking website, whose users can
join various communities and browse
through advertisements.

1.5. ONLINE CLASSIFIED ADS BY REACH

NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH

USERS USER USER

1 expressz.hu 1 065 524 105 01:09:21 25%

2 apronet.hu 339 798 10 00:09:27 8%

3 onlineapro.hu 177 173 21 00:14:04 4%

Table 5 Top 3 online classified ads in Hungary by reach level (gemius/Ipsos Audience, March 2010)

The main player on the classified ads onlineapro.hu with a reach level of 4%.
market in Hungary is expressz.hu, According to information on the site it
with a reach level of 25%. A year ago stores more than 300,000 ads. The site
its reach level was 1 percentage point offers its users free registration and
higher. Advertisements are grouped online ads.
into 31 categories e.g. games, clothes,
job offers, cars, real estate. According
to the gemius/Ipsos Audience study,
the second most popular site with
classified ads, with a reach of 8%, was
apronet.hu. Third place belonged to

1.6. TOP FINANCE SITES BY REACH

NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME REACH

USERS USER PER USER

1 index.hu-Gazdaság 487 130 8 00:15:33 11%

2 vg.hu 318 474 8 00:08:54 7%

3 portfolio.hu 315 414 34 01:45:16 7%

Table 6 Top 3 finance sites in Hungary by reach level (gemius/Ipsos Audience, March 2010)

Do you CEE? Hungary


The most popular service dedicated
to the economy in terms of reach
level is the subsection of the famous
horizontal portal index.hu, owned
by Central European Media and
Publishing(CEMP). With almost
500,000 internet users it reaches 11%
of the online audience in Hungary.
Portfolio.hu, also owned by CEMP,
reaches 7% of the audience who are
interested in finance. They spend
an average of more than 1 hour
45 minutes on the site. Portfolio.hu is
an economic portal with information
regarding, amongst others, finance,
stocks and exchange rates. Although
third as far as the number of real users
is concerned, , the website leaves both
its competitors behind in the number
of page views per user.
2. ONLINE AUDIENCE
The online population in Hungary
is very balanced in terms of gender
structure. In March 2010 the majority
of Hungarian internet users were
men, but they constituted only 50.2%
of the online population, so their
predominance is not impressive. Men,
however, spent an average of 6.5
hours more online than women (58
hours compared to 51.5).
Like in other CEE markets,
Hungarian internet users are very
young. According to the gemius/
Ipsos Audience study, in March 2010
individuals aged 15-24 were the
majority and constituted 28%. 25%
constituted users aged 25-34. People
over 55 years accounted for 13% of
the audience and the percentage
is growing, which means that the
internet is becoming an even more
109
Second place is taken by vg.hu, the
online version of the newspaper
Világgazdaság, covering economic
and financial news. In March 2010 the
service had more than 310,000 real
users which gave it a reach level of
7%. However, compared to last year
a drop of 1 percentage point has been
observed.
attractive medium for more mature
persons.
Hungarian internet users are
relatively well-educated. Although
only 7% had graduated from
a university, this is still a good
result, especially after taking into
consideration the age structure,
which is dominated by young internet
users. People with at least secondary
school education constituted 65%
of the Hungarian online population.
Only 1% of the internet audience
had incomplete elementary school
education in March 2010.
The majority of internet users in
Hungary live in big cities and larger
towns. According to the study carried
out by Gemius and Ipsos, Budapest
(the capital city) alone is home to as
Do you CEE? Hungary

much as 21% of Hungarian internet
users as of March 2010. A further 16%
live in cities with more than 100,000
citizens. A significant proportion of
the online audience come from small
towns and villages and accounted for
22% of the online population.
In March 2010, students
constituted the largest group of
internet users (25%) in Hungary.
Another significant proportion
of internet users are specialists
(graduates) and qualified workers who
3. TOOLS
3.1. BROWSERS
Chart 1 Top browsers in Hungary by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Hunga-
rian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)
3.1. Browsers
Mozilla Firefox has been the most
popular browser in Hungary since the
beginning of 2009, when it overtook
Microsoft Internet Explorer. In the
first quarter of 2010 its market share
constituted 54%, whereas the MIE
constituted 37%. The third most
popular browser is Chrome, which
has been gaining an advantage over
Opera since the end of 2009 and
111
together constituted 31%. People who
are not professionally active did not
constitute an important proportion of
the online market; however, they are
undoubtedly the most active internet
users. In terms of average time spent
online per user they were far ahead of
any other group.
during the first three months of the
2010 has gained 2 percentage points.
This trend seems to be continuing.
3.2. Operating systems
The most popular operating system in
Hungary was Windows XP, with a 76%
share in the first quarter of 2010.
However, its popularity has been
decreasing with the introduction of
Windows 7, which since then has
Do you CEE? Hungary
112

3.2. OPERATING SYSTEMS

Chart 2 Top operating systems in Hungary by share of page views generated by internet users who
visit Hungarian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

been gaining an ever larger share
of the market and is catching up
with Windows Vista. After the first
quarter of 2010, the market share
of Windows 7 amounted to 9.5%,
which ranked second among the top
operating systems in Hungary. Mac OS
X and Linux have been slowly gaining
popularity, but neither of them cover
more than 1% of the market.
3.3. Search engines
Like in other CEE countries, the
indisputable leader of the search
engine market in Hungary was Google
winning a market share of 97% in
the first quarter of 2010. Bing, which
ranked second, contributed to only
1.5%.
3.4. Screen resolutions
Although the market share of 1024 x
768 monitor screen resolutions has
decreased, it is still the most popular
choice among Hungarians. Other
popular screen resolutions in the first
quarter of 2010 were 1280 x 800 and
1280 x 1024. The screen resolution
of 1440 x 900 as well as 1366 x 768
have become more popular in recent
years.

3.3. SEARCH ENGINES

Chart 3 Top search engines in Hungary by share of visits made by internet users who visit Hungarian
websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

Do you CEE? Hungary

 113

3.4. SCREEN RESOLUTIONS

Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Hungary by share of page views generated by internet users who visit
Hungarian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3.5. Mobile devices - models device was Nokia 5800. Its users
generated 5% of the mobile traffic on
According to the gemiusTraffic study, the average Hungarian website using
the most popular mobile device gemiusTraffic. Other devices in the
used to access the web in Hungary is top 5 ranking were iPod and Nokia
iPhone, which in July was responsible E51.
for 36% of page views generated
by mobile devices on the average
website. Another Apple product,
iPad, had a 6% share, however, its
popularity is growing and from May
to July 2010 it gained 2 percentage
points. The third most popular mobile

3.5. MOBILE DEVICES

Chart 5 Top 5 mobile devices in Hungary by the website-averaged percentage share of page views
generated by internet users from Hungary, who visit Hungarian websites using gemiusTraffic
(gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10
**to 2010-07-25

Do you CEE? Hungary

114
4. BRANCH ORGANIZATIONS
IAB Hungary
www.iab.hu
Description: IAB Hungary was
established in November 2008
as a division of the Hungarian
Advertising Association. There are 48
founder members. The organization
is concentrated on: increasing the
awareness, usage and recognition
of digital marketing and advertising
solutions; assisting in the development
of the digital marketing and digital
media industries; lobbying at national
and international forums for-profit,
non-profit and governmental
organizations; creating a common view
(platform) in the industry by means of
constant and credible communication
with market players, various
organizations, press and municipalities
connected to the industry.
Members: agencies and sales houses
(e.g., Adaptive Media, Carnation,
EURO RSCG, Evomedia, Kirowski,
Onlinemarketing.hu, Fastbridge,
MEC Interaction), publishers (e.g.
Axel Springer, Central European
Media and Publishing, Expressz,
Google, Magyar Telekom, MTM-SBS
– TV2, Origo, Sanoma Budapest),
research agencies (e.g. AGB Nielsen
Médiakutató, Gemius Hungary, GFK
Hungária Piackutató Intézet, Medián,
NRC, Szonda Ipsos Piackutató),
advertisers (CIB Bank, MOL, Vodafone)
and technology service providers (e.g.
Adverticum).
Association of Hungarian Content
Providers (MTE)
www.mte.hu
Description: The Association of
Hungarian Content Providers (MTE),
Do you CEE? Hungary
a self-regulating body, was founded
in 2001 by Hungarian internet
content providers, including Index
and [origo], in order for the content
providers to be able to participate in
the development of the Hungarian
internet business market with
verified and professionally supported
commitments using the tools of self-
regulation.
MTE’s aim is to ensure that the
internet is regulated with as little
intervention as possible with emphasis
on self-regulation. To this aim, MTE
has created a professional code of
internet content provision and a code
of ethics describing the generally
accepted system of ethical norms
for Hungarian content provision.
In order to decide about disputed
matters, the association established
a professional decision court, whose
decisions are accepted by members of
MTE as binding.
Members: publishers (e.g. T-Online
Magyarország Rt., Index.hu Zrt.,
Népszabadság Online, www.napi.hu
Online Kft., Kurt Lewin Alapítvány,
Menedzsment Fórum Kft., Colorplus
Kft.) service providers (e.g. Neumann
János Digitális Könyvtár és Multimédia
Központ Kht.)
Association of Communications
Agencies in Hungary (MAKSZ)
www.maksz.com
Description: The Association of
Communications Agencies in Hungary
(MAKSZ) was set up by 13 leading
advertising agencies in Hungary in May
1995. The main objective was to set
up an organization especially focused
on the interests of agencies.
The MAKSZ is member of
 115
the European Association of Telex Kft., Lauritzen Marketing Kft.,
Communications Agencies (EACA), Café Group, eMission, Initiative Media
which is the highest level of agency Hungary, Mediaedge:cia Hungary Kft.
representation in the world. It can Media Planning Group Hungary Kft.).
be assisted by a number of foreign
experiences in the domestic
processing industry, the development
of marketing communication.

Members: There are already

51 members and the number is
increasing. Agencies include: Euro
RSCG Budapest Zrt., Ogilvy&Mather
Reklámügynökség Budapest Zrt.,
Young & Rubicam Budapest, Createam
Promotion, HPS BTL Solutions, Human

5. ADVERTISING NETWORKS

GENERAL CONTACT INFORMATION

FULL NAME HOMEPAGE URL REACH MAIN OFFICE CONTACT
ADDRESS ADDRESS

Adaptive Media Sales

1037 Budapest, Szépvölgyi Phone:+36-1-577-4050
1 House adaptivemedia.hu 93%
út 33. Phone:+36-1-577-4051
Sales Contact Kft.
Phone:+36-1-371-3500
1117 Budapest, Gábor Dé-
2 Origo Zrt. corp.origo.hu 91% Fax:+ 36-1-371-3805
nes u. 2. „D”
Email: adhouse@origo.hu
1037 Budapest, Montevideo Phone:+36-1-437-1100
3 Sanoma Budapest Zrt. sanomabp.hu 76% u. 9. Fax:+36-1-437-3737
Flórián Udvar Email: sanomabp@sanomabp.hu
Phone:+36-1-555-7000
CEMP Sales House,
4 cemp.hu 71% 1033 Budapest, Flórián tér 1. Fax: +36-1-231-0862
Index.hu Zrt.
Email: sales@cemp.hu
1097 Budapest, Phone:+36-1-323-0360
5 Evomedia evomedia.hu 68% Vaskapu utca 10-14. D Fax:+36-1-323-0361
épület Email: sales@evomedia.hu
1094 Budapest, Tűzoltó u. Phone:+36-1-299-0318
6 GMedia - Habostorta habostorta.hu 58%
59. Fax:+36-1-299-0319
Actual Media Sales
Phone: +36-1-998-0164
7 House actualmedia.hu 56% 1201 Budapest Pacsirta u.77.
Email: info@actualmedia.hu
Actual 77 Media Kft
1053 Budapest Ferenciek
8 Generál Média Kft. ringier.hu 53% Email: sales@generalmedia.hu
tere 7-8. III. lh. I/8.
Kolozs Krisztina
1122 Budapest
9 Axel Springer Online axelspringer.hu 38% Phone: +36-1-488-5564
Városmajor utca 11
Email: krisztina.kolozs@axelspringer.hu
Lazók Rómeó
www.lighthouse- 1024 Budapest Margit krt.
10 Lighthouse Média Kft. 34% Phone: +36-30-456-3907
media.hu 15-17.
Email: romeo.lazok@lighthousemedia.hu

Do you CEE? Hungary

 117

6. OPINIONS FROM THE MARKET

István Kürti
Director of Sales, Sanoma Budapest

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the Hungarian online advertising
market?

The growth rate of internet penetration has slowed down recently, thus it is not
the primary engine of the industry’s growth anymore. Nowadays the greatest
opportunities are in displaying new and creative types of advertisements and
enhancing the effectiveness of ads. To implement such changes the following
actions should be taken:
• clients should provide creatives congruent with website themes
• measurement standards should be developed effectively
• the potential of media convergence, e.g. ‘augmented reality’ should be used
more intensively
• effective targeting of video advertisements, sponsored videos and others
should be applied

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are expected
to develop most in the future?

Development might be expected after the falloff of the economic crisis mainly by
those market segments that have suffered from an economic downturn the most
(for example transport or real estate). Generally speaking, advertisers put more
emphasis than ever on measurability and return on investment, thereupon the
share of the internet in total advertising expenditure is growing.

Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete with
the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this battle?

Generally speaking, though globalization unequivocally supports large,

international companies, local content is still important for users. Due to this
fact, Hungarian users can be found through domestic media. Sales teams taking
this approach can provide the same level of services as the larger companies
represented by sales houses.

Péter Novák
Chairman, IAB Hungary

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the Hungarian online advertising
market?

Do you CEE? Hungary

118
As a result of changes in consumer media usage online/digital communication
itself is seen to be increasing, and it is not possible to avoid the processes that the
economy and advertising market is going through.

Considering the fact that communication spending has decreased significantly in

the last two years, it has also had a negative influence on online market growth
and also decelerated it. The dynamics over the last few years are in parallel
with the economic recovery and the visible growth of consumption. Also, the
restructuring of the online market will not stop, so trends are influenced by
measurability and efficiency most.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are expected
to develop most in the future?

Advertisers are increasingly more interested in solutions that are capable of

generating sales directly and this affects the growth of targeting needs and also
transforms pricing and financial accounting.

The expansion of both online shopping and e-commerce brings new advertisers to
the market. Besides different direct communication environments, the constant
development of online CRM solutions, the improvement of database construction
and the growing appreciation of the data obtained are the most important trends.
Furthermore, the significant strengthening of mobile media is expected.

Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete with
the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this battle?

When considering the role of global market players it is worth noting that
nowadays those who provide services for domestic users without conducting any
significant local operations form a great threat to Hungarian players in fields like
searching, video hosting and social media.

On the other hand, while the search market is dominated by the leading global
service provider, the position of the local social media market leader has not been
really threatened. The video market has gone through remarkable changes, the
‘match’ has not finished. Overall, global competition will cause more difficulties for
local market players during the next few years.

Market specifics

What makes your local online market unique? Are there any specifics that make it
different from others in the CEE region?

While comparing the Hungarian online market with other CEE countries many
similarities as well as differences can be found. Online markets in this part of the
world are rather small, internet penetration oscillates at a medium level and local
competition is strong.

Do you CEE? Hungary

 119
Taking into consideration the development of the online advertising market,
Hungary belongs to the CEE leaders, but in a certain sense it is still rather
conservative.

Gabor Tóth
Head of Digital of Omnicom Media Group (OMG)

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the Hungarian online advertising
market?

The biggest obstacle is the prolonged financial crisis and economic downturn.
However, this is also an opportunity, as investors are turning to effective and cost
efficient channels to use their limited marketing budgets.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What branches are
expected to develop most in the future?

The two main areas receiving a lot of attention are search and social media.
Search is finally getting the recognition it deserved as advertisers are learning how
to use this channel best. Social media is at the stage of experimentation: although
many companies feel the urge to use it, many mistakes are being made. The third
area which will experience intense growth is video advertising.

Global vs. local players

Are your local market players strong enough to compete with the global giants?
What advantages and strategies do they have in this battle?

Local language in non-user generated content is the key, so global players are not a
significant threat in this area. However, in other fields it is clear that local players
are struggling to keep up with the pace of development dictated by the global
players: Google search, Facebook, YouTube are either already the undisputable
winners in their own segment or they are going to be one in the near future.

Market specifics

What makes your local online market unique? Are there any specifics that make it
different it from others in the CEE region?

The importance of social network sites and the way Hungarians use them.
We love to share photos, videos with our friends – and we do it with more
commitment than other countries in the region. It almost seems like we preferred
to meet up online.

Do you CEE? Hungary

 Latvia
1.20m
internet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_121
1.1. Top10websitesbyreach_121
1.2. Top10websitesbyaveragetimespentperuser_122
1.3. Topportals_123
1.4. Social networks_124
1.5. Onlineclassifiedadsbyreach_125
1.6. Topfinancesitesbyreach_126
2. ONLINEAUDIENCE_126
3. TOOLS_128
3.1. Browsers_128
3.2. Operatingsystems_129
3.3. Search engines_129
3.4. Screen resolutions_129
3.5. Mobiledevices_130
4. BRANCHORGANIZATIONS_130
5. ADVERTISINGNETWORKS_132
6. OPINIONSFROMTHEMARKET_133
 121

1. MAIN PLAYERS

1.1. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY REACH

WEBSITE’S CATEGORY NUMBER OF REAL NUMBER OF PAGE PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USERS VIEWS USER USER

1 inbox.lv horizontal portal 792 531 245 041 702 309 06:17:28 66%

2 draugiem.lv social network 739 786 1 249 803 404 1689 24:20:44 62%

3 delfi.lv horizontal portal 665 600 98 698 672 148 03:33:09 55%

4 ss.lv classified ads 598 001 241 360 669 404 03:21:33 50%

5 tvnet.lv horizontal portal 450 903 37 609 480 83 02:29:12 38%

6 apollo.lv horizontal portal 416 432 36 821 077 88 01:54:59 35%

7 one.lv social network 337 475 277 799 261 823 10:03:18 28%

8 1188.lv information service 296 934 3 852 033 13 00:10:42 25%

9 zip.lv classified ads 289 721 18 423 529 64 00:43:20 24%

10 zl.lv information service 277 005 3 063 874 11 00:11:37 23%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Latvia by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

The most popular websites in terms despite strong competition from

of reach can be classified into four
categories. Similarly to other CEE
markets, the leadership belongs to
horizontal portals. In March 2010,
number one in the ranking was inbox.lv,
a mail service that evolved into a
horizontal portal with a reach level
of 66%. However, in comparison to
March 2009, its reach decreased by 3
percentage points and this is not an
exception; the same situation applies
in case of other horizontal portals. The
reach level of delfi.lv, which ranked
third, dropped by 2 percentage points
(from 57% to 55%) and tvnet.lv and
apollo.lv had reach levels 3 percentage
points lower than the previous year
(38% and 35%, respectively).
The second significant group within
the Latvian internet market are social
networking services. Interestingly,
global social networks, the position
of the local ones remains very strong.
The unquestionable leader, with
a reach level of 62%, is draugiem.lv.
Its growing popularity can be
confirmed by the fact that its reach
level increased by 3 percentage points
during the last twelve months.
The other popular social network
in Latvia in March 2010 was one.lv.
It had a reach level of 28% (still,
regarding one.lv this indicator has
dropped) and over 300,000 real users.
Unlike draugiem.lv, which is visited
mainly by Latvians, one.lv is more
popular with Russian users.
What is also characteristic about the
Latvian online market is the high
popularity of online classified ads
services. With a reach level of 50%,
ss.lv occupied the fourth position in

Do you CEE? Latvia

122
the ranking of top websites. Zip.lv,
whose introduction to the market in
June 2008 was a great success, comes
9th. However, its popularity seems
to have reached its peak and during
the last year, its reach level decreased
by 1%.
The fourth significant website category
in Latvia is the group of information
services, which enable users to search
for company services, shops or places
on a map. The most popular Latvian
information service is 1188.lv with
a reach level of 25% in March 2010
which gave it the 8th position among
the most popular websites by
reach. Apart from the normal kinds
of services offered by this sort of
websites, 1188.lv also contains useful
information on different means of
transport, an entertainment section
and job offers.
In August 2009 another information
service, zl.lv, was included in the
gemiusAudience study with a reach
level of 15%, which soon started to
grow. In March 2010 its reach level
amounted to a surprisingly high 23%.
The site is organized in a very simple
way, all available information is
divided into nine categories together
with an additional “most wanted” one.
Apart from Latvian, its users can also
choose the Russian or English version
of the website.

1.2. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY AVERAGE TIME SPENT PER USER

NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME REACH

REAL USERS USER PER USER

1 draugiem.lv 739 786 1,689 24:20:44 62%

2 one.lv 337 475 823 10:03:18 28%

3 inbox.lv 792 531 309 06:17:28 66%

4 boomtime.lv 150 902 285 04:05:33 13%

5 delfi.lv 665 600 148 03:33:09 55%

6 ss.lv 598 001 404 03:21:33 50%

7 tvnet.lv 450 903 83 02:29:12 38%

8 sportacentrs.com 142 797 99 02:26:17 12%

9 mail.ru 246 811 93 02:17:16 21%

10 spoki.lv 211 600 120 01:59:51 18%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Latvia by average time spent per user (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

The first two places in the top 10
websites by average time spent per
user are occupied by social networking
sites. Similarly to people from other
CEE countries, Latvians enjoy spending
long hours socializing with their
acquaintances online. An average user
of the most popular social networking
service in Latvia, draugiem.lv, spent
more than 24 hours visiting the
website in March 2010. Users of one.lv
are not so much active online, but

Do you CEE? Latvia


still spent more than 10 hours on
the site. Another social networking
service in the ranking, boomtime.lv,
occupied fourth place. However, in
terms of average time spent per user
it was far behind the two leaders, with
approximately 4 hours spent visiting
the site in March 2010.
A relatively strong position in the
ranking is held by horizontal portals.
Inbox.lv, which has the greatest reach
level in Latvia, ranked third, with 6
hours and 17 minutes spent online
by an average user a month. The
users of the second portal, delfi.lv,
spent more than 3.5 hours reading
the news published on the site in
March 2010. Only one hour less online
was spent by visitors of tvnet.lv and
sportacentrs.com. The latter is a sports
portal offering its users current news
concerning sports events and the
private lives of sportspeople. Apart
from articles there are also a video
section, a gallery and a forum.
It has already been mentioned that
classified ads services are very popular
on the Latvian online market. As
can be seen in the top 10 ranking by
average time spent per user, they
are not only visited by a large part of
1.3. TOP PORTALS
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS
1 inbox.lv 792 531
2 delfi.lv 665 600
3 tvnet.lv 450 903
4 apollo.lv 416 432
5 diena.lv 218 093
Table 3 Top 5 portals in Latvia by reach level (gemiusAudience March 2010)
123
the internet audience, but also their
visitors spend much time online. In
March 2010 an average user of ss.lv
spent 3 hours and 22 minutes on the
website, placing it on the 6th position
in the ranking.
The ninth place in the ranking was
occupied by mail.ru, which is a Russian
horizontal portal. The site is very
popular in all the Baltic states due to
the fact that the Russian minorities
account for a significant part of the
Baltic population. In Latvia, mail.
ru had almost 250,000 real users in
March 2010, who on average spent
over 2 hours there.
The ranking, based on the results
obtained with the gemiusAudience
study conducted in March 2010, was
propped up by spoki.lv, a Latvian
entertainment platform with
humorous articles, photos and
videos for young people seeking
entertainment. It had a reach level of
18% and an average user spent almost
2 hours on the site in March.
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER USER
309 06:17:28 66%
148 03:33:09 55%
83 02:29:12 38%
88 01:54:59 35%
22 00:34:49 18%
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124
The top 5 portals on the Latvian
online market also occupy the leading
positions in the general rankings.
In March 2010, the leader was inbox.lv,
which is not a typical horizontal
portal and differs from similar sites in
neighboring countries. Usually, they
are news-oriented services, whereas
inbox.lv offers a free e-mail service and
is an entertainment-style website with
a variety of games and jokes accessible
after registration. Also, it publishes
news from apollo.lv and has its own
social networking portal - amigos.lv.
The second player in this category
is delfi.lv, which provides its users
with the latest news and in addition
has a blog, chat and webmail service
and info related to entertainment
and lifestyle. Moreover, it has an
entertainment channel with games
and a forum and a video section,
where users can either watch available
video content or upload their own. It
was one of the first portals to have its
own mobile versions: m.delfi.lv, i.delfi.lv.
Recently it has had a facelift, but this
did not stop its decreasing reach level,
which in March 2009 accounted for
57%, and a year later - 55%.
The third place belonged to tvnet.lv.
It is one of the best local news
1.4. SOCIAL NETWORKS
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS USER
1 draugiem.lv 739 786
2 one.lv 337 475
3 irc.lv 152 613
4 boomtime.lv 150 902
5 orb.lv 137 362
Table 4 Top 5 social networks in Latvia by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)
Do you CEE? Latvia
providers, but it also has an online TV
service and co-operates with major
offline stations in order to manage
the best video content. Similarly to
delfi.lv, the portal underwent a facelift
last year and created a mobile version,
m.tvnet.lv. Tvnet.lv had, according to
the gemiusAudience study from March
2010, a reach level of 38%.
Another important player among
Latvian portals is apollo.lv with more
than 415,000 real users. The portal
is a typical news publishing site with
diversified subdomains. Its strong side
is its video content with a possibility
to watch TV programs in real time.
Apollo.lv collaborates with some of
the smallest sites within their media
group.
In the fifth place is diena.lv,
a horizontal portal with a reach level of
18%. Since it is an online version of the
respected daily newspaper, it focuses
mainly on high quality text content.
Moreover, it offers paid content from
its daily newspaper where users can
find more analytical articles. Apart
from that, it develops user-generated
content. In comparison to March 2009
the number of its real users grew
by 30,000 and its popularity is still
growing.
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER
1689 24:20:44 62%
823 10:03:18 28%
40 00:41:19 13%
285 04:05:33 13%
19 00:20:20 11%

The most popular social networking
service in Latvia is draugiem.lv, the
second most popular Latvian website
in terms of reach. From March 2009
to March 2010 it gained over 70,000
new real users, thereby increasing its
reach level by 3 percentage points.
Moreover, as mentioned before,
draugiem.lv is also leading in the
ranking of websites by average time
spent online. Its success can be put
down to a complex and well-managed
platform, mixing the concepts and
functionalities of global brands such as
Facebook and Twitter. What is more,
it is still developing and trying to reach
new audience for example by a recent
introduction of an option to create
company profiles.
Another important player is one.lv,
which is especially popular among
Russian-speaking users. According to
the gemiusAudience study in March
2010 its reach level accounted for
28%. In contrast to draugiem.lv, one.lv
is losing traffic. In comparison to
March 2009, its reach level declined by
5 percentage points.
1.5. ONLINE CLASSIFIED ADS BY REACH
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS
1 ss.lv 598 001
2 zip.lv 289 721
3 reklama.lv 197 237
Table 4 Top 3 online classified ads in Latvia by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)
The indisputable leader when it comes
to the classified ads online market
in Latvia is ss.lv with a reach level
of 50%. The ads are classified into
12 categories and are available
125
Amongst the services with the highest
reach level, there also are irc.lv and
boomtime.lv with a reach level of
13%. The first, like one.lv, is popular
among Russian speaking internet
users. It is dedicated to internet users
aged 15-24, who can search for their
friends, use chat rooms or visit the
blog section. Boomtime.lv has over
150,000 real users and although in the
ranking it claimed 4th place, in terms
of average time spent online it was far
ahead of irc.lv.
The last site in the ranking is orb.lv,
a non-typical social networking site
with a reach level of 11%. Its users are
not so much into meeting their friends
online but they would rather listen
to music or visit the blog section and
orb.lv gives them this possibility. Most
of its users are 18-25 years old.
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER USER
404 03:21:33 50%
64 00:43:20 24%
58 00:31:41 16%
in Latvian and Russian. The second
place among the classified ads sites in
March 2010 belonged to zip.lv, a relatively
new player with a reach level of 24%.
It started from the draugiem.lv
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126
platform and in a short time became
a successful player on the Latvian
internet market. In the third place
is reklama.lv with a 16% reach and
almost 200,000 real users.
1.6. TOP FINANCE SITES BY REACH
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS
1 financenet.lv 155 740
2 db.lv 95 122
Table 6 Top 2 finance sites in Latvia by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)
According to the data from the
gemiusAudience study, the most
popular financial sites in Latvia are
financenet.lv and db.lv. The first one
works as a part of tvnet.lv, a popular
Latvian horizontal portal that ranked
fifth in the top 10 websites by reach
ranking. However, financenet.lv
has its own logo and a separate
domain and its results are measured
independently. In March 2010 it
had a reach level of 13% and over
150,000 real users. Financenet.lv
publishes articles concerning business
and finance. It has a special section
devoted to foreign financial markets.
In comparison to March 2009 its reach
level decreased by 3 percentage points
2. ONLINE AUDIENCE
According to the gemiusAudience
study in March 2010, women
constituted 52% of the online
population, while men comprised
48%. Furthermore, women on average
spent more time online (around 32
Do you CEE? Latvia
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USERS USER
10 00:11:52 13%
24 00:32:41 8%
as did the number of users, by more
than 20,000.
The second significant player on the
finance sites market in Latvia in March
2010 was db.lv with a reach level
of 8%. It is the digital version of the
business newspaper “Dienas Bizness”,
but its content is original. Users are
not only able to read online news,
but also subscribe and get the printed
version of the newspaper and gain
access to archives with older articles in
PDF format. In terms of average time
spent online per visitor, db.lv beats
financenet.lv. Its users on average
spent more than half an hour visiting
this site in March 2010.
hours and 20 minutes) than men, who
surfed the web for almost 30 hours
and 54 minutes.
Similarly to other CEE online
markets, Latvia is also dominated
128
by young people. According to the
gemiusAudience study, in March 2010
people aged 15-34 accounted for 53%
of the online population. The highest
percentage of users (28%) are people
aged 15-24.
In comparison to March 2009 the
proportion of people over 55 years
old grew by 2 percentage points. It has
been observed that not only more
older people have become interested
in the internet, but also it can be
observed that the Latvian internet is
maturing together with its users.
Most Latvian internet users have
a higher education (29%) or have
finished vocational schools (29%).
The next significant group includes
high school graduates and constitutes
19% of the Latvian online population.
A mere 13% of internet users in Latvia
have only elementary or incomplete
high school education. However,
this group leads in terms of average
time spent online with almost 40 hours
a month.
3. TOOLS
3.1. BROWSERS
Chart 1 Top browsers in Latvia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Latvian
websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)
Do you CEE? Latvia
Majority of internet users in
Latvia live in large cities (72%). In
March 2010, 39% of the Latvian online
population lived in the capital city
(Riga) and a further 10% in the Riga
region. 8% of Latvian internet users
live in small towns and 10% in villages.
People in Daugavpils spent the least
amount of time online - on average
only 23 hours and 17 minutes per user
a month.
The most numerous group in
terms of occupation (22%) among
Latvian internet users in March 2010
was ‘specialists and office employees’.
The second force within the internet
users were students, who were
also among the leaders in terms of
activity per user, with 32 hours and
42 minutes. Another active group was
farmers. In March 2010 they accounted
for only 1% of the researched internet
audience, however, during this month
each of these users spent over 36
hours surfing the web. Marginally less
time was spent online by unemployed
people, who in March accounted for
9% of the internet audience in Latvia.
 129
3.1. Browsers
3.2. OPERATING SYSTEMS
The most popular browser in Latvia
is Firefox with a market share of 53%.
At the beginning of 2009 it overtook
Microsoft Internet Explorer, whose
popularity has been declining and in
the first quarter of 2010 had a market
share of 34%. The third most popular
browser is Chrome followed by Opera.
According to the gemiusTraffic study,
during the three first months of 2010
Chrome gained 2 percentage points
and the trend is sustained. Chart 2 Top operating systems in Latvia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit
Latvian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3.2. Operating systems

The leader of the operating systems

market in Latvia is Windows XP with
3.3. SEARCH ENGINES
a 76% share in the first quarter of
2010. However, its popularity has
been decreasing since the introduction
of Windows Vista. Windows 7 was
launched in Latvia in the second
quarter of 2009 and since then it has
been gaining an ever larger share of
the market and is catching up with
Windows Vista. After the first quarter
of 2010 its market share accounted
for 9%. Mac OS X and Linux are slowly
gaining popularity, but still each of
Chart 3 Top search engines in Latvia by share of visits made by internet users who visit Latvian websi-
them covers less than 1% of the tes using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)
market.

3.3. Search engines

Similarly to other CEE online search

3.4. SCREEN RESOLUTIONS
engines markets, the Latvian one is
dominated by Google with a market
share of 97% in the first quarter of
2010. The second place belonged to
Yandex and the third to MSN, both
of them had a market share of only
about 1%.

3.4. Screen resolutions

Although the market share of 1024

x 768 monitor screen resolutions Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Latvia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit
has decreased in the last few years, Latvian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

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130
3.5. MOBILE DEVICES
Chart 5 Top 5 mobile devices in Latvia by the website-averaged percentage share of page views
generated by internet users from Latvia, who visit Latvian websites using gemiusTraffic
(gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10
**to 2010-07-25
it is still the most popular choice
among Latvians. Other popular screen
resolutions among those who visit
Latvian sites using the gemiusTraffic
in the first quarter of 2010 were
1280 x 1024 and 1280 x 800. Also
the screen resolution of 1440 x 900
has been gaining popularity over
the recent years.
3.5. Mobile devices - models
According to the gemiusTraffic study,
the most popular mobile device used
4. BRANCH ORGANIZATIONS
LRA (Latvian Advertising association)
www.lra.lv
Description: The Latvian Advertising
association (LAA) is a public
organization, established in 1994
with the objective to unite 3 parties
working in the advertising industry:
advertisers, mass media and
Do you CEE? Latvia
to access the web in Latvia is the
iPhone, which in July was responsible
for 27% of page views generated by
mobile devices on an average website.
Yet, its domination is gradually
diminishing and its share fell by
4 percentage points in two months.
As with other markets the loss is
in favor of the iPad, Apple’s latest
product, which in the same period
extended its share by 3 percentage
points. The other devices in the top
5 oscillate around 3%.
advertising agencies. From the very
start the main aim of the association
was to organize the advertisement
market by improving the quality of
advertisements, building up its positive
image in society and contending
against new legal regulations regarding
the limits of advertising distribution in
the mass media.

Members: advertising agencies,
mass media, mass media agencies,
advertisers, production companies,
catalog publishers, research institutes;
banks.
LADC (Latvian Artdirector Club)
www.ladc.lv
Description: The LADC (Latvian
Artdirector Club) is a non-profit
organization that represents
specialists from Latvia’s design and
advertising sector as well as other
creative professions. It was founded
by the main market players. LADC
holds regular workshops and lectures
inviting lecturers from the world’s
leading agencies and independent
artists in order to exchange
experiences and improve the creative
competence of the Latvian advertising
market.
Members: Creative, advertising and
web agencies, their workers and
independent artists.
Latvian Internet Association
www.lia.lv
Description: The Latvian Internet
Association brings together
companies connected with the
internet and online services;
it informs members about important
changes in legislation, new public
online projects, global case studies,
and the suchlike. Its main aims are
the development of the Latvian
internet market and educating market
members about various internet
issues. It was founded in 2000 by
15 internet market players with
131
the intention of becoming the main
internet association in Latvia.
Members: internet providers,
software developers, web design
developers, programming companies,
internet research companies and
others (e.g. Izzi SIA, Microsoft Latvia,
Latnet Serviss, Latvenergo , Euro Data,
Lattelecom).
The Latvian Information Technology
and Telecommunications Association
www.likta.lv
Description: LIKTA is a non-
governmental association bringing
together ITTE product and
service providers and educational
institutions, as well as over 150
individual professional members
of the ITTE industry sector in
Latvia. LIKTA is actively involved in
discussing legislation and monitoring
public procurement procedures for
ITTE products and services. It was
founded in 1998 by the major
market players. At the 2002 annual
meeting the members of LIKTA
adopted a declaration on the need
to develop the ITTE sector listing
a number of concrete steps to be
taken into account. The declaration
has been forwarded to top
government officials, political parties
and other competent authorities.
By 2007 almost all steps had been
accomplished.
Members: Computer hardware
and software developers, internet
providers, telecommunications
infrastructure and service providers
and developers, web developers,
electronics (e.g. Exigen Services
Latvia, LATTELECOM SIA, Institute of
Do you CEE? Latvia
132
Mathematics and Computer Science in 2000 LDTA became a founder
of UL, RIX Technologies, Tieto Enator of ITTE ALLIANCE which unites
& Alise). professional associations that
represent Latvian-based enterprises
and scientific and educational
Association of Computer Technologies institutions whose work is connected
of Latvia (LDTA) with electronics and electrical
engineering as well as information
www.itnet.lv technology and telecommunications.

Description: Founded in 1997, Members: IT product sellers,

the Association of Computer computer hardware developers and
Technologies of Latvia (LDTA) is sellers, IT infrastructure developers
a non-profit organization and (e.g. Capital Ltd, MicroLink Systems,
the oldest association on the Latvian Lursoft IT).
IT market. The founders and members
are the largest IT companies and
best known juridical individuals that
deal with IT solution development
and implementation together with
IT wholesale product enterprises.
At present members of LDTA are
involved in processes that support
the creation of information
society infrastructure and are
actively using and promoting New
Economy principles. In order to
provide a friendly environment
for the development of IT and
telecommunications development,

5. ADVERTISING NETWORKS

GENERAL CONTACT INFORMATION

FULL NAME HOMEPAGE URL REACH MAIN OFFICE CONTACT
ADDRESS ADDRESS
Phone: + 371 67 29 25 23
Caka str. 83/85 – 30,
1 Adnet adnet.lv 55% Fax: + 371 67 18 64 06
Riga, Latvia
Email: info@adnet.lv
Vienibas gatve 75A, Phone: + 371 28 36 40 65
2 SmartAD smartad.lv -
Riga, Latvia Email: eduards.kampe@smartad.lv
Phone: + 371 67 83 06 61
Stabu str. 54,
3 Inspired Affiliate inpired.lv - Fax: + 371 67 83 06 60
Riga, Latvia
Email: inspired@inspired.lv
Lattelecom Dzirnavu str. 105, Fax: + 371 80 00 80 41
4 affiliate.lattelecom.lv -
Affiliate Riga, Latvia Email: affiliate@lattelecom.lv

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6. OPINIONS FROM THE MARKET

Viktors Rožkalns
OMG Digital Manager, Omnicom Media Group

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the online advertising market on
your local market?

It is easy to target potential customers because we have exact information

about all popular portals. However, we still need to find the best ways to use
this space. Traditional Giga banners are not working well so we need to find
new places, new kinds of banners. Portals also are developing new forms of
banners. A major obstacle is a lack of buying options. In most cases there is only
one currency: price for days, but increasingly more clients are willing to buy
impressions or clicks.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are
expected to develop most in the future?

It is obvious that a lot of companies are willing to use creative interactive web
solutions for their campaigns but not all of them are ready to pay for them.
Many companies are still choosing to use standard banners but internet users
more often like interaction with a brand than just clicking on banners. There
are also ready platforms for interaction: the social portal draugiem.lv as well as
others. Many companies use also Google Adwords but still this is only a small
part of the whole web budget. We predict that companies will continue to
mainly buy traditional banners but interactive web solutions will also grow. With
many risks come success stories which provoke other companies to take similar
risks and spend more on these solutions and receive in return more than using
traditional formats.

Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete
with the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this
battle?

Local players are much stronger than global ones because global players cannot
compete with the content that local players are providing. One exception
of course is Google with its Adwords and display ads. Facebook is becoming
stronger in Latvia but the number of Facebook users is still under 120,000 and it

Do you CEE? Latvia

134
has stopped growing after a rapid increase of users at the beginning of 2010.
Also, we do not have a great deal of information about Latvian web users who
visit global portals.

Market specifics

What makes your local online market unique? Are there any specifics that make it
different from others in the CEE region?

Latvia is one of few countries where the strongest social networking site is not
Facebook but draugiem.lv. This makes this particular local market different among
other markets. What has become most important to brands of late is interaction
with its consumers, customers. Draugiem.lv contains many nonstandard features
available which would not be possible in Facebook.

In this small market there are fewer than 10 portals, the major players. Thus,
the largest part of web media budgets is spent on those portals.

Edgars Kalniņš
BiFri Brand Communication Manager, SIA BITE Latvija

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the online advertising market on
your local market?

The techniques used are extremely blunt so there are a lot of opportunities
for innovative solutions but on the other hand most marketers have a limited
understanding about online advertising.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are expected
to develop most in the future?

Companies think more about a return on online investment so tracking and

measuring ad efficiency should grow accordingly.

Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete with
the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this battle?

Local players are still strong but the foundation of their position is the local
language. This foundation could quite easily be eroded if the global giants decide
to go for it.

Do you CEE? Latvia

 135
Market specifics

What makes your local online market unique? Are there any specifics that make it
different from others in the CEE region?

The market is small and also split into two languages.

Dmitry Gizhdevan
Marketing Director, SIA Inbokss (inbox.lv)

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the online advertising market on your
local market?

With one of the highest indices in Eastern Europe (approx. 60%), the online
advertising market in Latvia takes only a small part of the total advertising market
(11% in 2009). The greatest opportunity and objective for online media in the
upcoming years would be to enlarge the role of online advertising in the total
media mix on account of traditional and less effective media. The prediction for
the upcoming years is that online advertising will reach up to second place in
media channels and the greatest part of advertising turnover will be shared by TV
and online advertising.

Despite a decline in the advertising market in total, at present a tangible increase

is visible in online advertising. Major players have strengthened their positions
in the online advertising market despite the fact that many market players have
implemented a chaotic, nontransparent and non-predictable sales model, which in
turn has had a negative impact not only on the current situation, but also on long
term market development.

An essential factor which is impeding the development of the advertising market

is unequal stats data on measuring different advertisement channels. Due to the
fact that only two media channels in Latvia, TV and internet, are measured using
modern digital measure methods, advertisers have a feeling of non-transparency
of the whole advertisement market, which in its turn leads to more careful and
slower investment in advertising.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are expected
to develop most in the future?

Almost all of the global trends have been observed in Latvia, albeit with a small
delay. They have had little impact on the market since Latvian internet users are
relatively conservative. Only some residents follow the trends. It reflects the

Do you CEE? Latvia

136
Pareto Principle in that 80% of users do not follow trends whereas 20% of users
do. 5% of the total number of users are seen to use the possibilities of these new
trends.

For example, at present games on social networking sites are developing at an

extremely fast rate and the advertisement market has reacted to this by placing
advertisements on such sites. The mentioned advertisement model has not been
able to prove its efficiency yet, however such a trend exists.

Using the internet for two-sided communication with the consumer has also
been observed. But unfortunately due to the lack of specialists and qualitative
local stages it is developing slowly. Regardless of this, there are several
successful cases of consumer and brand correlation.

Latvian online advertising market players often try to force some trends onto
the market, which might be profitable for them. For example, in late 2009
a line of media introduced a CPC payment model for display advertisements,
but this trend passed very quickly. One more essential trend, which appeared
on the internet from the press was news media overproduction. Several years
ago there was a case on the press market where a large number of news media
were observed. The same trend is visible now in the internet, but it is also slowly
passing.

Various trends are likely to develop rapidly, including third party measuring
systems, which digital departments of media agencies lack at the moment.

Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete
with the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this
battle?

Despite the fact that internet penetration in Latvia is great, the Latvian market
is small and not interesting for global players. This situation will continue for
several more years. It is necessary to point out that this has created a chance for
local portals to become strong in almost all areas except in searching services.

Local portals were able to guarantee users the necessary internet tools, by
taking into account the specifics of local users. Unlike global players, who when
entering a new market have tried to change it to their needs, local players
understand their own users much better and are able to provide products by
taking into account user specifics, which in turn is highly evaluated by local
users. This tendency can be seen by analyzing the latest brands (Latvia’s Most
Loved Brands http://inx.lv/E0 ). The two most popular local internet media are
in 3rd and 4th places in the general brand top list, in turn as local brands these
internet media came 1st and 2nd. These results show that Latvian users highly
rate local products and this will help when competing with global players.

Do you CEE? Latvia

 137
It is also worth pointing out that most local portals are slightly different
technologically from the global players, since local portals switch basic
investments to product development, which is necessary for local users. The
number of services offered by the local players is smaller than that of the global
players, however they are suited to local needs due to the fact that local players
understand local users much better.

Market specifics

What makes your local online market unique? Are there any specifics that make
it different from others in the CEE region?

The Latvian online market is unique with regards to the level of penetration.
Thanks to Latvia’s rural regions this continues to grow. Regardless of penetration
proportional results, compared with other countries, the number of users in
total is extremely low because the number of residents is small. Most users are
conservative and choose local resources instead of global ones on condition that
such an analogous service exists on the local market. In the TOP five Most Loved
brands there are 3 internet portals of which 1 is global and 2 are local.

Unique differences exist also in the online advertising market in total.

Unlike many other markets, on the Latvian online advertising market display
advertisements have a stable position, advertisements in searching services
make up a small proportion. In all probability, this is connected with the fact that
users rely less on advertisements in searching services, and on the other hand
there is little pro-active drive in searching services in order to provide this type
of advertisement to their partners. Due to the fact that the market is relatively
small, investment requires a great deal of effort.

Another important factor is bilingualism in Latvia, which distinguishes the

country from other CEE markets. Most local portals have to deal only with one
part of the audience, the others have to consider language, ethnic and other
psychographic indexes to maintain two services simultaneously.

Do you CEE? Latvia

 Lithuania
1.48m
internet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_139
1.1. Top10websitesbyreach_139
1.2. Top10websitesbyaveragetimespentperuser_140
1.3. Topportals_141
1.4. Social networks_142
1.5. Onlineclassifiedadsbyreach_143
1.6. Topfinancesitesbyreach_144
2. ONLINEAUDIENCE_144
3. TOOLS_146
3.1. Browsers_146
3.2. Operatingsystems_147
3.3. Search engines_147
3.4. Screen resolutions_147
3.5. Mobiledevices_148
4. BRANCHORGANIZATIONS_148
5. ADVERTISINGNETWORKS_150
6. OPINIONSFROMTHEMARKET_151
 139

1. MAIN PLAYERS

1.1. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY REACH

WEBSITE’S CATEGORY NUMBER OF REAL NUMBER OF PAGE PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USERS VIEWS USER USER

1 delfi.lt portal, news service 1 003 791 102 444 194 102 02:53:59 59%

2 one.lt social network 766 423 677 488 843 884 08:27:00 45%

3 lrytas.lt portal, news service 757 397 57 255 390 76 01:49:00 44%

4 balsas.lt portal, news service 665 740 8 051 562 12 00:16:24 39%

5 draugas.lt social network 609 752 299 279 202 491 04:24:15 36%

6 alfa.lt portal, news service 592 062 16 667 809 28 00:36:52 35%

7 skelbiu.lt classified ads 589 169 58 681 601 100 01:01:42 34%

8 plius.lt classified ads 561 033 68 780 425 123 01:40:21 33%

9 15min.lt portal, news service 548 557 17 871 519 33 01:07:47 32%

10 zebra.lt portal, news service 496 880 14 820 800 30 00:32:27 29%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Lithuania by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

Portals and news services maintain online audience. In March 2009

the leadership in the top 10 reach
ranking. The most popular service
among websites participating in
the research in Lithuania is delfi.lt,
a well-known horizontal portal, with
more than 1 million real users and
a reach level of almost 59%. In the
previous year, the portal launched
the subdomains auto.delfi.lt,
dedicated to auto news and classified
ads, and myep.delfi.lt providing news
on the European Parliament. Other
popular news services are lrytas.lt,
balsas.lt and alfa.lt.
The runner-up in the top 10 websites
list is one.lt, a social networking site
with a reach of 45%. However, in
comparison to 2009 its number of
real users decreased by around 177
thousand. In turn, draugas.lt, also a
social networking service, extended its
it had a reach level of 34%, whereas
in March 2010 this amounted to 36%.
In terms of average time spent per
visitor the leader is one.lt with 8 hours
27 minutes, but the tendency is
decreasing; in March 2009 the average
visitor spent over 11 hours and 46
minutes on the site.
With a reach of over 30% the 7th
and 8th positions belong to classified
ads portals skelbiu.lt and plius.lt. In
January 2009 plius.lt came in 4th place
in the ranking, but in March 2009 its
reach began to fall dramatically and in
May 2009 it was overtaken by skelbiu.lt.
Although it made some attempts to
regain its former position, for example
by updating its design in November
2009 and adding new functionalities
as per users’ wishes, it did not manage
to achieve its former reach level.

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140
The top 10 websites list is propped higher. If the trend continues, it will
up by two horizontal portals 15min.lt probably overtake the classified ads
and zebra.lt. The first noted a sudden sites (plius.lt) in the ranking.
growth; in February it had a reach
level of 26% and in March this was
already over 6 percentage points

1.2. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY AVERAGE TIME SPENT PER USER

NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME REACH

REAL USERS USER PER USER

1 one.lt 766 423 884 08:27:00 45%

2 draugas.lt 609 752 491 04:24:15 36%

3 pazintysxxx.lt (erotic) 43 650 304 03:43:47 3%

4 starchat.lt 7 577 231 03:09:26 0.44%

5 mail.ru 212 063 122 03:05:55 12%

6 inbox.lt 73 285 120 02:55:46 4%

7 delfi.lt 1 003 791 102 02:53:59 59%

8 ieskok.lt 118 934 151 02:31:11 7%

9 supermama.lt 375 877 95 02:12:45 22%

10 autogidas.lt 411 933 148 01:54:06 24%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Lithuania by average time spent per user (gemiusAudience,
March 2010)

The top four places in the top 10
websites by average time spent per
user are occupied by social networking
websites. Their domination is no
surprise. People tend to spend
long hours socializing with their
acquaintances online. One.lt is the
most popular social networking
website in Lithuania with a reach level
of 45%. On average its users spent
8 hours 27 minutes a month using the
service, while the users of draugas.lt,
which ranks second, spent 4 hours and
24 minutes. Pazintysxxx.lt, a service
with an erotic profile came in 3rd
place. Fourth place is occupied by
starchat.lt. Although its reach level
is less than 0.5%, its users spent an
average of more than 3 hours on the
website monthly. The site even runs
on its own ranking of its most devoted
users, and some of them spent more
than 15 hours online a day. In 8th
place, with 2 hours 31 minutes,
we find another social networking
website, ieskok.lt.
5th place belongs to mail.ru,
a Russian horizontal portal, which has
a reach level of 12%. Its popularity
is influenced by the considerable
Russian minority in Lithuania. Inbox.
lt, a mailing service, ranks sixth and
has over 70,000 real users who spent
an average of almost 3 hours using the
service a month.

Do you CEE? Lithuania


The most popular news service in
Lithuania, delfi.lt, takes 7th place in
the ranking. In March 2010 its users
spent an average of 2 hours and 54
minutes online. This means that every
day users spent around 10 minutes
reading the news here.
1.3. TOP PORTALS
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS
1 delfi.lt 1 003 791
2 lrytas.lt 757 397
3 balsas.lt 665 740
4 alfa.lt 592 062
5 15min.lt 548 557
Table 3 Top 5 portals in Lithuania by reach level (gemiusAudience March 2010)
The top 5 portals on the Lithuanian
online market also occupy the leading
positions in the general rankings (all of
them belong to the top 10 websites).
The indisputable leader is delfi.lt
which leads not only in terms of the
number of real users, but also in terms
of the average time spent online by
each user. The portal provides the
latest news and in addition contains
a blog, chat and webmail service
as well as information related to
entertainment and lifestyle. Moreover,
it has a channel for young people with
games and a forum. As mentioned in
the previous section, delfi.lt launched
two new subdomains dedicated to the
European Parliament and cars. “Delfi”
portals are available in five languages:
Lithuanian, Russian, Latvian, Estonian
and Ukrainian.
The second player in the category is
lrytas.lt, which is the site of the daily
141
The last place is taken by supermama.lt,
a portal dedicated to parents, with
an average time per user of 2 hours
13 minutes a month. The ranking is
propped up by a classified ads portal
autogidas.lt.
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER USER
102 02:53:59 59%
76 01:49:00 44%
12 00:16:24 39%
28 00:36:52 35%
33 01:07:47 32%
Lithuanian newspaper “Lietuvos rytas”
and it concentrates mostly on news.
However, it also contains subdomains
with a forum, photo section, blog
service, a traditional TV channel,
a magazine about lifestyle and
weather forecasts. In March 2010
its reach level amounted to 44%.
In August 2009 “Snoras Media
Investicijos” acquired 34% of “UAB
Lietuvos rytas” authorized capital
and in this way the AB BANK SNORAS
group became its largest shareholder.
Another important player among
portals is balsas.lt. It gained almost
11 percentage points in reach level
compared to March 2009 and
progressed to 3rd place in the top
5 list. The portal is a typical news
publishing site with diversified
subdomains similar to those available
on the portals described above. There
are also special sections for women
Do you CEE? Lithuania
142
which include recipes, parental advice,
greetings and lyrics.
Alfa.lt ranks fourth in the top 5 portals
ranking. However, its number of real
users decreased in comparison to
March 2009 by 9.5% and its reach
level dropped by 4 percentage points.
In addition to the facilities typical for
such portals, it contains a travel search
engine and reservation section and,
furthermore, it has its own computers
and domestic electric appliances
e-shop. Moreover, its main news is
available not only in Lithuanian, but
also in English.
1.4. SOCIAL NETWORKS
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS
1 one.lt 766 423
2 draugas.lt 609 752
3 klase.lt 293 415
4 pazintys.lt 120 924
5 ieskok.lt 118 934
Table 4 Top 5 social networking websites in Lithuania by reach level (gemiusAudience,
March 2010)
In terms of social networking
communities, two domestic websites
dominate among services participating
in the gemiusAudience research.
The leader is one. lt with a reach
level of 45%. However, as mentioned
before, its market share is declining.
Meanwhile, the number of real
users of the second largest social
networking website, draugas.lt, soared
in comparison to March 2009.
One.lt is dedicated to internet users
older than 14 years old. It offers a
variety of social features enabling
Do you CEE? Lithuania
In 5th place is 15min.lt, a horizontal
portal of quickly growing popularity
in Lithuania. It is a result of the well-
planned marketing strategy with
regard to the use of social networking
sites such as Facebook. In terms of
average time spent per user, 15min.
lt is located in third place; the same
applies when it comes to number of
page views and page views per user
according to gemiusAudience data
from March 2010.
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USERS USER
884 08:27:00 45%
491 04:24:15 36%
29 00:21:04 17%
86 01:08:28 7%
151 02:31:11 7%
people to express themselves and stay
in touch with both their real-life and
virtual friends. In order to gain access
to communication tools, exchange
photos and files and participate in
contests and games, users have to
register on the website. Moreover,
the platform offers some non-typical
networking solutions, for example an
SMS service.
The transparent layout of draugas.lt
allows the user to identify the five
main sub-sites immediately. To
describe the two of them, one is

dedicated to maintaining contact
with acquaintances. It allows the
user to search for classmates, group
mates and the suchlike. The second
subdomain is devoted to games. What
is more, there is a forum, an e-mail
and classified ads service.
Another important player is klase.lt,
though its reach level is significantly
smaller and accounts for only 17%.
It has a complex structure consisting
of five main subsections: classmates,
group mates, clubs, sites and
acquaintances. In comparison to the
data from March 2009, the number
of real users and the number of page
views of this website declined as did
the average time spent per user.
Amongst services with the highest
reach level we also find pazintys.lt and
1.5. ONLINE CLASSIFIED ADS BY REACH
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS
1 skelbiu.lt 589 169
2 plius.lt 561 033
3 skelbimai.lt 376 677
Table 5 Top 3 online classified ads in Lithuania by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)
The two main players on the classified
ads market are skelbiu.lt, with a reach
level of 34%, and plius.lt with 33%. A
year ago, in March 2009, the leader
was plius.lt reaching over 41% of
the market. However, since then its
popularity has declined and in March
2010 it is in second place between the
classifieds. In May 2009 skelbiu.lt took
the lead. It is a site of classified ads
that are grouped, amongst others, into
transport, real estate, services and job
143
ieskok. lt. Similarly to the previously
described social networks, these also
allow their users to search for friends,
chat and play games. In addition,
ieskok.lt has a section in which users
can listen to an online radio station.
This may explain the fact that in terms
of average time spent online, ieskok.lt
overtakes klase.lt and pazintys.lt.
Pazintys.lt provides its users with
information about entertainment and
events and has a hot line for instant
massages. The site is available in four
languages: Russian, Lithuanian, English
and Italian. Moreover, the company
owns the independent service
pazintysxxx.lt, which has an erotic
profile.
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER USER
100 01:01:42 34%
123 01:40:21 33%
21 00:13:37 22%
offers. Skelbiu.lt makes money through
selling advertising space, but also its
users have to pay for the publication
of ads.
Third place goes to skelbimai.lt, with
a reach level of 22%, which in turn
allows its users to place ads on the site
free of charge.
Do you CEE? Lithuania
144
1.6. TOP BUSINESS AND FINANCE SITES BY REACH
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS
1 vz.lt 227 057
2 tax.lt 164 995
3 verslobanga.lt 91 268
Table 6 Top 3 business and finance sites in Lithuania by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)
The most popular finance site in
Lithuania is vz.lt. It publishes business
news and articles as it is an e-version
of a business newspaper. It has
separate subdomains dedicated to
searching for articles and photos as
well as an e-shop, where users can
order the newspaper or buy articles,
recommendations, dictionaries, books,
etc. Vz.lt has a reach level of 13% and
the average time per user is less than
20 minutes a month.
Tax.lt, which ranked second with
a 10% reach, is dedicated to
accountancy. In addition to a forum, it
gives its users the possibility to search
for or place job ads on the site related
to accounting. Moreover, it presents
2. ONLINE AUDIENCE
Majority of Lithuanian internet
users are women. They constitute
51% of the online population, which
is not a surprise taking into account
the demographic structure of the
Lithuanian population with women
predominating. Furthermore, women
on average spent more time online (13
hours 39 minutes) than men (13 hours
01 minute).
Do you CEE? Lithuania
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER USER
15 00:19:41 13%
13 00:17:22 10%
3 00:03:41 5%
legal acts, forms and other useful
pieces of information for accountants.
There is also a possibility to order the
weekly delivery of news articles or to
use a system for invoice issuance and
management on the internet.
The third significant player on the
business sites market in Lithuania is
verslobanga.lt, which presents news
about companies and information
about events related to accountancy,
business or finance. It allows its users
to publish their own information
about events or create any documents
related to various fields of business,
available to a broader audience. Its
reach level amounted to 5% in March
2010.
Lithuanian internet users are
generally young. In March 2010
people aged 7-34 accounted for 62%
of the online population. The highest
percentage of users (28%) falls in the
group of people aged 15-24. People
over 55 years old constitute 7% of
internet audience.
146
Lithuanian internet users are
well-educated. Only 17% of them
have only primary or lower education.
The greatest percentage of the online
population has secondary education,
i.e. 28%. There is also a significant
number of people with higher
education that use the web (26%).
The structure conforms to the general
education structure of Lithuanian
society.
Majority of internet users in
Lithuania live in large cities. 26% of
the whole internet population live in
Vilnius and in March 2010 the 7 largest
cities together constituted 65% of
the online population. Only 10% of
internet users live in villages, but this
is 1 percentage point more than a year
ago.
3. TOOLS
3.1. BROWSERS
Chart 1 Top browsers in Lithuania by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Lithu-
anian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)
3.1. Browsers
The most popular browser in Lithuania
used to be Microsoft Internet Explorer.
However, at the beginning of 2010
Do you CEE? Lithuania
In March 2010 the most
numerous group (33%) on the
Lithuanian internet included students.
The second force were specialists
and office employees, however they
did not spend a great deal of time
online. In terms of activity per user,
the unquestionable leaders were
housewives, who spent an average
of more than 19 hours online a
month. Another active group is small
businessmen. In March 2010 they only
accounted for 4% of the researched
internet audience, however, during
the same period each of them spent
16 hours surfing the web.
it was overtaken by Firefox with a
market share of 42%. The third most
popular browser is Opera followed by
Chrome, whose popularity has been
growing since the second quarter of
 147
2009. According to the gemiusTraffic
study, during the first three months 3.2. OPERATING SYSTEMS
of 2010 Chrome gained 2 percentage
points and the trend seems to be
continuing.

3.2. Operating systems

The indisputable leader of the

operating systems market in Lithuania
was Windows XP with a 76% share in
the first quarter of 2010. However,
its popularity has been decreasing
since the introduction of Windows Chart 2 Top operating systems in Lithuania by share of page views generated by internet users who
visit Lithuanian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)
Vista. In the second quarter of 2009
MS Windows released its newest
operating system, Windows 7. Since
then it has been gaining an ever larger
share of the market and is catching
up with Windows Vista. After the first
3.3. SEARCH ENGINES
quarter of 2010 its market share was
10%. The other Windows operating
systems have lost users during the
past two years.

Mac OS X is slowly gaining popularity,

but still it only covers less than 1% of
the market.

3.3. Search engines

Chart 3 Top search engines in Lithuania by share of visits made by internet users who visit Lithuanian
Without question, the most popular websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)
search engine in Lithuania was Google
with a market share of 98% in the
first quarter of 2010. MSN, which
ranked second, contributed to only
1% of visits made by internet users 3.4. SCREEN RESOLUTIONS
who visit Lithuanian websites using
gemiusTraffic.

3.4. Screen resolutions

Although the market share of 1024 x

768 monitor screen resolutions has
decreased, it is still the most popular
choice among Lithuanians. Other
popular screen resolutions in Lithuania
in the first quarter of 2010 were 1280
x 800 and 1280 x 1024. Also, the
screen resolution of 1440 x 900 has Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Lithuania by share of page views generated by internet users who visit
become more popular in recent years. Lithuanian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

Do you CEE? Lithuania

148
3.5. MOBILE DEVICES
Chart 5 Top 5 mobile devices in Lithuania by the website-averaged percentage share of page views
generated by internet users from Lithuania who visit Lithuanian websites using gemiusTraffic
(gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10
**to 2010-07-25
3.5. Mobile devices - models
According to the gemiusTraffic study,
the most popular mobile device
used to access web in Lithuania
is the iPhone, which in July was
responsible for 14% of page views
generated by mobile devices on the
average website. However, like on
other markets its share is gradually
decreasing and a loss of almost 2.5
percentage points could be observed
4. BRANCH ORGANIZATIONS
Association of Lithuanian
Communication Agencies (KOMAA)
www.komaa.lt
Description: KOMAA brings together
the largest and strongest creative
media agencies and full service
companies operating in Lithuania.
Members of the association accept
the Lithuanian Advertising Ethics
Code, follow its provisions and
Do you CEE? Lithuania
within May and July 2010. In contrast,
the share of Apple’s latest product
the iPad has increased by almost 2
percentage points within these two
months. The three last positions
among the top 5 mobile devices on
the Lithuanian market are taken by
Nokia devices, including the Nokia
5130 XpressMusic which is the most
popular.
have established the “Lithuanian
Advertising Bureau”. KOMAA’s mission
is to unite advertising agencies,
develop the advertising market,
raise the prestige of the industry and
make decisions which are of practical
significance to the advertising market.
KOMAA was established in 2002 and
now has 21 members.
Members: creative agencies (Adell
Taivas Ogilvy, ADVISION, DDB Vilnius,

Grey Worldwide: Vilnius, Kredo R, Leo
Burnett Vilnius, Lowe Age, Milk, Not
Perfect Y&R, SAN Vilnius/JWT, TBWA\
Vilnius), full services agencies (Tarela,
VRS grupė) and media agencies
(Adcom, Carat, Creative Media
Services, Media House, Mediapool,
Mindshare, Omnicom Media Group,
Starcom).
Lithuanian Advertising Bureau
www.reklamosbiuras.lt
Description: The Lithuanian
Advertising Bureau’s mission is to
develop respectable, fair and honest
advertising practices in Lithuania,
basing on the Lithuanian Advertising
Ethics Code. The goal is to develop
the advertising sector in Lithuania,
to create and improve legally-binding
ethical self-regulation control in
advertising, honest competition,
which ensures the protection of
users and helps improve the general
concern of society directed against
the negative influence of advertising.
The Lithuanian Advertising Bureau was
established in 2005.
Members: the arbitrage committee
includes representatives of various
fields: advertisers, advertising
agencies, TV, press, consumer rights
protection, competition, equal
opportunities, child rights protection.
Association of Internet Media
Description: The aim of the
Association of Internet Media is to
ensure the ethical and professional
work of internet media. It also
wants to guarantee readers ethical
expression of opinion in news portals.
The Association of Internet Media
was established in April 2009 by
Lithuanian’s largest eight news portals.
149
Members: The eight largest news
portals in Lithuania are Alfa.lt, Delfi.lt,
Bernardinai.lt, 15min.lt, Balsas.lt, Lrt.lt,
Lrytas.lt, portal group of
“Diena Media” (vilniausdiena.lt,
kaunodiena.lt, klaipeda.diena.lt).
Lithuanian Marketing Association
(LiMA)
www.marketingas.org
Description: The Lithuanian Marketing
Association unites marketing
specialists and people interested in
this field. It provides the possibility
for marketing specialists to exchange
knowledge and practical experience
and in this way to augment their
value on the market and also to raise
the general worth of the Lithuanian
market. It aims to unite Lithuanian
marketing specialists, create space
and possibilities for their professional
improvement, to raise their
professional abilities and knowledge,
popularize and represent the
marketing profession in society, and
contribute to the welfare of society
using professional knowledge. The
association was established in 2004.
Members: The association brings
together natural and legal entities.
At present, more than 200 marketing
specialists in various areas belong to
the association.
Association “LĮA” (“Langas į ateitį”),
also called Alliance “Langas į ateitį”
(Window into the Future)
www.langasiateiti.lt
Description: This alliance established
a unique project aimed at businesses
supporting the development of the
information society in Lithuania.
The mission of the “Langas į ateitį”
Do you CEE? Lithuania
150
alliance is to promote the use of partners: Microsoft Lietuva, Lideika,
internet and e-Services in Lithuania Petrauskas, Valiūnas ir partneriai/
and thereby stimulate the growth of LAWIN, PR Service/Edelman Affiliate,
living standards as well as Lithuania’s the Institute of Public Policy and
competitiveness within Europe and Management.
other countries of the world. “Langas
į ateitį” implements projects in three
main fields:
• Establishment of public internet
access points (PIAPs)
• Training of the population to use
information technologies
• Encouragement to develop and
use e-services
It was established in May 2002.

Members: The founders and members

of the alliance are as follows: the
communications companies “Omnitel”
and “TEO” (2002-2005), “Swedbank”
and “SEB” banks, the IT companies
“Alna” (2002-2009) and “Atea”. As well
as the founders of the alliance and
the Ministry of the Interior of the
Republic of Lithuania, “Langas į ateitį”
integrates the following companies as

5. ADVERTISING NETWORKS

GENERAL CONTACT INFORMATION

FULL NAME HOMEPAGE URL MAIN OFFICE CONTACT
ADDRESS ADDRESS

UAB ”Adnet”
Phone: +370-5-273-00-65
Verkių str. 5
1 AdClick adclick.lt Fax: +370-5-273-00-65
LT-08218 Vilnius
Email: info@adclick.lt
Lithuania
UAB ”Adnet”
Phone: +370-5-275-37-74
Verkių str. 5
2 Adnet adnet.lt Fax: +370-5-275-66-50
LT-08218 Vilnius
Email: info@adnet.lt
Lithuania
UAB ”Textads”
Phone: +370-5-273-00-65
Verkių str. 5
3 Textads textads.lt Fax: +370-5-273-00-65
LT-08218 Vilnius
Email: info@textads.lt
Lithuania
UAB ”TradeDoubler”
Phone: +370-5-236-01-76
Verkių str. 34
4 TradeDoubler tradedoubler.lt Fax: +370-5-278-47-64
LT-08221 Vilnius
Email: info.lt@tradedoubler.com
Lithuania

Do you CEE? Lithuania

 151

6. OPINIONS FROM THE MARKET

Egidijus Sirvydis
Director, UAB “Adnet”

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the online advertising market on
your local market?

Every year online advertising is used more frequently as a media tool.

However, according to budgets (in %), this media tool did not reach the level
of Western Europe, or even the level of our close neighbors such as Poland
and Estonia. Therefore, the use of online advertising will certainly grow during
the upcoming years.

The main disadvantage of the whole Lithuanian advertising market, as well

as the online advertising market is that the market is extremely small. The
price of creating more interesting solutions is similar to the one in other larger
markets, but a much smaller audience can be reached with the usage of these
solutions.

Another important issue on the Lithuanian market is its low conversion rate,
i. e. a small ratio of the people having seen an advertisement or having visited
a site to find out something about goods, comparing to those people, who
have actually bought any product or service. However, the increasing number
of companies working in the e-commerce field and the rising popularity of
online payments should cause an increase in the conversion rate. This would
allow the participants of the online advertising market to achieve a better
response and obtain maximum benefits from advertising.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are
expected to develop most in the future?

Lots of small, specialized and even niche e-shops selling various goods
from ecological products to equipment for agriculture have appeared on
the market. However, many of them do not have support from investors,
therefore such projects often do not have money for advertising, they cannot
advertise themselves to a wider audience and after half a year of activity they
simply disappear quietly. However, there are many successful examples where
companies slowly become more popular and then find opportunities to invest
in advertising and expand their business successfully. Therefore, looking to the
future, the number of such small clients will grow and they will have a greater
impact on the online advertising market in Lithuania.

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152
Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete with
the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this battle?

The Lithuanian market and all three Baltic markets are too small for the global
players, therefore only some of them expressly develop their activity in these
countries. In most cases it comes naturally due to the worldwide popularity
of these players. One of the most important examples could be the duel of
one.lt and facebook.com. Facebook manages to attract an increasing number
of visitors without any specific strategies for the local market, while the
Lithuania’s most popular social network one.lt is unable to stop the decrease
in the number of users. However, even whilst being one of the most popular
webpages facebook.com does not actively participate in the advertising
market in Lithuania and has no significant effect on it. This often happens
with other international websites. Despite being popular, they are not actively
involved in the Lithuanian online advertising market. This explains why,
despite difficulties in fighting for the loyalty of users, there is no need for local
players to struggle with global giants for advertising budgets as of yet.

Market specifics

What makes your local online market unique? Are there any specifics that
make it different from others in the CEE region?

The technical solutions and possibilities of the Lithuanian advertising market

are very similar to other European markets. Both clients and websites use
technology that is popular in Europe, implement specific solutions developed
all over the world, and create them in Lithuania (e.g. broadcasting video
advertisements online, etc.).

One of the unique features of the Lithuanian online advertising market is that
the discount rate has a strong influence on the market. However, it is possible
that the increasing number of advertisers on the internet and the shortage of
high-quality online advertising space will reduce the influence of discounts.

It should also be mentioned that affiliate marketing has not become popular
in Lithuania yet. One reason for this might be the above-mentioned low
conversion rate. However, it is hard to say whether affiliate marketing will
take a more significant chunk of online advertising marketing in such a small
market like Lithuania, even if the situation gets better.

Ričardas Baltaduonis
Managing Director, UAB “Lrytas”

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the online advertising market on
your local market?

Do you CEE? Lithuania

 153
Last year was difficult for everyone. The internet as a media tool is not
fully developed yet and this especially reflected in the massive decrease of
advertising budgets in 2009.

When customers reduced their advertising budgets, the position and reaction
of online advertising market players were clear: more advertisements were
displayed, but less money was made. So why should customers spend more
money if they receive the same and can plan smaller budgets?

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are
expected to develop most in the future?

At this point it is important to distinguish two aspects: trend of website

popularity distribution and the trend of technological innovations. With
regard to the first, a very clear downward trend of one of the most popular
social networking sites is obvious. This trend shows, once again (the first being
MySpace), that social networking sites do not have a strong niche among
users, therefore their future does not seem to be rosy and bright.

In terms of technological innovations, mobile compatibility will be at the

forefront

Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete
with the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this
battle?

Local portals/networks/websites will NEVER be able to compete with the

global giants. You cannot compare a fly to an elephant. It is unfortunate, but
the local players have no chance in competition with the global players. Only
so called ‘niche’ activities remain. Any thoughts of becoming another Google,
Apple or Facebook is simply impossible here in our local and small countries.
This is determined both by the size of this market and other factors, such as
the financing of projects and domestic consumption.

Elvijus Gudžiūnas
Director, UAB “Epasas.lt“

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the online advertising market on
your local market?

With regards to technical possibilities websites have their own programmer

teams that can seemingly resolve any solution. Due to the small market
(population rather than internet usage percent) the costs of production

Do you CEE? Lithuania

154
and implementation often use up large part of the advertising budget and
an alternative plan (based on more standard positions) can generate better
results in advertising campaign.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are
expected to develop most in the future?

The concentration is noticeable on the online market; there are almost no

small participants left on the market and the ones that remain have a minor
influence.

Both now and in the future, solving quantitative issues (concentration,

procurement of competitors, purchase of cheap advertising), leads to a
greater concentration of qualitative factors (the improvement of content
quality, attempts to transfer self advertising projects to press and TV). When
the market settles down, it is possible to entrench niche e-projects. However,
there might be more competition which will allow the quality of niche projects
to rise. Similar processes exist in online advertising; concentration is under
way. Customers have a wider choice among the larger market players; this
makes things more convenient and it is then possible to get a better prices
and better offers. The demand for rich media formats is noticeable on the
market.

Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete
with the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this
battle?

Quality has not fallen, but local online business is not moving to foreign
business because:
1. There are no large turnovers that might allow players to obtain a large
return on their investments
2. Larger local investment companies in the meantime:
a) make a greater profit investing in other business areas
b) do not have a lot of knowledge about the internet, therefore there is no
great willingness to invest.

Do you CEE? Lithuania

Poland
15.55m
internet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_157
1.1. Top10websitesbyreach_157
1.2. Top10websitesbyaveragetimespentperuser_158
1.3. Topportals_159
1.4. Social networks_161
1.5. Onlineclassifiedadsbyreach_162
1.6. Topfinancesitesbyreach_163
2. ONLINEAUDIENCE_164
3. TOOLS_166
3.1. Browsers_166
3.2. Operatingsystems_166
3.3. Search engines_167
3.4. Screen resolutions_167
3.5. Mobiledevices_167
4. BRANCHORGANIZATIONS_168
5. OPINIONSFROMTHEMARKET_169
 157

1. MAIN PLAYERS

1.1. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY REACH

WEBSITE’S CATEGORY NUMBER OF REAL NUMBER OF PAGE PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USERS VIEWS USER USER

1 google.pl search engine 15 705 994 - - - 89%

2 onet.pl horizontal portal 12 364 940 3 416 046 567 276 05:51:42 70%

3 nasza-klasa.pl social network 11 810 889 - - - 67%

4 google.com search engine 11 451 490 - - - 65%

5 allegro.pl online auctions 10 831 038 5 198 862 613 480 04:51:33 61%

6 wp.pl horizontal portal 10 562 824 2 075 853 411 197 05:57:19 60%

7 youtube.com video sharing 10 442 867 - - - 59%

8 wikipedia.org online encyclopaedia 8 940 820 - - - 50%

9 interia.pl horizontal portal 8 341 410 916 745 046 110 03:02:10 47%

10 gazeta.pl horizontal portal 8 266 006 359 047 189 43 01:03:58 47%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Poland by reach level (Megapanel PBI/Gemius, March 2010 ); the ranking includes both, audited and non-audited websites:
for non-audited websites, page views and time are not shown

The year 2009 was a time of many
significant changes within the ranking
of top 10 online players in Poland.
The three leading positions, similarly
to last year, are taken by the same
strongest brands: Google, Onet.pl and
nk (Nasza-Klasa). These three websites
have not only maintained their market
shares, but also strengthened their
reach, respectively: google.pl from
83% to 89% (in case of google.com it
was from 58% to 65%), onet.pl from
62% to 70% and nasza-klasa.pl, the
star of last season, from 59% to 67%.
On the other hand, some players did
not manage to stay on the course. It is
extremely important to note, however,
that the most visible shifts within
the presented ranking of websites
for Poland are caused by the update
of the Megapanel PBI/Gemius study
methodology. The ranking of websites
by their reach in March 2010 includes
only selected domains, not the whole
groups of sites operating under the
wings of horizontal portals or online
publishers. In conjunction with this
change, the greatest loss has been
suffered by O2, a local portal. Within
the ranking by reach for March 2010,
the o2.pl domain did not find its
place among the top 10 websites. O2
gained a little more than 4.7 million
real users, which gave it less than 27%
reach among internet users in Poland.
The second loss has been noted by
one of the leading horizontal portals,
Gazeta.pl, whose reach dropped by
3 percentage points within last year.
Fortunately, the loss is only a result of
a general shake-up of market leaders.
Gazeta.pl achieved a reach of 47% and
attracted almost 8.3 millions of real
users. Yet, it is clear to see that this
result was not enough to retain its

Do you CEE? Poland

158
former position. A similar loss has also ranking of the top 10 websites on the
been experienced by another local market. What is most important is that
portal, interia.pl, which attracted this online auction platform overtook
8.3 million real users in March 2010. Wirtualna Polska (wp.pl), one of the
leading horizontal portals in Poland.
The spring of 2010 and the
improvement of the online audience When it comes to important increases
research methodology also brought within the ranking of top players,
upward trends for almost every site. at the beginning of 2010 only few
One of the most significant ones is the other visible movements took place.
rise of allegro.pl, the biggest online YouTube, gaining over 10 million real
auction platform in Poland. Allegro.pl users and 59% reach, took 7th place
is also a player active on 10 other in the ranking. A noncommercial
European markets. This group of website, Wikipedia, attracted almost
countries (at the beginning of 2009 9 million Poles and gained 50% reach
consisting of Belarus, Bulgaria, the in March.
Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Russia,
Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine and
Hungary) increased recently, when
Allegro launched its well-known online
service in Serbia. Yet, the success
of Allegro in Poland remains most
significant. In March 2010, allegro.pl
was visited by almost 11 million real
users in this country, which gave it
61% reach and 5th place within the

1.2. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY AVERAGE TIME SPENT PER USER

NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME REACH

REAL USERS USER PER USER

1 miastomuzyki.pl 647 432 17 13:15:21 4%

2 kurnik.pl 1 040 024 156 11:50:09 6%

3 wp.pl 10 562 824 197 05:57:19 60%

4 onet.pl 12 364 940 276 05:51:42 70%

5 prisonwars.pl 249 712 1096 05:51:23 1%

6 stooq.pl 91 000 178 05:40:07 1%

7 fotka.pl 1 950 443 523 05:05:25 11%

8 allegro.pl 10 831 038 480 04:51:33 61%

9 radiozet.pl 416 989 12 04:42:01 2%

10 open.fm 339 995 8 04:18:55 2%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Poland by average time spent per user (Megapanel PBI/Gemius, March
2010); the ranking includes audited websites only

Do you CEE? Poland


The general picture of Polish online
market leaders becomes different
if the variable of time is taken into
account. It appears that in this
category the strongest horizontal
portal is wp.pl, which in March 2010
kept its users active for the longest
time (almost 6 hours). In the ranking
of top 10 websites by average time
spent per user in Poland, there are
two visible leaders: miastomuzyki.pl,
a website gathering online RMF FM
radio stations as well as kurnik.pl, the
casual games platform. In March 2010
average visitor of the latter website
spent almost 12 hours playing board
and card games with other internet
users. All other websites included
in the ranking (even such a player as
wp.pl) were visited by Poles for no
longer than 6 hours.
The radio and gaming websites won
most of user time. The number one
in March 2010 in this regard was
miastomuzyki.pl, the website of
all the online radio stations run by
RMF FM which operates within the
Interia Group. Both RMF FM (one of
the most popular traditional radio
stations in Poland) and interia.pl (one
of the major horizontal portals) have
the same owner, Bauer Media Invest
1.3. TOP PORTALS
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS
1 onet.pl 12 364 940
2 wp.pl 10 562 824
3 interia.pl 8 341 410
4 gazeta.pl 8 266 006
5 o2.pl 4 755 575
Table 3 Top 5 portals in Poland by reach level (Megapanel PBI/Gemius, March 2010); all websites
presented in the table are audited
159
GmbH. The 9th and 10th positions
in the ranking were also occupied by
radio-related websites, respectively:
radiozet.pl (homepage of one of the
most popular offline radio stations)
and open.fm (an online radio platform
run by GG Network, owner of the most
popular instant messaging system in
Poland). Users of both websites spent
more than 4 hours in the analyzed
month surfing each of them.
On the other hand, the ranking also
covers two representatives of the
online gaming industry. In March 2010,
not including kurnik.pl, Poles spent
almost 6 hours playing Prison Wars,
an MMO game which is similar theme-
wise to the Prison Break TV series.
Excluding portals, games and online
radio stations, the websites which
engaged Polish users the most in
March were also the stock market
vertical portal, stooq.pl, the social
networking service based on the
‘hot or not’ formula, fotka.pl and
the biggest online auction platform,
allegro.pl.
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER USER
276 05:51:42 70%
197 05:57:19 60%
110 03:02:10 47%
43 01:03:58 47%
63 01:33:13 27%
Do you CEE? Poland
160
The leader among horizontal portals
in Poland is onet.pl, which is also the
second player on the whole domestic
online market. It operates within the
TVN Capital Group (one of the biggest
multimedia players in Poland), which
is incidentally its sole owner. Onet.pl
is also part of the ITI Media Group
and an active player, which (as well
as the portal) runs other interesting
business projects, for example zumi.pl
(a map-based localization online
service) or Dream Lab (a technological
company).
The second force on the Polish online
market is Wirtualna Polska (wp.pl),
the horizontal portal operating within
the Telekomunikacja Polska Group
(the main landline telephone operator
and former monopolist). This business
group also covers such companies as
Polska Telefonia Komórkowa Centertel
(the mobile phone network, which
since 2005 has been operating under
the Orange brand) or PayTel (an
electronic payment system provider).
Moreover, Wirtualna Polska runs
a successful online TV website (wp.tv),
which in March 2010 gained over 2.5
million real users and a reach of over
14%. Within the ranking by time per
user it takes the position of the most
engaging horizontal portal present
on the market (in the same period of
time its average user surfed longer by
5 minutes than the average user of
onet.pl).
The general balance of power among
the top 3 horizontal portals in Poland
did not change a great deal since the
beginning of 2009. Third position,
as before, is occupied by interia.pl,
a horizontal portal run by the
joint-stock company, INTERIA.PL S.A.
owned entirely by the Bauer Media
Group. Although launched in 2000,
the company’s origins date back to the
year 1999 when its first online service
Do you CEE? Poland
(email) was launched. In 2000, the
basic version of the portal, covering
six sections, was introduced and after
gaining significant popularity, it has
never been outside the top 5 market
leaders in its category.
However, it would be quite inaccurate
to think that the ranking of top
horizontal portals has not changed
at all since last year. An interesting
shift took place in the group of portals
closing the peloton. This is also related
to the update in the way of presenting
results of the Megapanel PBI/Gemius,
thanks to which horizontal portals
began to be presented not only as
whole groups of websites, but as the
precise domains of particular players.
This change caused the significant
decline of O2 in favour of gazeta.pl,
which took fourth position within
the ranking of top portals in Poland.
O2 uses a specific business model
building its audience partly based on
its network of proprietary or partner
websites, for example wrzuta.pl
(the audio-video hosting service).
In March 2010 however, the O2
portal attracted less than 5 millions
real users, which gave it a reach of
only 27% and 5th position within
the ranking of horizontal portals.

1.4. SOCIAL NETWORKS
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS
1 nasza-klasa.pl 11 810 889
2 facebook.com 5 052 697
3 chomikuj.pl 4 116 695
4 mojageneracja.pl 2 586 719
5 fotka.pl 1 950 443
Table 4 Top 5 social networking websites in Poland by reach level (Megapanel PBI/Gemius, March
2010); the ranking includes both, audited and non-audited websites: for non-audited websites,
page views and time are not shown
The Polish online social networking
services market remains dominated by
one, very strong player: nasza-klasa.pl.
The “Do You CEE” report for 2009
describes the incredibly fast growth
of this website, which has conquered
the local market not only effectively,
but also, apparently, permanently. In
March 2010, Nasza-Klasa, an online
service based on the ’classmates’
formula, was visited by almost 12
million real users. This result gave it
a reach of 67% and the position of
unquestionable market leader, far
ahead of its competitors.
However, 2009 was the year of the
emergence of another very serious
player, Facebook. The growth of the
largest and best known global social
networking brand in Poland was not so
spectacular, however during the last
15 months, it has managed to enter
the group of top players and take
a strong second position. In March
2010, Facebook was visited by more
than 5 million Poles and it gained
a reach level of 29%. The rapid growth
of this platform in Poland may lead
to a situation where in the future the
California-based player may well be
able to threaten Nasza-Klasa. However,
161
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER USER
- - 67%
- - 29%
34 00:46:25 23%
12 00:35:45 15%
523 05:05:25 11%
at this point, such a possibility seems
unlikely.
Third position in the ranking of social
networking platforms in Poland is
taken by chomikuj.pl. This service,
operating within the Interia Group,
is another newcomer in the ranking,
but not because it has just appeared
on the market. Chomikuj.pl entered
the group of top social networking
sites in Poland due to two facts. The
first is that it has almost doubled its
reach among Polish internet users
since March 2009 (from almost 13%
to 23%). The second fact is that this
website evolved from a typical file-
sharing service (which it is often still
identified with) towards a particular
kind of social networking service.
The position of Chomikuj within the
ranking of top social networking
websites in Poland appears extremely
strong. The player snapping at its
heels, mojageneracja.pl (run by the GG
Network – owner of the most popular
instant messaging system in Poland),
attracted about 1.5 million real users
less than chomikuj.pl in March 2010
giving it a reach of 15%.
Do you CEE? Poland
162
Another interesting player among the
top 5 social portals is fotka.pl.
This website, based on the ‘hot or not’
formula, was visited by nearly 2 million
Poles in March 2010 (11% of reach),
but it is one of the most engaging
projects on the Polish web. In the
same period, its average visitor spent
more than 5 hours generating a huge
1.5. ONLINE CLASSIFIED ADS BY REACH
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS
1 otomoto.pl 4 254 227
2 gratka.pl 2 214 490
3 gazetapraca.pl 1 976 458
Table 5 Top 3 online classified ads in Poland by reach level (Megapanel PBI/Gemius, March 2010);
all websites presented in the table are audited
The most popular online classified
ads service in Poland is otomoto.pl.
It is a website run by otoMoto
Sp. z o.o. from Poznań and it belongs
to the Allegro Group. OtoMoto is an
‘automotive’ service dedicated to
users who want to buy and sell a car
or motorcycle. In March 2010
it attracted 4.3 million real users
and gained a reach level of 24%.
Second place in this ranking is gratka.pl,
a service run by the Polskapresse
Publishing Group. The main set of
categories of classified ads covered
on the website include: automotive,
real estate, jobs and tourism, however
gratka.pl offers a great deal more
than just this. It cooperates with
automotive companies, as well as
real estate and HR agencies. The
main portal deals with professional
advertisements, however it provides
a subservice (ale.gratka.pl), which is
a database of solely classified ads.
Do you CEE? Poland
number of page views – over 1 billion.
Fotka.pl is one of the oldest social
networking websites in Poland and it
markets its services generally to young
people, who publish their photos and
allow them to be evaluated by other
users.
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER USER
101 01:11:32 24%
43 00:31:47 12%
24 00:19:08 11%
Gratka.pl is also quite a mature brand,
present on the market since 2000.
In March 2010 it gained a reach of
12%, which means that in this period
it was visited by more than 2.2 million
Polish internet users.
In third place is gazetapraca.pl,
an online service which operates using
the ‘job board’ model. Gazetapraca.pl
is a part of Gazeta.pl Group, which
belongs to Agora SA, one of the most
significant Polish publishers. The
website contains information on job
market and offers advice helpful for
jobseekers. Gazetapraca.pl attracted
more than 1.9 million real users in
March 2010 gaining a reach of 11%.
 163

1.6. TOP FINANCE SITES BY REACH

NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH

USERS USER USER

wp.pl (finance,
currencies, stocks,
1 pensions, financial 2 051 660 16 00:23:08 12%
passage, funds,
financial calculator)
money.pl
2 1 981 810 13 00:18:39 11%
(finance)
gazeta.pl
3 1 616 079 26 00:28:00 9%
(money, stocks)

Table 6 Top 3 finance sites in Poland by reach level (Megapanel PBI/Gemius, March 2010);
all websites presented in the table are audited

The top financial websites in Poland
are dominated by services provided
by the largest horizontal portals. The
first position is held by wp.pl, whose
service focuses on economic issues
related to finance. In March 2010
this service was visited by more than
2 million real users. Such a large
audience gave the WP’s financial
section a reach of almost 12% and
the prime position in the ranking. The
third position in the ranking is taken
by a similar section of Gazeta.pl, which
attracted over 1.6 million real users
and gained a reach of 9%. As far as
financial subsections of portals are
concerned, another significant player
is the finance section of Onet.pl.
However, the domination of
horizontal portals is not total. The
second position is held by money.pl.
This vertical financial portal was
established in 2000 in Wrocław and
operates as an online magazine
devoted to financial and economic
issues. Since June 2009, the company’s
main shareholder has been the
German publishing house Handelsblatt
(70%), which belongs to the
Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck.
In 2009 this stock was taken by
another company owned by VGH,
Holtzbrinck Networks. The remaining
30% is owned by Arkadiusz Osiak,
co-founder and president of money.pl.
This seems like a good investment and
forward-moving company, especially
when Megapanel PBI/Gemius data is
taken into account. According to the
study, in March this year money.pl
attracted almost 2 million Polish
internet users who constituted 11%
of the whole online population and
generated more than 25 million page
views.
Beyond the top 3 ranking, there
are also such significant players
as eGospodarka.pl, bankier.pl or
gazetaprawna.pl.

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164

2. ONLINE AUDIENCE

The Polish internet is the Unlike in many CEE markets,

second largest online market in the majority of Polish internet users do
CEE region; there are 17.7 million not live in the capital city or other
internet users in this country. The large metropolises. Exactly 31% of
gender structure of this considerable the online population consists of
population remains extremely individuals who live in rural areas.
balanced. In March 2010 there were A comparable force within the online
50.3% males and 49.7% females using area are individuals from small
the internet in Poland. However, it is towns and medium-sized cities (from
worth remembering that this slight 20,000 to 200,000 inhabitants), who
difference in absolute numbers means represent 30% of all internet users in
that Polish online area is populated by Poland. People from cities bigger than
almost 90,000 more men. 200,000 inhabitants represent 25% of
the online population.
The majority of Polish internet
users are young or very young people. The majority of Polish internet
More than half of the whole online users are pupils and students. They
population in this country (exactly account for 31% of the whole online
52%) consists of individuals between population. The rest has a very flat
15 and 34 years old. On the other structure: almost all occupational
hand, slow but constant growth is groups are represented equally (from
characteristic of the oldest group of 7% in the case of highly skilled workers
internet users. The proportion of Poles and freelancers, to 1% in the case of
active within the online area and older unskilled workers). The last mentioned
than 55 years has increased from 7% group, as well as military and police
in March 2009 to 8% in March 2010. officers, are represented least
frequently on the internet.
The education structure of the
Polish internet users might look quite
diversified, however a general pattern
is easily found. The population of
Poles using the internet regularly
is divided equally into three major
groups: individuals who possess an
education level from incomplete
primary to basic vocational (31%),
individuals with incomplete or
complete secondary education
(34%) and those who graduated
from schools above post-secondary,
including universities (34%). When
precise criteria of education are taken
into consideration, it appears that
the largest groups of Polish internet
users are secondary school graduates
(24%) and individuals with a higher
education (18%).

Do you CEE? Poland

166

3. TOOLS

3.1. BROWSERS

Chart 1 Top browsers in Poland by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Polish
websites that are using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3.1. Browsers 2009, when those the two browsers

The web browser most intensively
used in Poland is Mozilla Firefox. In the
first quarter of 2010 the share of page
views generated by internet users
who visited websites monitored in the
gemiusTraffic study using this browser
was 52.27%, while the corresponding
share for Microsoft Internet Explorer
was 31.18%. The most significant
period for this part of the online
market was the second quarter of
swapped positions.
The third most intensively used
browser in Poland is Opera, which
in the first quarter of 2010 was
responsible for 11% of all page
views generated by internet users
on websites monitored in the
gemiusTraffic study. The newest player
on the market, Google Chrome, during
the same period managed to gain only
4.84% of all page views.

3.2. OPERATING SYSTEMS

Chart 2 Top operating systems in Poland by share of page views generated by internet users who visit
Polish websites that are using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

Do you CEE? Poland

 167
3.2. Operating systems
3.3. SEARCH ENGINES
As with other CEE markets, the
unquestionable leader within the
ranking of operation systems in
Poland is Microsoft Windows. In the
first quarter of 2010 the share of
page views generated by visitors
surfing websites monitored in the
gemiusTraffic study who were using
Windows XP was 72.71%. During the
last two years, the market share of
this version of the Microsoft operating
system has been slightly decreasing Chart 3 Top search engines in Poland by share of visits generated by internet users who visit Polish
websites that are using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)
in favour of Windows Vista. In the
first quarter of 2010 its users were
responsible for almost 19% of all
page views generated on websites 3.4. SCREEN RESOLUTIONS
monitored in the gemiusTraffic study.

3.3. Search engines

The online market in Poland is

dominated by the Google search
engine, which during the last three
years has not lost its leading position.
In the first quarter of 2010 exactly
97.05% of all visits made by Polish
internet users on Polish websites
Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Poland by share of page views generated by internet users who visit
monitored in the gemiusTraffic study Polish websites that are using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)
have their origins in Google search
results. During the same period, no
other search engine explored by
internet users in Poland (including
3.5. MOBILE DEVICES
Microsoft’s MSN and the local
solution, NetSprint) was able to break
the barrier of a 1.3% share of all visits.

3.4. Screen resolutions

The most popular screen resolution

in Poland still remains 1024 x 768.
Nevertheless, it has lost its share since
the first quarter of 2007. At the same
time, 1280 x 800 resolution (used in
notebooks) is becoming increasingly
more popular (from 4.89% in the first Chart 5 Top 5 mobile devices in Poland by the website-averaged percentage share of page views
generated by internet users from Poland, who visit the Polish websites that are using gemiusTraffic
quarter of 2007 to 20.78% in the first
(gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10
quarter of 2010). **to 2010-07-25

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168
3.5. Mobile devices - models
The Polish market of internet-
dedicated mobile devices is dominated
by the iPhone, which has a 17% share
of page views generated by internet
users from Poland, who visit the Polish
websites participating in gemiusTraffic.
However, what is interesting is that
among the top 5 most popular
4. BRANCH ORGANIZATIONS
IAB Poland
www.iabpolska.pl
Description: IAB Poland is an
organization dedicated to interactive
marketing in Poland. Its main goal
is further education of the internet
market regarding different methods
for using the internet. Members
include internet portals and
advertising and interactive agencies.
The Internet Advertising Bureau
Poland was established in 2000 and
has since been an important player on
the Polish internet market.
Members: internet portals, advertising
agencies, interactive agencies,
research agencies (e.g. International
Data Group Poland S.A., Onet.pl
Group, nasza-klasa.pl, Agora S.A.).
Polish Internet Research
www.pbi.org.pl
Description: PBI is an organization
established by the main Polish
internet publishers and largest portal
owners. Its aim is to create standards
for internet research in Poland. PBI
promotes solid and reliable research
Do you CEE? Poland
devices, only one, the iPad, grew in
popularity and increased its share
by 3 percentage points. During the
same period iPhone’s share as well
as the popular Nokia devices’ share
decreased by around 2 percentage
points.
of the Polish internet as a vital tool for
companies that use online advertising.
PBI’s mission is to develop the Polish
internet as a medium that would
be reliable for Polish advertisers,
advertising agencies, investors and
other players who work with the
internet.
Members: leading Polish internet
publishers, internet portals owners
(Gazeta.pl, Interia.pl, Onet.pl,
Wirtualna Polska), PBI partners
(Gemius SA, IAB Polska, Internet
Standard, News Point, Grupa Cron,
MB SMG/KRC, Transmisje Online sp.
z.o.o.).
SMB – Polish Direct Marketing
Association
www.smb.pl
Description: SMB is an organization
that aims to create favorable
conditions for the development
of direct marketing in Poland in
accordance with regulations and work
ethics. The Polish Direct Marketing
Association brings together around
100 companies and is a member
of the Federation of European
Direct and Interactive Marketing

and International Federation of
Direct and Interactive Marketing.
The company plays a key role in the
identification, planning and resolution
of problems concerning the field of
direct marketing in Poland. Its goal is
to implement and maintain standards
on the market and to actively protect
companies and consumers.
169
Members: Companies dealing with
direct marketing, advertising and
marketing communications agencies,
database brokers, telemarketing
companies, catalogue and mail-order
firms, fulfillment companies, service
and manufacturing enterprises and
companies from the internet and new
media sectors; together approximately
100 member enterprises.

5. OPINIONS FROM THE MARKET

Piotr Kowalczyk
Deputy Director of Advertising Products, Onet.pl

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the online advertising market on your
local market?

As far as the Polish online market is concerned, the same issues can be described
both as obstacles and opportunities. For instance, online penetration and media
consumption in Poland is still relatively low, which obviously is an obstacle. On the
other hand, this means that there is a lot of space for growth, which is a great
opportunity. There is also space for improvement in general advertising processes,
which is often underestimated. However, it is one of the factors taken into account
by marketers when deciding whether to spend more money online or not.
Another obstacle is that also seen in other countries around the world: the lack
of confidence in the internet and everything that is online as a good branding
vehicle. This of course is a great opportunity for the online industry. All that needs
to be done is to provide enough evidence for online branding effectiveness.
Another important issue is the necessity to learn new ways of managing brand
communication by marketers and breaking the routine in media planning based on
many years of offline experience.

Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete with
the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this battle?

The predominance of local players in Poland with respect to their global

competition is closely related to local support of business, which is still a great
need. Horizontal portals are a good example of this phenomenon. Global portal
brands practically do not exist on the Polish market, although a few of them have
attempted to enter the market and failed. However, from the perspective of

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170
the end user, some services, such as search engines and social networking
sites, after easy-to-conduct translation and localization into the local language,
immediately constitute valuable products. This explains why particular sectors tend
to be dominated by global players. The only exception are the local players who
have had enough time to dominate the market before the global players appeared
and who have had enough resources to develop services so that they can offer
competition to what the global players offer. This is the case with the Polish
e-commerce market.

Artur Waliszewski
Country Business Director, Google Poland

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the online advertising market on your
local market?

The small and medium-sized Polish businesses have greatly profited from the
internet: it provides access to cheap yet effective online advertising. On the other
hand, large players can also benefit from web-based video by strengthening its role.
The perspectives for further development of both these fields are great.

A barrier hindering market growth is the insufficient quality of available research

services and the practical non-existence of cross-media research. The lobby
interested in maintaining the status quo is very effective in feeding negative
stereotypes about online advertising.

Global vs. local players

Are your local market players strong enough to compete with the global giants?
What advantages and strategies do they adopt in this battle?

Yes and no. An internet service is defined by three factors: technology, content and
community. The major competitive advantage of Polish online businesses over the
global players is the local content they feature, and in this respect they have the
edge on competitors. On the other hand, where technology starts to play a key
role, global players have the upper hand. Furthermore, communities contribute
an element of unpredictability to the market.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are expected
to develop most in future?

An increasing number of Polish companies, especially those operating on the

e-commerce market, are the ones focussed on export. These companies will
discover the chances offered by the free market (EU) and the internet, i.e. the
possibility to reach foreign clients quickly.

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 171
What the future has in store for us is a rapid evolution of mobile devices and cloud
computing as well as the emergence of innovative apps and online services.
A combination of these two trends may give rise to interesting phenomena
on the market.

Market specifics

What makes your local online market unique? Are there any specifics that make it
different from others in the CEE region?

The Polish market is a relatively well-measured one, although it is still struggling

to face up to expectations. It is large enough for local players to grow on a scale
that will allow them to develop and maintain viability, it is quick to implement new
trends and users are adventurous and open to novelties.

Joanna Gajewska
Communications Director, nk.pl

Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete with
the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this battle?

Local players are strong enough – this would be the simplest and probably
the most correct answer. Brands such as Allegro, GG or NK (former Nasza Klasa)
have shown that they are able to compete with global giants effectively (i.e. eBay,
MSN, FB). Some of these above-mentioned battles are already finished, some are
not, but basic strategies in case of Polish and foreign companies are pretty much
the same. These things that make the difference are: better understanding of the
local market, of its demanding customers and of client mood swings. These might
be our local advantages.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are expected
to develop most in the future?

Since last two years, social networking projects have been the fastest-growing
part of the online industry. Not only the number of new SNS projects present on
our market is constantly growing, but also the number of people engaged in using
them. According to the development paths that these entities have chosen it is
reasonable suspicion that they will strengthen their positions.

The second strong trend is connected with marketing research run via the internet,
especially if it comes to qualitative ones. The potential on this market is still
untapped, but there are some prerequisites that let us assume that this situation
will not last long.

Do you CEE? Poland

 Romania
7.58m
internet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_173
1.1. Top10websitesbynumberofuniqueclients_173
1.2. Top10websitesbyaudiencewithsocio-demographics_174
1.3. Top10websitesbyaveragetimespentperuniqueclient_176
1.4. Topportalsbynumberofuniqueclients_177
1.5. Topsocialnetworkingsitesbynumberofuniqueclients_178
1.6. Topfinancesitesbyreach_179
1.7. Topfinancewebsitesbynumberofuniqueclients_179
2. ONLINEAUDIENCE_180
3. TOOLS_182
3.1. Browsers_182
3.2. Operatingsystems_182
3.3. Search engines_183
3.4. Screen resolutions_183
3.5. Pageimpressionsperuniqueclientandaverageviewtimeperuniqueclient_184
4. BRANCHORGANIZATIONS_184
5. ADVERTISINGNETWORKS_186
6. OPINIONSFROMTHEMARKET_187
 173

1. MAIN PLAYERS

1.1. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY NUMBER OF UNIQUE CLIENTS

WEBSITE’S CATEGORY NUMBER OF NUMBER OF PAGE IMPRESSIONS AVERAGE TIME PER

UNIQUE CLIENTS PAGE IMPRESSIONS PER UNIQUE CLIENT UNIQUE CLIENT

1 hi5.com social network 4 617 621 2 336 670 870 506.0 12,657

2 trilulilu.ro video sharing 3 009 029 72 343 109 24.0 2,219

3 forum.softpedia.com forum 2 758 289 18 887 137 6.8 899

4 eva.ro women lifestyle 2 511 451 44 767 947 17.8 1,700

5 gsp.ro sports 1 759 471 42 498 615 24.1 3,570

6 realitatea.net general news 1 755 136 24 769 924 14.1 2,098

7 cancan.ro tabloid 1 692 567 42 484 069 25.1 2,500

8 acasa.ro portal/ search engine 1 673 830 12 184 065 7.2 493

9 bizoo.ro portal / search engine 1 672 231 21 157 708 12.6 664

10 libertatea.ro tabloid 1 664 521 48 054 953 28.8 3,191

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Romania by number of unique clients (SATI, by BRAT, Traffic measurement, March 2010)

In order to provide a valuable and page impressions per month and

complex analysis of the Romanian
online landscape, this chapter of the
report includes two rankings of the
top market players. The first is the
ranking of top 10 websites by traffic
figures (by the number of unique
clients, a cookie-based figure). It
is based on SATI, by BRAT, traffic
measurement results. The second
ranking is based on the results of
SATI audience measurement, and
it represents the weekly number of
persons visiting websites and their
socio-demographic profiles.
According to the SATI Traffic
measurement, the Romanian
section of hi5.com (only Romanian
IPs are measured) is the leader of
the general ranking for Romanian
websites, with more than 2 billion
more than 4,5 million unique clients
per month. The service is a social
networking site which is American
in origin and is dedicated mainly to
young people.
Second place belongs to trilulilu.ro,
a video sharing website. This website
saw an explosive increase in its
audience over the last 2 years and
in March 2010 it had over 3 million
unique clients.
Softpedia.com was established
nine years ago and through its
Forum, continues its history of good
performance, remaining in the top
3 of Romanian websites.
Eva.ro is a site for women. It is
a lifestyle service, which

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174
unexpectedly appeared within
the top 10 Romanian websites.
This was mainly due to the launch of
lumeacafelei.eva.ro, an interactive
game, which turned out to be
a significant success in March and
April 2010, transforming eva.ro into
the leader in the women lifestyle’
category.
A continuous presence in the Top 10
is maintained by gsp.ro in 5th place.
It is the most visited sports website.
In March 2010, gsp.ro had over
1,750,000 unique clients.
The leader in the ‘general news’
category is realitatea.net, on 6th
place among the top 10 Romanian
websites. It should be mentioned
that the ‘sports’ and ‘general news’
categories are some of the most
1.2. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY AUDIENCE WITH SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHICS
Beside the traffic results (usually
technical metrics as page
impressions, visits, unique clients
- cookie based indicators), the results
of the audience for websites and
the socio-demographic profiles of
the visitors are available. The traffic
results are delivered in real-time,
while the audience and socio-
demographic results are provided
at six-month periods, representing
the audience values calculated for
the average week in a 6-month
period. The last delivery corresponds
to the period September 1st 2009
- February 28th 2010.
As presented in the above table,
the Romanian section of hi5.com
maintains first place, with almost
2 million persons visiting the website
in an average week. This corresponds
Do you CEE? Romania
popular websites in Romania, all with
top quality content and increasing
competition.
Tabloids are represented by 2 websites:
cancan.ro and libertatea.ro, which
have over 1,650,000 unique clients.
Noteworthy is the performance of
the portals/search engines: acasa.ro
and bizoo.ro. Most recently acasa.ro
went through a re-branding process
and is now a lifestyle website.
to a reach of 36.9% from the SATI
universe: 5.2 million persons.
The performances of trilulilu.ro,
forum.softpedia.com, cancan.ro and
libertatea.ro, in terms of traffic are
confirmed by their audience results.
Ejobs.ro, with 10 years in the job
sector, took 3rd place, convincing
483,000 persons on average per
week to visit its pages. The leaders
of the sports and general news
categories (gsp.ro and realitatea.net)
respectively took 7th and 8th places
in the top 10, followed closely by
their direct competitors, sport.ro and
stirileprotv.ro.
The socio-demographic profiles of
the visitors reveal a balance between
women and men for most of the
websites in the top 10, except the
TOP 10 WEBSITES BY AUDIENCE WITH SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHICS
GENDER
(% FROM TOTAL VISITORS
OF THE WEBSITE)
STE’S CATEGORY AVERAGE NUMBER VISITOR’S PAGE REACH WOMEN MEN
OF VISITORS PER IMPRESSIONS PER % OF VISITORS
WEEK WEEK (FROM THE
UNIVERSE)

1 hi5.com social network 1 919 000 435 025 000 36.9% 49.1% 50.9%

2 trilulilu.ro video sharing 602 000 10 884 000 11.6% 49.0% 51.0%

3 ejobs.ro job-board service 483 000 7 481 000 9.3% 53.6% 46.4%

4 forum.softpedia.com forum 472 000 3 238 000 9.1% 45.7% 54.3%

5 cancan.ro tabloid 436 000 6 552 000 8.4% 47.4% 52.6%

6 libertatea.ro tabloid 403 000 7 489 000 7.7% 48.7% 51.3%

7 gsp.ro sports 391 000 5 722 000 7.5% 32.6% 67.4%

8 realitatea.net general news 389 000 4 602 000 7.5% 46.6% 53.4%

9 sport.ro sports 358 000 5 294 000 6.9% 34.2% 65.8%

10 stirileprotv.ro general news 350 000 2 898 000 6.7% 45.8% 54.2%

AGE (% FROM TOTAL VISITORS OF THE WEBSITE) SOCIAL STATUS ESOMAR

(% FROM TOTAL VISITORS OF THE WEBSITE)

14-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 AB (HIGH) C (MIDDLE) DE (LOW)

YEARS YEARS YEARS YEARS YEARS

1 hi5.com 42.6% 26.5% 18.6% 8.9% 3.5% 34.2% 45.3% 20.5%

2 trilulilu.ro 40.6% 25.8% 20.3% 9.2% 4.0% 33.1% 45.2% 21.7%

3 ejobs.ro 32.5% 30.2% 21.7% 11.4% 4.2% 38.0% 44.5% 17.5%

4 forum.softpedia.com 39.7% 27.4% 19.5% 9.4% 4.1% 37.2% 44.8% 18.0%

5 cancan.ro 32.6% 29.2% 20.9% 11.5% 5.8% 40.6% 43.9% 15.5%

6 libertatea.ro 31.1% 28.5% 21.0% 12.7% 6.7% 41.0% 43.7% 15.3%

7 gsp.ro 33.9% 30.2% 19.9% 10.3% 5.7% 39.4% 45.4% 15.2%

8 realitatea.net 27.8% 27.6% 22.4% 13.9% 8.3% 46.2% 41.5% 12.3%

9 sport.ro 40.6% 27.4% 19.5% 8.3% 4.2% 34.9% 47.1% 18.0%

10 stirileprotv.ro 41.7% 26.7% 19.0% 8.6% 4.0% 35.0% 46.2% 18.9%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Romania by audience (SATI, by BRAT, Audience measurement, September 2009 - February 2010, universe: 14-64 yo, urban,
internet users)
176
sports websites, gsp.ro and sport.ro,
where men represent two-thirds of all
visitors.
Hi5.com has the youngest audience
in the ranking, with almost 69% of its
visitors between 14 and 34 years old.
The visitors of trilulilu.ro, ejobs.ro and
forum.softpedia.com have a similar
profile. They are young people in the
14-24 year-old segment. Ejobs.ro also
has a good affinity with the segment
of 25-34 year olds.
aged segment who have a high social
status.
The general news websites realitatea.
net and stirileprotv.ro have similar
profiles, but realitatea.net more
often has visitors from the middle-
aged segment and the high social
status category. Stirileprotv.ro is more
popular among younger people.

The tabloids, cancan.ro and

libertatea.ro have an audience with
a higher affinity with the middle-

1.3. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY AVERAGE TIME SPENT PER UNIQUE CLIENT

It is of no surprise that the best
values in terms of viewtime per
client are reported for websites
recognized as forums, social networks
and sports websites. In March 2010
the best performance was noted for
agf.ro, a forum of stock-exchange
players. Despite the fact that the total
audience is not particularly high,
each unique client spends more than
4 hours each month on agf.ro.

WEBSITE’S CATEGORY UNIQUE CLIENTS PAGE PAGE VIEW TIME PER

IMPRESSIONS IMPRESSIONS UNIQUE CLIENT
PER UNIQUE (SECONDS)
CLIENT

1 agf.ro economy / finance 9 856 1 139 929 115.7 14,669

2 hi5.com social network 4 617 621 2 336 670 870 506.1 12,659

3 neogen.ro social network 1 019 772 217 752 324 213.5 9,001

4 conquiztador.ro online game 586 213 22 992 936 39.2 4,734

5 prosport.ro sports 1 068 899 30 944 930 28.9 4,150

6 sport.ro sports 1 366 747 33 874 095 24.8 3,683

7 gsp.ro sports 1 759 471 42 498 615 24.2 3,572

8 libertatea.ro tabloid 1 664 521 48 054 953 28.9 3,189

9 pgl.ro online game 53 671 3 000 760 55.9 2,918

10 mobile.ro auto / moto 497 815 46 948 849 94.3 2,696

Table 3 Top 10 websites in Romania by average time spent per unique client (SATI, by BRAT, Traffic measurement, March 2010)

Do you CEE? Romania


The Romanian section (only
Romanian IPs) of hi5.com takes
second place and in March 2010 its
users spent more than 3.5 hours on
this service. Next place is taken by
neogen.ro, whose unique clients
devote an average of around
2.4 hours per month for visiting
this service.
The results gained by the sports
websites on the metric viewtime per
user reveal strong competition among
the players in this category. Gsp.ro,
prosport.ro and sport.ro are of the
highest interest for the Romanian
online audience with regard to sports
177
content. The average value of about
1 hour per user for each of the sports
websites presented above speaks for
itself.
Other popular websites belong to
the ‘games’ category. First place
among them takes conquiztador.ro,
the online game where users conquer
virtual lands by answering questions.
10th place is taken by mobile.ro,
the international automotive
classified service.

1.4. TOP PORTALS BY NUMBER OF UNIQUE CLIENTS

UNIQUE CLIENTS PAGE PAGE VIEW TIME PER

IMPRESSIONS IMPRESSIONS UNIQUE CLIENT
PER UNIQUE (SECONDS)
CLIENT

1 acasa.ro 1 673 830 12 184 065 7.2 494

2 bizoo.ro 1 672 231 21 157 708 12.6 665

3 rol.ro 1 627 150 14 560 849 8.9 521

4 apropo.ro 1 123 537 6 999 492 6.2 550

5 roportal.ro 1 053 431 3 430 826 3.2 312

Table 4 Top 5 portals in Romania by number of unique clients (SATI, by BRAT, Traffic measurement,
March 2010)

Horizontal portals, which provide targeted to a business audience,

a large variety of information,
have also attracted the interest of
Romanian visitors last year. Acasa.ro
confirmed its leading position from
2009, gaining more than
1.5 million unique clients each
month. Recently, acasa.ro was
rebranded and is now re-positioning
itself as a lifestyle website. Its main
competitor is bizoo.ro, a portal
providing services to companies.
The struggle between these two
players is clearly visible and in March
2010 bizoo.ro lost 1,600 unique
clients compared to acasa.ro, but
it beat its rival as far as all other
indicators are concerned.
Rol.ro, in third place, is one of the
oldest portals in Romania. However,

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the portal does not remain far behind
the leaders and in March 2010 its
unique clients amounted to 1,627,150
users.
The other two players apropo.ro and
roportal.ro, managed to exceed
1 million unique clients per month.

1.5. TOP SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES BY NUMBER OF UNIQUE CLIENTS

UNIQUE CLIENTS PAGE PAGE VIEW TIME PER

IMPRESSIONS IMPRESSIONS UNIQUE CLIENT
PER UNIQUE (SECONDS)
CLIENT

1 hi5.com 4 617 621 2 336 670 870 506.0 12,659

2 tpu.ro 1 061 704 5 410 137 5.1 438

3 neogen.ro 1 019 772 217 752 324 213.5 9,001

4 netlog.com 887 181 37 146 597 41.8 2,274

5 mysport.ro 127 964 2 424 403 18.9 1,207

Table 5 Top 5 social networking sites in Romania by number of unique clients (SATI, by BRAT, Traffic
measurement, March 2010)

Romanian users are passionate
about social media, keen on
communication, and they like to
make friends and have fun. This
explains the tremendous success of
social networking sites in Romania.
These websites are well represented
by both international (hi5.com and
netlog.com) and local brands (tpu.ro,
neogen.ro, mysport.ro).
into third place. One of the oldest
social media brands in Romania,
neogen.ro, is not only a dating
platform, but also has the integrated
services which include classifieds,
destinations, events, and games.

Measuring only visitors with

Romanian IPs, the Romanian section
of hi5.com manages to attract more
than 4 million unique clients each
month. Moreover its users generate
around 2 billion page impressions,
over 500 page impressions per
unique client and spent on average
3.5 hours per UC.

Tpu.ro is a question and answer

website. Being a relatively new
community, tpu.ro has grown
extremely quickly and sent neogen.ro

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1.6. TOP ONLINE CLASSIFIED ADS BY NUMBER OF UNIQUE CLIENTS

UNIQUE CLIENTS PAGE PAGE VIEW TIME PER

IMPRESSIONS IMPRESSIONS UNIQUE CLIENT
PER UNIQUE (SECONDS)
CLIENT

1 ejobs.ro 1 619 217 39 412 460 24.3 1,105

2 bestjobs.ro 1 076 429 37 458 490 34.8 1513

3 auto.ro 643 570 18 302 180 28.4 2052

4 automarket.ro 619 652 10 008 106 16.1 1050

5 publi24.ro 285 854 9 305 025 32.5 1 304

Table 6 Top 5 online classified ads in Romania by number of unique clients (SATI by BRAT Traffic
measurement March 2010)

Among the websites publishing small- Publi24.ro represents websites

ads, those from the ‘jobs’ category publishing small-ads of all types (auto,
are visited most. Both ejobs.ro and jobs, real estate, etc.), however it only
bestjobs.ro have over 1 million unique has about 286,000 unique clients each
clients each month. month.

The classifieds from the ‘auto’

category also generate significant
traffic. In March 2010, the leaders
in this category were auto.ro and
automarket.ro, with more than
600,000 unique clients.

1.7. TOP FINANCE WEBSITES BY NUMBER OF UNIQUE CLIENTS

UNIQUE CLIENTS PAGE PAGE VIEW TIME PER

IMPRESSIONS IMPRESSIONS UNIQUE CLIENT
PER UNIQUE (SECONDS)
CLIENT

1 wall-street.ro 948 715 4 884 262 5.1 386

2 zf.ro 874 223 7 430 477 8.4 1,143

3 money.ro 675 282 3 743 291 5.5 743

4 avocatnet.ro 632 521 4 614 248 7.2 888

5 capital.ro 579 314 2 899 750 4.9 750

Table 7 Top 5 finance websites in Romania by number of unique clients (SATI by BRAT Traffic
measurement March 2010)

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180
Providing financial news, articles
about banks, business opportunities
as well as information about
Romanian funds, ‘Business and
Finance’ is one of the categories
where competition is strong, with
more than 20 websites competing.
Wall-street.ro was the leader in
March 2010, with almost 950,000
unique clients. It belongs to Internet
Corp, an independent Romanian
publisher.
2. ONLINE AUDIENCE
The gender structure of the
Romanian internet users is relatively
balanced, reflecting the general
structure of the population. Men
are only slightly better represented
than women according to SATI, by
BRAT. Men accounted for 50.7% of
the online population, and women
49.3%.
According to SATI (Audience
measurement, September 2009
- February 2010, universe 14-64
yo, urban), the Romanian online
market is dominated by young and
very young people; 70% of them are
under 40 years old. The number of
internet users decreases with age
with almost 2% of users over 60
years old.
Graduates of high schools and
universities are extremely well
represented among Romanian
internet users. According to SATI
(Audience measurement, September
2009 - February 2010, universe 14-
64 yo, urban) they constituted 77%
of the total number of the internet
users. Vocational school graduates
Do you CEE? Romania
Zf.ro is the online platform of Ziarul
Financiar, one of the most successful
business newspapers in Romania.
After a year of its launch, the
business portal Money.ro came
third. With a loss of 43,000
compared to money.ro, avocanet.ro,
an online legal community, ranks
fourth. 5th place is taken by capital.ro.
accounted for 8%. School children of
grades 1 to 11 accounted for 15% of
the online population.
As in other CEE countries, the
majority of internet users in Romania
lives in the capital city (Bucharest)
or in other large cities (over 200,000
inhabitants); this amounts to
approximately 45% of all internet
users. 28% of the Romanian online
population live in cities with 50,000
– 200,000 people. The remaining
27% live in places with less than
50,000 inhabitants.
The managers or freelancers
with high level of education together
with students and pupils as well as
the entrepreneurs and independent
professionals with university degree
comprise 45.2% of Romanian
internet users.
182

3. TOOLS

3.1. BROWSERS

Chart 1 Top browsers in Romania by share of visits made from each in total number of visits
(SATI, by BRAT, Traffic measurement, 2007 Q4 – 2010 H1)

3.1. Browsers has been declining; in the first half of

For a long time the Romanian browser
market was dominated by Microsoft
Internet Explorer. However, MSIE’s
share has been decreasing over the
past few years. In the first half of 2010
it constituted only 43%. Moreover,
Firefox has been catching up with
MSIE and the distance between them
2010 Firefox’s share on the market
amounted to 42%. Other browsers
used by Romanian internet users are
Chrome and Opera. However, their
market shares are not significant and
amounted to only 7% in the first half
of 2010.

3.2. OPERATING SYSTEMS

Chart 2 Top operating systems in Romania by share of visits made from each in total number of visits
(SATI, by BRAT, Traffic measurement, 2007 Q4 – 2010 H1)

Do you CEE? Romania

 183
3.2. Operating systems
3.3. SEARCH ENGINES
As with other CEE markets, the
unquestionable leader among
operating systems in Romania is
Windows XP. In the first half of 2010
its market share accounted for 78%
of the online audience and the
situation does not allow to predict
any changes in the nearest future. The
second player on the market is the
newcomer: Windows 7, which gained
more than 9% over the last twelve
months before the study.

3.3. Search engines

As in other CEE search engine
markets, the leader in Romania is
Google. In the first half of 2010 it
was responsible for 96% of all visits
made on websites monitored by BRAT
and the situation has been relatively
constant over several years. The other
noteworthy search engine is Yahoo
constituting 1.5% of the Romanian
search market.
3.4. Screen resolutions
The distribution of screen resolutions
has remained almost constant over
the years; 1024 x 768 comes in first
place with a 31% share, followed by
1280 x 1024 (18%). Also, the 1280 x
800 screen resolution is quite popular.
Chart 3 Top search engines in Romania by share of visits initiated by each in total number of visits
(SATI, by BRAT, Traffic measurement, 2007 Q4 – 2010 H1)
each month. This visible change
occurred in the last trimester of 2009,
due to the Romanian branch of
hi5.com, which at that time joined
the SATI study.
Note: The above figures related to
viewtime and page impressions/client
are calculated only for Romanian
websites, measured by SATI. The
traffic on the large global websites
(such as Google) is not included in the
calculation.
3.4. SCREEN RESOLUTIONS

3.5. Page impressions and average

time per user

In recent years, the Romanian

internet has grown not only in terms
of number of visitors, but also in
terms of number of page impressions
generated by users and average time
spent by them on websites. Currently,
an average user (unique client) in
Romania generates about 523 page
impressions per month and at the
same time he or she spends more
than 6.5 hours surfing the internet Chart 4 Top screen resolutions in Romania by share of visits with recognized resolutions used by
visitors in total number of visits (SATI, by BRAT, Traffic measurement, 2007 Q4 – 2010 H1)

Do you CEE? Romania

184

3.5. PAGE IMPRESSIONS PER UNIQUE CLIENT AND AVERAGE

VIEWTIME PER UNIQUE CLIENT

Chart 5 Page impressions and average time spent per user (unique client) in Romania (SATI, by BRAT,
Traffic measurement, September 2007 - June 2010) of visits (SATI, by BRAT, Traffic measurement,
2007 Q4 – 2010 H1)

4. BRANCH ORGANIZATIONS

BRAT Members: Publishing houses, online

www.brat.ro
Description: The goal of the BRAT
association is to independently and
objectively verify the performance
indicators of various media products
based on conventional criteria,
standardized at the national level
and established by members of the
association. The information obtained
is intended for the advertising
industry. BRAT was established on
20 February 1998 by 33 founding
members. As a result of the total
transparency of BRAT, the number of
members has increased to 238. From
2007 BRAT has implemented the SATI
study (internet audience and traffic
research)
publishing houses, advertising
networks, advertising agencies,
advertising clients.
Asociatia IAB Romania
www.iab-romania.ro
Description: IAB Romania brings
together the most important members
of the media and advertising industry
in Romania. The goals of IAB are to
promote the interactive advertising
industry, impose international
standards, develop and promote
programs to educate advertisers and
publishers, IAB produces and supports
studies on the efficiency and power of
online advertising, as well as publishes

Do you CEE? Romania


market data and analysis. Last but
not least, the organization formulates
and promotes a code of ethics for the
online advertising industry in Romania.
The IAB association in Romania was
established in 2006.
Members: Online publishing houses,
advertising networks, advertising
agencies, advertising clients.
International Advertising Association
www.iaa.ro
Description: The International
Advertising Association is a unique
strategic partnership which defends
the common interests of all disciplines
in the whole spectrum of the
marketing communications industry
from advertisers to media companies,
agencies, direct marketing companies
and individual practitioners. The main
objectives of IAA are to promote
the role and benefits of advertising,
to protect and promote freedom of
commercial speech and consumer
choice, to encourage self-regulation
and practice of advertising and to offer
a forum for discussion of new topics
related to marketing communications.
IAA Romania was founded in 1993.
Members: Advertisers, media
companies, agencies, direct marketing
firms.
Romanian Council for Advertising
www.rac.ro
Description: Romanian Advertising
Council (RAC) is a professional,
non-governmental, non-profit and
independent organization. The activity
of the Council is self-regulation in
advertising. At present, the Romanian
185
Advertising Council is preparing to
offer copy advice. RAC was established
in 1999. It was the initiative of a union
in support of the advertising industry
in Romania which belonged to several
companies and to the International
Advertising Association (IAA). The
activity of the Romanian Advertising
Council is based on the Code of
Advertising Practice, developed by
its members. The Code is a set of
ethical rules to be respected by all
those involved in advertising and any
form of commercial communication.
The document’s purpose is to
support the development of honest
and decent business in Romania
by offering a guide to the form and
content of correct, honest and decent
information of the consumer and
the industry.
Members: RAC has 50 members:
companies, advertising agencies,
media and associations. In turn,
the Council is a member of other
European (EASA - European
Advertising Standards Alliance) and
global (IAA - International Advertising
Alliance) organizations.
Do you CEE? Romania
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5. ADVERTISING NETWORKS

GENERAL CONTACT INFORMATION

FULL NAME HOMEPAGE URL ADDRESS MAIN OFFICE CONTACT
ADDRESS

Str.Turturelelor, nr 11A, et.5, Fax: +40 (0) 31-815-67-52

1 Ad Evolution adevolution.ro
corp C, sector 3, Bucuresti Email: office@adevolution.ro

Phone: +40 (0)31-825-64-61

Str. Tudor Arghezi nr. 3B, sector
2 Apropo Media apropomedia.ro Fax: +40 (0) 31-825-61-55
2, Bucuresti
Email: orlando.nicoara@mpinteractiv.ro

Phone: +40 (0) 372-111-777

Blv. Iuliu Maniu, nr. 7, cladirea B,
3 ARBOinteractive arbointeractive.ro Fax: +40 (0) 372-111-711
etaj 3, Sector 6, Bucuresti
Email: calin.rotarus@arbointeractive.ro

Str.Turturelelor, nr 11A, cladirea

Phone: +40 (0) 37-401-39-00
4 Beyond Media beyond.ro Phoenicia Business Center, etaj
Email: suport@beyond.ro
5, sector 3, Bucuresti

Phone: +40 (0) 21-232-03-26

Str. Nucsoara nr.13, bloc 32, sc.
5 Digital 4 People digital4.ro Fax: +40 (0) 21-232-03 -6
A, ap. 2, Sector 6, Bucuresti
Email: office@digital4.ro

Phone: +40 (0) 21-209-53-33/ ext. 132

Blv. Pierre de Coubertin 3-5, Of-
6 Digital Ads digital-ads.ro Fax: +40 (0) 21-209-56-62
fice Building, Sector 2, Bucuresti
Email: oana.lupoaie@digital-ads.ro

P-ta Presei Libere nr 1 , Casa Phone: +40 (0) 21-549-37-90

7 F5/X Media f5xmedia.ro Presei Libere Corp A3, et2, Sec- Fax: +40 (0) 21-310-31-29
tor 1, Bucuresti Email: office@f5xmedia.ro

Str Av. Sanatescu 40, Sector 1, Phone: +40 (0) 21-314-43-82

8 HttPool httpool.ro
Bucuresti Email: info@httpool.ro

Str. Pache Protopescu nr 109, Phone: +40 (0) 31-825-02-65

9 IBU Pro TV ibu.ro
Bucuresti Email: constantin.cocioaba@protv.ro

Calea Torontalului DN6 Km 5- Phone: +40 (0) 259-410-115

10 Inform Media Informmedia.ro 7,Cod postal – 300633, Fax: +40 (0) 259-436-639
Timisoara Email: monica.trusca@informmedia.ro

Phone: +40 (0) 21-406-65-07

Blv. Ficusului nr. 44A, et. 3, corp
11 Intact Interactive intactinteractive.ro Fax: +40 (0) 21-406-65-84
A, cam. 16, sector 1, Bucuresti
Email: contact@intactinteractive.ro

Phone: +40 (0) 31-228-66-09

Str. Putul lui Zamfir nr. 28, Sector
12 Internet Corp Internetcorp.ro Fax: +40 (0) 31-228-61-23
1, Bucuresti
Email: mihai@internetcorp.ro
Phone 1: +40 (0) 21-665-75-99
Str. Panait Istrati nr. 55, Sector 1, Phone 2: +40 (0) 21-665-75-55
13 Splendid Interactive splendidmediagroup.ro
Bucuresti Fax: +40 (0) 21-665-75-12
Email: office@splendidmediagroup.ro
Phone: +40 (0) 21-410-10-38
Str. Dr. Staicovici, nr. 14,
14 ThinkDigital thinkdigital.gr/ro/ Fax: +40 (0) 21-411-11-33
Bucuresti
Email: brain@thinkdigital.ro

Blv. Unirii nr. 19, bl. 4B, parter, Phone: +40 (0) 21-209-56-79
15 TradeAds tradeads.eu sector 5, Bucuresti, postal code: Fax: +40 (0) 21-209-56-79
040103 Email: office@tradeads.eu

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6. OPINIONS FROM THE MARKET

Adina Vasilescu
New Media Publisher, Sanoma Hearst

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the online advertising market on
your local market?

There are still lots of opportunities for online services and transaction based
models in many segments of Romanian cyberspace. If we look at top 20 websites
in Romania there are a lot of brand extensions from print media, which are
mainly content websites making money from advertising. The Romanian web is
still in the 1.0 phase, with some exceptions. The main problem is that despite
a good internet penetration rate, online advertising spendings remain modest.
Advertisers need first to understand the nature of online projects, then they will
learn to trust the web and began to spend real money online.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are
expected to develop most in the future?

On the one hand, social media, communities and all forms of user-generated
content are growing in popularity. On the other hand, the future of e-commerce
is promising and this will be key for both user and advertiser behavior within the
next 3-5 years.

Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete
with the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this
battle?

There is little local strength compared to the large successes of international

companies. A long path awaits Romania in order to reach a comparable level of
development of other countries of the region (e.g. the Czech Republic, Hungary,
and Poland). As long as most of the successful local websites copy international
concepts, Romania will not be able to compete at the global level. What is
needed is more investment in innovation and the creation of models adapted to
the specifics of the Romanian market in areas where international concepts have
proved ineffective (e.g. online real estate).

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188
Market specifics

What makes your local online market unique? Are there any specifics that make
it different from others in the CEE region?

The Romanian online market cannot yet be termed fully ‘mature’ when
compared with other CEE countries and it stills lacks the necessary know-
how and vision. More entrepreneurs as well as experienced managers are
needed for this market to continue to develop. Fast and effective growth in
the online business most certainly lies in the future which means there are still
opportunities for investors in this market.

Alex Visa
Managing Partner, Hyperactive

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the online advertising market on
your local market?

The global economic downturn has slowed down the Romanian advertising
market as a whole, and this has also affected the internet advertising market.
Compared to other European markets, which registered a 10% increase
compared to the previous year, Romania had a 5% to 10% decrease in 2009
compared to 2008. Even with this decrease, the internet has declined less than
other types of media, and may be considered the ‘winner’ among media types.

The share of spend dedicated to digital media has grown rapidly over previous
years, and is still expected to grow in the upcoming years. For 2010 we estimate
a 5% budget share dedicated to online media. Even so, this is well below the
18% average of other European countries.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are
expected to develop most in the future?

The era of treating online products as ‘add-ons’ to any campaign has already
peaked, and the growing trend is to have campaigns revolving around an ‘online
anchored 360 concept’. More major brands have started to take online seriously
and to develop campaigns and communications strategies around a well
rounded, online anchored concept. Social media usage is also growing rapidly
and will continue to grow.

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 189
Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete
with the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this
battle?

The situation is mixed in this matter. Medium- and small-sized local brands are,
in certain cases, more advanced than global giants. Nevertheless, global brands
are slower to start but faster to implement an integrated online anchored
campaign, and usually have larger budgets for such endeavors.

Laurentiu Pop
Deputy Managing Director, Httpool

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the online advertising market on
your local market?

The Romanian online advertising market is blooming with opportunities at

the moment. There are new online advertising products available on the
market and advertisers are ready to use them and try new things. One of the
biggest advantages of the Romanian market is, of course, its high broadband
penetration and the increasing interest that Romanians of all ages have in
using the internet. The willingness and the necessity to communicate and
share information is characteristic for both users and advertisers, therefore it is
a positive environment for online advertising.

However, there is still some work to be done until the internet reaches the level
of awareness and credibility that it has gained in western countries, and that can
only be achieved through constantly educating of all the stakeholders involved
about the benefits online advertising can bring.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are
expected to develop most in the future?

The trends on the local market are influenced by the global climate and
economic environment. The first trend is connected to the professionalization
of the market by requesting full reports, by optimizing campaigns as they run
and using all data available in order to become increasingly more efficient.
The second trend is highlighted by large global advertisers that are developing
branding campaigns in their fight to gain a market share in the times of the
recession.

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190
Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete
with the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this
battle?

Local players developed extremely well during the first years of the
implementation of the Romanian internet infrastructure so it is difficult for
global players access the main sectors such as Sports, Auto or Jobs. This is why
global players enter the Romanian market through the purchase of Romanian
players (for example, in the Jobs and Auto sectors). Of course, there are
exceptions in areas like E-mail or Search where the global players are too strong.

Market specifics

What makes your local online market unique? Are there any specifics that make
it different from others in the CEE region?

The people and geopolitical position of Romania is in itself unique. Firstly,

Romanian users are modern and keen on testing new products. Secondly,
Romania is the only Latin-based linguistic area in the region and this has had
a great impact of the way the internet market has developed so far and will
continue to influence the way it will develop in the future.

Cezar Paraschiv
Account Manager, Starcom Romania
Silviu Toma
Online Media Planner, Starcom Romania

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the online advertising market on
your local market?

It is inevitable that we take as a benchmark what happens in other so-

called more ‘mature’ online industries. The internet is the same for all of
us (not including countries in the Middle East or China where parts of it are
banned) thus we all function on a level playing field and have almost the
same opportunities in terms of developing complex projects leveraging the
particularities of the medium. However, the ‘maturer’ countries are one step
ahead of Romania. This is because their marketing culture is some way ahead
of the Romanian one. One opportunity is the accessibility of online marketing
knowledge that is narrowing the gap between Romania and the West. Romania
will eventually move on from “intuitive online marketing” to “knowledge based
online marketing” but the lack of online professionals both in agencies and in
the marketing departments of clients is now the greatest obstacle. We must
not forget that we are functioning in a genuinely ‘idea’ field and of course great
ideas only succeed if they are shared by people with common visions.

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 191
Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are
expected to develop most in the future?

In the past 3 years, specialists have claimed that mobile marketing is the ‘next
big thing’. However, experience has shown us that the mobile channel was and
continues to be poorly leveraged. This will change because of the smartphone
market boom. Smartphones are moving the internet to the streets. Once mobile
websites appear, mobile display advertising will explode.

Another local trend is the growing use of social media. Increasingly more clients
are moving from outbound marketing to inbound marketing.

Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete
with the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this
battle?

Global giants have money, local players have flexibility. Global giants come with
a set of rules, and most of the time follow certain patterns when it comes to
online advertising. Local players can counterattack with intelligent projects that
can be cheap but extremely effective. After all, the internet is a medium which
offers a whole variety of possibilities.

Market specifics

What makes your local online market unique? Are there any specifics that make
it different from others in the CEE region?

The market still has many free niches for e-commerce or niches without a clear
leader in terms of volume of sales and brand perception (books, clothes,
vouchers etc). The volume of online transactions has doubled every year from
2004 to 2009.The best-selling products are from IT&C, fashion, entertainment,
tourism (plane tickets and package holidays). Hi5 is still the largest social
networking site in the country but Facebook is quickly growing (currently
1,500,000 users) and will probably overtake Hi5 (2,500,000 users) this year.
Twitter only has 30,000 users.

The Romanian market has more digital agencies than online success businesses.
There are several large investors like NCH and Naspers but they are only active
in online media and services like job sites or second hand car sites. There have
been no major investors in e-commerce and research so far.

Do you CEE? Romania

 Russia
40.96m
internet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_193
1.1. Top10websitesbyreach_193
1.2. Top10websitesbyaveragetimespentperuser_194
1.3. Topportals_195
1.4. Social networks_196
1.5. Onlineclassifiedadsbyreach_197
1.6. Topfinancesitesbyreach_198
2. ONLINEAUDIENCE_198
3. TOOLS_200
3.1. Browsers_200
3.2. Operatingsystems_201
3.3. Search engines_201
3.4. Screen resolutions_201
3.5. Mobiledevices_202
4. BRANCHORGANIZATIONS_202
5. ADVERTISINGNETWORKS_203
6. OPINIONSFROMTHEMARKET_204
 193

1. MAIN PLAYERS

1.1. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY REACH

WEBSITE’S CATEGORY NUMBER OF REAL NUMBER OF PAGE PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USERS VIEWS USER USER

1 Yandex horizontal portal 33 990 064 6 157 314 817 181 05:36:42 83%

2 Mail horizontal portal 31 835 999 9 711 805 546 305 06:35:34 78%

3 vkontakte.ru social network 23 099 316 41 925 538 754 1815 17:11:46 56%

4 Google search engine 18 739 727 1 194 681 324 64 01:29:29 46%

5 odnoklassniki.ru social network 17 925 656 3 383 276 223 189 03:45:18 44%

6 wikipedia.org online encyclopedia 14 240 047 156 275 754 11 00:17:44 35%

7 Rambler horizontal portal 13 520 218 1 020 410 546 75 01:34:30 33%

8 mozilla.com Corporate website 11 881 588 61 423 784 5 00:12:45 29%

9 marketgid.com e-shop catalogue 10 401 793 63 321 810 6 00:22:35 25%

10 microsoft.com corporate website 10 039 073 70 266 850 7 00:07:17 25%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Russia by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

The division into three groups, and amounted to 83% in March

as observed in 2009, is gradually
diminishing. A year ago, the first
group had a reach of around 70%
and included the websites Yandex
and Mail; the second group’s reach
oscillated around the 40% mark and
included Odnoklassniki, Google,
Rambler and Vkontakte and the third
group, which included Wikipedia,
Mozilla, Marketgid and Microsoft with
a reach around 25% of the Russian
audience. In 2010, apart from Yandex
and Mail, which consistently lead the
market, the majority of other players
shifted their positions. However,
during the last year there was no new
entry in the top 10 ranking.
Yandex.ru, a local search engine
and horizontal portal, dominates
the market. Since last year, its reach
grew by almost 5 percentage points
2010. Due to this domination of
domestic leaders, there is not much
room left for Google, which reaches
46% of the audience. Moreover, the
global giant lost almost 2 percentage
points last year. The sole field where
Google manages to outreach its local
competitors is with online videos,
i.e. youtube.com, the Google-owned
service. It outperforms the analogous
platforms of Yandex and Mail in terms
of reach.
Mail.ru, the major rival of both Yandex
and Google, is a horizontal portal
acquired by Digital Sky Technologies.
The company is said to control
significant share of the page views
generated on the whole Runet mostly
via Mail, Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte.
Moreover, it owns 5% of the
worldwide giant Facebook and also

Do you CEE? Russia

194
has some shares in the social network
games developer Zynga. Despite the
power of DST behind Mail.ru,
the service is still unable to regain
the leading position in the ranking
and catch up with Yandex. Although
its reach increased by almost
4 percentage points compared to
last year, the growth of Yandex was
1 percentage point higher.
The service that recorded the highest
increase (more than 10 percentage
points) over the past year was the
social networking site Vkontakte.
With a result of 56%, it now takes third
place in the reach ranking. At the same
time, its main rival, Odnoklassniki.ru,
is stagnating and its reach has
decreased by 1 percentage point from
March 2009. Competition between
these two social networking websites
is quite evident, despite the fact that
DST has a controlling interest in both.
increased by 6 percentage points since
last year. It is now in 6th place in the
ranking.
The next position in the ranking was
taken by Rambler, a horizontal portal
which at the beginning of 2009 was
among the top 5 players on the
market, but since May 2009 has been
gradually losing ground, ending up
with a reach of 33% in March 2010.
As it was last year, 9th place was
taken by marketgid.com, an e-shop
catalogue, price comparison service
and advertising centre. Although the
service gathered more than 2,000,000
users last year, its reach remained
stable at 25%.
8th place was taken by mozilla.com.
Another global service, microsoft.com,
came in 10th.

The second most dynamic growth was

recorded by Wikipedia, whose reach

1.2. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY AVERAGE TIME SPENT PER USER

NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME REACH

REAL USERS USER PER USER

1 vkontakte.ru 23 099 316 1815 17:11:46 56%

2 Mail 31 835 999 305 06:35:34 78%

3 Yandex 33 990 064 181 05:36:42 83%

4 odnoklassniki.ru 17 925 656 189 03:45:18 44%

5 fotostrana.ru 4 163 547 137 02:48:30 10%

6 loveplanet.ru 2 701 523 159 02:07:50 7%

7 dating.ru 858 401 160 01:41:19 2%

8 Rambler 13 520 218 75 01:34:30 33%

9 rbc.ru 8 214 709 25 01:31:50 20%

10 Google 18 739 727 64 01:29:29 46%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Russia by average time spent per user (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

Do you CEE? Russia


When taking into consideration ranking
by average time per user, the leading
position is taken by Vkontakte.ru
with a clear result exceeding 17 hours
monthly, giving each user more than
half an hour daily. Such a high score
is partly due to the applications
available on this service as well
as the large amount of streaming
audio and video content available
for network users. Streaming content
is considered one of the major traffic
drivers for Vkontakte.ru.
The second player in the ranking, Mail.ru,
has an incredible 11 hours less than
the leader. However, Mail outranks its
main rival Yandex by almost one hour.
4th place is taken by Odnoklassniki.ru,
but compared to last year its result is
lower by two hours.
1.3. TOP PORTALS
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS USER
1 Yandex 33 990 064
2 Mail 31 835 999
3 Rambler 13 520 218
4 rbc.ru 8 214 709
5 qip.ru 3 270 639
Table 3 Top 5 portals in Russia by reach level (gemiusAudience March 2010)
The leaders among horizontal portals
are services that dominate the whole
Russian online market: Yandex and
Mail. The first was founded in 1997
and evolved into the largest Russian
search engine providing its users with
a targeted web search and information
retrieval services as well as an option
of limiting searches only to websites
195
Social networking websites are
over-represented in the top ranking
by average time per user, where
half of the services belong to this
category. Apart from Vkontakte and
Odnoklassniki we also find Fotostrana,
another social networking website,
and the dating services loveplanet.ru
and dating.ru.
Rambler.ru, a horizontal portal (8th)
and RBC.ru, a business portal (9th) are
the next two sites in the ranking. Last
place is taken by Google with a result
of 1 hour and 29 minutes, which is
almost 1 hour less than the previous
year.
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER
181 05:36:42 83%
305 06:35:34 78%
75 01:34:30 33%
25 01:31:50 20%
17 00:39:30 8%
outside the domestic internet. The
company also runs a horizontal portal
providing a wide range of additional
services including maps, traffic
information, images, a news and blog
search as well as a spam-free email.
Yandex’s main rival is Mail.ru, the
former market leader, which after
Do you CEE? Russia
196
losing its position in September
2008 cannot catch up with Yandex.
On average Mail has around
a 5-percentage-point worse result
than Yandex each month. Mail was
created in 1998 as an e-mail web
service with an intention to be sold to
western companies. However, after
temporary open access for Russian
users, it grew in popularity. After a few
mergers and acquisitions, it is now
owned by Digital Sky Technologies.
It provides a wide spectrum of online
services such as the social networking
website moimir@mail.ru; a portal for
parents expecting a child kids@mail.ru;
mobile services mobile@mail.ru;
a women’s glossy online magazine
ledi@mail.ru; a payment system
dengi@mail.ru with new capabilities
allowing users to access their
electronic money as well as many
other services. Mail also runs the
instant messaging service Mail.Ru
Agent, however after purchase of ICQ
1.4. SOCIAL NETWORKS
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS
1 vkontakte.ru 23 099 316
2 mail.ru - MoiMir 18 925 661
3 odnoklassniki.ru 17 925 656
4 moikrug.ru 1 968 640
5 facebook.com 1 939 727
Table 4 Top 5 social networks in Russia by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)
The Russian social networking market
saw great changes last year. The
former leader Odnoklassniki, the
local version of classmates.com, lost
its place in favor of vkontakte.ru, the
Russian Facebook clone. This loss was
Do you CEE? Russia
by Digital Sky Technologies it is likely
that the third most popular messenger
on the Russian market will be merged
with this platform.
The third force among horizontal
portals is Rambler, reaching 33%
of the Russian audience. However,
nowadays it is not very successful and
is gradually losing its market share
(a loss of 11 percentage points
compared to last year) and the interest
of users.
In contrast, 4th place is taken by
the RBC.ru business portal, which
reach grew by 8 percentage points
compared to last year. It belongs to
the RBC media group which also owns
a dating network, messenger and
online payment system as well as the
website in 5th place, qip.ru, which was
created as a default starting page for
users who had installed QIP as instant
messenger.
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER USER
1815 17:11:46 56%
142 03:40:50 46%
189 03:45:18 44%
5 00:03:59 5%
39 00:24:24 5%
mainly caused by the implementation
of paid services which discouraged
users. Even the offline ad campaigns
run by this portal did not help
and during last year its reach fell by
1 percentage point, while Vkontakte

grew by 10 percentage points. Its
success may be partly attributed to
the fact that it is free and provides the
majority of the functions also available
on Facebook such as applications,
groups as well as a great amount of
audio and video streaming content
available for network users. Streaming
content is considered one of the
major traffic drivers for vkontakte.ru
(even including the Vkontake torrent
tracker). The second force among
the social networking websites is
MoiMir, owned by Mail.ru. It also
grew over the past year and its reach
increased by 10 percentage points.
Such a dynamic increase was partly
the result of several strategic changes
in the rules for application developers.
Now they can use links to external
resources, so they have additional
opportunities to make money through
197
cross-linking and adverting with other
applications. MoiMir became the first
project in RuNet to offer application
developers such functionalities.
What is characteristic about
the Russian market is the poor
performance of Facebook, which
neither gained a high reach level (5%),
nor grew dynamically (3 percentage
points year on year), while in some
other countries in the CEE region in
2009 it made it to the top 10 reach
rankings.

1.5. ONLINE CLASSIFIED ADS BY REACH

NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH

USERS USER USER

1 avito.ru 6 020 044 20 00:18:24 15%

2 mail.ru - avto 4 749 039 12 00:17:10 12%

3 mail.ru - job 4 317 592 7 00:08:24 11%

Table 5 Top 3 online classified ads in Russia by reach level (gemiusAudience March 2010)

The most popular classifieds service where auto.mail.ru is a great deal

in Russia is avito.ru, owned by more engaging. The average time
Contact East holding whose largest spent on this website per user, per
shareholder is the investment banking month exceeds the job service by
concern Kinnevik. It was launched in almost 9 hours.
2007 and is a leading multi category
classified ads service. The other two
services belong to mail.ru and are the
subdomains of this horizontal portal.
While the reach of both services is
almost equal, a huge discrepancy can
be observed in terms of user activity,

Do you CEE? Russia

198
1.6. TOP FINANCE SITES BY REACH
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS
1 banki.ru 692 380
2 quote.ru 373 093
Table 6 Top 2 finance sites in Russia by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)
The most popular finance service
measured in the gemiusAudience
study is banki.ru. It was launched
in 2005 and aimed to establish
a permanent dialogue between
banks and their customers. It began
as a regular forum but is now
a ‘hotline’, where major Russian banks
communicate with their customers.
However, the service does not
attract a wide audience and its reach
2. ONLINE AUDIENCE
Males dominate the Russian
online market and account for
52%, which is characteristic of
less developed markets. However,
compared to last year, the gap is
gradually diminishing and the share of
females in the online population grew
by 1 percentage point.
Runet is still dominated by young
people aged 18-34, who account
for 61% of the online population.
However, the Russian online
population is getting older. Compared
to last year the amount of young
internet users 18-34 decreased by
one percentage point in favor of the
oldest group aged 55+, whose share
increased by 2 percentage points.
Do you CEE? Russia
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER USER
14 00:16:21 2%
19 01:06:36 1%
amounts to only 2%. Second place is
taken by the quote.ru vertical portal
run by RBC, which has 1% of the
Russian online audience. However, its
users are highly engaged in the site
and devote an average of over 1 hour
per user on this website monthly.
As far as the education structure
is concerned, users with a higher
level of education (38%) as well as
vocational training (32%) dominate
the market. However, it should be
highlighted that only users over
18 years old were taken into account
in the study. Moreover, as shown
on the next chart, a large amount
(21%) of Russian internet users live in
Moscow, where the amount of well
educated people is proportionally
higher than in the wider population.
Majority of Russian internet users
(34%) live in cities with less inhabitants
than 500,000. However, the Russian
online market is still capital-oriented
and the second most important group
200
constitutes Moscow’s inhabitants
(21%). The second most important
city is St. Petersburg, where 7% of the
Russian internet audience lives.
9%. However, except the first two
occupation categories, the occupation
structure of Russian internet
population is rather flat.

Students and Specialist/

Chief Specialist are the two most
represented groups among Russian
internet users. Together they account
for 30% of the online population.
The Middle level manager/Project
manager category comes third with

3. TOOLS

3.1. BROWSERS

Chart 1 Top browsers in Russia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Russian
websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2008 – 1Q 2010)

3.1. Browsers market share growing by almost

In 2009 the crisis of Microsoft’s
browser was gradually deepening and
since last year its reach has decreased
by 13 percentage points. Although it
still leads the market, the difference
between its main rivals is diminishing.
During the same period, Opera as well
as Firefox have been growing and in
the first quarter of 2010 gained 29%
and 25% of the market respectively.
What is more, Google’s Chrome is
gradually gaining popularity with its
3 percentage points within the last year.
3.2. Operating systems
Windows XP is the most popular
operating system in Russia. However,
its popularity is gradually decreasing.
In the first quarter of 2010 74%
of page views generated in the
gemiusTraffic study were made by
users of this system, compared to
88% two years ago. Windows XP is
being replaced by Microsoft’s latest

Do you CEE? Russia

 201
operating system, Windows 7, which
in contrast to its older sister, Windows 3.2. OPERATING SYSTEMS
Vista, gained more users and 9 months
after its market debut now has 9% of
the market.

3.3. Search engines

The Russian search engines market

is unique compared to other CEE
markets, where Google dominates.
The real power on this market belongs
to the domestic player, Yandex. In
Chart 2 Top operating systems in Russia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit
the first quarter of 2010 its share Russian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2008 – 1Q 2010)
accounted for 67% of the market, and
this figure is still increasing. During the
same time, apart from a small growth
period in 2008, Google has been losing
its market position since the beginning 3.3. SEARCH ENGINES
of 2009, with a final result of 24%.

3.4. Screen resolutions

The most popular screen resolutions

on the Russian online market used
to be 1024 x 768, however in the
first quarter of 2009 it was overtaken
by 1280 x 1024, which now leads
the market with a share of 27%. All
other screen resolutions are of less
significance. Chart 3 Top search engines in Russia by share of visits made by internet users who visit Russian webs-
ites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2008 – 1Q 2010)

3.5. Mobile devices - models

The Russian mobile devices market is

unique compared to the CEE region 3.4. SCREEN RESOLUTIONS
which is dominated by the iPhone.
According to the gemiusTraffic study,
the most popular mobile device used
to access the web in Russia is Nokia
6300, which in July was responsible
for 8% of page views generated
by mobile devices on the average
website. However, a wide variety of
mobile devices can be found on this
market and the five most popular
tools constitute only 24%. The
iPhone’s share accounted for 6% of the Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Russia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit
Russian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2008 – 1Q 2010)
market and fell by 1 percentage point

Do you CEE? Russia

202

3.5. MOBILE DEVICES

Chart 5 Top 5 mobile devices in Russia by the website-averaged percentage share of page views
generated by internet users from Russia, who visit Russian websites using gemiusTraffic
(gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10
**to 2010-07-25

compared to May 2010. However, the

popularity of the iPad is dynamically
growing and the share gained by this
device increased by 1 percentage
point over the past two months.

4. BRANCH ORGANIZATIONS

ROCIT ISDEF

www.rocit.ru www.isdef.ru

Description: ROCIT is a public Description: ISDEF is an association

organization whose primary mission
is to facilitate the inclusion of Russia
in the global internet community. It
was created to make the interaction
between suppliers and consumers
of information more effective and to
establish an independent advisory
service. ROCIT was established in
1996.
of e-shops. The primary aims of the
association are to support software
development and promotion; to
facilitate the growth and development
of the e-commerce industry in the
area of software and to strengthen the
position of Russian developers in the
international software market. ISDEF
was established in 2002.

Members: Private members and public Members: e-shops (e.g. Softkey,

associations. Alawar, Umisoft, Elcomsoft, Bitrix).

Do you CEE? Russia

 203

5. ADVERTISING NETWORKS

GENERAL CONTACT INFORMATION

FULL NAME HOMEPAGE URL ADDRESS MAIN OFFICE CONTACT
ADDRESS

Phone: +7-495-956-90-07
2 Gamsonovsky sidestr., bldg.8,
1 Begun.ru begun.ru Fax: +7-495-956-90-07
Moscow, Russia
Email: pr@begun.ru

Phone: +7-495-739-70-00
16, Leo Tolstoy St., Moscow,
2 Yandex.ru yandex.ru Fax: +7-495-739-23-32
119021, Russia
Email: pr@yandex-team.ru

1 Arkhangelsky sidestr., Phone: +7-495-514-21-42

3 RORER rorer.ru
office 605, Moscow, Russia Fax: +7-495-514-21-42

7 Balchug st., Moscow, Phone: +7-495-644-14-00

4 Google google.ru
Russia Fax: +7-495-644-14-01

36\04 B.Novodmitrovskaya, Phone: +7-495-543-61-03

5 TBN tbn.ru
Moscow, Russia Email: adv@agava.com

27 B, Kamennoostrovskiy str, Phone: +7-812-498-02-49

6 RLE rle.ru
bldg 3H, St. Petersburg, Russia Email: sales@rle.ru

24, entrance 2, office 8, Phone: +7-495-981-44-00

7 Soloway soloway.ru
Radio str., Moscow, Russia Email: sales@soloway.ru

2 Gamsonovsky sidestr., Phone: +7-495-988-09-94

8 TradeDoubler tradedoubler.ru
bldg.1, Moscow, Russia Fax: +7-495-988-09-94

16, Krasnoproletarskaya st,

9 iConText icontext.ru Phone: +7-499-929-85-95
Moscow, Russia

24, office 703, Radio str., Phone: +7-495-980-71-10

10 Blondinka.Ru blondinka.ru
Moscow, Russia Fax: +7-495-980-71-10

arbomedia.ru, 6, proezd Serebryakova,

11 ARBOmedia Phone: +7-495-979-27-26
v2media.ru Moscow, Russia

16, B.Monetnaya,
12 Kavanga kavanga.ru office center #1, office 17, Phone: +7-495-66-37-12
St. Petersburg, Russia

Do you CEE? Russia

204

6. OPINIONS FROM THE MARKET

Andrey Sebrant
Product Marketing Director, Yandex

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are expected to
develop most in the future?

Video and SMM is on the rise, but are still small in volume. We can expect their
growth rates will be well above average for online advertising. More sophisticated
targeting will be used in traditional display and search advertising.

Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete with
the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this battle?

Local players are extremely strong, their advantage is the large audience and large
customer base. Their products and technologies meet all expectations of the clients,
therefore clients remain loyal even if they use global services.

Market specifics

What makes your local online market unique? Are there any specifics that make it
different from others in the CEE region?

In all the market segments of internet services (search, mail, social networks), the
local players are more popular than the global ones. Long term trends do not show
any great successes of the global players when competing with the local ones. The
Russian market is therefore much more self-sufficient than other markets, despite
the fact that it is open to international competition.

Alexander Kim
Head of Interaction for Group M Russia

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the Russian online advertising market?

Russian advertising spending in measured media is expected to grow by nearly

16%, to 7.4 billion USD in 2010 compared to 2009, when spending was down 42.3%
according to full year data. At the same time, internet spending (both in display
and contextual advertising) is showing consistent growth of nearly 32.5% in 2010.

Do you CEE? Russia

 205
We forecast contextual spending will advance 40% (USD 497 million) and display
29.1% (USD 315 million) in 2010. Investment through the internet has benefited
from its more measurable and potentially cost efficient status. In a long run, online
advertising in Russia is also seen to be taking large sums of money from other
measurable media, especially TV and Print. According to the GroupM forecast,
online spending share is expected to grow up to 22% in 2020 – compared to 11%
in 2010.

Global vs. local players

Are your local market players strong enough to compete with the global giants?
What advantages and strategies do they have in this battle?

Local Russian sites are holding their top positions and seem strongly resistant to
the global challenge that is coming from Facebook, Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. There
is a significant market question if global sites can realistically aspire to leadership
in Russia in such areas as search and social. Some local players are inclined to
believe this scenario could eventually happen but not in the short term, and that
it would require a long and “exhausting war”, where the final winner will finally
be determined by the online consumer. To earn a position on the market, these
global players will have to innovate and adapt, thus helping to shape and drive
a developing interaction media scene. So as we look ahead, we see no slowdown in
the pace of innovation of mobile, of ad networks, on-line video, devices, platforms,
applications or the myriad of other applications of data.

Do you CEE? Russia

 Slovakia
2.28m
internet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_207
1.1. Top10websitesbyreach_207
1.2. Top10websitesbyaveragetimespentperuser_208
1.3. Topportals_209
1.4. Social networks_210
1.5. Onlineclassifiedadsbyreach_211
1.6. Topfinancesitesbyreach_211
2. ONLINEAUDIENCE_212
3. TOOLS_214
3.1. Browsers_214
3.2. Operatingsystems_214
3.3. Search engines_215
3.4. Screen resolutions_215
3.5. Mobiledevices_215
4. BRANCHORGANIZATIONS_216
5. ADVERTISINGNETWORKS_216
6. OPINIONSFROMTHEMARKET_217
 207

1. MAIN PLAYERS

1.1. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY REACH

WEBSITE’S CATEGORY NUMBER OF REAL NUMBER OF PAGE PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USERS VIEWS USER USER

1 azet.sk horizontal portal 1 541 206 1 462 631 868 949 12:40:31 67%

2 zoznam.sk horizontal portal 1 384 194 161 269 044 117 02:04:26 60%

3 sme.sk horizontal portal 1 221 599 69 127 588 57 01:29:52 53%

4 atlas.sk horizontal portal 1 209 063 45 006 974 37 00:33:40 52%

5 topky.sk news service 821 863 48 711 826 59 01:14:37 36%

6 aktuality.sk news service 755 017 29 510 473 39 00:48:13 33%

7 centrum.sk horizontal portal 746 336 95 415 370 128 02:21:04 32%

8 pravda.sk news service 635 330 27 147 096 43 00:54:21 28%

9 cas.sk news service 544 884 33 905 579 62 01:04:20 24%

10 markiza.sk news service 530 208 15 431 631 29 00:37:21 23%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Slovakia by reach level (AIMmonitor - AIM - Mediaresearch & Gemius, March 2010)

The Slovak internet market remained
stable last year and there was no new
entry in the top ten ranking by reach.
Like last year, this market is dominated
by horizontal portals and news
services. No other category is present
among the ten most popular websites.
The two unquestionable leaders on
the Slovak market are found in the
horizontal portal category. Like last
year, first place was taken by Azet.
However, its share decreased by
1 percentage point compared to March
2009. Second place is taken by Zoznam,
which belongs to Slovak Telekom a.s.
The portal used to lead the market
but after being overtaken by its main
rival, Azet, it has never regained
first place. Moreover, its reach has
decreased by 2 percentage points year
on year. Azet.sk, after defeating its
rival, systematically leads the market
and keeps a constant (5-6 percentage
points) distance over Zoznam.
Sme.sk, the largest news portal in
Slovakia has recently developed by the
largest margin. Compared to March
2009, its reach grew by 4 percentage
points and since January 2010 it
remains in third position in the reach
ranking. Sme.sk is an online version
of the influential daily newspaper in
Slovakia run by the Pettit Press a.s
publishing house which belongs to the
Rheinische Post Media Group.
One of SME’s strongest rivals is the
offline Pravda, which also has an
online version that significantly grew
in size within the last year. Although
not as dynamic as in the case of
sme.sk, Pravda’s reach has increased
by 2 percentage points compared to
last year.

Do you CEE? Slovakia

208
Before January 2010, third position
was taken by atlas.sk, a horizontal
portal owned by Centrum Holdings,
which also runs centrum.sk, another
portal which took seventh position
in the ranking. In March 2010 these
services achieved reach of 53% and
32%, respectively. These results were
relatively stable during the last year.
Fifth place in the ranking is taken by
the topky.sk, a regular news service
owned by Zoznam s.r.o. Although
the number of its users increased
by more than 73,000 compared to
March 2009, the service’s reach
remained at the same level of 36%.
The next place is taken by aktuality.sk,
the news service belonging to
Azet.sk. Its reach increased by
1 percentage point year on year and
moved up from 7th to 6th place in
the ranking.
Cas.sk is an online version of the
most popular daily tabloid newspaper
in Slovakia run by Ringier AG, an
international media company. Despite
efforts taken to beat its main rival,
topky.sk, it constantly stands around
9th place with a reach exceeding
20%. However, the service may
be placed among the players that
attained the most significant growth:
its reach grew by 2 percentage points
compared to March 2009.
Last place, with a result of 23%, is
taken by markiza.sk, a news service
belonging to the largest television
station in Slovakia owned by Central
European Media Enterprises (CME).

1.2. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY AVERAGE TIME SPENT PER USER

WEBSITE’S NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS AVERAGE TIME REACH

CATEGORY REAL USERS PER USER PER USER

horizontal
1 azet.sk 1 541 206 949 12:40:31 67%
portal
horizontal
2 centrum.sk 746 336 128 02:21:04 32%
portal
horizontal
3 zoznam.sk 1 384 194 117 02:04:26 60%
portal

4 autobazar.eu classifieds 424 598 153 02:00:14 18%

horizontal
5 sme.sk 1 221 599 57 01:29:52 53%
portal

6 topky.sk news service 821 863 59 01:14:37 36%

7 f1.sk sport service 43 365 51 01:10:41 2%

8 ephoto.sk photo sharing 37 996 68 01:04:21 2%

9 cas.sk news service 544 884 62 01:04:20 24%

10 profutbal.sk sport service 53 186 50 01:00:30 2%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Slovakia by average time spent per user (AIMmonitor - AIM -
Mediaresearch & Gemius, March 2010)

Do you CEE? Slovakia


Azet.sk leads the market when ranking
by average time per user is concerned,
gaining a result exceeding 12 hours.
However, it is mainly attributed to
Pokec, the social networking website
which is a part of the azet.sk node.
Compared to March 2009, Azet lost
around 5.5 hours, however, its lead
over other players is not under threat.
Apart from azet.sk, the other websites
do not achieve any spectacular results
with only centrum.sk and zoznam.sk,
popular horizontal portals, and
autobazar.eu, an online database
of used cars, register a time of
approximately 2 hours.
F1.sk the best news service dedicated
to Formula 1 grand prix races comes
in 7th, with an average time spent
1.3. TOP PORTALS
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS USER
1 azet.sk 1 541 206 949
2 zoznam.sk 1 384 194 117
3 sme.sk 1 221 599 57
4 atlas.sk 1 209 063 37
5 centrum.sk 746 336 128
Table 3 Top 5 portals in Slovakia by reach level (AIMmonitor - AIM - Mediaresearch & Gemius,
March 2010)
Portals and news services account
for the majority of the top ten Slovak
websites. All players of this category
occupy the leading places in the
general rankings. The most important
one is azet.sk, the largest horizontal
portal with a strong social networking
component (pokec.sk) and other
subservices such as zoznamka.sk
(dating community), videoalbumy.sk
209
per user of 1 hour 11 minutes.
It belongs to Point Network, which
also owns other sport websites such
as profutbal.sk and hokej.sk.
Apart from horizontal portals and
news services that are found among
the leaders, in the ranking by average
time per user there are also other
websites categories. For example,
ephoto.sk, dedicated to photography
with its own blogs and galleries, takes
8th position with a result of over one
hour.
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER
12:40:31 67%
02:04:26 60%
01:29:52 53%
00:33:40 52%
02:21:04 32%
(video hosting), minihry.sk (casual
games) as well as others.
Second place is taken by zoznam.sk,
which is awaiting possible changes in
order to reclaim first place. The service
made some effort to launch a news
service for women, feminity.zoznam.sk,
however, this has not helped it to
reclaim first place.
Do you CEE? Slovakia
210
Among the horizontal portals, two
players, i.e. altas.sk and centrum.sk,
belong to the same owner, Centrum
Holdings. The first is more popular
with a reach of 52%, whereas
centrum.sk reaches 32% of the
audience. However, the latter
dominates in terms of average time
per visitor monthly with a figure
exceeding two hours. It cooperates
with ICQ on the Slovakian market.
Both services have their counterparts
on the Czech market.
1.4. SOCIAL NETWORKS
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS
1 pokec.sk 1 103 701
sme.sk|
2 Citatelsky obsah| 429 204
blog.sme.sk
3 birdz.sk 234 449
4 zoznamka.sk 95 385
etrend.sk|
5 55 327
blogy.etrend.sk
Table 4 Top 5 social networking websites in Slovakia by reach level (AIMmonitor - AIM -
Mediaresearch & Gemius, March 2010)
First place among social networking
websites monitored in the study was
taken by the Azet-owned service,
pokec.sk, which reaches 48% of the
Slovak online audience. Though it
has changed its layout to resemble
Facebook, the service is stagnating.
The lack of further development is
partly caused by the strong entrance
of Facebook on the Slovakian market,
which took place in 2009.
The second force in this category is
a blog site belonging to sme.sk. It has
a stable position and a result of 19%.
Do you CEE? Slovakia
Sme.sk which used to be the most
visited online news service, after
a number of acquisitions that took
place last year can now be defined
as horizontal portal. The service
developed very dynamically last year
and managed to gain more than
180,000 users from March 2009 to
March 2010.
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER USER
1126 14:03:25 48%
11 00:19:52 19%
19 00:15:33 10%
36 00:21:12 4%
5 00:07:39 2%
Another player is birdz.sk (owned by
Perex a.s. with its main title Pravda.sk),
a community portal dedicated to
a young audience. It systematically
gains a reach of 10%.
Another Azet-owned website,
zoznamka.sk, can be found among
the social networking services. It is
an online dating website with a reach
level accounting for 4% of the online
audience. Last place is taken by the
blog section of etrend.sk, a horizontal
portal gaining a reach level of 16%.
 211

1.5. ONLINE CLASSIFIED ADS BY REACH

NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH

USERS USER USER

1 profesia.sk 478 526 86 01:00:29 21%

2 autobazar.eu 424 598 153 02:00:14 18%

3 najnakup.sk 358 950 13 00:11:36 16%

Table 5 Top 3 online classified ads in Slovakia by reach level (AIMmonitor - AIM -
Mediaresearch & Gemius, March 2010)

Profesia.sk dominates among the versions. Najnakup.sk, a service which

classifieds services with a reach of allows users to compare online shops
21%. It is the largest job portal. The offers, takes last place among the
second is autobazar.eu, an auto most popular classified ads websites
classifieds service, which significantly with a reach of 16%.
outperforms others in terms of
average time spent per user with
a result of 2 hours. However, when
reach is taken into account, both
services are undergoing stagnation,
although according to local experts,
the general trend is that job classified
ads are moving from print to online

1.6. TOP FINANCE SITES BY REACH

NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH

REAL USERS USER USER

1 ekonomika.sme.sk 275 646 13 00:25:44 12%

oPeniazoch.
2 145 604 11 00:17:18 6%
zoznam.sk

3 peniaze.pravda.sk 98 341 5 00:06:59 4%

Table 6 Top 3 finance sites in Slovakia by reach level (AIMmonitor - AIM -

Mediaresearch & Gemius, March 2010)

The most popular websites belonging services. The unquestionable leader

to the finance category are sections of on this market is ekonomika.sme.sk
the popular horizontal portals or news with a reach of 12%. Second place

Do you CEE? Slovakia

212
with 6 percentages points less than
the leader, is oPeniazoch.zoznam.sk,
the finance section of zoznam.sk.
Compared to last year, the number
of its users decreased by almost
80,000. The top three is propped up
by peniaze.pravda.sk reaching 4% of
Slovak online audience.

2. ONLINE AUDIENCE

The gender structure of the The largest share of Slovakian

Slovakian internet population is
balanced, with a slight dominance of
males (51%), which is one percentage
point less than a year ago. Men can
also be found more often among
internet users over the age of
25, apart from age group 45-54,
where the gender share is equal
and accounts for 6% of the online
population.
Young people constitute a
majority in the Slovakian online
population. Internet users under
the age of 35 account for 61% of
the population, however, Slovakian
online society is growing older. The
share attained by the 14-34 age
group is now by 3 percentage points
lower than in March 2009. This loss is
in favor of the oldest group (over 55)
which comprised 8% in March 2010,
compared to 6% a year ago.
internet users live in cities between
20,000 – 99,999 inhabitants and
these groups comprise 29% of the
online population. The second group
lives in towns with 1,000 – 4,999
inhabitants.
Almost every second (49%)
Slovakian internet user is not
employed, which is the result of the
significant number of young people
in the Slovakian online population.
Internet users working in the offices
are the second most represented
group (12%), followed by qualified
manual workers (11%) and highly
qualified specialists (8%). The other
occupation categories gain shares
oscillating between 1% - 5%.

The majority of Slovakian

internet users have secondary
education and this group comprises
63% of the online population.
However, 23% of them do not have
a school leaving exam. The highest
educated group, who have
a university degree, increased by
1 percentage point compared to last
year.

Do you CEE? Slovakia

214

3. TOOLS

3.1. BROWSERS

Chart 1 Top browsers in Slovakia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Slova-
kian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3.1. Browsers 3.2. Operating systems

Since the fourth quarter of 2008, Windows XP constantly dominates

Firefox dominates the Slovakian
browser market. However, gaining
first place was not followed by
dynamic growth and both Firefox
and MISE have been gradually losing
their share in favor of Google’s
new product, Chrome, which since
the beginning of 2009 grew by
7 percentage points. During the same
period, Opera’s market share remains
stable, oscillating around 15%.
the operating systems used by
Slovakian users, however its share is
decreasing. It lost almost 11 percent
points in the first quarter of 2010
compared to the first quarter of 2009.
During the same period Windows
Vista stagnated, gaining a stable
result of 18% of page views generated
by internet users who visit Slovakian
websites using gemiusTraffic. Like
in other markets, the share of

3.2. OPERATING SYSTEMS

Chart 2 Top operating systems in Slovakia by share of page views generated by internet users who
visit Slovakian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

Do you CEE? Slovakia

 215
Microsoft’s latest product, Windows
7, is increasing by the largest amount 3.3. SEARCH ENGINES
i.e. by 8 percentage points year on
year.

3.3. Search engines

Google is undoubtedly the leader on

the Slovakian search engine market
and its share is still increasing. In the
first quarter of 2010, 99% of visits
which began with gemiusTraffic-
participating websites via search
engines, started with Google. Chart 3 Top search engines in Slovakia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit
Slovakian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3.4. Screen resolutions

The most popular screen resolution 3.4. SCREEN RESOLUTIONS

1024 x 768, which used to have
over 60% of the market share at the
beginning of 2007, is now decreasing.
In the first quarter of 2010 only 28%
of page views generated by internet
users who visit Slovakian websites
using gemiusTraffic were made by
users with monitors of this screen
resolution.

3.5. Mobile devices - models

Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Slovakia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit
According to the gemiusTraffic study, Slovakian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

the most popular mobile device

used to access the web in Slovakia
is the iPhone, which in July was
3.5. MOBILE DEVICES
responsible for 27% of page views
generated by mobile devices on the
average website. However, compared
to May 2010 its share decreased
in July by 1.5 percentage points.
Unlike other CEE markets, the iPad
is not that popular in Slovakia and
the top 5 ranking is dominated by
Nokia devices, whose shares oscillate
around the 4-5% mark.

Chart 5 Top 5 mobile devices in Slovakia by the website-averaged percentage share of page
views generated by internet users form Slovakia who visit Slovakian websites using gemiusTraffic
(gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10
**to 2010-07-25

Do you CEE? Slovakia

216

4. BRANCH ORGANIZATIONS

AIM – Association of Internet Media SLOVAKIA, LLC, NARKS-INFOSERVIS,

Inc., Zoznam, LLC., PEREX, Inc., Petit
www.aimsr.sk Press, LLC, POINT NETWORK, LLC,
Profesia, LLC, RINGIER SLOVAKIA,
Description: The Association of Inc., Sanoma Magazines Slovakia,
Internet Media is a partnership LLC, SITA Slovenská tlačová agentúra,
of Slovakian companies operating Inc., SPOLOČNOSŤ 7 PLUS, LLC,
in the Slovakian internet Travel.SK, LLC, TREND Holding, LLC.
and advertising sector. The
establishment of AIM came from
the need to create a platform for
interaction of those operating in
Slovakian internet advertising. The
Association aims to standardize
the ethical and legal rules for
internet advertising, support the
development of the internet as an
advertising medium and encourage
internet professionalization.

Members: Azet.sk, Inc., Centrum

Holdings - ATLAS.SK, Inc., Centrum
Holdings, Inc., CPress Media, LLC,
Creative Solutions, LLC, ECOPRESS,
Inc., Education, LLC, ETARGET SE
- affiliate member, EXPRES MEDIA,
LLC, Finance media, Inc., KONCEPT,
LLC, MAC TV, LLC, MARKÍZA -

5. ADVERTISING NETWORKS

GENERAL CONTACT INFORMATION

FULL NAME HOMEPAGE URL MAIN OFFICE CONTACT
ADDRESS ADDRESS

Peter Štencl
Kutuzovova 11,
1 Sitelement sitelement.sk Phone: +421-903-259-260
831 03 Bratislava
Email: peter.stencl@silelement.sk

Phone: +421-2-321-990-45
Vlárska 48/a,
2 web2media web2media.sk Fax: +421-2-207-189-15
831 01 Bratislava
Email: info@web2media.sk

Do you CEE? Slovakia

 217

6. OPINIONS FROM THE MARKET

Bc. Martin Kyncl

Sales Manager & New Business, SiteElement

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the online advertising market on
your local market?

There are plenty of opportunities on the Slovakian local market. The most
common type of advertisement is the banner ad. We have also noticed intext
and invideo ads coming onto this market. Another opportunity is predictive
behavioral targeting of all types of ad formats. An obstacle is outsourced
technology, which is relatively expensive.

Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete
with the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this
battle?

Local players are strong. Solely Slovakian local players are the largest media
representatives in Slovakia competing with foreign companies.

The opportunity is that foreign companies have is their experience from other
markets, verified technologies and larger budgets to invest in Slovakia. On the
other hand, they cannot orientate themselves on the market as well as local
companies.

Do you CEE? Slovakia

Slovenia
1.09m
internet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_219
1.1. Top10websitesbyreach_219
1.2. Top10websitesbyaveragetimespentperuser_220
1.3. Topportals_221
1.4. Social networks_222
1.5. Onlineclassifiedadsbyreach_222
2. ONLINEAUDIENCE_223
3. TOOLS_225
3.1. Browsers_225
3.2. Operatingsystems_226
3.3. Search engines_226
3.4. Screen resolutions_227
3.5. Mobiledevices_227
4. BRANCHORGANIZATIONS_228
5. ADVERTISINGNETWORKS_228
6. OPINIONSFROMTHEMARKET_228
 219

1. MAIN PLAYERS

1.1. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY REACH

WEBSITE’S CATEGORY NUMBER OF REAL NUMBER OF PAGE PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USERS VIEWS USER USER

1 24ur.com horizontal portal 658 705 110 611 008 168 06:27:22 55%

2 najdi.si search engine / horizontal portal 520 112 55 735 868 107 02:48:59 44%

3 siol.net horizontal portal 490 572 48 987 905 100 03:01:28 41%

4 rtvslo.si horizontal portal 445 388 39 388 972 88 02:58:22 37%

5 bolha.com classified ads / auctions 421 330 39 017 842 93 00:56:09 35%

6 itis.si telephone register 333 974 3 449 534 10 00:08:36 28%

7 zurnal24.si horizontal portal 320 472 33 109 562 103 01:45:46 27%

8 avto.net classified ads 318 230 97 440 460 306 02:58:12 27%

9 zadovoljna.si women portal 274 986 3 647 456 13 00:14:06 23%

10 sl.netlog.com social network 258 208 38 028 693 147 02:22:54 22%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Slovenia by reach level (Gemius/Valicon, gemiusAudience MOSS, March 2010)

The Slovenian online market is largely Slovenian internet users. In March

dominated by horizontal portals
and their popularity is still growing.
According to Gemius/Valicon, the
gemiusAudience MOSS study from
March 2010, the leader in the ranking
by reach level was 24ur.com. Over
the past twelve months its reach has
increased by 8 percentage points
(from 47%). The following three
places were occupied by najdi.si,
siol.net and rtvslo.si. All these
horizontal portals are also significant
players on the Slovenian online
market; their reach levels amounted
to 44%, 41% and 37%, respectively.
Another horizontal portal in the study,
zurnal24.si, ranked seventh in March
2010 and had 320,472 real users
(27%) who generated more than
33.1 million page views.
Bolha.com and avto.net are two
classified ads portals popular among
2010, the first had a reach of 35%
and the second gained 27%. Itis.si,
a telephone and companies directory,
came in 6th place in the top 10
ranking by reach level with 333, 974
real users.
Position 9 belonged to zadovoljna.si,
a portal dedicated to women.
Evidence of its growing popularity is
the fact that according to the Gemius/
Valicon, gemiusAudience MOSS study
conducted in March 2010, compared
with 2009 its reach level has increased
by 11 percentage points, i.e. from
12% to 23%. It publishes information
on fashion, beauty, fitness, etc.
Moreover, it contains a special section
for men as well as a forum.
The ranking was propped up by
sl.netlog.com, a global social
networking service with a reach level

Do you CEE? Slovenia

220
of 22%. Its members can create their
own websites with blogs, photos,
videos, events, etc. and share them
with friends. It is currently available
in 20 languages and has millions of
members across Europe, in Slovenia
there are 258,208 members.

1.2. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY AVERAGE TIME SPENT PER USER

NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME REACH

REAL USERS USER PER USER

1 24ur.com 658 705 168 06:27:22 55%

2 siol.net 490 572 100 03:01:28 41%

3 rtvslo.si 445 388 88 02:58:22 37%

4 avto.net 318 230 306 02:58:12 27%

5 najdi.si 520 112 107 02:48:59 44%

6 igre123.com 157 008 103 02:24:17 13%

7 sl.netlog.com 258 208 147 02:22:54 22%

8 ona-on.com 23 680 153 02:07:40 2%

9 nogomania.com 36 218 81 02:02:55 3%

10 finance.si 257 472 51 01:45:51 22%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Slovenia by average time spent per user (Gemius/Valicon,
gemiusAudience MOSS, March 2010)

The unquestionable leader on the spent 2 hours 58 minutes visiting these

Slovenian online market in terms
of average time spent on the site
in March 2010 was 24ur.com. The
average user of this popular horizontal
portal visited the website for 6 hours
and 27 minutes over a month. It was
followed by three websites: siol.net,
rtvslo.si and avto.net, with results of
around 3 hours. The first one, siol.net,
is one of the leading Slovenian internet
portals, part of Planet 9, a Limited
liability company within the Telekom
Slovenia Group. In March 2010, its
average user spent there more than
3 hours. In the same period, users of
rtvslo.si which is a multimedia portal
of one of the national TV stations,
RTV Slovenia, and also avto.net - an
automotive classified ads service,
websites. Only 10 minutes less was
spent online by the visitors of najdi.si,
another popular Slovenian horizontal
portal and search engine.
Around 2 hours 24 minutes was spent
visiting igre123.com, a games portal.
It is part of Popcom Ltd, a company
that also owns the largest online video
community in Slovenia mojvideo.com
and photo service mojalbum.com.
Igre123.com offers its users free
games and a forum. According to the
Gemius/Valicon, gemiusAudience
MOSS study from March 2010, it had
a reach of 13%.
In the ranking there were 2 social
networking services: sl.netlog.com

Do you CEE? Slovenia


(7th) and ona-on.com (8th).
Users of the former service spent
almost 2 hours 23 minutes online,
whereas users of the latter 2 hours
and 8 minutes. Also visitors of
nogomania.com, a portal dedicated
to football fans, surfed this website
for over 2 hours in search of current
information on football events.
The top 10 ranking by average time
spent per user was propped up by
1.3. TOP PORTALS
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS
1 24ur.com 658 705
2 najdi.si 520 112
3 siol.net 490 572
4 rtvslo.si 445 388
5 zurnal24.si 320 472
Table 3 Top 5 portals in Slovenia by reach level (Gemius/Valicon, gemiusAudience MOSS,
March 2010)
Horizontal portals have a strong
position on the Slovenian online
market. The unquestionable leader
in March 2010 was 24ur.com with
a reach level of 55%. It is dedicated
to all kinds of users and has the
largest commercial TV background.
As mentioned above, its popularity
has been growing, so it comes as no
surprise that the website is constantly
developing its multimedia content as
well as opening new, special websites
for different kinds of content (health,
women, gossip, amongst others).
According to the Gemius/Valicon,
gemiusAudience MOSS study from
March 2010, the second most
significant player on the portals
221
finance.si with a result of 1 hour
46 minutes. It publishes all kinds of
financial and business news and is
quite popular within the Slovenian
online population: in March 2010
its reach level amounted to 22%.
Finance.si is a part of Swedish Bonnier
Business Press.
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER USER
168 06:27:22 55%
107 02:48:59 44%
100 03:01:28 41%
88 02:58:22 37%
103 01:45:46 27%
market in Slovenia was najdi.si,
the largest local search engine
with a reach of 44%. It used to be
the leader on the Slovenian online
market and even its current second
place in the ranking is under threat
by siol.net (41%), another popular
horizontal portal. It publishes current
local and world news, business and
sports information and much more.
Moreover, it offers the SiOL Services
which include internet, TV and
telephony.
Rtvslo.si ranked fourth in the ranking
with a reach level of 37%. It is a typical
horizontal portal with news divided
into sections: news, sports, culture,
entertainment and travel. Since it is
Do you CEE? Slovenia
222
a RTV portal, it concentrates largely diverse subjects. In March 2010 it had
on developing its multimedia content. a reach level of 27%.
The last place in the top 5 ranking was
occupied by zurnal24.si, an online
version of the free daily newspaper
delivering current news on a range of

1.4. SOCIAL NETWORKS

NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH

USERS USER USER

1 sl.netlog.com 258 208 147 02:22:54 22%

2 genspot.com 233 886 23 00:13:42 20%

3 ona-on.net 59 369 21 00:17:21 5%

Table 4 Top 3 local social networking websites in Slovenia by reach level (Gemius/Valicon,
gemiusAudience MOSS, March 2010)

Social networks are relatively popular The ranking was propped up by

amongst the Slovenian online audience. ona-on.net, a dating service dedicated
Among the services included in the to adult internet users, reaching 5%
Gemius/Valicon, gemiusAudience of the Slovenian online audience.
MOSS study from March 2010, the
leader was sl.netlog.com with a reach
level of 22%. The service was followed
by genspot.com with a reach level
only 2 percentage points lower with
233,886 real users. It is mainly a blog
site where users can additionally
upload their videos and photos or chat
with friends.

1.5. ONLINE CLASSIFIED ADS BY REACH

NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH

USERS USER USER

1 bolha.com 421 330 93 00:56:09 35%

2 avto.net 318 230 306 02:58:12 27%

3 mojedelo.com 100 717 34 00:25:33 8%

Table 5 Top 3 online classified ads in Slovenia by reach level (Gemius/Valicon,

gemiusAudience MOSS, March 2010)

Do you CEE? Slovenia


The Slovenian online population
is especially fond of classified ads
services. The most popular, bolha.com,
had a reach level of 35% in March
2010 and took 5th place in the general
ranking by reach. Its announcements
are classified into four main
categories: auto-moto, real estate,
computer science and home. For the
majority of Slovenian internet users,
bolha.com is the first choice to buy or
sell both new and used products as
well as to offer or search for services.
The second player is avto.net,
a service specializing in automotive
classifieds. According to the Gemius/
2. ONLINE AUDIENCE
The gender structure of the
Slovenian online population is
dominated by men. In March 2010,
according to the Gemius/Valicon,
gemiusAudience MOSS study, 56% of
Slovenian internet users were men;
women constituted 44%. Moreover,
the average man spent 14 hours
16 minutes online, while a typical
woman spent less than 11 hours
online.
In terms of age, the most
significant group within the Slovenian
online population were people aged
25-34 who constituted 24% in March
2010. They were also the most active
individuals with 14 hours 8 minutes
spent online per user.
The second largest group, users
35-44 years old, accounted for 22%
of the online population. Also, young
people make up a significant group
of internet users in Slovenia; when
taken together, users aged 10-14 and
223
Valicon, gemiusAudience MOSS study
from March 2010, it had 318,230 real
users.
Mojedelo.com is a leading Slovenian
employment portal dedicated to
people searching for a job and
employers who need new employees.
It not only contains job offers, but also
has a Career Centre section with tips
and advices on how to successfully
look for a job. In March 2010 it had
a reach level of 8%.
15-24 constituted 28% of the online
population. What is interesting about
Slovenian internet users is the fact
that there are a lot of people over
55 years old (11%).
In terms of the education level,
the most numerous group in March
2010 within the Slovenian online
population was those who had
completed four years of high school.
They accounted for 27% of the online
population. With 25% of the online
audience, users that were still in
school ranked second. Third place
belonged to users with three years of
high school completed(22%). Users
with a higher education constituted
20%.
Internet users with elementary
education or lower accounted for only
6% of the online population. However,
they spent the most time online with
an average of 14 hours and 18 minutes
a month.
Do you CEE? Slovenia
 225
The majority of the Slovenian employed in public sector (12%),
internet population lives in cities. In children in elementary schools
March 2010 18% lived in Ljubljana, accounted for 9% as well as the
7% in Maribor and 15% in other cities students. The latter were also the
with 10,000 – 100,000 inhabitants. leaders in terms of average time spent
Quite a large part of the online online with over 15 hours 10 minutes.
audience lived in places with less than
500 inhabitants, (16%), which means
that the internet is not only common
in densely populated areas but also in
the countryside.

The occupation structure of

the Slovenian online population
in March 2010 was dominated by
users employed in companies (40%).
Another significant group were those

3. TOOLS

3.1. BROWSERS

Chart 1 Top browsers in Slovenia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Slove-
nian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3.1. Browsers quarter of 2010 it attained 50% of

There seems to have been a fierce
battle between Mozilla Firefox and
Microsoft Internet Explorer on the
Slovenian online market with regard
to leadership of the browsers market.
Since the third quarter of 2009 the
winner was Firefox, and after the first
the market. MSIE ranked second with
a 42% share. Another popular browser
that has been gaining popularity over
the last year is Chrome (5%). Less
significant were, according to the
gemiusTraffic study from March 2010,
such browsers as Opera (2%) and
Safari (1%).

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226

3.2. OPERATING SYSTEMS

Chart 2 Top operating systems in Slovenia by share of page views generated by internet users who
visit Slovenian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

3.2. Operating systems 3.3. Search engines

Like in other CEE markets, the leader
among operating systems in Slovenia is
Windows XP. After the first quarter of
2010 its share of the market, as studied
by gemiusTraffic, constituted 70%.
However, over the last two years its
share has decreased by 20 percentage
points. The second player on the
market, Windows Vista, has already
started to lose popularity and will most
probably no longer be able to keep its
position in the ranking. The newcomer
on the operating systems market,
Windows 7, managed to gain over 13%
of the market in less than a year.
Like in other CEE markets, the most
popular search engine in Slovenia
is Google. After the first quarter of
2010 its share accounted for 87% of
the market and its popularity is still
growing. The second player on the
Slovenian market is najdi.si, a local
search engine, which popularity has
been declining over the past few years
and after the first quarter of 2010 had
a market share of only 12% (after the
first quarter of 2007 it was 33%).

3.3. SEARCH ENGINES

Chart 3 Top search engines in Slovenia by share of visits made by internet users who visit Slovenian
websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

Do you CEE? Slovenia

 227
3.4. Screen resolutions
3.4. SCREEN RESOLUTIONS
There is no major leader on the
screen resolutions market in Slovenia.
In terms of share of page views
generated by internet users who visit
Slovenian websites using gemiusTraffic
the most popular ones, within the
Slovenian online audience, were
1024 x 768 (25%), 1280 x 1024 (22%)
and 1280 x 800 (14%).

3.5. Mobile devices - models

A wide variety of mobile devices can

be found on the Slovenian market. Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Slovenia by share of page views generated by internet users who visit
Slovenian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)
Five most popular tools have a share
of 35%. However, as with the majority
of the CEE markets, in Slovenia the
leadership of this market belongs to
iPhone. According to the gemiusTraffic 3.5. MOBILE DEVICES
study, in July iPhone was responsible
for 13% of page views generated by
mobile devices on the average website
and its position remains stable. At the
same time, Apple’s latest product,
the iPad, is consistently gaining
popularity, and has increased its share
by 5 percentage points since May
2010. Slight growth might also be
observed for the iPod, whose share
grew by 0.5 percentage points during
this period. Three other positions are
taken by Nokia’s devices amongst
which the Nokia 5800 is the most
popular gaining a share of 5%. Chart 5 Top 5 mobile devices in Slovenia by the website-averaged percentage share of page
views generated by internet users from Slovenia who visit Slovenian websites using gemiusTraffic
(gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10
**to 2010-07-25

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228

4. BRANCH ORGANIZATIONS

SOZ - Slovenian Advertising Chamber Members: publishers and agencies

(e.g. 24ur.com, najdi.si, siol.net, rtvslo.
www.soz.si si, httpool, media pool, bolha.com,
avto.net, genspot.com, zurnal24.si)
Description: The Slovenian Advertising
Chamber is a non-governmental
organization which protects the
interests of advertisers, advertising
agencies and publishers. It is
a member of IAB Europe.

5. ADVERTISING NETWORKS

GENERAL CONTACT INFORMATION

FULL NAME HOMEPAGE URL MAIN OFFICE CONTACT
ADDRESS ADDRESS
Cesta v Gorice 8, Phone: +386-1-479-04-81
1 Httpool httpool.si
1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia Email: info@httpool.si
Phone: +386-1-511-07-50
Ulica Ivice Pirjevčeve 16,
2 Iprom iprom.si Fax: +386-1-511-07-83
1211 - Lj-Šmartno, Slovenia
Email: info@iprom.si
Phone: +386-1-565-60-06
Vojkova 63,
3 Adlink Meida adlinkmedia.si Fax: +386-1-565-60-08
1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Email: info.si@adlinkmedia.net
Phone: +386-1-620-32-50
Bravničarjeva ulica 13,
4 Interactive.agency interactive-agency.si Fax: +386-1-300-77-28
1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Email: hello.slo@interactive.ag

6. OPINIONS FROM THE MARKET

Radoš Skrt
Internet Project Director, Studio Moderna

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the online advertising market on your
local market?

Several years ago having a presence on the internet was a must for all companies
and now if the company cannot be found among the first hits given in a search
engine, we could say that it virtually doesn’t exist. The fact is that internet users

Do you CEE? Slovenia

 229
search for products, services and businesses via search engines, and that about
80% of all clicks occur on the first page of search results. Of course, companies
can also draw much attention using other forms of online communication, but
we must be aware that banner blindness is more and more prevalent. People
are becoming less responsive to ads and the presence of users on the web is
extremely scattered.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are expected
to develop most in the future?

Those companies which want to be successful will have to find or carve out a place
on the market. This means that they will have to choose the appropriate (target)
media to be highlighted, and that they should be able to attract the attention of
internet users with creative solutions and innovative approaches. It is more than
evident that the phenomenon of social media companies will not be able to avoid
two-way communication with customers (this is a necessity in this day and age)
and that they should also encourage interaction with customers.

The inclusion of both parties (advertisers and users), taking into account their
desires and needs as well as collecting databases and their efficient usage, will
most certainly be crucial factors and the main key to success in the near future.

Do you CEE? Slovenia

 Turkey
21.60m
internet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_231
1.1. Top10websitesbyreach_231
1.2. Top10websitesbyaveragetimespentperuser_233
1.3. Topportals_234
1.4. Social networks_235
1.5. Onlineclassifiedadsbyreach_236
1.6. Topfinancesitesbyreach_236
2. ONLINEAUDIENCE_237
3. TOOLS_239
3.1. Browsers_239
3.2. Operatingsystems_240
3.3. Search engines_240
3.4. Screen resolutions_241
3.5. Mobiledevices_241
4. BRANCHORGANIZATIONS_242
5. ADVERTISINGNETWORKS_243
6. OPINIONSFROMTHEMARKET_243
 231

1. MAIN PLAYERS

1.1. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY REACH

WEBSITE’S CATEGORY NUMBER OF REAL NUMBER OF PAGE PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USERS VIEWS USER USER

1 blogcu.com blogging platform 10 110 262 113 287 594 11 00:13:52 43%

2 mynet.com horizontal portal 8 325 109 1 455 728 525 175 02:01:10 36%

3 izlesene.com video hosting 8 305 237 269 004 160 32 00:45:47 36%

4 ekolay.net horizontal portal 7 173 983 315 354 463 44 01:04:30 31%

5 hurriyet.com.tr news service 6 844 277 864 751 686 126 01:57:09 29%

6 milliyet.com.tr news service 6 207 491 714 288 388 115 02:21:51 27%
literary service /
7 antoloji.com 3 725 207 27 801 789 7 00:06:50 16%
online bookstore
8 kraloyun.com casual games platform 3 652 623 177 785 406 49 01:05:08 16%

9 haberler.com news service 3 509 221 55 715 690 16 00:16:02 15%

10 sabah.com.tr news service 3 125 297 170 728 985 55 00:47:05 13%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Turkey by reach level (Gemius SA / Ipsos KMG: IAB Turkey’s Internet Audience Measurement, March 2010)

Given the large size of the Turkish
online market, the major internet
players in this country have relatively
large audiences. Among the websites
participating the IAB Turkey’s
Internet Audience Measurement
conducted by Gemius and Ipsos,
the most popular one is blogcu.com,
a blogging platform created by Nokta,
a company established in 2002,
which operates both in Turkey and
the United States. Nokta specializes
in search services and search-
based advertising solutions. Web
2.0 projects are its latest area of
business. According to IAB Turkey’s
Internet Audience Measurement
conducted by Gemius and Ipsos, in
March 2010 blogcu.com attracted
over 10 million real users, thereby
gaining a market reach of 43%.
Over half of the websites included
in the ranking of the top 10 major
players on the market by reach are
portals and news services. The most
popular horizontal portal, mynet.com,
came second in March 2010 with
a reach of 36% and an audience of
over 8 million real users. Mynet.com
operates based on a horizontal
platform model, as does ekolay.net
(4th place in the ranking with a reach
of 31%). Significant positions on the
market are also held by four popular
and well developed news services:
hurriyet.com.tr (5th place with
29% reach in March 2010),
milliyet.com.tr (6th place with 27%
reach), haberler.com (9th place with
15% reach) and sabah.com.tr (10th
place with 13% reach during the
same period).

Do you CEE? Turkey

232
The core business models used by
the above-mentioned players is the
sale of online advertising, however
it is undertaken in several different
ways. One can identify three basic
approaches. The first is the self-
conducted sale of advertising, which
is applied by Mynet and Sabah. The
second and most common practice
are sales conducted by a subsidiary
network or media house (belonging
to the same holding as the publisher).
Ekolay.net, milliyet.com.tr and
hurriyet.com.tr are good examples
of players working this way: all of
their sales activities are operated by
one advertising network, MedyaNet,
which is (as they also are) a company
owned by the Dogan Media Group.
Haberler is the only website among
the above-mentioned representing
the third approach. Its advertising
activities are operated by ReklamZ, an
independent company and one of the
largest internet advertising networks
in Turkey. ReklamZ was established in
2002 and currently provides various
advertising solutions for many large
and significant local players. Apart
from Haberler, among the websites
operated by ReklamZ and participating
in IAB Turkey’s Internet Audience
Measurement in March 2010 one can
also find such players as komikler.com
(an aggregator of humorous content),
hastane.com.tr (a significant health/
medical website), ajansspor.com (one
of the leading sports news providers),
posta.com.tr (the website of Turkey’s
best-selling newspaper) and hi5.com
(a well-known social networking
service). ReklamZ also represents such
websites as eksisozluk.com (the oldest
online community in Turkey) and
fizy.com (a leading online music
provider).
Interestingly, the internet in Turkey
also contains very locally-specific
online projects, which make it a very
interesting market. One of the best
examples of this is a website which
Do you CEE? Turkey
comes very high in the ranking of
Turkey’s top players. It is a video
hosting service named izlesene.com
which not only works like YouTube,
but also resembles this Google-
owned service. Izlesene is another
website released by Nokta. Its success
owes much to the fact that it fills
a tremendous market gap. In 2007,
following much media attention
associated with movies available on
YouTube, the world famous video
website was banned in Turkey.
Izlesene, its local equivalent, is
therefore doing very well. According
to IAB Turkey’s Internet Audience
Measurement conducted by Gemius
and Ipsos, in March 2010 it gained an
audience of over 8 million real users
and has a reach level of 36%.
The second peculiar and rare website
(especially when it comes to close
leadership of local players) active on
the Turkish market is antoloji.com.
It operates using a hybrid model
of a literary online service, head
offline news aggregator and internet
bookstore. It is basically a website
devoted to the written word. As its
creators themselves say, antoloji.
com is an art portal focused on the
cultural life of the country. Antoloji
publishes both poetry and prose
written by professionals and amateurs.
It also provides a variety of Web
2.0 solutions, like groups, clubs and
message boards. The popularity
of this project is an interesting
phenomenon. While on most markets
information and entertainment
make up the backbone of online
mass-media websites, this particular
cultural service in Turkey is able to
gain 7th place in the general ranking
of websites by reach. According
to IAB Turkey’s Internet Audience
Measurement conducted by Gemius
and Ipsos, in March 2010 Antoloji
had almost 4 million real users
interested in this niche topic, with
a reach of 16%.
 233

1.2. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY AVERAGE TIME SPENT PER USER

NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME REACH

REAL USERS USER PER USER

1 webgazete.net 2 381 51 06:34:40 0.01%

2 80630.com 30 773 586 06:21:49 0.1%

3 gazeteoku.com 802 660 47 03:58:11 3%

4 pexu.com 17 077 166 03:07:02 0.1%

5 siberalem.com 653 468 111 02:29:29 3%

6 milliyet.com.tr 6 207 491 115 02:21:51 27%

7 gamyun.net 440 905 134 02:11:04 2%

8 mackolik.com 2 232 298 65 02:02:48 10%

9 mynet.com 8 325 109 175 02:01:10 36%

10 hurriyet.com.tr 6 844 277 126 01:57:09 29%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Turkey by average time spent per user (Gemius SA / Ipsos KMG:
IAB Turkey’s Internet Audience Measurement, March 2010)

If we look at the Turkish online
market from the perspective of time
spent per average internet user on
each website, the ranking of the
most significant websites takes on
a completely different perspective
and the dominant roles are not played
(unlike in many markets) by the largest
players. Even such an engaging service
as izlesene.com (the local YouTube
equivalent) with almost 46 minutes
average time spent per user does not
find its place among the most time-
consuming websites in Turkey. In turn,
first place in the presented ranking
is held by one of the less popular
websites, webgazete.net, an online
newspaper service run by Aktif Haber
Yayın Grubu. According to IAB Turkey’s
Internet Audience Measurement
conducted by Gemius and Ipsos, it
gained barely 0.01% of reach among
all internet users in March 2010, but
at the same time its average visitor
(there were 2,400) spent more than
6.5 hours on the website. During the
same period a similar result (almost
6 hours 22 minutes average time per
user) was obtained by 80630.com,
which is an exclusive social networking
platform (not accessible for non-
registered users) similar to Facebook.
Majority of the most engaging
websites in Turkey keep their users
active for 2-4 hours. Among them,
one can find such websites as a news
aggregator (gazeteoku.com), gaming
platforms (pexu.com and gamyun.net),
a social networking service (siberalem.
com) or a sport news service
(mackolik.com). The most ‘addictive’
websites in Turkey include three
portals, both horizontal and news-
based. The 6th ranking position of top
10 websites by average time spent
per user is held by milliyet.com.tr. The
whole list was propped up by the most
popular horizontal portal and most
popular news service, mentioned in

Do you CEE? Turkey

234
the previous section. The average user
of mynet.com, the portal which took 9th
place in the ranking, spent over 2 hours
on the website in March 2010 and the
1.3. TOP PORTALS
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS
1 mynet.com 8 325 109
2 ekolay.net 7 173 983
Table 3 The two most popular portals in Turkey by reach level (Gemius SA / Ipsos KMG:
IAB Turkey’s Internet Audience Measurement, March 2010)
The Turkish online market is filled with
many well developed news services
and internet equivalents of traditional
newspapers which, from a practical
point of view, often play the role
of horizontal services. Despite this
fact, among the top 10 most popular
websites participating in IAB Turkey’s
Internet Audience Measurement
conducted by Gemius and Ipsos, there
are only two pure horizontal portals:
mynet.com and ekolay.net.
According to the results of the above-
mentioned study for March 2010, the
leading horizontal portal in Turkey was
at the same time the second most
popular website on the market with
36% reach among all internet users.
Mynet.com is run by the company of
the same name. It was established in
1999 by Emre Kurttepeli. Presently,
it is a private company employing
approximately 250 specialists, mainly
engineers. The mynet.com portal is
not only a very successful project as
regards the Turkish market, but also
because considering the size of the
local internet in this country, which
ensures that it has a constant monthly
audience of over 8 million real users,
Do you CEE? Turkey
average user of hurriyet.com.tr spent
almost two hours reading current news
during the same period.
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER USER
175 02:01:10 36%
44 01:04:30 31%
this website also figures highly in
international rankings for the whole
region.
The second most popular portal
participating in IAB Turkey’s Internet
Audience Measurement conducted
by Gemius and Ipsos is ekolay.net.
Its monthly audience oscillates around
7.2 million real users. Ekolay.net is run
by Doğan Elektronik İçerik Tasarım
Hizmetleri ve Yayıncılık A.Ş., a part of
Doğan Şirketler Grubu Holding A.Ş.
(Doğan Holding Group of Companies
Inc) founded in 1980 in Istanbul. Doğan
Holding is a large organization that
invests not only in media, but also
in energy, finance and tourism.
The company owns many significant
Turkish newspapers which, incidentally,
have their own online versions,
for instance hurriyet.com.tr and
milliyet.com.tr. Ekolay is one of the
company’s most popular websites,
which in March 2010 had a reach
of 31%.

1.4. SOCIAL NETWORKS
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS
1 blogcu.com 10 110 262
2 tr.netlog.com 1 981 046
3 siberalem.com 653 468
4 hi5.com 587 895
5 hocam.com 167 250
Table 4 Top 5 social networks in Turkey by reach level (Gemius SA / Ipsos KMG: IAB Turkey’s Inter-
net Audience Measurement, March 2010)
The unquestionable leader among all
websites participating in IAB Turkey’s
Internet Audience Measurement
conducted by Gemius and Ipsos is
blogcu.com, a blogging platform
which in March 2010 had over 10
million real users, gaining 43% reach
and dominating all its competitors.
Blogcu is the most successful website
run by Nokta, one of the most active
companies on the Turkish online
market. Among the top 5 social
networking websites in this country,
we can also find two native players.
The first is siberalem.com, a dating
service run by EBI (Elektronik Bilgi
İletişim Hizmetleri Reklamcılık ve Tic.
A.Ş.), a company established in 1998,
whose portfolio covers such websites
as: idefix.com (an online media/book
store), itiraf.com (a discussion board)
or evlilikmerkezi.com (a wedding
service). Siberalem gained over
650,000 real users in March 2010,
which gave it a reach level of 3%.
Another native player which found
its place among the top 5 most
popular social networking websites
in Turkey monitored by Ipsos and
Gemius is hocam.com, an extended
235
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER USER
11 00:13:52 43%
84 00:57:17 8%
111 02:29:29 3%
106 00:36:34 3%
159 01:56:32 1%
and multipurpose social networking
platform run by Hocam Interaktif.
Despite the quality of the website,
its popularity is still low, as clearly
evidenced by the results of the study,
according to which Hocam attracted
less than 170,000 real users in March
2010 giving it a mere 1% reach.
According to IAB Turkey’s Internet
Audience Measurement conducted
by Gemius and Ipsos, internet users
in this country also visit international
social networking websites. In the
top 5 ranking above we can find such
brands as Netlog and Hi5. The Turkish
section of Netlog attracted almost
2 million real users in March 2010,
which ensured a safe 2nd place in the
ranking. Its market reach amounted
to 8%. In turn, Hi5 gained less than
600,000 real users in March 2010,
which gave it a reach of 3%.
Do you CEE? Turkey
236

1.5. ONLINE CLASSIFIED ADS BY REACH

NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH

REAL USERS USER USER

1 arabam.com 1 836 519 60 00:25:21 8%

2 hurriyetemlak.com 1 213 832 66 00:53:46 5%

3 hurriyetoto.com 990 352 16 00:13:01 4%

Table 5 Top 3 online classified ads in Turkey by reach level (Gemius SA / Ipsos KMG: IAB Turkey’s
Internet Audience Measurement, March 2010)

Online classified advertising seems interested in buying a car (almost

to be relatively popular in Turkey.
According to IAB Turkey’s Internet
Audience Measurement conducted by
Gemius and Ipsos, the most frequently
visited website of this kind in March
2010 was arabam.com which attracted
over 1.8 million real users with
amarket reach of 8%. Arabam.com
is an extensive online database of car
sales announcements. In March its
visitors remained active for an average
of 25 minutes.
54 minutes per user). Hurriyetemlak.
com gained 5% reach, just one
percentage point more than the other
automotive online service included in
the ranking, hurriyetoto.com.
The latter attracted just over 990,000
real users in March 2010 and took
3rd place with a reach of 4%.

In the same period 1.2 million real

users visited hurriyetemlak.com,
a classified advertising website
containing real estate announcements.
Users searched for homes on average
twice as long as those who were

1.6. TOP FINANCE SITES BY REACH

NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH

USERS USER USER

finans.mynet.
1 1 090 039 24 00:30:46 5%
com
bigpara.ekolay.
2 505 713 58 03:11:38 2%
net
3 doviz.com 464 460 9 00:57:25 2%

Table 6 Top 3 finance sites in Turkey by reach level (Gemius SA / Ipsos KMG: IAB Turkey’s Internet
Audience Measurement, March 2010)

Do you CEE? Turkey


The area of finance on the Turkish
internet is dominated by the
horizontal portals Mynet and Ekolay.
The dedicated sections of these two
players hold first and second place,
respectively in the ranking of finance
websites participating in IAB Turkey’s
Internet Audience Measurement
conducted by Gemius and Ipsos.
The financial section of Mynet
(finans.mynet.com) was visited by
more than one million real users in
March 2010, which gave it a reach of
5% among all internet users. During
the same period the equivalent
finance section of Ekolay (bigpara.
ekolay.net) was visited by over
500,000 real users, which gave it a
reach of 2%. Internet users visiting this
section of Ekolay remained active for
more than 3 hours.
2. ONLINE AUDIENCE
Unlike in the majority of CEE
markets, the gender structure of the
online population in Turkey is not
balanced. According to the Ipsos
KMG study for March 2010, 57% of
internet users in this country are
men and only 43% of the whole
online population are women. Such
a visible disproportion seems to be
caused by two factors. The first is the
‘immaturity’ of the online market,
where men are usually the first to
capture new technologies. The second
factor is related to certain cultural
specifics which may have a significant
impact on the gender structure of
the Turkish online population.
Internet users in Turkey are very
young. According to the Ipsos KMG
study in March 2010 48% of users
were between 12 and 24 years old.
237
The 3rd ranking position among
finance websites in Turkey is held
by doviz.com, a relatively small and
simple website run by Nokta. Doviz
means “foreign exchange” and the
website actually focuses exclusively
on publishing current exchange rates
as well as the prices of gold and fuel.
In March 2010 it gained an audience
of over 460,000 real users, which gave
it a market reach of 2%.
Furthermore, 75% of the whole online
population consisted of individuals
under 34 years old. Users aged
55 years old and more represent only
4% of the total online population. Such
distribution is characteristic for less
developed online markets, which are
not experiencing the phenomenon
of getting older along with their
users. However, compared to other
countries, the high increase of the
proportion of individuals over 45 and
55 years old may be expected.
Within the whole online
population of this country, there
are three major groups of users:
individuals with primary education or
less (30%), secondary school education
(25%) and those who graduated from
high school (31%). At the same time
individuals with university education
Do you CEE? Turkey

or scientific degrees comprise only
14% of the whole online population.
Nevertheless, this figure is impressive
compared to the general Turkish
population, where the proportion of
individuals with a university education
is 7 percentage points lower.
The largest group of Turkish
internet users lives in urban areas,
3. TOOLS
3.1. BROWSERS
Chart 1 Top browsers in Turkey by share of page views generated by Internet users who visit Turkish
websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)
3.1. Browsers
In terms of web browsers popularity,
the Turkish online market is both
unique and interesting compared
to most CEE countries. It is
completely dominated by Microsoft
Internet Explorer which holds the
consistently largest share. According
to gemiusTraffic, in the first quarter
of 2010 this browser was used by
visitors responsible for almost 79%
of all page views generated on websites
monitored in the study. During the
same period Mozilla Firefox generated
only 15% of all page views. The third
most intensively used web browser in
239
which is congruent with the
distribution observed for the whole
population. However, compared
to the total population, the share
of individuals living in urban areas
among internet users is higher by 11
percentage points.
Turkey is Google Chrome (4.9% of all
page views in the first quarter of 2010).
Other solutions
do not enjoy significant interest
among Turkish internet users.
3.2. Operating systems
The group of Turkish internet users
which generated the largest amount
of page views (74%) in the first quarter
of 2010 used Windows XP. According
to the gemiusTraffic study, the second
most frequently indentified operating
system on the Turkish market is
Windows Vista. During the same period
its users were responsible for 17% of
Do you CEE? Turkey
240

3.2. OPERATING SYSTEMS

Chart 2 Top operating systems in Turkey by share of page views generated by Internet users who visit
Turkish websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

all page views generated on websites – it is Google. In the first quarter

monitored by Gemius. Microsoft’s
newest product, Windows 7, comes
last. In the first quarter of 2010 it was
installed on computers of internet
users who were responsible for almost
8% of all page views recorded in the
gemiusTraffic study. To compare, the
share of page views generated by Mac
OS X users equaled to only 0.5%.
3.3. Search engines
There is no doubt as to which search
engine dominates the Turkish market
of 2010, the world’s best known
search engine was a starting point
for almost 99% of all visits which
took place on websites monitored
in the gemiusTraffic study in Turkey.
The second player on the market,
Microsoft MSN (an engine used by
MSN itself as well as live.com and
Bing), managed to gain a share of only
1.2% for the totality of visits during
the same period. The Yahoo search
engine and all other search engine
solutions have an insignificant share
on the Turkish market.

3.3. SEARCH ENGINES

Chart 3 Top search engines in Turkey by share of visits generated by Internet users who visit Turkish
websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

Do you CEE? Turkey

 241
3.4. Screen resolutions
3.4. SCREEN RESOLUTIONS
The most popular screen resolution
in Turkey is 1280 x 1024. In the first
quarter of 2010, it was recognized
on computers of users responsible
for almost 43% of all page views
made on websites monitored in the
gemiusTraffic study. Other top screen
resolutions on the market are less
popular. In the first quarter of 2010
their shares oscillated between 18%
(for 1280 x 800) and 4.6% (for 1152
x 864).
Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Turkey by share of page views generated by Internet users who visit
3.5. Mobile devices - models Turkish websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

According to the gemiusTraffic study,

the most popular mobile device used
to access the web in Turkey is the
iPhone, which was responsible for 35%
3.5. MOBILE DEVICES
of page views generated by mobile
devices on the average website in
July. The second most popular mobile
device was the Nokia 5800.
Its users generated 12% of the mobile
traffic on the average Turkish website
using gemiusTraffic. The other Apple
product, the iPad, had a 5% share.
However, its popularity is growing
and over two months has gained
2 percentage points.

Chart 5 Top 5 mobile devices in Turkey by the website-averaged percentage share of page
views generated by internet users form Turkey who visit Turkish websites using gemiusTraffic
(gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10
**to 2010-07-25

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242
4. BRANCH ORGANIZATIONS
IAB Turkey
www.iab-turkiye.org
Description: IAB Turkey was
established in 2007 and acts as
a reference center for interactive
advertising and the digital marketing
industry in Turkey. Its mission is
to contribute to the development
and growth of the interactive
industry; by setting standards,
organizing networking initiatives
and activities, coordinating internet
audience measurement research and
organizing educational programs.
Members: At present, IAB Turkey
has 109 members including media
agencies, publishers, interactive
agencies and advertisers.
Mobile Marketing Association
mmaglobal.com
Description: The Mobile Marketing
Association established its local
branch in Turkey in 2009. The
objective of MMA Turkiye is to
foster the burgeoning mobile
marketing industry in Turkey through
local participation from industry
stakeholders, driving the early
integration of global standards and
industry guidelines across the mobile
channel in the country and providing
a powerful platform for knowledge
sharing.
Members: At present MMA Turkiye
has 29 members.
Do you CEE? Turkey
Turkish IPTV Association
www.iptv-der.org
Description: The Turkish IPTV
Association represents the next
generation of the TV broadcasting
platform in Turkey. As a non-profit
organization, the association aims to
develop technologies and standards
that might help streamline and
accelerate deployments of IPTV,
which will help maximize the benefits
of IPTV for consumers, network
operators, content providers, service
providers, consumer electronics
manufacturers and home and
network infrastructure providers.
Online Media Association (OMA)
www.internetmedyasi.org
Description: The Online Media
Association (OMA) aims to establish
digital media as a respected and
reliable marketing channel. OMA
makes the effort to be the leading
and standard setting organization in
Turkey especially for online publishing
and journalism.
Members: The Association has
365 members, all online content
providers.
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5. ADVERTISING NETWORKS

GENERAL CONTACT INFORMATION

FULL NAME HOMEPAGE URL ADDRESS MAIN OFFICE CONTACT
ADDRESS

MedyaNet İletişim Eski Büyükdere Cad. Ayazağa Phone: +90-212-304-21-00 (01)

1 Reklam Pazarlama ve medyanet.com.tr Ticaret Merkezi C Blok No:11 Giriş Fax: +90-212-328-05-84
Turizm A.Ş. Kat 34398 Maslak/İstanbul Email: bilgi@medyanet.com.tr
Logaritma Internet ve Büyükdere Cad Tevfik Erdönmez Phone: +90-212-273-10-27
2 Bilgi Teknolojileri Tic. logaritma.com.tr Sokak Gül Apt 2/23 Esentepe/ Fax: +90-212-273-27-29
Ltd. Şti. İstanbul Email: logaritma@logaritma.com.tr
Barbaros Bulvarı Morbasan Sokak Phone: +90-212-266-96-96
Medyaguru Reklam Hiz.
3 medyaguru.com Koza İş Merkezi B Blok No:12 Kat:3 Fax: +90-212-213-80-82
Ve Tic. A.Ş.
Balmumcu - Beşiktaş / İstanbul Email: info@medyaguru.com
Phone: +90-212-324-00-60
Rgte İletişim Reklam Paz. Esentepe Mah.Talatpaşa Cad.
4 netbookmedia.com Fax: +90-212-324-20-62
ve Tic. A.Ş. No.5 Kat 3 Şişli / İstanbul
Email: info@ netbookmedia.com
Leylak Sok. No: 26 Nursanlar
Reklamz İnternet Reklam Phone: +90-212-213-70-05
5 reklamz.com İş Merkezi A Blok K:7 No:26
Hiz. ve Bilişim Tekn. A.Ş. Email: bilgi@reklamz.com
Mecidiyeköy-Şişli-İstanbul
Barbaros Bulvarı No:153 34349,
6 Turkuvaz turkuvazyayin.com.tr Phone: +90-212-354-30-00
Beşiktaş-İstanbul
İsmail Paşa Sk. No:27 Koşuyolu Phone: +90-216-339-09-98
7 Yeni Medya yenimedya.com.tr
İstanbul Fax: +90-216-339-09-58
Nokta Medya İnternet Phone: +90-312-236-16-69
Gökırmak Sokak No:2 Beysukent
8 Hizmetleri San. ve Tic. nokta.com Fax: +90-312-236-16-79
ANKARA 06800
A.Ş. Email: medya@nokta.com
Kuştepe Mah. Leylak Sok. Phone: +90-212-444-54-65
Linkz Internet Reklam
9 linkz.net Nursanlar İş Mrk. K:1 N:6 Şişli, Fax: +90-212-213-70-07
Hiz. Ve Bilişim Tekn. A.Ş.
İstanbul Email: bilgi@linkz.net
Magnet Bilgi Eski Üsküdar Cad. Çayıryolu Sok.
10 Teknolojileri ve magnetdijital.com Partaş Center No: 1/16 İçerenköy- Phone: +90-216-577-33-11
Sistemleri A.Ş. İstanbul
Meclis-i Mebusan Cad. No:23
Maksimum İletişim Phone: +90-212-243-45-28
11 maksimum.net Dursun Han Kat:1
Hizmetleri A.Ş. Fax: +90-212-243-45-29
34433 Tophane-İstanbul

6. OPINIONS FROM THE MARKET

Orkun Tekin
Chairman, reklamz.com, semtr.com, linkz.net, fizy.com

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for online advertising on your local
market?

We can observe many opportunities for the online advertising market in Turkey.
This is mainly because of the rapid growth of internet advertising spending since

Do you CEE? Turkey

244
2002. According to the Advertisers Association, in the first quarter of 2010 internet
advertising spending grew by 63% compared with total advertising budgets.
We predict that this acceleration will continue for at least the next five years.
What is more, as the majority of the Turkish population is between the ages of
1-24, we assume that internet usage will continue to grow. The reason for this is
that the young generation is becoming more accustomed to using the internet for
everyday activities. The same can be observed in all digital sectors.

The greatest opportunity in the Turkish online internet advertising sector is its
tendency to bring together all advertising means under one digital platform. All
offline advertising products are becoming more digitalized every day. Publications
are becoming internet advertorials, TV content is becoming digital video
broadcasts, audio products, and radio broadcasts are being digitalized. On the flip
side, there is a gap in education and the experience of human resources who are
employed both in media planning agencies and in the advertising departments
of major brands. This causes problems in understanding the effectiveness,
advantages and new trends by both agencies and brands.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are expected
to develop most in the future?

We can observe three main periods in the trends on the Turkish market. Prior
to 2007, an era of standard banner display based on impressions was evident.
Following this, in 2008, there was an era of rich and interactive media products
as well as performance advertising. From 2009 agencies have tended to focus on
special projects capturing users beyond base advertising means.

When we look at the first quarter of 2010 such special projects have continued to
grow. Brands are interested in unique, interactive ideas connecting them to their
target audience. Also, advertisers’ concerns have switched from basic banner
display to seeing beyond performance. Display to diversion and from diversion
to conversion has gained major importance. The urge of advertisers to take ROI
measures into account has forced Ad networks to include performance targets into
their calculations. CPX ad models become more and more economically feasible
thus creating a necessity in the evolving Turkish internet usage practices.

In general, there are 3 main trends that drive the internet advertising sector.
The first of them is video advertising. Brands see video advertising to be an
effective way to reach their target audience as a result of usage in TV advertising
habits. Every day, increasingly more people watch video content on the internet.
Video content is more valuable on digital platforms since it is more precisely
measurable, it is easier to segment the audience and also report outcomes
in terms of ROI. Digital video content (which is different from TV advertising)
is interactive and continues to capture the target audience even after video
content is presented. Through clickable video content, users are diverted to the
advertiser’s website to continue interacting with the brand.

Do you CEE? Turkey

 245
Another trend which drives the internet advertising sector is social media
advertising. Many global and local brands interact with users in Turkey through
social media accounts. Facebook users originating from Turkish IPs have
reached a level of 4 million a day. As a result, more than 5 agencies have offered
professional services on social media like account management and seeding.
Brands have started to employ social media specialists. From another perspective,
social media platforms have started to offer a complete interactive package
including image, video and audio content. Digital sharing, idea creation and social
movement have all become hot topics. Information sharing and branding has
followed naturally.

Another trend is mobile advertising. With the launch of smart phones and more
advanced mobile devices capable of high speed internet connection, internet
users have started to use the mobile internet in their everyday life. Today there are
11.4 million 3G users in Turkey. Therefore, display budgets in the ‘mobile’ category
have reached to $150,000 per month. What is more, several mobile agencies are
trying to expand this market. Reklamz launched a new set of products under a new
company called “MobileZ“ to respond to this demand.

Regarding the future, it should be said that trendy products in the video, social
media and mobile categories will continue to grow, as they will become the new
hot spots in information sharing. Most importantly, digital advertising is becoming
increasingly more independent of offline advertising with its own methodology,
vision and technology.

In general, products that are structured on the basis of audience targeting will
continue to grow. Identifying, capturing, tracking and interacting with the target
audience and the technological capabilities thereof will be a necessity rather than
a demand in the upcoming years.

Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete with
the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this battle?

The strongest global players are Facebook and MSN. Dailymotion is another media
giant that has entered the Turkish market. All these publishers supply specific
content, which competes and, in most cases, dominates the fields they enter. Their
edge usually lies in the technology they use and the new methodologies that are
extremely well constructed and tailored to the audience. Their products are well
designed as a result of well-evolved user segmentation abroad.

Internet search is completely dominated by Google and there is no competition

in SEM. In mobile advertising, local sales houses dominate the market. There are
several reasons for this. First of all, inventory is restricted, so that publishers do
not use blind basis mobile display networks. Secondly, agencies are in the learning
phase. This means that salespeople in the dominant sales houses are convincing
media planners to move to mobile display therefore budgets are dividing inside
these sales houses.

Do you CEE? Turkey

 Ukraine
8.92m
internet users

1. MAINPLAYERS_247
1.1. Top10websitesbyreach_247
1.2. Top10websitesbyaveragetimespentperuser_248
1.3. Topportals_249
1.4. Social networks_250
1.5. Onlineclassifiedadsbyreach_251
1.6. Topfinancesitesbyreach_252
2. ONLINEAUDIENCE_252
3. TOOLS_254
3.1. Browsers_254
3.2. Operatingsystems_255
3.3. Search engines_255
3.4. Screen resolutions_255
3.5. Mobiledevices_256
4. BRANCHORGANIZATIONS_257
5. OPINIONSFROMTHEMARKET_258
 247

1. MAIN PLAYERS

1.1. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY REACH

WEBSITE’S CATEGORY NUMBER OF REAL NUMBER OF PAGE PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USERS VIEWS USER USER

1 mail.ru horizontal portal 5 170 428 804 602 875 156 03:56:17 58%

2 yandex.ua (*) horizontal portal 4 350 184 365 007 925 84 03:52:58 49%

3 marketgid.com e-shop catalogue 3 217 384 39 277 914 12 00:50:12 36%

4 meta.ua horizontal portal 2 586 042 69 090 816 27 00:37:01 29%

5 i.ua horizontal portal 2 341 812 119 043 456 51 01:02:53 26%

6 tochka.net horizontal portal 1 818 973 17 419 775 10 00:09:14 20%

7 bigmir.net horizontal portal 1 673 814 67 863 776 41 01:07:28 19%

8 gismeteo.ua weather portal 1 658 453 37 326 182 23 00:20:01 19%

9 redtram.com.ua news service 1 472 170 12 430 345 8 00:37:58 17%

10 online.ua horizontal portal 1 433 729 32 761 772 23 00:31:38 16%

Table 1 Top 10 websites in Ukraine by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

In March 2010 the ranking of the most
popular websites by reach in Ukraine
was dominated by horizontal portals.
They occupied 7 out of the top 10
places and together generated almost
1.5 billion page views. Mail.ru
(58%) and yandex.ua (49%) are the
leaders on the Ukrainian online
market. What is interesting is that
they both originate from Russia. Other
popular horizontal portals among
the Ukrainian online population are
meta.ua with a reach of 29%, i.ua with
26% and tochka.net with 20%. They
are described in detail in the table 1.3
Top portals.
One of the non-portal sites in
the gemiusAudience ranking was
marketgid.com. In March 2010 its
reach amounted to 36%. It is an
e-shop catalogue operating in Russia,
Germany, Poland and Romania. There
is no Ukrainian language version, but (*) In
March 2010 on the Ukrainian market the
node yandex.ua consisted of the portals’ main
as with the horizontal portals, the page and search page only.
Russian version is popular among
internet users in Ukraine. Yet its
popularity, in comparison to March
2009, fell by 2 percentage points.
The 7th ranking position was occupied
by bigmir.net, a horizontal portal
owned by the number one media
holding in Ukraine, KP Media. It
offers services typical for this kind of
site, i.e. news, a mail service, blogs,
photo and video sections as well as
a dating service. In March 2010 it
gained a reach level of 19% (it has
lost 4 percentage points of its reach
level over the last twelve months)
and has only a slightly advantage
over gismeteo.ua, which is a popular
weather portal that belongs to
the Russian company Map Maker
(www.mapmakers.ru). It ranked eighth

Do you CEE? Ukraine

248
and had over 1.6 million real users, news in English, French, German,
who on average spent 20 minutes on Spanish, Italian, Polish, Chinese,
the service in March 2010. Russian and Ukrainian.

The last two positions in the ranking
belonged to a news aggregator,
redtram.com.ua (17%) and another
horizontal portal, online.ua (16%). The
first enables its users to find the latest
news they are interested in thanks to
a variety of searching criteria available.
Moreover, redtram.com aggregates
In March 2010 online.ua had over
1.4 million real users. The portal
includes such services as mail, a search
engine, a catalogue of websites,
an online TV schedule amongst others.
It is slowly gaining popularity and
compared to March 2009 its level of
reach increased by 1 percentage point.

1.2. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY AVERAGE TIME SPENT PER USER

NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME REACH

REAL USERS USER PER USER

1 football.ua 305 634 175 04:17:26 3%

2 mail.ru 5 170 428 156 03:56:17 58%

3 yandex.ua 4 350 184 84 03:52:58 49%

4 connect.ua 247 857 216 02:26:53 3%

5 ria.ua 996 942 115 01:59:00 11%

6 quest.ua 11 647 61 01:49:47 0.1%

7 minfin.com.ua 26 688 55 01:47:23 0.3%

8 basket.com.ua 17 058 66 01:42:28 0.2%

9 photographers.com.ua 22 900 109 01:22:52 0.3%

10 bigmir.net 1 673 814 41 01:07:28 19%

Table 2 Top 10 websites in Ukraine by average time spent per user (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

The sites included in the top 10
ranking by average time spent
per user, on the basis of the
gemiusAudience study from March
2010, are diversified in terms of site
categories. The leader with 4 hours
17 minutes was football.ua, a sports
portal dedicated to football fans. Its
owner is Ukrainian Media Holding,
whose portfolio of internet projects
also includes the news portals kp.ua
and focus.ua as well as dengi.ua,
a business and finance service.
In March 2010 second and third
positions were occupied by Russian
horizontal portals mail.ru (3 hours and
56 minutes) and yandex.ua (3 hours
53 minutes). They are both successful
in Ukraine.
Connect.ua is a local social network
whose popularity is on the decline. In 
March 2010 its reach level amounted
to 3%, yet, in terms of average time
spent per user it ranked fourth with
a result of 2 hours 27 minutes.

Do you CEE? Ukraine


5th place belonged to the classified
ads website ria.ua, with an average
user spending almost 2 hours on
this service in March 2010. Only 10
minutes less was spent by the average
user of quest.ua, i.e. 1 hour 50
minutes. This site is dedicated to the
community of Quest players, which is
an offline game where players need
to use their wit and creativity to find
a hidden code hidden somewhere in
their city. Quest.ua had over 11,600
real users in March 2010.
There was also a place for a financial
portal in the ranking, namely
minfin.com.ua. It publishes news
concerning finances, banks, currencies
and the stock exchange. According to
the gemiusAudience study from March
2010, it had 26,688 real users and
the average viewer spent 1 hour and
1.3. TOP PORTALS
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS
1 mail.ru 5 170 428
2 yandex.ua 4 350 184
3 meta.ua 2 586 042
4 i.ua 2 341 812
5 tochka.net 1 818 973
Table 3 Top 5 portals in Ukraine by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)
Horizontal portals are very popular
among Ukrainians. According to the
gemiusAudience study from March
2010, the leader, with a reach level
of 58%, was mail.ru. It is a Russian-
based horizontal portal, once a free
email service that evolved into one
of the biggest players on the post-
Soviet online markets. Although the
249
47 minutes online there. The average
user of basket.com.ua, which occupied
the next position in the ranking,
spent only 5 minutes less online.
Basket.com.ua is a service dedicated
to basketball with a forum where
fans can exchange their views and
comments on current sports events.
With a result of 1 hour and 23 minutes
photographers.com.ua came 9th in the
ranking. It is a network of professional
photographers. They can upload their
photos to a gallery and let others
comment on them. In March 2010 it
had 22,900 real users, however, its
popularity has been growing (in March
2009 it was 11,371). The ranking was
propped up by the above-mentioned
bigmir.net, whose average user spent
1 hour 7 minutes there.
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER USER
156 03:56:17 58%
84 03:52:58 49%
27 00:37:01 29%
51 01:02:53 26%
10 00:09:14 20%
Ukrainian office was opened in 2008, it
did not become very active until 2009,
when the head of the Ukrainian office
changed. Mail.ru has from that point
been taking an ever larger proportion
of the market.
Second place was occupied by
yandex.ua, another Russian-based
Do you CEE? Ukraine
250
portal popular in the post-Soviet
countries. Yandex.ru started its career
as a search engine in September 1997
and has since been constantly gaining
new audience. Today it is the only
real competitor to Google in Ukraine
and Russia. Though the ranking from
March 2010 presents statistics for
home page and search page only, its
reach level amounted to 49%, i.e. more
than 4.35 million users. Moreover,
it is no longer simply a search engine.
On the home page users can find
news, weather and traffic information,
exchange rates and much more.
Meta.ua (29%) is a Ukrainian
horizontal portal and search engine.
It became influential on the Ukrainian
online market despite the fact
that its head office was in Kharkiv,
not in Kyiv (which is quite unusual
among Ukrainian online publishers).
It offers its users basic services
such as a searching system on the
Ukrainian segment of the internet and
a catalogue of sites, search engine
for e-shops and pricelists, a system
for news monitoring, information
1.4. SOCIAL NETWORKS
NUMBER OF REAL
USERS
connect.ua 247 857
Table 4 Local social network measured in the gemiusAudience study
(gemiusAudience, March 2010)
The only local social network in
Ukraine worth mentioning is
connect.ua. According to the
gemiusAudience study, in March
2010 its reach level amounted to
3%, 2 percentage points less than a
year before. However, this does not
Do you CEE? Ukraine
services amongst others. Moreover,
there is a communication section with
a postal system, a forum, blogs and
the suchlike.
With a 26% reach i.ua ranked fourth
in the top 5 portals in the Ukraine
ranking. The developer of this
internet portal is the internet agency
Mi[6], which offers a wide range of
advertising services on the internet.
The horizontal portal includes a mail
service, a website catalogue, weather
forecasts, a translator, photos, blogs,
dating services and much more.
The ranking was propped up by
tochka.net, which in March 2010
had a reach level of 20%. It seems
to be a very promising player on the
Ukrainian online market. It is owned
by digital ventures, an online media
holding, which launched several
websites in 2008, then bought some
more in 2008-2009 and by the end of
2009 restructured them and created
one portal, tochka.net.
PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER USER
216 02:26:53 3%
mean that Ukrainians are not fond
of social networking services. Two
Russian social networking websites
are quite popular: vkontakte.ru
and odnoklassniki.ru. Due to the
shared history of both countries as
well as tight business and cultural
 251
or even family connections, Russian stemmed from its internationality and
and Ukrainian markets are closely technological advances, in particular
interconnected. its integration with Twitter, YouTube,
etc.
What is more, Facebook’s popularity
is growing in Ukraine. According to
Facebook Statistics, it had 425,680
users (July 2010) in Ukraine. Its success

1.5. ONLINE CLASSIFIED ADS BY REACH

NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH

USERS USER USER

1 ua.all-biz.info 1 124 647 10 00:09:15 13%

2 prom.ua 1 083 169 11 00:10:36 12%

3 ria.ua 996 942 115 01:59:00 11%

Table 5 Top 3 online classified ads in Ukraine by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)

The leader in the top 3 online
classified ads in Ukraine by reach
ranking was, in March 2010,
ua.all-biz.info with a reach level of
13%. It is a business directory for
companies, which provides free
profile registration and paid profiles
with more advanced options.
Moreover, it allows its users to
upload their price lists, announce
tenders and helps to find contractors
or business partners. This Ukrainian
site has mirrors in several other
countries, including Russia, Poland,
Moldova, Kazakhstan, Spain and
Turkey.
with practically the same scope of
services.
The ranking was propped up by
ria.ua with an 11% reach. It contains
free offers classified into three main
categories: automotive, real estate
and job announcements.
The service belongs to Aukro
(Allegro Group), which during
2008-2009 bought most of
the largest online auctions,
e-commerce websites, free
classified websites and industrial
catalogues.

The other significant player

on the Ukrainian classified ads
market is prom.ua. According to
the gemiusAudience study from
March 2010, it had over 1 million
real users and a reach level of only
1 percentage point lower than the
leader’s. Like ua.all-biz.info, prom.ua
is a business directory for companies

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252
1.6. TOP FINANCE SITES BY REACH
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER
USERS
1 liga.net 1 154 514
2 finance.ua 526 025
3 ligazakon.ua 249 941
Table 6 Top 3 finance sites in Ukraine by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)
According to the gemiusAudience
study from March 2010, there was one
leading finance site in Ukraine, liga.net.
Its reach level amounted to 13% that
is over 1.1 million real users. The site
belongs to LigaBusinessInform, one of
the largest Ukrainian news agencies.
It is a respected source of information
for Ukrainians. It offers its users with
news and up-to-date financial market
information. Moreover, they can visit
a forum and exchange their views
or ask for advice from other visitors.
Liga’s main source of income is
advertisements.
In second place of the top 3 ranking is
finance.ua, owned by the Infinservice
Agency (www.ifs.kiev.ua), which
specializes in collecting and diffusion
2. ONLINE AUDIENCE
The Ukrainian gender structure of
the online population is dominated by
men. Although women constitute the
majority of the Ukrainian population,
in March 2010 men accounted for
56% of the online audience. However,
the average woman spent around 20
minutes more online than the average
man.
Do you CEE? Ukraine
AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USER USER
9 00:14:32 13%
19 00:32:18 6%
5 00:06:22 3%
of operational information for
financial market operators. Finance.
ua is a respected business news
service with an online audience of
over 526,000 users. Since it is one
of the oldest sites in this category,
its position is well established and
therefore has one of the most
expensive online ad venues in Ukraine.
In March 2010, another popular
finance site among the Ukrainian
population was ligazakon.ua.
Like liga.net, it is owned by
LigaBusinessInform. Its reach level
amounted to 3% and the average
user spent 6 minutes on the service.
The site has an online database
of documents, laws and analyses
available on demand, after a payment.
In terms of age the most
significant group within the Ukrainian
online population was young people
aged 15-24, who in March 2010
constituted 37%. The second largest
group, users aged 25-34, accounted
for 28% of the online population. The
share of successively older groups falls
with age and users over 55 constitutes
254
only 3% of the market. However, what
is interesting is that the oldest internet
users in Ukraine spent the most time
per user online, i.e. almost 10 hours
on averange.
Ukrainian internet users are well-
educated. The majority of Ukrainian
internet users have higher education.
According to the gemiusAudience
study from March 2010 they accounted
for 47% of the online population in
Ukraine. The next significant group
were users with incomplete higher
education (28%). Together they
accounted for 75% of the online
audience. Bearing in mind that
Ukrainian internet users are young,
the fact that 17% of them graduated
from secondary school bodes well for
the future educational structure of the
Ukrainian online population.
3. TOOLS
3.1. BROWSERS
Chart 1 Top browsers in Ukraine by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Ukrai-
nian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)
3.1. Browsers
For many years the leader on the
Ukrainian browsers market was
Microsoft Internet Explorer. However,
Do you CEE? Ukraine
62% of Ukrainian internet users
live in cities with over 500,000
inhabitants. This was 3 percentage
points less than in March 2009.
Only 7% of the online population
(2 percentage points more than a year
before) lived in villages. When it
comes to average time spent online,
internet users from cities with 101,000
– 500,000 inhabitants came top.
In March 2010 the most
numerous group in terms of
occupation (26%) among Ukrainian
internet users were highly qualified
specialists. Second place belonged to
students, who accounted for 23% of
the online population.
recently MSIE’s share of page views
generated by internet users who visit
Ukrainian websites using gemiusTraffic
is decreasing. At the end of 2009 it
was overtaken by Opera. Moreover,
 255
MSIE’s 2nd position is threatened
by the growing popularity of Firefox. 3.2. OPERATING SYSTEMS
During the past twelve months its
share of the market has increased by
4 percentage points, while during the
same period MSIE’s has decreased by
13.

Another browser used by Ukrainian

internet users is Chrome, whose
market share after the first quarter of
2010 amounted to 4%.

3.2. Operating systems Chart 2 Top operating systems in Ukraine by share of page views generated by internet users who
visit Ukrainian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

As on the other CEE markets, the

leader among operating systems in
Ukraine is Windows XP. After the
first quarter of 2010 its share of the
market, studied by gemiusTraffic,
3.3. SEARCH ENGINES
constituted 83% and its position
seems to be unthreatened. However,
the newcomer, Windows 7, gained
almost 9% of the market in less than
a year. Windows Vista did not meet
the Ukrainian online audience’s
expectations and after a short period
of growth its market share is now
declining. After the first quarter of
2010 it amounted to 6%.

Chart 3 Top search engines in Ukraine by share of visits made by internet users who visit Ukrainian
3.3. Search engines
websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

What is interesting about the

Ukrainian search engine market is
that it is not as dominated by Google
as are the markets in other CEE
3.4. SCREEN RESOLUTIONS
countries (except Russia). After the
first quarter of 2010 it accounted for
62% of the visits made by internet
users who visit Ukrainian websites
using gemiusTraffic. The second force
was Yandex with a market share of
34%. Other search engines, i.e. Meta,
Rambler and MSN, were not popular
among Ukrainians (2%, 2% and 1%,
respectively) and therefore do not
pose any threat to the two main
players.
Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Ukraine by share of page views generated by internet users who visit
Ukrainian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)

Do you CEE? Ukraine

256

3.5. MOBILE DEVICES

Chart 5 Top 5 mobile devices in Ukraine by the website-averaged percentage share of page views
generated by internet users from Ukraine, who visit Ukrainian websites using gemiusTraffic
(gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10
**to 2010-07-25

3.4. Screen resolutions second position and according to the

gemiusTraffic study was responsible
Like other CEE online markets, for 6% of page views generated by
the market share of 1024 x 768 mobile devices on an average website
monitor screen resolutions has been in July 2010.
decreasing over the past few years.
However, unlike the other markets,
it is no longer the most popular
choice among Ukrainians. After the
first quarter of 2010 the leader was
a screen resolution of 1280 x 1024.
Other popular ones in the first quarter
of 2010 were 1280 x 800 and
1440 x 900.

3.5. Mobile devices - models

The most popular mobile device used

to connect the web on the Ukrainian
market is the iPhone, which has
a market share of more than 7%.
However, it is gradually losing its
position in favor of the iPad, which is
constantly becoming more popular,
increasing its share by 2 percentage
points within the past two months.
The growth within these last two
months could be observed also for
Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, which takes

Do you CEE? Ukraine


4. BRANCH ORGANIZATIONS
Ukrainian Association Of Internet
Advertising (UAIR)
http://uair.org.ua/
Description: The mission of the
Ukrainian Association Of Internet
Advertising is to create conditions
for effective development of the
advertising market in Ukraine in order
to meet the needs of advertisers,
consumers and users of internet
resources on a global level, as well
as to increase the share of advertiser
budgets. To achieve this, UAIR has
begun a full study of the Ukrainian
internet. UAIR was established in
2007. In the autumn of 2010 the
association will be expanding and
changing its structure and it is planned
that it will fulfill a wider range of
regulatory tasks on the market.
Members: Portals, international
marketing and advertisement
networks representatives (e.g.
LigaBusinessInform, Bigmir-Internet,
META, GoupM, Initiative, Publicis).
Association of Participants of
Electronic Business of Ukraine
http://uelbu.org/
Description: The public organization
„Association of Participants of
Electronic Business of Ukraine”
(UELBU) was founded in May 2008
in Kyiv. The association operates
as a non-state noncommercial
organization, and is a voluntarily
association of businesses and
other legal entities conducting
their business in the sector of
information technologies. The
aim of UELBU is to form a healthy
257
social, economic, technological and
political environment in Ukraine,
which supports development of the
Ukrainian internet.
The Association carries out rule-
making functions and supports the
development of modern IT products
and technologies; it assists in the
organization of a dialog between
representatives of business and
state structures with the aim of the
development of the national electronic
market as one of priority industries of
economy of Ukraine.
Members: Unicom Systems Ltd;
Monexy Ltd; OSMP Ltd; Payment
Systems Ltd; Private entrepreneur
physical person Kurshynov V.V. Project:
myEshop; UnIT Ltd; Interkassa Ltd;
Dizex Company Limited; Private
Enterprise NeoVen; Private Enterprise
2pay; Private Enterprises Grushetski
D.A Projekt: HostService; Private
entrepreneur-physical person Kirilov
S.O. Platform for Internet shops:
Shopium.ua.
Do you CEE? Ukraine
258

5. OPINIONS FROM THE MARKET

Dmytro Sholomko
Director of Google Ukraine

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the online advertising market on your
local market?

Ukraine is one of the fastest growing online markets in Europe; there are still many
opportunities for everyone involved in online business. Services, even basic ones,
are not yet professionally developed, so there is much room for growth. However,
there are many obstacles: first of all, there is the lack of e-commerce mechanisms
on the market (like payment solutions) and also an absence of support from the
government on the legislative level.

Dominating trends

What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are expected
to develop most in the future?

E-commerce projects and SMBs are segments that are growing fastest in the
online advertising market in Ukraine. There are no signs that the pace of growth
will fall in the nearest future.

Global vs. local players

Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete with
the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this battle?

There are no strong local players on the market, growth is mostly driven by
international companies and foreign investment.

Market specifics

What makes your local online market unique? Are there any specifics that make it
different from others in the CEE region?

Ukraine is a bilingual market, with both Ukrainian and Russian languages freely
used in online activities (with Ukrainian usage growing slightly faster). The market
is also influenced by different trends:
• in content, Ukrainian users spend much time on Russian websites, while
• in business practices, they follow the Polish model, with Polish companies
being one of the top market players developing e-commerce in Ukraine.

Do you CEE? Ukraine

 259
It is important to consider these factors while planning business development
in Ukraine, as many market players find them confusing and cannot operate
effectively.

Sergey Petrenko
General Director of Yandex.Ukraine

Online advertising market

What are the opportunities and obstacles for the online advertising market on your
local market?

The online market in Ukraine is still not fully developed and small. According to
the assumptions of the Ukrainian Advertising Coalition (UAC), the share of online
advertising will account for 3.4% of total adspends in Ukraine. However, at the
same time, online ads are growing faster than other media in Ukraine: a 58%
increase in 2009 vs. 2010. In 2010, the UAC expects 230 million hryvnas to be
spent on online advertising, where 130 million will be spent on display ads and
100 million on context and classifieds advertising. In general, the online market in
Ukraine is developing, and increasingly more key advertisers use the internet as an
important and efficient media channel.

Market specifics

What makes your local online market unique? Are there any specifics that make it
different from others in the CEE region?

At present, internet penetration on the Ukrainian internet market is one of the

lowest in Europe. However, this makes the market unique, because the number of
internet users in the upcoming years will grow and new users will not necessarily
behave the same way as current ones. Even now, according to the latest research,
new internet users behave differently than old UAnet users: they prefer other
resources, use other services; therefore those market players, who manage to
guess the desires of these novices will score a considerable advantage in
the future.

Do you CEE? Ukraine

260

METHODOLOGICAL NOTE

DATA SOURCES

The general market descriptions provided in the report are based upon data
acquired by the gemiusAudience study. For each country, reach rankings of the
top ten websites included in this study are presented. Additional statistics from
gemiusAudience study further enrich the information in the rankings. Romania
constitutes the only exception, where the ranking according to SATI, by BRAT
Traffic measurement was presented.

SOURCE DATE NUMBER OF WEBSITES AGE GROUP

INCLUDED

Belarus gemiusAudience March 2010 124 15+

Bulgaria gemiusAudience March 2010 306 15+

Croatia Gemius/Valicon, gemiusAudience March 2010 285 12+

Czech Republic NetMonitor – SPIR/Mediaresearch/Gemius March 2010 483 10+

Estonia gemiusAudience March 2010 37 15+

Hungary gemius/Ipsos Audience March 2010 2161 15+

Latvia gemiusAudience March 2010 189 15+

Lithuania gemiusAudience March 2010 125 7-74

Poland Megapanel PBI/Gemius March 2010 13954 7+

Romania SATI, by BRAT Traffic measurement March 2010 over 300 14-64

Russia gemiusAudience March 2010 266 18+

Slovakia AIMmonitor – AIM – Mediaresearch & Gemius March 2010 95 14+

Slovenia Gemius/Valicon, gemiusAudience MOSS March 2010 117 10+

Turkey gemiusAudience March 2010 154 12+

Ukraine gemiusAudience March 2010 296 14+

Another type of data presented in the report originates from gemiusTraffic. This
concerns information on browsers, operating systems, search engines, screen
resolutions and mobile devices. Data for web browsers and operating systems
of low popularity is aggregated in groups consisting of all versions of a particular
browser or operating system.

The description of each market was supported with the experience and knowledge
of Gemius local representatives present in each of the countries included in the
report.

Do you CEE? METHODOLOGICAL NOTE

 261
The “Opinions from the market” section, which contains forecasts concerning the
future of the internet in the researched countries, consists of direct citations of
the opinions expressed by local market experts.

Data on the overall number of internet users presented at the beginning of each
country chapter is for March 2010. Further reference can be found below Charts
1,2 and 3 in Online Landscape chapter.

ABOUT gemiusAudience

Gemius sets the standard for online audience and internet application
measurement (gemiusAudience) in almost half of all European countries.
The gemiusAudience study integrates offline research, site-centric measurement,
on-site questionnaire surveying and user-centric measurement to provide media
sellers, planners and buyers with online media planning data. The data is provided
once per month, reporting on a weekly or monthly basis.

The cookie files are recorded for a user upon a first page view generated in
a measured month. The files present data for cookies that have been ascribed
to a particular country until the end of the month. Panellists who are enrolled
in a software panel (where such is available, i.e. Hungary, Poland and Russia),
are recruited from a particular country only, based on their geolocation details.
More information on this study can be found on www.gemius.com and
www.audience.gemius.pl.

ABOUT gemiusTraffic

The gemiusTraffic study provides information on internet users’ web site behaviour
and technical characteristics of their computers. The data is gathered with the use
of counting scripts, which are embedded in the code of sites included in the study.
For more information go to www.gemius.com and www.rankingcee.com websites.

Rankings concerning web browsers, operating systems and screen resolutions are
based on the number of page views generated on the monitored sites. For each
browser, operating system and screen resolution we calculate the total number of
page views on all sites, so that we can obtain the percentage share of page views
from this browser, operating system and screen resolution relative to all page views
identified in the study.

Search engine ranking is calculated using the percentage of visits made from search
engines on a given country’s sites included in gemiusTraffic. An average from the
percentage of visits made on the measured websites is calculated for each search
engine. The outcome is the position a search engine takes in the ranking.

A ranking of mobile devices that are used by persons connecting from Poland
with Polish web sites. The ranking is created on the basis of the website-averaged
percentage share of page views on sites participating in gemiusTraffic.

Do you CEE? METHODOLOGICAL NOTE

262

GLOSSARY

Real users – the number of individuals in a given month who visited a selected [1]
The conditions of choosing players presented
in section devoted to portals may vary slightly
web site at least once. This number represents the reach of a researched website depending on the official categorization
and shows the actual number of people – not computers or cookies, which are implemented in gemiusAudience study in given
country as well as on the market standards.
often understand as visitors – that visited the web site. The socio-demographic
profile of these people can be determined too. [2]The conditions of choosing players presented
in the section devoted to social-networking
services may vary slightly depending on
Page View – loading of a WWW document of a given internet web site. When the official categorization implemented in
an internet user views a web page, this generates a page view. The page view is gemiusAudience study in given country as well
as on the market standards.
recorded through a special tracking script that has been placed in the code of
the relevant web page.

Reach – the indicator is expressed as a percentage and constitutes the ratio of

the number of visitors (real users) who generated at least one page view on
the selected web site within the given time period, to the total number of internet
users within that time period.

Average Time Spent per Real User – the total time spent by the average real user
from the given target group on the selected web site or web sites.

Average Number of Page Views per Real User – the number of page views on
the selected web site generated by the average Visitor from the given target group
within a given time period.

Horizontal portal [1] – an internet portal site (not a group of owners) offering
a broad range of publisher generated content and services. Essentially, a horizontal
portal contains information and links to websites featuring diverse subjects,
contrary to a vertical portal, which is focused on a particular topic. Moreover,
a horizontal portal should provide access to an email service, as well as community
features such as: a forum, chat or social networking tools. The term “portal”
as used in the report, refers to the horizontal portal.

Social networking service [2] – is an online platform focused on building networks

connecting people, e.g. persons who share interests or are involved in similar
activities. A social network service essentially consists of a representation of each
user (profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services. Most social
network services provide means for users to interact with each other, such as
messengers or chats.

Do you CEE? METHODOLOGICAL NOTE

 263

ABOUT GEMIUS

Gemius - an international research agency, the leader and forerunner in the

field of research of the internet and on the internet in Europe. The Company
offers professional research solutions, analytical and advisory services, from
site-centric and user-centric studies to technologically-advanced tools for
studying internet user behaviour on chosen websites (gemiusTraffic), internet
user socio-demographic profiles (gemiusProfile), the quality of WWW page
usage (gemiusUsability) and the effectiveness of internet advertising campaigns
(gemiusEffect). Gemius also conducts research related to subjects submitted by
customers (gemiusAdHoc). Apart from the above mentioned research services,
Gemius offers a study on the behaviour of users who view online multimedia
content (gemiusStream) and a research tool for immediate measurement and
presentation of all clicks made by internet users on a website (gemiusHeatMap).
Gemius sets the standard for online audience and internet application
measurement (gemiusAudience) in almost half of all European countries.

Gemius, established in Poland in 1999, is active on over 20 markets in Europe

and the Middle East.

For more information, please see www.gemius.com

ABOUT IAB

IAB Europe exists to support and promote the growth of the European digital
and interactive marketing industry.

Representing 21 country members across Europe and over 5000 companies,

the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Europe is the trade association of
the European digital and interactive marketing industry. Supported by every
major advertiser, media group, agency, portal, technology and service provider,
the power of IAB Europe comes from its extensive membership.

IAB Europe exists to promote the growth of Europe’s interactive advertising

markets, to protect the interest of the industry, to regulate practices on the
market and to educate the stakeholders in the digital landscape. To achieve these
goals, IAB Europe coordinates activities across the region including public affairs,
benchmarking, research, setting standards and best practices.

The member countries are Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France,
Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania,
Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK. Our corporate
members include Adobe, Alcatel-Lucent, BBC.com, comScore Europe,
Ernst & Young, Fox Interactive Media, Gemius, Goldbach Media Group, Google,
Hi-Media-AdLink, InSites Consulting, Koan, Microsoft Europe, Netlog, News
Corporation, Nugg.ad, Nielsen Online, Orange Advertising Network, Publicitas
Europe, Sonnenschein, Truvo, Turner/CNN and United Internet Media and zanox.

For more information, please see www.iabeurope.eu

Do you CEE? METHODOLOGICAL NOTE

264

SATI Methodology

SATI Universe is composed of 5.203.000 persons represented by Romanian

population aged between 14 and 64 who live in urban areas and used the internet.

The methodology used for SATI was chosen by BRAT and belongs to the German
company Spring GmbH. It comprises several stages: traffic measurement,
collecting data necessary to define the audience and the profiles of the visitors,
a complex mathematical algorithm defining the persons visiting a website in
a given period of time. The key phases of the methodology are described below.

DATA COLLECTING

The data used to calculate the audience and the socio-demographic profiles of
the visitors are resulted by mixed methods of data collection, in an attempt to
take the best advantage of each method. The results of the traffic measurement
and of the online survey are combined in order to size the number of visitors of
a website:
• a technical measurement of each website’s traffic, providing essential data for
determining unique clients. A database will store each monthly set of Unique
Clients for all the websites measured in SATI,
• a survey is carried out on each website, by posting an invitation to take part
in the online survey and displaying an online questionnaire in order to get
information about the websites’ visitors, the persons who have already used
the computers/browsers assessed before,
• the data revealing the dimension of the universe and the structure used
to weigh the data collected through the online survey are measured by
SNA FOCUS - a face-to-face survey, carried out on a representative sample
for urban population aged 14-64 years in Romania.

TRAFFIC MEASUREMENT

The technical measurement of the traffic serves as a basis for audience sizing.
The Unique Clients measured by the traffic measurement system is the basic
information for further identification of single visitors. The Unique Clients are
the browsers/computers used by a visitor to see a particular website. The data
about the Unique Clients are obtained using cookies, as well as other combination
of variables. To reduce the risk of double measurement of a Unique Client due to
inaccurate identification (for instance due to cookie deletion,), the Unique Clients
obtained from the measurement are then filtered through a specific statistical
procedure, resulting a number of unique qualified clients.

Do you CEE? SATI Methodology

 265

ONLINE SURVEY

The sample for the online research is randomly drawn out from the group of the
unique qualified clients on a monthly basis. If a user selected in the sample returns
to any of the websites in the study, an invitation to take part to the online survey is
sent to him/her.

A complex system of sample administration allows for displaying invitations to

complete the online questionnaire to the same single client on many different
websites, at different hours, so that an optimal response rate can be obtained.
The  esponses collected from that unique client will be then attributed to the
entire list of websites he/she visited during the research period.

A complex process of data-mining and transformation will compensate

the distortion occurred due to ‘heavy’ users and will also solve the multi-client
and ulti-user issues.

MAIN INDICATORS AND THEIR DEFINITIONS

Number of Visitors per week – the average number of visitors (persons,

not browsers) visiting a website per week in the measured period.

Number of Unique Clients – the number of Unique Clients visiting a website at

least once in the reporting time period, calculated on the basis of cookies or other
variables in case of a cookie-disabled browser (IP, user-agent, etc). A Unique Client
basically translates into a browser.

Number of Page Impressions – the number of pages of a website, displayed in

a browser at the request of a visitor.

Number of Visits – the number of series of one or more page impressions sent to
the visitor’s browser, as a result of a visitor’s request. A visit ends when the period
between 2 page impressions is longer than 30 minutes.

Do you CEE? SATI Methodology

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