2008.09 Strategic report IAB Poland 2007 - ENGLISH VERSION

STRATEGIC REPORT IAB Poland

POLAND • EUROPE • THE WORLDINTERNET 2007

SPECIAL EXTRA

SEPTEMBER 2008

ACCESS TO THE INTERNET ONLINE CONSUMERS INTERNET CONSUMPTION WWW SITES USAGEADVERTISING ONLINE E-COMMERCE MARKET INTERNET AS A SOURCE OF INFORMATION ON PRODUCTS AND COMPANIES PUBLIC RELATIONS IN THE INTERNET ERA INTERNET MARKET RESEARCH

Special extra Media & Marketing Polska, September 2008 3

STRATEGIC REPORT IAB Poland

POLAND • EUROPE • THE WORLD

e have the pleasure to present the first comprehensive and exhaustive

description of Polish Internet. IAB’s report „Internet 2007: Poland,

Europe, the World” is a continuation of four previous reports by that

company, enriched with one of key market research elements – a study on

advertising expenditure IAB AdEx made in partnership with

PricewaterhouseCoopers Polska.

In spite of numerous attempts aimed at estimating marketing budgets in the

Internet, it took us quite a long time to publish this study – the first one developed

in compliance with international standards.

The other significant element related to this year’s report is the fact that the

first people to read it will be subscribers of "Media & Marketing Polska".

This report is the first effect of our partnership with IAB Polska. We are positive

that results of our partnership will be noticeable in our magazines „Media

& Marketing Polska” and „I-biz”; in the result, our readers will be the best

informed players on the e-advertising market.

Juliusz Donajski

From the Editor

The Editor© VFP Communications Sp. z o.o.ul. Wał Miedzeszyński 63003-994 Warszawatel.: 022 514 65 00 faks: 022 740 50 55www.media.com.pl

The cover features internet maps(router saturation and connections betweenrouters) by Chris Harrison(www.chrisharrison.net) created basing on datacollected within the framework of DIMESproject (www.netdimes.org) conductedby Tel Aviv University.

Edited by: Dominik Kaznowski, Piotr Kowalczyk, Magdalena Rówińska, Jarosław Sobolewski

Authors: Krzysztof Adamus, Artur Banach, Olgierd Cygan, Krzysztof Dębowski, Piotr Fiećko,

Andrzej Garapich, Małgorzata Kaczmarczyk, Olga Kamińska, Dominik Kaznowski,

Piotr Kowalczyk, Małgorzata Lakowska, Maciej Ledzion, Anna Miotk, Iwona Połóg,

Michał Rapacki, Magdalena Rówińska, Rafał Szychowski, Jarosław Sobolewski,

Maciej Swoboda, Szymon Szmigiel, Dominik Wartecki

www.iabpolska.pl

W

Chapter 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12Access to the Internet

Chapter 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24Online consumers

Chapter 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34Internet consumption

Chapter 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38WWW sites usage

Chapter 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46Advertising online

Chapter 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62E-commerce market

Chapter 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68Internet as a source of information on products and companies

Chapter 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72Public relations in the Internet era

Chapter 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76Internet market research

4 Special extra Media & Marketing Polska, September 2008

Internet 2007: Strategic report by IAB Poland

Table of Contents

We have the pleasure to deliver to you the fifthStrategic Report by IAB Polska Internet 2007– Poland, Europe, the World. We are glad that

it has been recognised as a credible and supportive source ofinformation on the interactive market in Poland and worldwideby representatives of the Internet market and marketingprofessionals. We are particularly pleased by the fact that thisanniversary falls on the year which is one of the mostsuccessful ones in Polish Internet sector. We are also proud ofthe fact that we can for the first time publish results ofadvertising expenditure in the Internet.

2007 was a special year with respect to advertisingexpenditure in the Internet sector, which is well illustrated byresults of the IAB AdEx 2007 study performed in partnershipwith PricewaterhouseCoopers and published herewith. In thatyear, the Internet medium was also appreciated by playersactive at other media market segments. Many companiesimplemented their own Internet strategies. A noticeable trendof seeking new employees and the shortage of experiencedspecialists were just two symptoms of the boom. Manyadvertising agencies opened their interactive departments. TVand radio stations, alongside with newspaper publishersimplemented a number of Internet projects. Many large playersactive on the Internet market changed their strategies andbegan to launch topical sites not tied to a single brand. Themarketing market in search engines strengthened and grewconsiderably. The share and development of e-mail marketingalso looked promising. New markets of affiliate marketing andadvergaming began to develop; earlier they used to be toonarrow to function properly. The lifestyle and e-entertainmentmarkets simply exploded. One should also take into accountthe spectacular appearance and development of communitysites in media environment, involving a multitude of users anddefinitely causing a general increase in their number.

Internet became an important part of media plans; thenumber of units and positions in charge of internet marketinggrew spectacularly among customers, especially whencompared with previous years. Graphic advertising retained itsstrong position on the market of advertising forms. The trend

of search engine marketing proved to be quite strong as well.E-advertisements became a true alternative of newspaper adsand gained the share of expenditure market typical for the bestdeveloped countries of Western Europe.

E-mail marketing confirmed its efficiency and increased itsshare in the market. The popularity of video contents was alsoon the increase.

Editors of the Report

As the number of the members of the association grew thisyear, the Managing Board of IAB decided to invite all interestedparties to work on this report. The report was developed by20 experts from leading companies representing almost allbranches of interactive marketing. This open character of thekey document marked with the logo of IAB Polska is a symbolof changes which occurred in the organisation.

Internet AdvertisingExpenditure Study:IAB AdEx

The initiative to study Internet advertising expenditure, theIAB AdEx study, will certainly become an important step inthe development of Polish interactive market. IAB’s partner,author of the methodology and the study author in Poland isPricewaterhouseCoopers Polska Sp. z o.o. (PwC Polska). Theresults of the 2007 study, published herein are the result ofpartnership between IAB Polska and PwC Polska. Studyresults presented below were based on data collected by PwCPolska from 25 key players on the Polish market. Datacollection, segregation and analysis was performed by PwCPolska, but they were not in any manner audited by PwC.

A contract executed by IAB and PwC Polska envisagesperforming the IAB AdEx study every half of the year and apublication of annual results in an annual report on theexpenditure on advertising in Europe, made jointly by PwCand IAB Europe. An identical study has been conducted inGreat Britain for 9 years and became a market standard there.


Strategic Report by IAB Polska: Internet 2007

Dear Readers,

Polish Yellow Pages on-line?Yes! But only on www.pkt.pl!

pkt.pl search engine platform provides you with high quality Yellow Pagesinformation about business market in Poland. You can fi nd there contactsto companies, products and institutions as well as you can localize them on maps.We offer you contacts to 1 million fi rms & institutions, over 2 600 mapsand the shopping platform with nearly 700 000 products and offers.

everything and in order0 801 88 66 66

www.pkt.pl

pkt_ad_english.indd 1 6/11/08 3:41:45 PM

2007 was a year of revolutionary changes in the operating style of theAssociation of Internet Employers IAB Polska. It adopted a budget and employeda Director General. In May, the Association opened its new offices, and soonemployed a staff of three persons. Internet-related companies appreciatedthese changes and IAB membership increased from 13 companies at the stageof transforming the Association into a sector union to 32 companies at the endof 2007, including one new ordinary member which is TVP SA.



Changesat IAB Polska

ACTIVITIES IN 2007

One of the first activities undertaken by IAB Polska in 2007 were recruitment ofemployees and organisation of the work of the office which coordinates the implementationof projects initiated by IAB Polska members. The increased number and activeness of themembers led to establishing working groups. The highest level of activity was achieved bythe group for search engine marketing, group for e-mail marketing and for video on theInternet. IAB plans large events to be staged in 2008 in the result of the work performedby these groups. Partnership with the Association of Advertising Agencies (StowarzyszenieAgencji Reklamowych) resulted in creating a document on the good practice on theInternet advertisement market. The document defines the competences and responsibilitiesof individual entities during advertising campaign, starting from client brief, including co-operation with agencies and media houses and ending with broadcasting the campaign onWWW sites. The office established active contacts with organisers of sector conferencesand ensured the participation of IAB Polska lecturers at Polish conferences (which includedspecial panels devoted to the Internet). We also organised training courses in partnershipwith Digital Strategy Consulting of the United Kingdom. IAB Polska also activelyparticipated in the work of the Union of Associations – Advertising Council (ZwiązekStowarzyszeń Rada Reklamy).

One of the key goals of the Union was to organise Forum IAB 2007 as the largestevent on the interactive market in Poland, with the motto of “Creation and Efficiency”.Forum IAB 2007 was held in November at the Radisson Hotel in Warsaw. It had thehighest attendance of all conferences on interactive topics staged in Poland that year(400 participants) and its special guests were President IAB Europe Alain Heureux andDeputy President of Viacom Digital Solutions Andy Chen. Speeches by renowned Polishlecturers evoke considerable interest of the guests. The gala event held after theconference at M25 club was combined with the finals of advertising campaigncompetition MIXX – a brand imported to Poland from IAB USA. The Grand Prix 2007 fellto Opcom agency of Cracow.

Members of IAB Polska, May 2008Company Address Phone, fax E-mail WWW4people.pl Sp.j. ul. Staromiejska 12/2, tel.: 032 790 21 21 [email protected] www.4people.pl

40-013 Katowice faks: 032 790 21 11Ad.Net SA ul. Młynarska 42, tel.: 022 447 32 00 [email protected] www.adnet.pl

01-171 Warszawa faks: 022 447 32 01AdAction ul. Senatorska 13/15, tel.: 022 829 65 38 [email protected] www.adaction.pl

00-075 Warszawa faks: 022 829 65 55Agora SA ul. Czerska 8/10, tel.: 022 555 44 44 [email protected] www.gazeta.pl

00-732 Warszawa faks: 022 555 48 70ARBOinteractive Polska ul. Altowa 2, tel.: 022 592 45 00 [email protected] www.arbointeractive.pl

02-386 Warszawa faks: 022 489 42 14Ataxo Sp. z o.o. ul. Dąbrówki 10, tel.: 032 743 74 44 [email protected] www.ataxo.pl

40-081 Katowice faks: 032 743 74 94Bankier.pl SA ul. Koszykowa 54, tel.: 022 630 82 44 [email protected] www.bankier.pl

00-675 Warszawa faks: 022 630 85 83Bluerank ul. Gdańska 80, tel.: 042 632 33 21 [email protected] www.bluerank.pl

90-613 Łódź faks: 042 632 15 51Cormedia Sp.j. ul. Bonifraterska 15/92, tel.: 022 398 38 04 [email protected] www.cormedia.pl

00-203 Warszawa faks: 022 635 15 40Cube Group Sp. z o.o. ul. Migdałowa 4, tel.: 022 201 32 90 [email protected] www.cubegroup.pl

02-796 Warszawa faks: 22 201 32 91. Digital One ul. Dowborczyków 25, tel. 042 677 14 77 [email protected] www.digitalone.pl

90-019 Łódź faks: 42 677 14 78Direct Traffic Sp. z o.o. ul. Wołodyjowskiego 83, tel.: 022 201 22 33 [email protected] www.directtraffic.pl

02-724 Warszawa faks: 022 201 22 39e-Business Solutions al. 3 Maja 2 lokal 66, tel.: 022 402 09 94 [email protected] www.e-bs.plSp. z o.o. 00-391 WarszawaEniro Polska Sp. z o.o. ul. Domaniewska 41, tel.: 022 314 20 00 [email protected] www.pf.pl

02-672 Warszawa faks: 022 314 20 01Fast Bridge ul. Altowa 6, tel.: 022 572 33 99 [email protected] www.fastbridge.pl

02-386 Warszawa faks: 022 572 33 01FFCreation Sp.j. ul. Chorągwi Pancernej 43, tel.: 022 858 79 81 [email protected] www.ffcreation.com

02-951 Warszawa faks: 022 858 79 79Grupa Onet.pl SA ul. Wiertnicza 166, tel.: 022 453 31 00 [email protected] www.onet.pl

02-952 Warszawa faks: 022 453 31 31Grupa Pracuj Sp. z o.o. Prosta Office Centre, tel.: 022 373 73 00 [email protected] www.pracuj.pl

ul. Prosta 51, faks: 022 373 73 0100-838 Warszawa

Interactive Marketing ul. Młynarska 42, tel.: 022 44 73 220 [email protected] www.impartner.plPartner Polska Sp. z o.o. 01-171 Warszawa faks: 022 44 73 201Interaktywna Sp. z o.o. ul. Okrzei 23, tel.: 0 793 536 365 [email protected] www.fotka.pl

03-715 Warszawa faks: 022 211 95 35Interia.pl SA Al. Jerozolimskie 81, tel.: 022 595 16 00 [email protected] www.interia.pl

XV p. Orco Tower, faks: 012 646 27 1002-001 Warszawa

International Data Group ul. Jordanowska 12, tel.: 022 321 78 00 [email protected] www.idg.plPoland SA 04-204 Warszawa faks: 022 321 78 88Internetowy Dom Mediowy ul. Jubilerska 10, tel.: 022 211 33 88 [email protected] www.idmnet.plNet Sp. z o.o. 00-939 WarszawaK2 Internet SA al. Solidarności 74a, tel.: 022 448 70 00 [email protected] www.k2.pl

00-145 Warszawa faks: 022 448 71 01Kompan.pl Sp. z o.o. ul. Puławska 469, tel.: 022 486 96 00 [email protected] www.kompan.pl

02-844 WarszawaMedia Contacts Sp. z o.o. ul. Postępu 13, tel.: 022 843 66 60 [email protected] www.mediacontacts.com

02-676 Warszawa faks: 022 843 66 61Media Direction OMD ul. Ateńska 67, tel.: 022 511 11 20 [email protected] www.mediadirection.com.pl

03-970 Warszawa faks: 022 511 11 42Media Regionalne Sp. z o.o. Prosta Office Center, tel.: 022 463 07 00 [email protected] www.mediaregionalne.pl

ul. Prosta 51, faks: 022 463 00 7700-838 Warszawa

Mediaedge:cia ul. Dobra 56/66, tel.: 022 55 27 791 [email protected] www.mecglobal.com00-312 Warszawa faks: 022 55 27 770

MindShare Polska Sp. z o.o. ul. Dobra 56/66, tel.: 022 55 27 200 [email protected] www.mindshare.pl00-312 Warszawa faks: 022 55 27 201

Money.pl Sp. z o.o. ul. Kościuszki 29, tel.: 071 337 42 66 [email protected] www.money.pl50-011 Wrocław faks: 071 337 42 70

Mosqi.to ul. Wigury 13 lok. 10, tel.: 042 636 75 51 [email protected] www.mosqi.to90-302 Łódź

NetSprint Sp. z o.o. ul. Bieżanowska 7, tel.: 022 844 49 90 [email protected] www.netsprint.pl02-655 Warszawa faks: 022 852 20 60

Nowoczesna Firma Sp. z o.o. ul. Flory 9/1, tel.: 022 314 14 00 [email protected] www.nf.pl00-586 Warszawa faks: 022 314 14 10

O2.pl ul. Jutrzenki 177, tel.: 022 398 88 88 [email protected] www.o2.pl02-231 Warszawa faks: 022 398 80 99

Opcom Grupa Eskadra ul. Jeleniogórska 17, tel./faks.: 012 26 80 100 [email protected] www.opcom.plulSp. z o.o. 30-422 KrakówPerformance Media ul. Idzikowskiego 19, tel.: 022 899 03 45 [email protected] www.performance-media.pl

02-704 Warszawa faks: 022 899 15 74Plasma Media ul. Czeremchowa 28, tel.: 0 501 541 105 [email protected] www.plasmamedia.pl

03-159 WarszawaPoint of View ul. Filona 16, tel.: 022 843 50 31 [email protected] www.pov.pl

02-658 Warszawa faks: 022 843 9 97Polskie Badania Internetu Al. Jerozolimskie 65/79, tel. 022 630 72 68 [email protected] www.pbi.org.plSp. z o.o. 00-697 Warszawa faks: 022 630 72 67Polskie Książki Telefoniczne al. Solidarności 128, tel.: 022 632 17 02 w. 400 [email protected] pkt.plSp. z o.o. 01-195 Warszawa faks: 022 310 62 60Sare ul. Niedźwiedzia 2c, tel.: 022 852 28 59 [email protected] www.sare.pl

02-737 WarszawaSynerway SA al. Niepodległości 69, tel. 022 322 73 18 [email protected] www.synerway.com.pl

02-626 WarszawaTelewizja Polska SA ul. J.P. Woronicza 17, tel.: 022 640 22 24 [email protected] www.itvp.pl

00-999 Warszawa faks: 022 640 22 02Trader.com (Polska) Sp. z o.o. ul. Towarowa 22, tel.: 022 455 33 00 [email protected] www.trader.pl

00-839 Warszawa faks: 022 455 33 01Value Media ul. Fasolowa 31a, tel.: 022 203 60 00 [email protected] www.valuemedia.pl

02-482 Warszawa faks: 022 863 13 60Web Search Factory Polska ul. Rajskich Ptaków 55a, tel.: 022 894 41 57 [email protected] www.websearchfactory.plSp. z o.o. 02-816 Warszawa faks: 022 894 41 57Wirtualna Polska SA ul. Sienna 75, tel.: 022 57 63 900 [email protected] www.wp.pl

00-833 Warszawa faks: 022 57 63 999Zanox.de AG ul. Suwak 3, tel. 022 23 21 370 [email protected] www.zanox.com/pl

02-676 Warszawa faks: + 49 30 50 96 91 99Zed Digital ul. Gdańska 27/31, tel.: 022 345 21 40 [email protected] www.zeddigital.pl

01-633 Warszawa faks: 022 345 21 41

We will do our best to introduce and popularise events promoting interactivemarketing, including IAB Update and IAB Showcase cycles. We shall arrange twosingle-theme conferences devoted to SEM and video on the web. Another challengewill be a two-day Forum IAB 2008 to be staged in November. We also plan acomprehensive schedule of business-related activities and we hope to attract moreparticipants than last year. At the beginning of June, over 60 representatives of Polishinternet sector shall participate in the Interact Congress in Berlin. We also plan toarrange a similar mission to visit OMD trade fair in Düsseldorf this autumn. We alsowork on a number of major actions whose details will be disclosed in due time. Wealso count on a dynamic membership increase and on more initiatives from themembers.



Partnership with IABEurope

How about 2008?

IAB Polska, operating within the framework of IAB Europe, organised the MIXXAwards interactive campaigns competition as the second European country (afterBelgium). We also designated a Polish representative in the worldwide MIA Projectinitiative which aims at arriving at common currency for the audience measurementstudies. 13 representatives of internet companies from Poland participated in the IABEurope – Interact 2007 congress in Brussels.

Strategy first

ARBOinteractive Poland is a part of ARBOinteractive AG – a company specializing in online and new media marketing solutions. ARBOinteractive AG offers advertising networks in its portfolio, which establishes its uniqueness in the terms of reach on online market in Mid and Eastern Europe.

The company owns 6 branches – in Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Turkey and Russia. ARBOinteractive AG represents a part of ARBOmedia AG, the European group dealing with media sales, consulting and advertising campaigns implementation. Polish branch of ARBOinteractive includes ARBOnetwork - an advertising network of nearly 500 affiliated websites, Bizon media – a theme network specializing in business, LOGICSEARCH – a SEM/SEO broker, contextual advertising system - SmartContext, and AdKing – an interactive agency.

Access to the Internetworldwide

According to data provided by InternetWorldStats.com,20% of world’s population were using the Internet. Thisrate is equivalent to more than 1.3 billion person, whichmarks an increase by approx. 200 million, as comparedwith the previous year. The world’s leader in thepercentage of Internet users is the U.S.A. with 71.1%

residents having access to the Internet. However,although Asia has a low indicator of 13.7%, thepresence of Asian users is the best noticeable, as theindicator translates into a group of more than 500million persons, or almost 40% of all Internet users.Undoubtedly, this group will strengthen its position,mostly due to the presence of Indian and Chinese users.

Europe ranks second with respect to the number ofInternet users (348 million). However, they constituteonly 43.4% of the residents of the whole continent. Thisproportion is the highest in Scandinavian countries:Norway has 88% residents using the Internet (bestresult worldwide), Iceland has 85.4%, Sweden 77.3%,Denmark 68.8%. In addition to that, the Netherlandshave 87.8% of residents using the Internet and Portugalranks quite high with its 73.1% of Internet users.Generally, more than half residents of European Unionare Internet users (55.7%.) Germans have the highestInternet presence out of all European nations (53.2million users) followed by Brits (40.4 million),



CHAPTER 1

Access to theInternet

Access to the Internet worldwide

Country Number % of population Increaseof Internet users (penetration) 2000/2007

(million) (%)North America 238.0 71.1 120Oceania/Australia 19.2 57.1 152Europe 348.1 43.4 231Latin America 126.2 22.2 599Middle East 33.5 17.4 920Asia 510.5 13.7 347Africa 44.4 4.7 883The World 1319.9 20.0 266The Netherlands 14.5 87.8 273Sweden 7.0 77.3 73Portugal 7.8 73.1 211Luxembourg 0.3 70.6 239Denmark 3.8 68.8 93Great Britain 40.4 66.4 162Germany 53.2 64.6 122Finland 3.3 62.7 71Slovenia 1.3 62.2 317Estonia 0.8 57.8 107Italy 33.1 57.0 151Austria 4.7 56.7 121Spain 22.8 56.5 324France 34.9 54.7 310Belgium 5.5 52.8 175Ireland 2.1 50.1 163Czech Republic 5.1 49.9 410Latvia 1.1 47.4 614Slovakia 2.5 45.9 285Cyprus 0.4 45.2 197Poland 14.1 36.6 403Greece 3.8 35.5 280Hungary 3.5 35.2 390Lithuania 1.2 34.2 443Malta 0.1 31.7 218Romania 7.0 31.4 775Bulgaria 2.2 30.0 412European Union 273.2 55.7 190

Source: Internet World Stats, December 2007

Internet Users by Regions

Source: The World Bank, CIA Factbook (2005), Jupiter Research (2006), PWC (2005), Computer Industry Almanac (2006)

% 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

North AmericaEurope

Asia The restof the worldJapan

2010

2005

2000

236

3618

16

209

292122

118

1725

39

Frenchmen (34.9 million) and Italians (33.1). Polandranks 9th in Europe with its 14.1 million Internet users.The Internet is much less common in Eastern Europe.The rate of internet users in Russia, Ukraine or Turkeydoes not exceed 25%, but due to the size of thepopulation, the number of users is quite high anyway;for instance, Russians constitute 8.4% of all EuropeanInternet users.

The examples below illustrate changes occurring inthe Worldwide Web. In 1995, 66% of all Internet usersin the world were from the USA; now U.S. usersconstitute only 18%; Vietnam and India are now amongthe top 20 countries with the highest number of Internetusers. India is an excellent example of the potential ofAsian countries, as it has now more Internet users thanGermany (the country with the highest number ofInternet users in Europe), although Internet penetrationin India is as low as 5.3%. One should remember thatthe quantity does not always translate into quality – thehighest number of features in Wikipedia is written inEnglish, German, French and Polish, followed byJapanese (although Japan has as many as 87.5 millionof Internet users) while Chinese ranks 12, which iscomparatively low.

Access to the Internetin Poland

Internet penetration in Poland is still lower than inWestern Europe, but the number of Polish Internet usersis growing steadily and fast. A NetTrack study byMillward Brown SMG/KRC conducted at the end of2007 showed that Poland had 12.9 million Internetusers over 15 years of age. Basing on that figure,Megapanel study estimates that the number of Internetusers over 7 is 14.1 million. Compared with 2006 thisfigure grew by more than 10% (according to NetTrackdata). Internet users constitute 39.5% of persons aged7 and more. Similar data have been provided by theMain Office of Statistics GUS, which says that in 2006,41% households and 92% companies had access to theInternet. 38% households actually used the Internet,which translates into 39% Poles in the age group of 16 --74 who are regular Internet users (at least once aweek). Compared with previous year, this figureincreased by 5%.

Internet usage in Poland is still centred in large cities;its penetration in cities over 500 thousand residents isalmost twice as high as in the countryside. However, thegrowth of penetration in previous year was slightly faster



20 countries with the highest numberof Internet users

Country Number of Internet % of residentsusers (million) (penetration)

USA 210.0 69.6 China 132.0 10.0 Japan 86.3 67.1 Germany 50.6 61.3 India 40.0 3.5 Great Britain 37.6 62.3 South Korea 33.9 66.1 France 30.8 50.3 Italy 30.8 51.7 Brazil 25.9 13.9 Russia 23.7 16.5 Canada 21.9 67.5Mexico 20.2 19.0 Spain 19.2 42.7 Indonesia 18.0 8.0Turkey 16.0 21.1Australia 14.7 70.2Vietnam 14.5 17.1Taiwan 13.8 60.0Argentina 13.0 34.0

Source: Internet World Stats, December 2007

The number of Internet users in Poland

Source: Millward Brown SMG/KRC NetTrack, December 2000-2007, Megapanel PBI/Gemius, December 2004-2007

Internet users over 7 years of age (Megapanel)Internet users over 15 years of age (NetTrack)

14.1

12.913.1

11.7

9.6

8.49

7.46.5

5.8

4.6

2.2

mln

3

6

9

12

15

84

9 6

3

7

9

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

in the countryside than in the cities. Penetration in citiesin 2007 grew by more than 4.5% while the increase inthe countryside reached 5%. Most probably, thedisproportion will be reduced in the coming year, in theresult of growing popularity of the Internet. The numberof new users from rural areas in 2007 was a number oftimes higher than the number of users from the cities.

The majority of Polish users of the Internet is young.The Megapanel PBI/Gemius study conducted inDecember 2007 showed that almost all members of agegroup 15-19 were internet users (2.64 million or almost94.6% of all Poles in this age bracket). However, thepenetration in the group over 60 is still only 5.3%,although it grew by half as compared with 2006.

The trend is quite clear – Internet is used by almostall persons from the age bracket 15-19, by more thanhalf of persons from the age bracket 20-29 and byalmost half of persons from the age bracket 30-39,every fourth person from the 40-59 bracket and onlyevery twentieth person from the over 60 bracket. Oneshould not expect any radical changes here – it seemsquite probable that more than 6 million of Poles over60 will not use the Internet; the increasing Internet



Propotion of Poles using the Internet

Source: Millward Brown SMG/KRC NetTrack, December 2000-2007, Megapanel PBI/Gemius, December 2004-2007, GUS

Internet users over 7 years of age (Megapanel)Internet users over 15 years of age (NetTrack)

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

39.5

42.9

36.938.7

26.82825.324.5

21.719.3

15.2

7.4

%

10

20

30

40

50

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

24.5

2005

268

2006

36

20

39

4

5

004

5

5

6 8

005

6

6006 007007

Percentage of internet users out of the total number of residents

Source: Megapanel PBI/Gemius, December 2004-2007, GUS

%

20

30

40

50

29.731

42.1

34.4

22.2

46.8

39.4

27.3

25

15.7

23.6

13.9

Village Town Average in Poland

2004 2005 2006 2007

Internet penetration by city/town size in Poland

Surce: Megapanel PBI/Gemius, December 2007, GUS

Village Up to20k

residents

20-50kresidents

50-100kresidents

100-200kresidents

200-500kresidents

Over500k

residents

%

10

20

30

40

50

60

Village Up to 20 50k 50 100k 100 200k 200 500k Over

27.3

42.440.5

43.6

50.5 51.653.5


penetration in the latter group will be slow and causedmostly by aging of Poles from groups which are wellacquainted with that medium.

According to the forecast of the InternationalTelecommunications Union published in 2003, thepercentage of Poles with access to the Internet will growup to 50% as late as in 2010. So far, the forecast hasbeen proven valid and, taking into account a slightincrease of the number of Internet users in 2007 ascompared with previous years, it may actually turn true.

The most frequent reasons for the lack of Internetaccess in households named by respondents in a studyby the Main Office of Statistics (GUS) included,primarily, no need to use the WWW, followed byeconomic reasons such as to high cost of hardware andInternet access. However, it is optimistic that the studynoted a decrease in responders naming such reasons by4-5% as compared with 2006 and 2005. The fourthkey reason was insufficient knowledge. The percentageof responders giving such reason increased by 5% inthree recent years, due to increased number of Internetusers and growing group of users with basic andsecondary education.

Limited technical capability of internet serviceproviders was more frequently named as an obstacle inobtaining broadband Internet access (21% householdswithout fast connection) than as an obstacle to generalaccess to the Web (9% of households). On the other

Internet penetration by age groups in Poland

Source: Megapanel PBI/Gemius, December 2007, GUS

7-14 15-19 20-29 30-39 40-59 60+%

20

40

60

80

100

7 14 15 19 20 29 30 39 40 59 60+

44.7

94.6

56.7

48.7

25.1

5.3

Forecast – percentage of persons with Internet access in Poland

Source: ITU

%

30

40

50

60

30

34

39

43

4750

2005 2007 2008 20092006 2010

Propotion of Internet users as compared with total number of residents, by age groups

Source: Megapanel PBI/Gemius, December 2004-2007, GUS

%

20

40

60

80

100

72.8

41.7

37.327.1

25

17.3

71.4

93.7

51.7

42.3

27.2

3.6

34,4

46.7

94.6

56.7

48.744.739.4

25.1

5.32

39.6

24.2

35.4

23.6

14.8

1.5

7-14 15-19 20-29 30-39

40-59 60+ Average in Poland

2004 2005 2006 2007


hand, the number of persons meeting technicalobstacles at the stage of gaining access to the WWWwas three times higher: for 641 thousand or 9% out ofabout 7,4 million households it was impossible toobtain access to the Web, whiles 223 thousand ofhouseholds (21% of slightly more than one million)wanted faster connection but encountered problems onthe Internet provider side.

The leading Internet provider in the 3rd quarter of2007 was Telekomunikacja Polska SA (TelecomsPoland). Its share in the revenue from Internet accessservices amounted to 64% and it was followed by cableTV operators, with a 18% share in the global figure,closely followed by other providers (9% share). The



share of Telefonia Dialog SA and Netia SA amountedrespectively to 3 and 6%.

The reach of Internet within population is not thesingle measure of new solution development. Otherimportant ones include the development of broadbandaccess and the number of arrangements concluded byInternet with public administration entities andcompanies. In this respect, Poland ranks much lowerthan other EU countries and European states withoutEU membership. According to Eurostat, only 25% ofbasic public services under research were available viaInternet in Poland in 2007, while the average for 27 EUmembers was 59. The only two states ranking lowerthan Poland were Bulgaria (15%) and, surprisinglyenough, Switzerland with 21%. In most Europeancountries, the discussed indicator exceeds 50% and inAustria it amounts exactly to 100%.

The low access to public services results in a verylow percentage of citizens contacting public offices bythe Internet: the figure for 2007 was 15% in Poland,while an EU average was on the level of 30%. In thisranking, Poland was ahead of Greece, Bulgaria andRomania only. The proportion concerning companies isbetter, with 64% companies using Internet for contactswith offices in 2007. The figure is close to the EUaverage amounting to 65%. Poland will probably remain

Reasons for the lack of Internet access at home (% of total numbers of householdswithout access to the Internet in 2005-2007)

The study allowed for more than one answers, so the totals do not sum up to 100%Source: GUS

20062005 2007

No need

Too highhardware costs

Too high Internetaccess costs

No revelantskills

No technicalinfrastructure

for Internetaccess

Accessto the Internet

from othersources

Dislikeof the Internet

Safetyreasons

% 10 20 30 40 50

4143

39

323636

3135

33

2019

15

988

88

7

333

221

Share of Internet access services revenuein total revenue of operators 3rd quarterof 2007

No mobile telephone operators includedSource: Office of Electronic Communications UKE, based on data provided by operators

OthersCable TV TelecomsPoland

DialogNetia

9%

6% 64%

3%

18%



at the lowest positions in European ranking whichconcern e-government, as the development of e-societydoes not seem to be the priority of authorities; even ifsome legal regulations are passed in this respect, theirimplementation is usually postponed. This tendency isillustrated by the law of 2001 on introducing electronicsignature – in 2006 the deadline for introducing e --signature in state administration was postponed untilmid 2008 which means that the implementation of thislaw has taken 7 years for the Polish state. Last autumnthe Ministry of Finance announced that as of April 1st,2008, residents will have an option to submit their PITreturns as of April 1st, 2008. However, the option isopen only for owners of qualified e-signature whichcosts some hundred PLN and requires costly extensionsin the following years. In addition to that, citizens haveto notify the Revenue Office on their intention to sendtheir tax returns by the Internet and to wait until thehead of the Office issues a statement on accepting anelectronic tax settlement; waiting time for such decisionis a few weeks. In such circumstances, one can hardlyexpect large numbers of citizens to use Internet forsending their tax returns. For comparison, 65% citizensof Norway (an e-government leader in Europe accordingto Eurostat) submitted their tax returns online in 2006.

Luckily, there are considerable chances for Poland toundergo breakthrough in e-government in 2008. As ofJuly that year, all companies with employment over 5persons will be obliged to sign their returns on socialinsurance contribution (ZUS) with qualified e-signature,which will rapidly increase the number of e-signatures.Companies providing such signatures expect that therequirement may result in a decrease of prices even toPLN 30 for one signature. It is expected that this yearPolish mobile phone users will be able to use a mobilesignature, cheaper than current e-signatures, easier tohandle and easier to obtain by individuals. PerhapsPoland will place better in future Eurostat rankings on e --government.

Broadband Internet

Although the majority of Poles use broadbandInternet (90% respondents of NetTrack using Internet athome had a fixed connection with the Internet), Polandhas the lowest broadband penetration compared withother developed countries. Although at the end of 2007Poland had approximately 3,5 million broadband lines,which in absolute figures gives it the 9th place inEurope, however the proportion of broadband lines per

100 residents is 6,8 (Eurostat, 1st half of 2007). Thelowest rate of broadband Internet availability has beennoted only in Greece, Romania and Bulgaria. The EUaverage is almost three times higher than the Polishproportion and amounts to 18.2 lines per 100residents. Which is more, the factor grows faster inother countries – the EU average increased from 14.8 in2006 to 18.2 in 2007 (although the average in 2007was lowered by new members, Romania and Bulgaria),while the increase in Poland at the same time was from3.9 to 6.8.

Poland’s position is slightly better in the ranking ofhouseholds with the access to broadband Internet.According to Eurostat, 30% Polish households has such

Percentage of persons usin' the Internet for contacting public administration offices

10 20 30 40 50 60

The Netherlands

Iceland

Norway

Denmark

Sweden

Finland

Luxembourg

Great Britain

Belgium

Germany

Estonia

Euro countries

EU (15 members)

Austria

Slovenia

France

EU (27 countries)

Spain

Lithuania

Hungary

Latvia

Ireland

Portugal

Poland

Czech Republic

Slovakia

Italy

Cyprus

Bulgaria

Romania

Greece

%

5855

5449

4744

4339

3733

3130

282727

2625

2422

2120

18181717

15

1214

410

4

Source: Eurostat 2007

access, which places Poland ahead of Italy, CzechRepublic and Slovakia. However, as compared withranking of 2006, Poland has been taken over byHungary, Lithuania and Ireland. The distance betweenPoland and other EU countries is increasing, as theproportion of households with access to fast Internetincreased in Poland by 8% throughout the year, whilethe average EU increase in the same period was 10%.

Conclusions from Eurostat data are confirmed bya OECD report, which says that the average speed ofbroadband connections in Poland was 4.2 Mb/s, whilethe average speed of all OECD states was 13.7 Mb/s.The cost of 1 Mb/s in Poland is at least 6.5 USD, while

in Japan, France, Sweden or Finland is below 0.5 USD.Regrettably, Poland is far behind other countries withrespect not only to the access to broadband Internet, butalso to its price.



The number of broadband connections per 100 residents

5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

The Netherlands

Denmark

Sweden

Finland

Luxembourg

Great Britain

Belgium

Germany

Estonia

EU (15 members)

Austria

Slovenia

France

EU (27 countries)

Spain

Lithuania

Hungary

Latvia

Malta

Ireland

Portugal

Poland

Czech Republic

Slovakia

Italy

Cyprus

Bulgaria

Romania

Greece

%

37.2

33.1

28.8

28.3

24.6

23.9

23.8

22.3

21.1

20.8

20

18.4

18.2

16.8

15.9

15.5

15.3

14.8

13.9

12.7

12.2

11.6

11.6

11.1

6.9

6.8

6.8

6.6

5.7


The rate of households with access to broadband Internet

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Iceland

The Netherlands

Denmark

Sweden

Norway

Finland

Luxembourg

Great Britain

Belgium

Germany

Estonia

EU (15 members)

Austria

Slovenia

France

EU (27 countries)

Spain

Lithuania

Hungary

Latvia

Ireland

Portugal

Poland

Czech Republic

Slovakia

Italy

Cyprus

Bulgaria

Romania

Greece

%

7674

706767

6058

5756

5048

4646

444342

393433

32313030

2827

2520

158

7




Internet browsers

Polish Internet users differ from Western ones withrespect to software used for Internet sites; Poland ismuch faster in popularising new solutions, consideredby experts as faster and more efficient.

After the period of market domination of variousversions of Microsoft browsers, three years ago thereappeared free, modern products with better protectionsagainst network attack.

At the end of 2007, 59.5% users favoured Microsoftbrowsers, while alternative browsers acquired morethan 40% of the market. In other countries, vastmajority of Internet users still prefer Internet Explorer.

The market share of Firefox browsers is in Poland33.6%, compared with Europe with 28% and Americawith 21% only. The latter figure is the same as theglobal index. Naturally it means, that the majority ofEuropean and American users prefer Internet Explorer,as it has no other serious competitors except for Firefox.In 2007, both competitors quickly increased theirmarket share in Poland; Explorer was upgraded toversion 7 and Firefox – to 2.x. A higher number ofPolish Internet users chose Mozilla product; almost30% of them were using it at the end of the year, whileonly 15% users purchased the new product ofMicrosoft, which is 50% of Firefox buyers. Naturally, themost popular browser is still Internet Explorer 6.x, andits share decreased by 15%, down to 44.1%.

Internet browsers in Poland

Source: Gemius SA, gemiusTraffic, December 2004, 2006, 2007

Internet Explorer Firefox Other%

20

40

60

80

100

I t tt E lt Fi fFi OthOl

88

64.80.595

3.6

27.10.336

8.4 8.1 0.069

20062004 2007

The percentage of users of new browsers

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

%

I 200

7II 2

007

III 200

7

IV 2007

V 2007

VI 200

7

VII 200

7

VIII 200

7

IX 2007

X 2007

XI 200

7

XII 200

7I 2

008II 2

008

II 200

6

III 200

6

IV 2006

V 2006

VI 200

6

VII 200

6

VIII 200

6

IX 2006

X 2006

XI 200

6

XII 200

6

Firefox 2.x MSIE 7.x

007

007

007

007

007

007

007

007

007

007

007

007

008

00806 00

600

600

600

600

600

600

600

600

600

600

700

700

700

700

700

700

700

700

700

700

700

700

800

806 006

006

006

006

006

006

006

006

006

006

0.12.2

8

3.26.7

26.5

10.9

33.5

20

11.9

Source: Gemius SA, gemiusTraffic, II 2006 – II 2008

Users of Internet browsers in Polandat the end of 2007

Source: Gemius SA, gemiusTraffic, December 2007

MSIE 6.x

Firefox 2.x

MSIE 7.x

Opera 9.x

Firefox 1.x

MSIE 5.x

Mozilla 1.x

Opera 8.x

Firefox 3.x

Safari 3.x

% 10 20 30 40 50

44.1

31.5

15

5.8

2

0.4

0.4

0.2

0.1

0.1

PC market in Poland

In 2007 the sales of PCs in Poland amounted to 3million which signifies an increase by more 20% ascompared with 2006. The share of laptops in that figuregrows steadily; in 2007 laptops constitutedapproximately 50% of PCs, in 2008 Poles will probablybuy more laptops than non-portable PCs. In the result,Poland will be ahead of global trend, as the global salesof laptops will be ahead of desktop PC sales in 2001(according to IDC), although this phenomenon hasalready occurred at the best developed markets (e.g. theU.S. reached that level 2 years ago).

The phenomenon is mostly due to decreasing pricesof laptops, which proved attractive for small andmedium companies. Price reductions are partly due tothe weakening U.S. dollar and partly – to the new priceand product policy of leading notebook manufacturers.

Sales of portable computers in 2008 will probablyexceed the sales of desktop computers.

The new products, such as micro notebooks withflash memory will be definitely attractive for retailbuyers. Corporate customers will be probably temptedby hardware prices, which in 2007 amounted to 2-2.5K PLN.

The number of PCs in Polish households keepsgrowing. According to a TGI study by Millward BrownSMG/KRC, the number of households with PCs reachedthe level of 5.5 million in, or 43% of all households).The same indicator provided by GUS is even higher: thenumber of households with a PC increased in 2007 by1 million and reached 6.8 million or 54% of allhouseholds.

Sales on the PC market in the years 1996-2007

3

2.5

1.5

0.5

1

2

mln200019991998 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 20071998 20001999 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Source: IDG, based on the Rzeczpospolita daily



Households with PC in Poland

6

5

3

1

2

4

mln2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 20072000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Source: Millward Brown SMG/KRC TGI, December 2000-2007

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Educationand professional status

Polish Internet users have higher social and materialstatus than average; most of them are well educated.The percentage of persons with university education isnot much higher than in the whole population andamounts to 19.5% (in addition to that, 21.2% of usershave college education). Persons with secondaryeducation (complete and incomplete) also constitute alarge group (33.4%). As compared with 2006, no majorchanges were noted in these indicators, although thenumber of Internet users grew by a million.

The education of adult Polish internet users evenbetter reflects the differences within the wholepopulation. 21.4 of Internet users over 18 haveuniversity education, while only 1.9 have primaryeducation only.

Every third user of Internet in Poland is a privatebusinessman, a manager, a freelancing professional or aclerk. Although students still constitute the mostnumerous group of users (34.7%), their rate decreasedin 2007 by almost 3%. Unemployed persons constitute



Education of Internet users in Poland

Source: Megapanel PBI/Gemius, December 2007

Primary(complete/incomplete)

University Gymnasium

Basicvocational

Secondary(complete/incomplete)

College

9.1% 6.7%

10.5%21.2%

33%

19.5%

Education of 18+ Internet users in Poland


2.7%1.9%

13%

26.2% 32.1%

24.1%

Primary(complete/incomplete)

University Gymnasium

Basicvocational

Secondary(complete/incomplete)

College

Professional status of Internet users in Poland


Qualifiedblue collar

Old age/disabilitypensioner

StudentOther

Unemployed

White collar,administration

Free lancingprofessional

Owner, manager,director

Trade and servicesBusinessmanLower levelmanager

34.6%

7.3%6%5.9%4.8%

4.5%3.8%

3.5%

3.5%

8.2%

18%

CHAPTER 2

On li ne consumers

a very narrow group of 3.5%, while old age anddisability pensioners constitute 3.8%. The largest groupof non-students are clerks and administration employees(8.2%) freelancing professionals (7.3%) personsemployed in trade and services sectors (6%) anddirectors (6%).

The majority (33.9%) of Polish Internet users declareno revenue. This results from the structure of the group

concerned – 34.7% of the users are students. 9.8% ofusers achieve revenue under 1000 PLN, 18,5 of users– revenue between 1001-2000 PLN, 7.1% users – over2000 PLN and 3.9% – over 3000 PLN. The number ofpersons who refused to answer grew compared with2006 from 23.8 to 26.8%. The majority of Internetusers who declared that they achieve revenue consistsof persons with earnings between 1000-2000 PLN(47.1% of this group). Persons with earnings under1000 PLN are also numerous (25%), but the share ofthis group decreased considerably as compared with2006 (by 7%). The share of persons with earningsranging between 2000-3000 PLN slightly increased,from 15.2% in the previous year to 18%. The share ofpersons with earnings over 3000 PLN is 9.9% ascompared with 9% in 2006.

Internet and division ofresidents by sex

Almost half of Polish internet users are women.Similarly to 2006, the age group 15-35 years consistedof more women than men, while the older group isdominated by men, particularly in the most senior agebracket 55+, where the number of men is almost threetimes higher than the number of women. Due to thehigher number of men in the youngest and most senior



Revenue of Polish Internet users


No revenueGave no answer Up to PLN 1000

Between PLN 1001 and 2000


Over PLN 3000

33.9%

18.5%7.1%

3.9%

9.8%

26.8%

Revenue of Internet users among personswho declared revenue in plus


Up to PLN 1000Over PLN 3000



25%

47.1%

18%

9.9%

Polish Internet users by sex (age brackets)


0-14 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+%

5

10

15

20

0 14 15 25 35 45 5 5414 5 245 24 5 345 34 5 445 4 545 5 55+55+

4.7

6.4

18.7

14.3

11.8

10.4

7.2 7.

9

5.4

6.8

1.7

4.8

MenWomen

age group, the overall number of men among Polishinternet users is slightly higher than the number ofwomen users.

The time spent on visiting various portals by users ofboth sexes is also dissimilar. Men spend twice as muchtime than women while browsing sports sites, and theyalso spend more time viewing business, information andautomotive sites. Women more frequently visitcommunity portals and sites for women, which seemsobvious. In December 2007 men and women alikespent 38 hours per month in the Internet, whichconstitutes a remarkable change as compared withDecember 2006, when men spent in the Internetnoticeably more time than women (30 hrs as comparedwith 26.5).

Therefore, Poland’s image is quite good with respectto equality of sexes as compared with other Europeancountries; the proportion of men and women using theInternet is only slightly in favour of men. Thedisproportions ain this respect are quite larger in someEU countries. According to Eurostat, the percentage ofmen and women using the Internet is respectively41 and 37% within the age bracket 16-74 in Poland,while the same figure in Italy is only 28% for womenand 39% for men, in Spain – 40% of women and 49%of men. A similar disproportion between the sexes wasnoted in Germany and Austria.

Age structure ofInternet users

The most sizeable age group of Internet users inPoland are persons between 15-24 years of age (33%),followed by persons between 25-34 years (22.2%).Only every 15th person in the Web is over 55 lat. During2007 the age structure of users has not changed, theonly difference was slightly higher share of more seniorpersons.

The place of residencePolish Internet is still more frequently used by

residents of large agglomerations and areas with a welldeveloped telecoms infrastructure, but the process ofgeographical diversification of Web users becomes moreand more noticeable. The largest number of Internetusers is in the Mazowsze province (13.5%), followed byŚląsk (12.8%), Małopolska (9.2%), Wielkopolska(8.3%) and Dolny Śląsk (7.3%).

A notable majority of Polish Internet users live in thecities, in contrast to the structure of population inPoland. Although almost 40% of Polish residents live inthe countryside, the proportion of Internet users fromthe country is only 26.5%. However, thesedisproportions are being reduced, as the number of



Internet users in Poland by age


0-1455+ 15-24

25-3435-4445-54

6.5%

22.2%

33%

11.1%

15.1%

12.1%

Internet users in Poland by place of residence


OtherPodkarpackie

MałopolskieŚląskie

Mazowieckie

WielkopolskieDolnośląskieŁódzkie

PomorskieKujawsko-Pomorskie

13.5%

9.2%

8.3%7.3%6.2%

6%

12.8%

25.7%

5.5%5.6%

Internet users keeps growing, with new users comingfrom areas of lower Internet penetration. In the course of2007, the share of residents of rural areas in the totalpopulation of users grew by 2%, while the share ofresidents of the largest cities (over 500K residents)decreased by 1%.

In spite of much better access to the Internet in thelargest cities and agglomerations, the most numerous

group of users by place of residence are rural residents(26.5%) and residents in towns under 20K residents(13.9%.) Both groups combined constitute 40.4% of allInternet users in Poland. Persons living in cities over500 K residents constitute the second largest group(15.9%). However, as it has been mentioned earlier, thisproportion does not reflect the actual structure of Polishpopulation.

The place and mannerof using the Internet

Polish Internet users most frequently surf the Web athome – four out of five users declared so at the end of2007 (83.3%). Other places include work (25.7%),


The place of using the Internet – changes

90

80

60

40

30

50

70

20

10

%2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

At home At work Internet café, storeAt school/university At friends’ placeSource: Millward Brown SMG/KRC NetTrack

The comparison of the structure of population and the structure of Internet users in Poland

Source: Megapanel PBI/Gemius, December 2007, GUS

Internet users Population

Village

Up to 20Kresidents

20-50Kresidents

50-100Kresidents

100-200Kresidents

200-500Kresidents

Over 500Kresidents

% 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

26.538.2

13.912.9

11.210.9

9.88.8

9.77.6

13.110

15.911.7

The place of using the Internet

At home At work At school/university

At frieds’place

Café Others%

20

40

60

80

100

At home At work At school/ At frieds’ Café Others

83.3

25.7

12.58.4

2.1 0.8Structure of Internet users by place of residence (size of locality)

City over 500KCity between200-500K

Village City up to20K

City between20-50K

City between50-100K

City between100-200K

13.1%

15.9%

11.2%

13.9%

26.5%

9.8%9.7%

Surce: MegapanelPBI/Gemius, December 2007

Source: Millward BrownSMG/KRC NetTrack,December 2007


school/university (12.5%), Internet cafes (2.1%) andfriends’ place (8.4%). The percentage of persons usingInternet at school, cafes and friends’ place decreased ascompared with 2006, with a considerable increase inthe percentage of persons using it at home and at work.This phenomenon is related to growing access to theInternet at home and increasing number of older personsusing the Internet at work. The percentage of personsusing Internet at home kept growing in 2007. Thedevelopment of home internet is related to growingchances for providing permanent links at the place ofresidence of respondents. The Internet is becoming anincreasingly phenomenon in lives of its users; theygradually increase frequency and length of their visits tothe WWW and in addition to that, the Web is more andmore often accessible on the 24/7 basis, at home and atwork.

Active involvement ofPolish Internet users

In addition to the increased number of Internet users,one can also observe that the average time spent in the

Web is being extended. The Megapanel PBI/Gemiusresearch shows that every Polish Internet users spent inthe web 38 hrs 12 min per month in December 2007,which is by 10 hours more than in the previous year.Also, the number of page views per Internet user hasgrown considerably, from 1721 in December 2006 to2394 in December 2007.

A certain trend has emerged in the course of recentthree years, concerning the changes in activeinvolvement of Internet users: the highest number ofpage views and the longest time spend in the Web isobserved in January, then the involvement keepsgrowing slightly, and it falls down in the second quarterof the year, particularly during holidays, reaching thelevel of the best months in the previous year. In theautumn, the activeness of an average Internet userkeeps growing again, reaching the level from thebeginning of the year, and then it exceeds that level inDecember and January, establishing a new, higherbenchmark for the coming year.



Average time of using the Web (hrs)

40

25

30

35

20

15

XII 200

7X 20

07X 20

04

XII 200

4II 2

005

IV 2005

VI 200

5

VIII 200

5X 20

05

XII 200

5II 2

006

IV 2006

VI 200

6

VIII 200

6X 20

06

XII 200

6II 2

007

IV 2007

VI 200

7

VIII 200

7 774 5 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 7 7 7 7

Growth of active involvement of Internet users in Poland

36

33

30

27

24

21

18

15

I 200

7II 2

007

III 200

7

IV 2007

V 2007

VI 200

7

VII 200

7

VIII 200

7

IX 2007

X 2007

XI 200

7

XII 200

7I 2

006II 2

006

III 200

6

IV 2006

V 2006

VI 200

6

VII 200

6

VIII 200

6

IX 2006

X 2006

XI 200

6

XII 200

6

600

550

500

450

400

350

300

250

Page views (billion) Time (million hrs)

Active involvement of Polish Internet users(2007)

Month Average number Average Averageof page views time per user page view

per user timeJanuary 1871.74 30:57:19 0:01:00February 1757.33 28:30:18 0:00:58March 1809.58 29:59:43 0:01:00April 1743.95 27:59:43 0:00:58May 1828.08 29:24:49 0:00:58June 1801.20 29:35:30 0:00:59July 1832.74 30:08:21 0:00:59August 1914.49 31:04:20 0:00:58September 1925.46 32:00:19 0:01:00October 2184.65 34:19:48 0:00:57Novemer 2278.96 36:37:38 0:00:58December 2395.53 38:11:54 0:00:57

Source: Megapanel PBI/Gemius



The amount of time spent in the Web increased inthe last months of 2007 much faster than in the samemonths in the previous years. This is mostly due to theamazing popularity of the Nasza-klasa.pl communityportal. However, it must be noted that some of the timedevoted to surfing was spent by Internet users onwaiting for the next page of the site to load… In spite ofthe increased number of page views, the average pageview time did not fall down and still approximates1 minute.

The higher number of Internet users and their higherinvolvement resulted in very fast increase of the numberof page views and hours spent in the Web; both figuresdoubled in the course of 1.5 year only. In December2007, total number of page views in Polish Internet was33.7 billion and Internet users spent in the Web morethan 537 million hours. These figures are almost twiceas high than those noted 18 months earlier, in July2006.

It does not come as a surprise that the experience ofInternet users keeps growing every year, with more andmore persons acquainted with the Web for a number ofyears. In 2006, the percentage of persons using theWeb for more than 2 years was 65%, at present thesame figure increased to 71% The percentage ofpersons using the Web for more than 5 years grew by4.5%.

In the course of 2007 the differences between menand women in the intensity of involvement in usingInternet became less pronounced. In December 2007

men and women alike spend on the Web more than38 hours, while in December the difference between sexgroups was almost 4 hours (men – 30 hrs 15 min andwomen 26.5 hrs). A similar trend was observed withrespect to the number of page views: at the end of2007, an average man had 2410 page views per month(by 30% more than in the previous year) and an averagewoman had almost the same number of page views(2381 per month, by 50% more than in December2006).

The increased involvement of Internet users in Polandresults also in more frequent visits on the Web. At theend of 2007, two thirds of users (67.1%) went online



Length of experience of Internet users in Poland

More than 5 years Up to 6 months 6 months – 1 year

Between 1-2 yearsBetween 2-5 years

26.9%

44%

15.4%

8.9%

4.8%

Frequency of using the Internet

A few times a week

Once a week A few times a month

Everyday or almost everyday

7.2%

67.1%

19.5%

6.2%Source: MegapanelPBI/Gemius, December 2007

Source: MegapanelPBI/Gemius, December 2007

Average time spent in the Web throughout one month

Month Women MenDecember 2005 22:55:49 24:09:20December 2006 26:29:41 30:14:43December 2007 38:12:20 38:11:28

Average number of views per month

Month Women MenDecember 2005 1393.17 1498.60December 2006 1585.48 1853.64December 2007 2380.94 2409.86



every day or almost everyday; the figure grew by 5,7%as compared with 2006. In addition to that, almost onefifth of users (19.5%) visited the Web a few times perweek. In total, more than 85% of Internet users inPoland go online more often than once in a week.

The involvement of internet users is affected by age.The most active groups (as per page views) are personsbetween 15-19 and 20-29 years. The least activegroups include persons between 7-14 and over 60.

Interestingly enough, in spite of the fact that theshare of persons aged 15-19 in the whole Internetpopulation went down, this group generated a higherpercentage of page views at the end of 2007 than in theprevious year, while the number of the average Internetuser went up by 39% in December 2007 as comparedwith December 2006. The same figure for Internet usersbetween 15-19 years of age went up by 43%.

Usage of traditionalmedia

Internet users are active recipients of all mediamessages. The study on the consumption of mediaperformed by Gemius as of 2004 revealed that. 71% ofInternet users browsed WWW pages on the day beforethe study, 63% watched TV and 52% listened to theradio (based on research performed in November2007).

Internet users spend more and more time online,which to a certain degree reduces time spent on othermedia. More respondents used WWW than TV, radio ormedia on the day before the study. More than 70percent browsed WWW pages and used e-mail. Thesefigures have not changed as compared with 2006.

Usage of traditional media by Internet users– which of the activities listed below haveyou performed yesterday?

% 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

WWW sitesbrowsing

E-mail

TV watching

Listeningto the radio

Usingan Internetmessenger

service

Reading dailynewspapers

Readinga book

Readingmagazines– weeklies

and biweeklies

Readingmonthlies

Talking via chatand discussion

groups

Watchingmovies

in a theatre

7171

7070

5563

5052

4239

4139

2829

2320

1613

1413

44

November 2006 November 2007

Source: MediaConsumption Study,Gemius, XI 2006 – XI 2007


Involvement of Internet users by age groups

7-14 15-19 20-29 30-39 40-59 60+%

5

10

15

20

25

30

7 14 15 19 20 30 3 40 60+414 95 19 0 290 29 390 3 0 590 5 +60+

11.1

7.4

18.8

27.6

25.8 27

.1

18.2

17.8

23.5

18.4

2.6

1.7

% of page views% of Internet users

Source: MegapanelPBI/Gemius, December 2007

63% of respondents watched TV (an increased by 8%),52% of them listened to the radio (increase by 2%). Thenumber of persons reading dailies or magazinesdecreased slightly as compared with 2006.

The study of November 2007 reflects certainchanges in comparison to 2006 in TV channels watchedby Internet users. The general trend shows the departurefrom national channels in favour of theme channels(news, sports, films, documentaries, for children).Irrespective of this, most of channels recorded anincreased interest of Internet users.

The favourite channel of Internet users is TVN; 75%of them reported watching it in the study of November2007, which asked about channel watched on the daybefore the poll (an increase by 6% as compared withprevious year). TVN24, the other channel owned byTVN also recorded further increase in popularity, rankingahead of regional channels of public TV and placing 5th

(32% of responses). Among national channels, Polsatand TVP2 also noted an increase in the number ofspectators.


Percentage of Internet users viewing TV channels. TV channels watched by Internet users

% 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

TVN

Polsat

TVP1

TVP2

TVN24

TV4

TVN Siedem

TVP Info

TVP Polonia

Musicchannels

Film channels

Documentarychannels

Sportschannels

Children’schannels

Others

6975

5459

5858

4852

2532

1622

1720

2517

66

1922

1722

1721

1416

910

1822


Radio stations listened to by Internet users

% 10 20 30 40 50

RMF FM

Radio Zet

Eska

Program 3 PR

Złote Przeboje

Radiostacja

Program 1 PR

Antyradio

Radio Wawa

Tok FM

Roxy FM

4046

3439

2330

1513

1012

108

67

66

56

45

55


Source: Media ConsumptionStudy Gemius, XI 2006 – XI 2007



The most popular radio stations are still RMF FM andRadio Zet (both national), as 46 and 39% ofrespondents declared listening to them on the daybefore the poll. The third place is occupied by Eska(30% respondents). All the stations recorded asignificant increase in the number of Internet users whoprefer them, by 5-7% as compared with 2006.

Preferred dailies of Internet users include the “GazetaWyborcza”, the “Rzeczpospolita” and the “Fakt”. Thefollowing percentage of all Internet users reading pressdeclared reading these newspapers respectively on the daybefore the poll: 46%, 19% and 16%. As compared with2006, the popularity of the “Rzeczpospolita” grew by 3%which placed the daily ahead of the “Metro” which felldown by 3% and of the “Fakt“ (gained 1%). The new all-

national daily the “Polska The Times” attracted 5% ofInternet users.

Internet users have more and more opportunities touse traditional media via Internet, and they use themmore frequently. 70% of Internet users listened at leastonce to the radio on the Web, 67% read dailies on theWeb, and one-third reads weeklies and monthlies.

In the group who listened to the radio on the Internetat least once, 40% of respondents do so at least once ina week. The figure grew by 10% as compared withNovember 2006. The number of persons who regularly,at least once in a week read dailies on the Webincreased even more – by 20% as compared withNovember 2006, and reached 57%. Every fourthperson reading press on the Web does so every day.



Dailies read by Internet users

% 10 20 30 40 50

“GazetaWyborcza”

“Rzeczpospolita”

“Fakt”

“Dziennik Polska Europa Świat”

“Metro”

“Super Express”

“Gazeta Prawna”

“PrzeglądSportowy”

“PolskaThe Times”

4846

1619

1516

1114

1714

1011

810

97

5


Traditional media accessed by the Internet users


Radio

Dailies

Weeklies/Biweeklies

Monthlies

% 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

6267

3537

3130

7070




CHAPTER 3

Internet consumption


Internet users spend an increasing amount of time onthe Web. The figure keeps growing, because the Internetflexibly adjusts itself to the needs of users and givesthem more opportunities; in the result they turn frompassive into active users. We still use the Web forinformation or business, but more and more regularly weenter the virtual world because we just like it. Visitingsites is a pleasure. Naturally, it is also important that thecapacity of links is growing year by year, similarly to theaccess to broadband channels. The speed of datatransmission is not the only factor encouraging Internetusers. The character of Internet is changing, as the Webprovides more and more opportunities; it meets theirexpectations and provides motivation for action. We are

using the Web for four basic purposes: for thecommunication, information, entertainment andbusiness, while the two former factors are dominantsince the establishment of the Web.

The time spent on the Web differs by the type ofspace selected by the user. Information sites take lesstime, while cultural and entertainment sites, as well ascommunity portals are more time consuming. Readingnews does not take too much time, when the readersscans the text and photos and then loads another page.The sites which offer more interaction and provide avariety of contents presentation forms (video, audio etc.)attract users for a definitely longer time.

COM

MUNIC

ATIONSINFORMATION

ENTERTAIN

MEN

T

BUSINESS

The establishment of contact between the sender andthe recipient and provoking the users to interact leads tothe involvement in the life of the site. The time spent inthe favourite site is the result of the emotionalinvolvement. The Megapanel PBI/Gemius study showedthat Poles spend more and more time on the Web, butthe increase in the number of hours does not necessarilyis proportionate to the growth of the number of users orpage views. Some sites recorded in 2007 a decline in thenumber of users, while the number of page views andinvolvement time of an average user kept increasing.

What factors then affect the taste of Internet users?The analysis of the time consumed for the four basic

goals for which people go online proves that the marketleadership falls to sites which combine the highestamount of functionalities which meet various needs ofthe users. Sites limited only to business or informationrecorded a decline in the number of users,simultaneously with the increase in the number of pageviews and slight increase of time spent by one user. Onthe other hand, sites offering interactive services anddiversified form of delivering the contents, may count onconsiderable involvement of users, the more so if theyoffer an opportunity to establish contacts with otherusers. Such sites record both increased involvementtime and the number of users, not to mention thenumber of page views.

Soon authors of reports and analyses will have totake into account another indicator, which will play

decisive role for the reach of sites and involvement time.This indicator is engagement, or the measurement oftotal immersion of the user in the site. Engagement isthe propelling factor of the Internet and soon all reportswill take it into account, similarly to the issue ofexperience.

Passive absorption of contents, however interesting itis, shall always be second to participation. A site thattriggers actions and makes the user involved, ties himfor a long time. It is worth mentioning that both thecharacter and quality of time spent online are changingsimultaneously with the user’s profile. The market hasto meet the requirements of prosumers, or intelligentconsumers who devote their precious time and expecthigh quality of service, and their recommendationsettles standards in the community. Prosumers expectnew challenges, opportunities and chances to get moreexperience. In the result, they acquire positiveassociations with the brand etc. and their involvement



Source: Based on Megapanel PBI/Gemius – a comparison of involvement time of site users in January 2007 and 2008

Onet Google Nasza--klasa

Gadu--Gadu

YouTube WP Allegrohrs

2

4

6

8

10

12

On Googl Nasza Gadu You W Alnetnet eogl -adu uTubeuTub WPWP legrolegr

7:19

6:00

7:26

5:19

11:1

5

0:47

0:09

2:50

0:50

5:06

4:25 4:

493:

39

January 2008 January 2007

Name Users Page views Time per user (K) (million) (hrs:min)

Google 11,733,2 3108,90 7:26Onet.pl 9753,9 4059,55 7:19Allegro.pl 7335,9 4005,84 4:49Nasza-klasa.pl 7185,6 6001,90 11:15Youtube.com 6172,3 639,20 2:56Grupa Gadu-Gadu 4364,2 152,13 0:47Grupa Fotka.pl 4151,9 2699,86 6:02

Source: Megapanel PBI/Gemius by Polskie Badania Internetu Sp. z o.o. and Gemius SA

Source: Megapanel based on PBI/Gemius

Onet Google Nasza--klasa

Gadu--Gadu

YouTube Fotka.pl Allegro Panoramafirm

hrs

2

4

6

8

10

12

Onet Nasza- YouTube AllegroGoogleG Gadu-G e Fotka ple F PanoramaPa

7:19 7:26

11:15

0:47

2:50

6:02

4:49

8:34

CommunicationsInformation Entertainment Business

translates into the time spent online, and this time – inturn – means money.

The era of Web 2.0 brought about new solutions,which effectively retain prosumers online, offeringoptions which are not available in other media. An userwhich generates strong attachment, turns into theambassador of a brand or product, or the site itself. Hisopinion affects decisions made by persons from hisimmediate surroundings, for instance he sends links tohis favourite site, making more persons interested in it.Transfer of information on the Web takes very little time,but its efficiency is just huge. No advertising canincrease sales better than good opinion from peoplehaving good experience related to a product.

People have a natural need to communicate, and forthis reason various community sites and messengerservices attract their attention strongly and for thelongest time. Nasza-klasa.pl, the absolute leader ofrecent rankings, owes its huge success due to a skilfulcombination of a few areas of users interest in one site.Due to a merger of elements of communications andentertainment, an average user of the portal spent therein January this year more than 11 hours.

“There comes the time of engagement – a measure ofquality time spent online. The Web 2.0, environmentand the long-lasting interaction with users guaranteeincreased efficiency and time spent online. Due to theopportunities offered by the Internet, prosumers turnactive, find their own fields of activity and new means ofself-expression. The whole philosophy of experience isoriented towards them. 20 minutes of a prosumer ismore valuable than one hour of a passive observer.Pretty soon, the leading places in site rankings will bedetermined by engagement” – says Olgierd Cygan,CEO/managing partner of Digital One.



Throughout 2007, the leader of Polish sites withrespect to reach indicator was Google, visited everymonth by approximately 80% of Polish Internet users(slightly less in mid year, slightly more at the year end).In December 2007, this figure was equivalent to morethan 11.3 million users. Google is followed by twolargest portals: Onet.pl (almost 70% per month, 9.5million users in December) and Wirtualna Polska(slightly less than 60%, 7.9 million users in December).

Both portals attracted a lower percentage of Internetusers at the end of the year as compared with thebeginning of the year; Onet’s decrease of reach was 4%and Wirtualna Polska’s – as much as 8%. More than 50of Internet users visited auction site Allegro.pl (approx7.5 million users per month). Interia, which in 2006attracted more than half of Internet users, recorded thereach of 49% at the end of 2007. O2, another portal,retained the reach of approximately 46% throughout theyear. The only portal which reported increased reach in2007 was Gazeta.pl, with slightly more than 5 millionusers visiting it per month at the beginning of the year(39% reach) and at the end of the year the number ofusers exceeded 6 million which means the reach of 42%.

The top ten sites with the highest reach at the end of2007 included also YouTube, Wikipedia and Microsoft.All of them achieved reach of 38-39% in December2007, but YouTube was gaining users throughout theyears, while the other two were losing them.

In 2007 the leaders of the ranking hardly changedthe top six in December 2007 was the same as inDecember 2006. Gazeta.pl went up form the 9th place tothe 7th, and YouTube – from the 10th to the 8th. YouTubewas the leader in gaining users out of the top ten sites,with 12% reach and 2 million of new users throughoutthe year. It is the second year in the row for this site toadvance so well; in 2006, when YouTube wasincorporated in Megapanel poll for the first time, its reachranking went up from 0 to 25% in but a few months.

In 2006, YouTube was the star of the pages with thehighest number of visitor; in 2007, the black horsestatus fell to Nasza-klasa.pl. The site, established inNovember 2006, was first ranked in Megapanel inDecember 2006, with reach under 1%. After aspectacular rise in November and December (2 millionnew users every month), the site achieved 36% reach atthe end of the year, placing slightly under YouTubewhich climbed to its position after two years of dynamicgrowth. The ranking of page views is lightly different,with Allegro.pl as a leader with more than 3.5 billionpage views per month at the end of the year, followed byOnet.pl, which increased the number of its page viewsby half (mostly with its game module) and managed toovertake Allegro.pl in October 2007, although for onemonth only.

The 3th place was taken by Nasza-klasa.pl, with thenumber of page views growing even faster than the


CHAPTER 4

WWW sites usage


The increase of the Nasza-klasa.pl reach

50

45

40

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

%I 2007 II 2007 III 2007 IV 2007 V 2007 VI 2007 VII 2007 VIII 2007 IX 2007 X 2007 XI 2007 XII 20072007 II 2007 III 2007 IV 2007 V 2007 VI 2007 VII 2007 VIII 2007 IX 2007 X 2007 XI 2007 XII 200


Site ranking by monthly reach

Item Name Reach Users Site centricaudit

1. Google 80.27% 11,351,367 2. Onet.pl 67.32% 9,520,800 3. Wirtualna Polska 56.01% 7,921,128 yes4. Allegro.pl 52.50% 7,424,855 5. Interia.pl 49.66% 7,023,144 yes6. O2.pl 46.42% 6,564,433 yes7. Gazeta.pl 41.71% 5,898,077 yes8. YouTube.com 38.99% 5,513,674 9. Wikipedia.org 38.29% 5,414,824

10. Microsoft 38.25% 5,409,267 11. Nasza-klasa.pl 36.22% 5,122,562 yes12. Grupa Fotka.pl 27.99% 3,958,234 yes13. Grupa Gadu-Gadu 26.75% 3,782,541 yes14. Orange 24.98% 3,533,262 15. Grupa IDG 22.98% 3,249,103 yes16. Grupa YoYo.pl 22.61% 3,197,231 17. Mozilla.org 21.57% 3,050,999 18. Pino.pl 21.42% 3,029,570 yes19. TP 18.46% 2,611,184 20. Grupa Medousa.pl 18.46% 2,610,779


number of its users, from 11 million in January 2007 to3 billion in December. Google fell down to the 4th placein the ranking, although at the end of the year itrecorded the increase of the number of page views of800 billion, as compared with the beginning of the year.The 5th place is occupied by another fast growingcommunity site Fotka.pl. 6th and 7th places are occupiedby two portals: Interia.pl and Wirtualna Polska,respectively. Interia doubled the number of its pageviews (mostly due to a game service, similarly toOnet.pl) and went ahead of Wirtualna Polska, whichhad the same number of page views in December and inJanuary 2007.

The top 10 is closed by O2.pl, Epuls.pl andGrono.net, all with less than 1 billion page views permonth. However, it is worth noting that Epuls.pl andGrono.net do not have a numerous group of users ascompared with other ranking leaders (e.g. Epuls.pl wasvisited in December by 700 thousand users, whichplaced its outside the top 100 sites in visitors ranking),but they generate a huge number of page views:Epuls.pl has almost 1000 page views per user, andGrono.net – more than 550, while the average numberof page views per one user of web sites is under250 (only Onet has more than 350 page views peruser).

Similarly to the reach ranking, the leadership in thisranking has not changed considerably as compared withprevious year: Allegro.pl and Google went up by oneplace, Grono.net and Epuls.pl went up as well, whileGazeta.pl and Fotka.pl went down.

The ranking of the most popular sites in Polanddiffers slightly from similar rankings in the West.Ranking leaders in the largest European states andCanada are sites by Google and Microsoft, U.S. and

Japanese rankings are led by Yahoo!. 3th place areoccupied by international sites such as Yahoo! or eBay.In Poland, the leading position is occupied by aninternational site Google (just as in other countries) butit is follow by local websites – a situation notencountered in the West.

The reach of messenger services has not changedthroughout 2007, with leading position occupied byGadu-Gadu used by more than 40% users, and slightlyreduced reach of Tlen (still 7%); the reach of Skypewent up slightly, while the market share of othermessenger services was hardly significant.



Sites per page views/month

Item Name Page Average Site centricviews time/user audit

1. Allegro.pl 3,659,302,538 4:15:152. Onet.pl 3,609,491,880 6:29:313. Nasza-klasa.pl 2,969,685,124 7:12:56 yes4. Google 2,819,457,102 7:37:035. Grupa Fotka.pl 2,630,139,351 5:59:36 yes6. Interia.pl 1,828,031,332 3:34:14 yes7. Wirtualna Polska 1,744,952,321 4:29:55 yes8. O2.pl 923,708,086 3:45:37 yes9. Epuls.pl 688,832,407 9:05:10 yes

10. Grono.net 611,865,163 5:39:09 yes


Sites with the highest reach in selectedcountries, December 2007

Country 1st place 2nd place 3rd placeGermany Google Microsoft eBayFrance Google Microsoft OrangeGreat Britain Google Microsoft eBayJapan Yahoo! Google MicrosoftCanada Microsoft Google Yahoo!U.S. Yahoo! Google Microsoft

Source: comScore

Internet messenger site ranking

Item Name Reach Users Site centric audit

1. Gadu-Gadu 40.58% 5,738,443 yes2. Skype 26.98% 3,815,4073. Tlen.pl 5.77% 816,324 yes4. AQQ 0.95% 133,651 yes5. MSN Messenger 0.93% 131,8826. Spik 0.35% 50,023 yes7. Konnekt 0.18% 25,7228. ICQ 0.17% 24,0589. Flircik 0.16% 22,096

10. Xfire 0.15% 21,232


The ranking of the number of users of commercialsites also showed no considerable changes, with leadingposition still occupied by Microsoft; the top ten stillincludes sites of telecoms operators, Polish railways andPKO BP bank. Mozilla.org went up from the 10th placeto the 3rd and the site of Play – a new mobile phoneoperator – joined the group of ten leaders.

Top 10 non-commercial sites include mostlyuniversity sites and also the site of Pajacyk charityproject, Sejm (lower house of the Parliament) and publicinsurance ZUS.


The most popular commercial sites visited by PolishInternet users

Item Name Reach Users Site centric audit

1. Microsoft 38.25% 5,409,2672. Orange 24.98% 3,533,2623. Mozilla.org 21.57% 3,050,9994. TP 18.46% 2,611,1845. Plus GSM 17.00% 2,403,9976. PTC Era 15.54% 2,197,9827. Play 13.04% 1,843,8728. PKP 11.92% 1,685,4909. PKO BP 11.81% 1,669,715

10. ING 9.20% 1,301,63811. Bearshare.com 8.91% 1,260,34312. Lotto.pl 8.77% 1,240,09813. Adobe.com 8.54% 1,207,79914. Winamp.com 7.55% 1,068,35215. MBank 7.20% 1,017,98416. Pekao SA 6.77% 957,40917. Macromedia.com 6.75% 954,77418. BZ WBK 6.69% 945,51719. Netia 6.68% 944,82320. Skype.com 6.41% 906,75521. PWN.pl 5.62% 794,63022. Nokia 5.25% 742,00223. TKtelekom.pl 5.07% 717,44724. Coke.pl 4.34% 613,91925. Smileycentral.com 4.19% 592,59226. BPH 4.09% 578,83727. Skoda 4.01% 566,96928. Inteligo 3.91% 552,95329. Open.pl 3.78% 534,62730. Sekretyhakerow.pl 3.63% 513,23831. Avon.pl 3.58% 505,80732. MediaMarkt 3.57% 504,68633. Mozilla-europe.org 3.51% 495,90134. Apple.com 3.50% 495,58535. HP.pl 3.47% 491,39636. K2.pl 3.46% 489,31937. IKEA 3.42% 483,37538. Samsung 3.35% 474,25639. Komputronik.pl 3.28% 464,25840. Bank Millennium 3.25% 459,77541. Sony Ericsson 3.25% 459,50942. Avast.com 3.03% 428,91843. Norwegian.no 3.01% 425,92844. EA.com 2.98% 420,80545. Citi Handlowy 2.83% 400,71946. Libertydirect.pl 2.81% 396,88247. Java.com 2.79% 395,00548. ZTM Warszawa 2.77% 392,27349. Multikino 2.73% 386,05950. Lukas Bank 2.65% 374,889

Source: Megapanel PBI/Gemius. December 2007

The most popular non-commercial sitesvisited by Polish Internet users

Item Name Reach Users Site centricaudit

1. AGH 4.84% 683.8352. Pajacyk.pl 3.70% 523,228 yes3. Uniwersytet Gdański 3.43% 485,6164. Uniwersytet

Warszawski 3.42% 483,7305. Sejm.gov.pl 3.35% 473,4806. WOSP.org.pl 3.21% 453,6427. ZUS.gov.pl 3.13% 442,5078. NGO.pl 3.05% 431,8159. Uniwersytet

M. Kopernika 2.72% 383,98910. Uniwersytet

Jagielloński 2.67% 377,43411. Politechnika

Wrocławska 2.18% 308,30012. Europa.eu 2.08% 294,78013. Uniwersytet

A. Mickiewicza 2.03% 286,75614. Politechnika

Warszawska 1.94% 274,88015. MF.gov.pl 1.94% 273,80616. Centralna Komisja

Egzaminacyjna 1.91% 269,56217. Policja.gov.pl 1.79% 253,65918. Uniwersytet Wrocławski 1.75% 247,82319. Uniwersytet Śląski 1.70% 240,97020. Politechnika Łódzka 1.67% 236,748

Source: Megapanel PBI/Gemius. December 2007


Topical categories:

Megapanel PBI/Gemius distinguishes 12 topicalcategories for classifying web sites, including:

• News, features, media• Culture and entertainment• Automotive sector,• Business, finance, law• Construction and real estate• Education• Sports• Lifestyle• Tourism• New technology• Work• Communities.

The highest number of users is attracted by cultureand entertainment sites, with more than 90% usersvisiting them every month. Approximately 80% usersvisit news and community sites, lifestyle sites havereach of 70% and business/finance/law and educationsites are visited by approximately 60% users. Sports,automotive and tourism sites attract 40-50% of users,while construction/real estate and work have reachunder 30%.


Reach of topical categories

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

%I 2007 II 2007 III 2007 IV 2007 V 2007 VI 2007 VII 2007 VIII 2007 IX 2007 X 2007 XI 2007 XII 2007

News Business Sports




100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10


New technologies Education Work HomeAutomotive Tourism



100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10


Culture and entertainment Lifestyle Communities


Culture andentertainment

The category leader is Onet.pl, attracting about 45%users, followed by YouTube, with reach increasethroughout the year from 25 to 40%, and by O2,Wirtualna Polska and Interia cultural and entertainmentpages. In 2007, the highest increase (in addition toOnet) was reported by Gazeta.pl, where the number ofentertainment page users grew more than three times,from 600 thousand to 2 million.

The total number of users in the category exceeds13,5 million.

Communities

The most spectacular event in the last year in thiscategory was the success of Nasza-klasa.pl, whichattracted in December almost every second user ofcommunity sites. Nasza-klasa.pl attracters also userswho have never visited sites of this type, and the reachof the category grew from slightly more than 60% at thebeginning of the year to 80 % in December 2007.

The other fast developing site was Moja Generacja(formerly Generacja Gadu-Gadu), which after mergerwith Fora.pl attracted every fourth user of the categoryat the end of the year. The hitherto leader Onet.pl lostquite a lot to the new leaders, with its reach fallingdown by 15%.

News, features, media

Similarly to the entertainment category, the leadingsite is Onet.pl, with its information pages visited by50% of category users in the course of the first threequarters of 2007. The 2nd place is occupied byWirtualna Polska with 35% reach index, followed byGazeta.pl and Interia.pl. The number of category usersdecreased at the end of the year from 80 to 77% of allInternet users, and the decrease in the number of usersattracted by category leaders was even stronger, withthe exception of Interia which went up to the 3rd placein December, overtaking Gazeta.pl.


Site reach – communities

50

45

40

35

30

25

20

15

10

5


Onet.pl Gazeta.pl Nasza-klasa.plFotka.pl Mojageneracja.pl

2007 II 2007 III 2007 IV 2007 V 2007 VI 2007 VII 2007 VIII 2007 IX 2007 X 2007 XI 2007 XII 200


Site reach – news, features, media

60

50

40

30

20

10


Onet.pl WP.pl Naszemiasto.plGazeta.pl Interia.pl


Site reach – culture and entertainment category

50

45

40

35

30

25

20

15

10

5


Onet.pl WP.pl Interia.plO2.pl YouTube.com



New technologicalsolutions

The new technological solutions category is visitedevery month by 70-80% of all Internet users. Thehighest number of users was attracted by sites of IDG,with its reach ranking twice as high as its followers inthe ranking. Dobreprogramy.pl remained on the 2nd

place almost throughout the whole year; in December itwas slightly overtaken by technological sites of Interia.

Lifestyle

This category is visited by about 60% of Internetusers in Poland. Top 5 Web sites have gained here aconsiderable advantage over their competitors. InDecember, the leadership fell to O2, which took over thehitherto leader Onet.pl. It was followed by WirtualnaPolska and Gazeta.pl which increased its reach in thecategory from about 15% to more than 25%. Interia.plattracted approximately 20% of category users.

Business, finance, law

The category is lead by Onet.pl (30% of reach in thecategory), followed by Wirtualna Polska and Money.pl(approx 20%), and another specialist site: Interia andBankier.pl (approx. 15%). Throughout 2007, Money.plwent up from the 5th place to 3rd, ahead of Interia andBankier.


Site reach – new technological solutions

45

25

30

35

40

20

15

10

5


IDG.pl Dobreprogramy.pl Torrenty.plWapster.pl Interia.pl



Site reach – business, finance, law

40

25

30

35

20

15

10

5


Onet.pl WP.pl Money.plBankier.pl Interia.pl


Site reach – lifestyle

40

25

30

35

20

15

10

5


Onet.pl WP.pl Gazeta.plO2.pl Interia.pl


Education

In the course of the school year, the educational sitesare visited by approximately 60% of internet users; thereach rate during holidays falls down to 50%. Theunquestionable leader in the category is Wikipedia, withreach ranging from 65% during holidays to 75% duringschool year (more than 6 million users). It is followed byeducational sites of Onet.pl and by Sciaga.pl, visited by2-3 million users. The other sites in the category arehardly ever visited by more than one million users.

Sports

This category is considerably dispersed with leadingplaces occupied by Onet.pl with 55% reach at thebeginning of 2007 and 45% at the end of 2007,Wirtualna Polska – 30%, Interia.pl and Gazeta.pl(Sport.pl) – under 20%. The other places in the rankingare occupied by a large number of sites with lownumber of viewers, which fluctuations determined bysports events.

Automotive

Automotive sites are visited by 45-50% of Internetusers in Poland. The category leader is Oto Moto.pl,with its reach exceeding 40% in 2007, followed byautomotive sites of Interia (25%) and Onet (20%).


Site reach – education

80

40

50

60

70

30

20

10


Wikipedia.pl Onet.pl Bryk.plSciaga.pl Wikimedia.pl

2007 II 2007 III 2007 IV 2007 V 2007 VI 2007 VII 2007 VIII 2007 IX 2007 X 2007 XI 2007 XII 200


Site reach – sports

60

30

40

50

20

10


Onet.pl WP.pl SFD.plInteria.pl Gazeta.pl



Site reach – automotive

45

25

30

35

40

20

15

10

5


Otomoto.pl Interia.pl WP.plGratka.pl Onet.pl


Tourism

The reach of this category changes considerablythroughout the year: during holidays it exceeds 50%and in winter it falls down to 40%. The most popularsites are the tourist pages of Onet.pl, visited byapproximately 35% of Internet users in the category.The 2nd place fell to Mapa.szukacz.pl, which lost a largenumber of users in the second half of the year. The othersites hardly ever exceed 10% of reach within thecategory.

Work

The category is lead by Pracuj.pl with its reachranging between 35 and 40%. The second place isoccupied by Gazeta.pl, visited by almost 40% of usersin the second half of the year (the site was the categoryleader at that time), but its reach fell down to 30% atthe year end. Lower places in the ranking are occupiedby Wirtualna Polska and many sites specialised inrecruitment advertisements.

Constructionand real estate

The category is visited by the lowest number ofInternet users (approx. 25%). Its leader is Gazeta.plwith approximately 25% share. 15-20% of reach wasgained by Murator site and approximately 15% byGratka.pl. Subsequent places are occupied byadvertising sites Oto Dom and Trader.



Site reach – tourism

40

25

30

35

20

15

10

5


Onet.pl Szukacz.pl-mapa.szukacz.pl Maps.google.comRozklady.com.pl Eholiday.pl


Site reach – work

45

25

30

35

40

20

15

10

5


Pracuj.pl Gazeta.pl Jobpilot.plInfopraca.pl WP.pl


Site reach – construction, real estate

35

25

30

20

15

10

5


Gazeta.pl Murator.pl Trader.plGratka.pl Otodom.pl



CHAPTER 5

Advertisingonline


This year for the first time ever we

have an opportunity to discuss

individually all segments of online

advertising as separate areas, due

to the fact that in the course of

last year, we managed to invite to

work in partnership with IAB Polska

a number of companies

representing all these segments

and possessing expert knowledge in

these areas, and also to launching

IAB AdEx 20071, a study on the

expenditure on advertising online,

developed in partnership with

PricewaterhouseCoopers Polska

Sp. z o.o. (PwC Polska). The results

of the AdEx study in Poland will be

include in the results of a study

covering the whole Europe and

performed by IAB Europe and

PricewaterhouseCoopers2.



Total net value of Polish online advertising marketlast year reached PLN 742.8 million and consistspractically of all forms of promotion available onlineincluding display advertising, e-mail marketing, searchengine marketing (SEM), advertisements and yellowpages.

In the previous years, the value of the onlineadvertising market estimated by IAB Polska embraced infact only display advertising, so it should not besurprised that this year’s value considerably exceedsmarket estimates for 2007 presented in the annualreport 2006. It is also worth noticing that previous yearsestimates cannot be directly compared with the resultsof IAB AdEx for 2007, due to different methodologiesused in both studies.

From the sector perspective, entertainment andmedia, telecoms, financial services and automotivesector have the highest share in expenditure. European5

expenditure on advertising online last year are estimated

for 12.5 billion EUR with the average increase year byyear of 38% in individual European countries. Mainfactors contributing to the increased expenditureinclude, according to IAB Europe, the dynamicaldevelopment of broadband access and growingconfidence of advertisers in the Internet. The world’slargest online advertising market are the United states,with last year’s expenditure estimated for 21.1 billionUSD, with a 25% increase6. The world’s leaders withrespect to the share of the Internet in advertisingexpenditure on media are four European countries inwhich the share exceeded 15%: Denmark, Norway,Sweden and Great Britain. Globally7, the expenditure onInternet advertising in 2007 made up. 8.1% of allexpenditure on media. This year, the figure should reach9.4%, exceeding expenditure on radio advertising. In2010, the Internet will attract 11.5% of all advertisingexpenditure.

Expenditure on online advertisig

Source: Estimates by IAB Polska based on AdEx 2007, IAB Polska PwC Polska3

E-mail marketingOthers

Display SEM

Classifieds

21.3%

19.7%

10.7%

42.4%

6.0%

Share of individual sectors in expenditure on online advertising

Source: Estimates by IAB Polska based on AdEx 2007, IAB Polska PwC Polska4

6.9%

35%

5.8%

14.3%

13.7%

11.3%8% 5%

OtherTelecommunications Entertainmentand media

Financialservices

Automotive FMCG Other consumer goods

Retail

Expenditure on onlineadvertising


Display advertising continues to be the largest andmost important element of the total online advertisingmarket in Poland.

2007 – The Year ofCreation

In addition to the continuing growth of the expenditureon display advertising, 2007 was marked by anotherpositive trend: more and more attention was paid to thequality of advertising creatives for online campaigns.Agencies more and more often make use of state-of-the-art technology, particularly in multimedia and interactivesolutions. A departure has been noted from more andmore intruding forms such as top layer, brand mark andpop up which are relatively effective with high CTRindicator, but are disliked by Internet users, as theyinterfere with using WWW sites.

More and more attention is paid to the creativity,which should attract attention of users and encourage tofurther interaction. This trend is reflected in the fact thatthe share of in-page advertising makes up 64.3% of totalexpenditure on display advertising and confirms thatPolish market is maturing and moves close to bestdeveloped market, such as the British one, where theshare of in-page forms exceeds 86%. It is also andindirect proof of the facts that Polish marketers began tonotice worldwide standards established some time ago,namely the fact that CTR in image campaigns is notsufficient to confirm success of the campaign. It was also

reconfirmed by results of a study performed in the U.S.9

(9) which proved that 50% of all clicks on advertisingonline is performed by a group of 6% of Internet userswith a very characteristic demographic profile (personswithin 25-44 age bracket and household income belowUSD 40K per year, that is considerably below averageU.S. income). The study showed also that there is norelation between clicking on an ad and the classicalindicators for measuring branding efficiency of thecampaign.

It is worth noting that IAB strives for developing goodpractice in advertising creation.

IAB tries to take into account the good of all interestedparties, that is advertisers represented by interactiveagencies, and also consumers using Internet media. In theresult, it is developing standards focused on giving theusers the highest possible control over the advertisingmessage. For instance, it recommends that the defaultsetting for sound in advertising should be off (with theexception of video advertising set in multimediaenvironment) and that the aggressive forms displayed overthe contents should have a clearly noticeable closingbutton in a predefined location (upper right corner) so thatthe user had no doubts about how to close the ad at hisdiscretion.

Behavioural targeting

Behavioural targeting is another important trend inthe display segment. The topic had been discussed fora long time, but it has started to develop for 2-3 recentyears, confirming its efficiency in marketing. Theprogress in this area has been huge, particularly in thearea of technological and analytical advancement ofcommercial solutions for behavioural targeting.

In the result, behavioural targeting is at present anapproach more complex than a simple method ofdisplaying advertisements to persons who recentlyvisited sites from a given topical group. Advancedalgorithms analysing consumer paths on the Web canon one hand identify group behaviours basing on avariety of criteria and automatically segment consumersand develop behavioural profiles of site groups forwhich the traffic is measured, and on the other candevelop ad hoc analyses and profiles which are bestadjusted to individual requirements of advertisers andcampaign guidelines. In addition to that, modernsystems combine behavioural and demographical data,which further enhances segmentation and preciseprofile description, enabling to envisage consumerbehaviour in compliance with such profiles. In theresult, advertisers gain access to increasingly efficient

Share of various forms of display advertising

Source: Estimates by IAB Polska based on AdEx 2007 study made by IAB Polska and PwC Polska

Over-the-page formats

In-page formats Sponsorship of sites

15.2%

21.6%63.2%

Display advertising



Formats andprospects fordevelopment

Video advertising has appeared relatively recently onthe Web. Initially, the advertising sector assumed thatthis form will be used for direct transferring of TV spotsinto the Web. However, it proved relatively soon that theconsumption of Internet, and particularly the manner ofusing video on the Web, is different than theconsumption of TV; in the result, the advertisers beganto seek alternative manners of conveying the message tothe Internet users, different from the traditional30 second TV spot.

The search focuses on a few aspects: the spotduration (according to a number of studies, the Internetrequires 15 second spots10), the manner of displayingspots on WWW sites and on the extent of efficiency ofTV creations on the Internet, testing whether theadvertisers should make special versions of their spotsfor the Web. Attempts are also made to set video ads inthe environment of multimedia available on the Web,without using video as the direct carrier of advertisingmessage. Examples of such advertisements are variousgraphic forms displayed around the video player or overit. The development of the best practices concerningvideo advertising will probably take some time. Atpresents, two models of video advertising havedominated the market: displaying them before neutral,

non-advertising video contents (so-called pre-roll in-stream) and broadcasting them directly on WWW pageswithin traditional online advertising forms (video ad). In-stream ads can be clickable or not; in the latter case,some editors offer an additional option of combining thevideo message with standard clickable forms ofadvertising displayed on the site. The IAB standard forvideo ads says that spots should not exceed 30 second(although the final decision is at the discretion of theeditors, depending on the contents within which the adsare displayed), and the default sound setting for videoads should be off. Some editors offer also video ads withfilm show turned on by the user, and not automaticallyafter loading the www page.

Expenditure on videoadvertising

Video advertising is one of the fastest developingbranches of Internet advertising worldwide.

According to eMarketer, last year’s expenditure onvideo advertising in the U.S. constituted 3.6% of totalexpenditure on advertising online; this figure the figure isto increase to 4.7% and in 2011 – to 9.8%.

Video advertising andaccess to the Internet

The development of this marketing channel isnaturally combined with the access to broadband

Video and multimedia

opportunities to access the target group of theirdreams, which results in higher campaign efficiency.The approach is beneficial for both sides, as Internetpublishers achieve better return on advertising space.According to eMarketer, the U.S. advertisers spent lastyear 575 million USD on campaigns using behaviouraltargeting, which constitutes 2.6% of all expenditure ononline advertising. This year, the expenditure isexpected to reach the level of USD 1 billion (3.4% oftotal expenditure). Behavioural targeting is present onthe Polish market as well, but the publishers have notyet used the most recent technological solutions.Therefore one may expect that the package of servicesin this area will increase considerably this year and

that advertisers will begin to test the relatedopportunities more intensely.

The strong presence of behavioural targeting in2007 was confirmed by first attempts by IAB todetermine good practice in this area. The basicguideline in brief is the transparency and openness ofcriteria for which users are classified into segmentsprovided by editors. The criteria embrace three groupsof information: the type of viewed contents, theintensity of viewing and the time of collecting data foranalysis. In the result, advertisers can learn aboutprofiles offered by editors and can compare the qualityof profiles developed by editors prior to purchase.


Internet. Although the dial up access, most popular buta few years ago, is practically non-existent now, Polandis still far behind the European average with respect tobroadband, not to mention the best developed countries.According to the recent report of the EuropeanCommission, the penetration of broadband Internet inJanuary 2008 in Poland was

8.4% while the EU average is 20% and the bestcountries have exceeded the level of 35%. This meansthat only one-fourth of Polish Internet users haveInternet connections accepted worldwide as broadband,allowing for free use of voice and video services. Thisconstitutes an barrier for the development of thesegment, although the situation is quickly improving,mostly due to vigorous actions by the Office of ElectronicCommunications and gradually increasing marketfreedom in this respect. One can therefore expect thatPoland, in spite of its infrastructural delays in videoadvertising, will quickly follow the most advancedcountries.


In recent years, the extremely fast process ofdigitalisation of all contents is accompanied by very fastdevelopment of search technologies and their businessapplications. All market studies presented hereinconfirm the importance of search engines as an efficienttool for delivering information to target groups that are ofhighest interest for marketers.

This process is affected by the phenomenon oftransferring high quality contents to the Web, asmentioned earlier, and making these contents available,very fast popularisation of the Web among users andbusiness persons and the growing effectiveness ofsearch tools available on the Web.

Two main purposes for using search engines areresearch and purchases. While seeking generalinformation, consumers usually use natural searchresults. If they seek information on particular products,most of them browse through sponsored search results,and 44% of users click them and get acquainted withthe product range. According to a study by Kelsey Groupand comScore, local queries are enjoying high popularity(such as real estate Warsaw, dentist Poznań) whichmake up approximately 20% of all queries. 70% ofconsumers declare using Internet when purchasingproducts or services on local markets, and more thanhalf (54%) use it instead of popular yellow pages to findany services of interest. In addition to that, 33% ofpersons using search engines locally want to make apurchase immediately and declare that they wouldprefer to contact the company by phone. For this reason,an increasing number of small and medium companiesoperating on local market use promotion tools in searchengines.

Trends on the searchengine and contextualnetwork advertisingmarket

The increasing number of Internet users and queriesresulted in growing interest of advertisers in promotionin search engines, which translates in turn intoincreased advertising expenditure on search enginemarketing and contextual network marketing. IAB Polskabasing on the AdEx 2007 IAB Polska and PwC Polskastudy estimates that expenditure on search enginemarketing in Poland in 2007 amounted to PLN 146.3

million. Polish market will probably follow the WesternEuropean trend where search engine marketing drivesthe development of Internet advertising. This trend iswell confirmed by a comparison of advertisingexpenditure on Polish and British market. In Poland, theshare of search engine marketing expenditure amountsat present to 19.7% of expenditure on online11

advertising, while in the Great Britain, the Europeanleader in this area, the same figure amounts to 57.1%.The expenditure on search engine advertising in the U.S.in 2007 amounted to 4.5 billion USD, and expenditure



Search engines and context

Measured efficiency indicators of SEM campaigns

All Advertisers Agencies

Traffic level 73% 71% 74%Conversion rate 71% 62% 70%CTR 68% 65% 70%ROI 62% 53% 67%Cost per click 61% 60% 61%Cost per action 58% 48% 65%Total sales 49% 38% 56%Total income growth 47% 41% 51%Return on Adex 43% 37% 47%Link ranking in SE 34% 31% 37%Satisfaction of superiors 37% 39% 36%Cost of sales online 28% 19% 33%Effect on brand 21% 16% 25%

Source: The State of Search Engine Marketing 2006, SEMPO, January 2007

Goals of SEM campaigns

All Advertisers Advertisersunder 500 over 500employees employees

Direct sales of products or services 58% 59% 56%Brand awareness increase 57% 55% 62%Generation of actionsleveraging sales via other distribution channels 47% 46% 52%Traffic increase 42% 42% 40%Generating actions for partners,leveraging their sales 20% 21% 19%Providing information or educational contens 13% 12% 15%Others 3% 3% 0%

Source: The State of Search Engine Marketing 2006, SEMPO, January 2007

on contextual network marketing – 838 million USD.Forrester Research estimates, that by the year 2012,the expenditure on search engine advertising willdouble, and expenditure on contextual networkadvertising will increase more than fivefold.

The contextual networks also developed intensely in2007. Display and video forms introduced in 2006 incontextual advertising networks kept gaining popularitythroughout the year. Polish contextual networks stakedon attracting valuable sites, combining textual anddisplay advertising, partner certification programmesand numerous enhancements and new functionalities inAPI interfaces for advertisers. They also developed newcontextual networks connected with advertising sitesand networks.

Reacting to the intense development of local searchmarket, Polish search engines introduced telephonelinks in their products. Telephone links are displayed insearch engines similarly to standard sponsored links, butit is provided with a special telephone number to reachthe company of interest to the user. The service issettled by pay per call, which means that the advertiserpays only for the direct effect resulting in a telephonecontact made by a potential customer. Telephone linksare also available for mobile phones of the users whobrowse through results of mobile versions of searchengines and localisators

The professional provision of SEM services becamean important phenomenon on the Polish market in2007. The existing agencies confirmed their renown byobtaining prestigious certificates or joining professionalassociations of SEM or Web involved companies such asSEMPO or IAB. Media houses also responded to the

high demand for professional SEM services, althoughthey initially neglected this segment. Now theyappointed their own SEM offices

Another important element was the departure fromthe CPM settlement model; practically all Polish searchengines began to use in 2007 the CPC settlement.

SEM – globaltendencies

PAs confirmed by the above examples, the PolishSEM and contextual network advertising market followstrends typical for mature foreign market, it is worthpresenting the changes in SEM perception and approachto it among marketers from the U.S. and WesternEurope.

The most recent research on the SEM market inFrance, Spain and Italy (where the market developmentprocesses are similar to Poland) performed by JupiterResearch in 2007 and ordered by SEMPO presents themost typical challenges encountered by advertisers inthese countries. The most frequent problems includeincreasing competition in climbing to top search resultposition, the measurement of campaign results,selecting right keywords, growing prices per click andclick frauds.

Two-thirds of SEMPO respondents were affected byclick prices increase. Three out of four advertisers canafford the increasing expenditure, but one fourthassessed that they would not be able to pay higherprices per click.

More than 50% of respondents used the followingcampaign efficiency indicators:

Traffic on page, conversion, CTR, ROI, cost per clickand cost per action. Less than half of respondents stillmeasured the value of sales online, total revenuegrowth, return on AdEx, link positioning in SE, projectleader satisfaction, cost of online sales generation andeffect on brand awareness. According to the SEMPOresearch, the key goals of marketers are increasedproducts sales and development of strong brand (thelatter mostly among large companies over 500employees). Larger companies most often point toincreasing their sales via resellers, are more frequentlyfocus at information and education actions (15%).

E-mail marketing is a direct marketing form using e --mail as the communications tool, and embracinganalyses, planning, implementation andmonitoring ofthe following processes: establishment and developmentof e-mail address database, database management,



% 10 20 30 40 50

SEM management in varioussearch engines

SEM management in variouscountries/languages

Reduction of ROI

Click fraud

Increase of prices on highdemand key words

Selection of right key words

Efficiency tracking

Increased competitiveadvantage in rankings 48

42

38

31

24

21

19

18

Competition nad officiency tracking are basic problemsof advertisers using Search Marketing techniques

Source: Jupiter Research/SEMPO

56 dodatek do „Media & Marketing Polska”

contents development and e-mail message creation, e-mail despatching, feedback management anddevelopment of communications pattern for e-mailing.Basic tasks of e-mail marketing include the developmentof consumer loyalty, establishment of relations withcustomers, development of desirablecorporate/organisation image and sales. The mostpopular e-mail marketing tools include advertisements ine-mail messages, company newsletters, internalbulletins and e-dailies. E-mail marketing refers to thepermission marketing concept, under with the recipientof a marketing message should agree to receive it;otherwise, e-mail marketing turns in to spam.

2007 was the year of advertising e-mail development(e -mail marketing is sent by owners of databases such asportals and vortalsupon order of third parties) and ofdevelopment of own mailing list by marketers, to be usedfor establishing permanent contact with various groups ofrecipients and for newsletter communications. At thesame time, one observed increased use of e-mail as acommunication tool supporting various operatingprocesses in companies (such as confirmation of onlinepurchases, recruitment, request and registration forms,reminders and alerts).

IAB Polska estimates12 that the value of Polishemail marketing in 2007 amounted to 44.3 millionPLN, including editors revenue from despatchingadvertising e-mails upon order, and revenue ofinteractive agencies from managing newslettercommunications for customers and selling e-mailmarketing tools.

The negative aspect of the popularity of e-mail isspamming its users with unwanted commercialinformation. In its report of January 2007, Symantecsaid that spam constitutes 69% of all e-mails senton the Web. Naturally, users receive a much smalleramount of such information, due to the increasingefficiency of anti-spam filters. Addresses seem to havegotten used toremoving unwanted mail, which does notlimit their interest in using e-mail services.

E-mail incorporatemarketingcommunications

E-mail marketing is themost commonly usedinteractive marketing form in Polish companies. 80% ofmarketers declare that they use various forms of e --mailing in various promotional actions13 and almosthalf of them send out newsletters14.

E-mailing is also the best known advertising methodamong consumer. Its popularity translates into theincreasing awareness on using e-mails in marketingcommunications, both among marketers and interactiveagencies or editors. The companies create new postssolely for managing e-mail marketing, and the marketalready has agencies specialised in such activities.Newsletter communications using the concept ofpermission marketing is also increasing in importance.This approachrequires the consent of addresses forreceiving promotion messages, by entrusting theiridentification e-mail address. Such requirement is alsostipulated by the Law on performing electronic services.Marketers establish and develop address databases,paying increasing attention to their professional usage.This is also related to the increasing pressure onstrengthening customer loyalty, by delivering regularmessages by e-mail, among other methods. The dynamicdevelopment of e-mail marketing and newslettercommunications in particular results from its efficiency,which is in turn due to the fact that customers receiveordered informationwhichis adjusted to their interests. Forthis reason, average efficiency indicators measured bydirect activities of recipientsremain in this segment on arelatively high level.

89% of companies using e-mail marketing are of theopinion that this method brings measurable benefits totheir companies (15), such as the increased interactionwith customers, increased number of visits on the siteand reduced costs of communications. Probably for thesereasons, 64% of marketers declared increasedinvolvement in this form of communications in the future.

E-mailing despatchessent by publishersonline

IAB Polska and Gemius performed specially for this reporta study on the efficiency of e-mailing campaigns performedby large Polish portals and vortals on the order of thirdparties in 2007. The results contributed to our knowledge ofthe potential of e-mail marketing services in Poland in fourbasic dimensions: the size of address databases, sectorsordering the largest campaigns of this type, average amountof advertising e-mails sent to users and average efficiencyindicators of such campaigns.

E-mail databases to be used for such campaigns by thelargest publishers participating in the project exceed4 million addresses. Other participants reported havingdatabases which do not exceed 1 million addresses.

56 dodatek do „Media & Marketing Polska”, September 2008

E-mail marketing




The sectors which most frequently ordered campaigns in2007 included telecommunications, finances and insurance,as well as automotive industry; the leastnumber of campaignorders came from companies from the textile industry, sportsbetting, media, industry andentertainment/culture/education. The number of advertisinge-mails sent in 2007 to a single user by editors withtheirown address databases ranged between 2 and 31(average 10.4), while the CTR indicator for e-mailingcampaigns ranged between 4 and 35%. The return on e --mailing campaigns ranged between 0% (for mailings only toverified accounts from own address database) to 35%.

Prospects for thefuture

On the markets of Western Europe and the USA, the e --mail is one of the most important media used for corporatemarketing communications. In addition to expenditure onown www sites and SEM, it consumes the largest part ofinteractive marketing budgets. In 2007, the budget share inGreat Britain amounted to 19%. While the value of thewhole Western European e-mail marketing market isestimated for 160 million EUR16.

Marketers using e-mail encounter now considerablechallenges. We estimate that the leading onesincludeensuring failure-freedeliveries to users (bypassinganti-spam filters) andreliable display of e-mails in HTMLformat in various types of e-mailsoftware), as well as theintegration of e-mail marketing systems with database toolsused simultaneously by companies.

Average indicators of e-mailing campaignefficiency, %

Advertising e-mailing Newsletter(%) (%)

CTR 11.7 16.2Openings 25.6 26.8Returns 10.0 7.5

Surce: Gemius, SARE 2008



IAB Polska estimates17 that the revenue of internetclassifieds sites and yellow pages amounted in 2007 toPLN 158.5 million, mostly generated by professionaladvertisers, in particular by SMEs. The remaining part isgenerated by private users.

The basic product in the sector is an advertisement,usually in the form of an announcement indicating thereadiness to perform an activity (concluding a sales/purchasetransaction, establishing partnership, performing anexchange, opening recruitment etc.) and providing contactdetails of the advertiser. In contrast to auction sites, theadvertising sited do not participate in transactions betweenbuyers and sellers and no not collect any fees. Their task isjust to establish contact between the parties by displayingcontact details of one of them. The advertising party and thebuyer contact each other directly, and the advertisement sitecharges only for placing the ad.

Actually, the classifieds sites earnmoney not only byplacing the ads but also by offering a considerablenumber of products and services. Ads can be singled outfor additional charge, packages of services are sold, andregular customers can buy subscriptions and othersupplementary services related to their sector (such asprofessional recruitment services). A large part of revenueis generated also from selling display advertisements.

However, a group of advertising sites does not chargefor their services. Most of them are multi-topical siteswhich attempt to combine advertising with socialservices, similarly to U.S. Craigslist. Basic characteristicsof advertising-community sites include regionalisation(advertisements are grouped by large cities), very simpleform and the presence of a discussion forum.

The development of social classifieds sites is definitelyworthobserving. The model has considerable potential, asit has been illustrated by the immense popularity ofCraigslist. The only problem is the uncertain businessmodel, or rather the lack of it.

On the other hand, the specialised topical classifiedssites or the so-called vertical sites, are great moneyearners. They operate in three leading sectors: work, realestate and car industry.

Work

Recruitment sites are the best profit-generating groupin the classifieds business. The act as an agency betweenwork candidates and potential employers. The candidatesare usually not charges for using the site, and all theprofit is generated by employers and recruitmentcompanies.

Real estate

The key customers of such sites are individualsintending to sell or rent real estate and real estateagencies, together with primary market developers.

Car industry

Automotiveclassifieds sites offer their services toindividuals, commission sales agencies and dealers of newcars. An interesting eventlast year was the attempt tolaunch the first Polish aggregator of car advertisement,intended to work as the search engine for all car sites. Suchmodel was successfully implemented in other countries, byno means limited to car industry, but encompassing alsoreal estate and work. The condition for success of suchproject is the consent of advertising site for indexing theircontent. It is difficult to obtain it, becausesites treataggregators as potential dangerous competitors. For thisreason it seems that such projects do not have greatchances for success on the Polish market.

An analysis of activities and habits of Internet userssuggests that the Web is not only the source of

Classifieds



Advertising in games

information, a bottomless treasury of knowledge anda medium for communicating with people who arethousands of kilometres away. In recent years, the Webbecame a great virtual playground, and by no meansonly for children; this stereotype has been abandoneda long time ago. The most numerous group of Internetusers are adults who first surfed on the Web in the1990’s. If at that time they were teenagers, then nowthey belong to the generation of 20 and 30 years oldpersons. They not only spend long hours writingpresentations, reports, tables, sending e-mails andsearching for information, but also use their PCs forentertainment. This is an ideal moment for playinggames.

The Internet turned into a fully interactive mediumoriented towards direct contact and interaction with theuser. The trend affects also the product presentationmethodsused on the Web. Marketers noticed the potentialresulting from shifting the emphasis in Internetcommunications from push to pull and with increasingfrequency they decide to create mechanisms that let theusers decide whether they want to play with the brand orproduct before they buy, and even show them the games toplay with it. This purpose is achieved with two marketingtools, that is in-game advertising, that is placement of adsin exiting games online, for PC or console, or advergames,that is the development of PC games for brands or productsand placing them on the Web.

The market of computer games has long ago ceasedto be small or niche. It is estimated that its global valueon the turn of 2007 and 2008 exceeded 35 billionUSD, and will increase up to almost 50 billion in threeyears’ time. These values describe the whole market,including production, promotion, distribution etc. Thevalue of advertising in games in 2007 alone exceededone billion USD. Games are slowly turning into a newmedium used by marketers for product promotion.

A comparison of statistics concerning expenditure onadvertising in games shows that it will grow relatively

faster than the game market itself. It is to grow almosttwofold in the coming three years, and every seconddollar spent on advertising in games willgo to the U.S.market.

This comes as no surprise, because the largestmanufacturers of computer games are based in TheU.S.A., and American budgets for the newestmultimedia productions often match those made up inHollywood. However, Europe follows the example of theU.S.A., turning games into a separate category of onlinecommunications. Although it is estimated that thenumber of game-playing Poles may even amount to 4,5million persons (source: Gry-online.pl), the awareness ofthis fact among marketers is relatively low, with theexception of child brand managers. No wonder: 70% ofchildren use the Internet, mostly for playing games18.The interest in such entertainment is almost the sameamong boys and girls in the age bracket of 7-14 years.Girls spend more time on game sites than boys (4 h 50min – 4 h 34 min respectively). Polish game portals aredeveloping very fast, and the quality of games is moreand more frequently as good as that ofgames by foreigncompetition.

Adults from the age group of 20-34 years are alsoplaying games (more than 30% of respondents), menand woe almost alike (56 and 44% respectively)19. It isworth noting that this group is not only limited to ITspecialists, programmers and graphic artists whoseworkrequires spending many hours in front of thecomputer screen. Games online are played byindividuals who do it for pleasure, often with friends orfamily members. They are better educated thanaveragePoles, they earn more, are fond of experimenting, arenot afraid of new things and gladly buy thingssuggestedby advertisements. They spend an increasing amount oftime on the Web, which involves time for entertainmentonline. The largest group online game players arepersons whospend time on Web entertainment everyday. 85% of respondents enjoy online entertainment at



Expenditure on in-game advertising worldwide, 2006-2001

billion USD 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0

1.938

1.855

1.658

1.330

1.003

0.692

Source: eMarketer.com, April 2007

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

Expenditure on in-game advertising in the U.S.A, 2006-2001

billion USD 200 400 600 800 1000

969

928

829

665

502

346

Source: eMarketer.com, April 2007

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

least once a week20. This result is particularly importantwhile designing competitions or games with some orseveral steps or stages.

The number of persons sending links to theirfavourite games to friends is also increasing, and lastyear it grew by 10%. This figure confirms the fact thatgames online functioning mostly due torecommendations among friends, are a perfect mediumfor viral marketing. Games sent out by users allow tomaximise interest in advertising. The power of this toolis the trustworthiness of messages received fromacquaintances whom we believe. Research shows alsothat only 6% of Internet users refuse to open linksreceived from friends.

The most important thing for a marketer is the factthat a game online, whether promoting toothpaste,spirits or new exclusive car models, is just a

sophisticated form of online advertising, in which therecipient decides about the length and manner of hiscontact with the brand. This unique experience of thebrand is the point here. Such contact is much longerthan standard advertisingand effects are relatively easyto measure, for instance by statistics of a specialpurposewww site where the game is placed.

Since the beginning of internet advertising, its basicdistribution channels were advertising portals andnetworks. Observation of the development of PolishInternet in recent months showsnew trends which leadto establishing additional channels for the distribution ofadvertising.

References:1IAB AdEx 2007 study involved 25 leading companies representingonline advertising market in Poland. The process of collecting,aggregating and analysing data was performed by PwC Polska, butdata presented in the report were not subjected to any form of auditperformed by PwC Polska.

2These result shall be officially presented in June at IAB Europe Interact2008 Congress.

3The share of individual segments of online advertising were estimatedby IAB Polska basing on declared revenue provided for PwC Polska bykey representatives of Polish online market.

4The share of individual sectors in online advertising expenditure wereestimated by IAB Polska basing on declared revenue provided for PwCPolska by key representatives of Polish online market.

5 The research on advertising expenditure PwC/IAB Europe encompasses15 countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,Greece, Italy, Holland, Spain, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, Norway,Turkey and Poland.

6 Data: PwC/IAB US.7 Data: ZenithOptimedia.8The share of individual forms of display advertising were estimated byIAB Polska basing on declared revenue provided for PwC Polska by keyrepresentatives of Polish online market.

9Natural born clickersstudy performed by Starcommedia house,comScoreand Tacoda.

10E.g. Frames of Reference: Online Video Advertising, Content andConsumer Behaviour study, June 2007, Online Publishers Association.

11Based on AdEx 2007 IAB Polska and PwC Polska.12Estimate by IAB Polska based on IAB AdEx 2007 by IAB Polska and

PwC Polska.14Data: SARE E-mail use study, September 2007.15Data: SARE E-mail use study, September 2007.16Data IAB Europe/PwC.17Estimate by IAB Polska based onAdEx 2007 study by IAB Polska and

PwC Polska.18Study by Gemius SA, June 2007.19Data Millward Brown SMG/KRC TGI/NetTrack.20Study performed on the turn of 2007/2008 by Ostryga

e-ntertainment.



New models of advertisementdistribution

Topical networks

One of the new distribution channels are the relativelynew topical networks. Their existence is the logicalconsequence of the increasing popularity of specialised siteswith sufficiently high reach to be of interest for advertisers.This phenomenon is a proof that Polish Internet reached amature stage, with increasingly demanding consumers whoseek specialised knowledge and use Internet as anindispensable work tool. For the time being, topical networksin Poland include real estate and business. Their restrictedoperations allows for precise development of offers forcustomers from the above sectors. Narrow specialisationallows to access more demanding target groups with moredetailed offers.

Individual Internet siteswith own advertisingsales

Another distribution channel are individual Internet siteswhich opened their own advertising sales and resigned fromtheir network membership. These sites offer a variety ofadvertising products which are precisely matched with thearea of their operations, being much more precise thanindividual sections of large portals or topical networks. Thisinteresting phenomenon is a proof of the advanceddevelopment stage of Polish Internet.

Topical sites diversifyingthe contents of mainportals

The last of the new channels are Internet sites of mainportals operating under independent brands. In the result oftheir contents diversification and strong promotion, some oftheir brands have become quite well known and haveexceeded the structures of their parent portal, creating extraadvertising space. This trend allows portals to diversify theiruser profile etc.

Ad settlement models

In recent months, advertisement distribution has changednot only with respect to the place of ad displaying, but also tosettlement methods. Campaigns based on efficiency salesmodels, such as CPC (cost-per-click), CPA (cost-per-action)and CPL (cost-per-lead) have developed intensely, due to theestablishment of new companies specialised in themanagement of such campaigns, to high sales efficiency

offered by the model and also to the appearance of foreigncompanies on the Polish market. 2007 was also a year inwhich the customers awareness increased with respect totheir presence on the SEM and SEO (Search EngineOptimisation) market; this resulted in the increased numberof companies offering comprehensive servicesin this respect.

An analysis of the above new trends shows that all ofthem head towards solutions which are more and moreefficient in using Internet for marketing actions. This goeshand in hand with the worldwide marketing trend towardsseeking new, more involving and more effective channels fordelivering advertising message to customers.

How often do you play computer games?

Source: Ostryga e-entertainment 2008

Everyday4-6 times a week2-3 times a week

Once a week A few times per month A few times a year

42%

18%

17%

8%10%

5%

Do you send links to games to your friends?

Source: Ostryga e-entertainment 2008

Yes

No

62%

38%

18% of Poles have at least once in their life madea purchase on the Web, says a report made by Cetelem.This rate is still quite low as compared with Germany,Great Britain or France, but one should consider the factthat access to Internet is in Poland also much lowerthan in the leading countries.

In 2007, shopping was the third most popularpurpose of using the Web among Polish Internet users,named after the search for information and using e-mail,as showed by Net Track. 42.2% of respondents declaredthat they make purchases on the Web. It is estimatedthat the e-commerce market recorded in 2007 thevolume of trade exceeding 8 billion PLN, exceeding by61% the results of 2006.

The rate of users shopping on the Web keepsincreasing, and the number of e-store and e-auctioncustomers grows faster than the number of Internetusers in Poland. Net Track report made at the end of

2007 showed that 45% of Internet users shoppedthrough Internet, which is equivalent to 5,8 millionpersons. This group increase by 2,5 million customersas compared with 2006. Research of the e-commercemarket performed by Gemius also confirms the fastincrease of Internet users who shopped on the Web.

The number of e-shoppers in 2007 increased to66%, by 11% as compared with 2006.

The research shows also that auction shopping iseven more popular, with 76% of polled personsshopping there, as compared with 58% respondents


CHAPTER 6

E-commerce market


Rate of persons buying on the Web as compared to total population of a country

% 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Denmark

Great Britain

Belgium

France

Italy

CzechRepublic

Poland

Slovakia

Spain

Hungary

Sweden

Portugal

Russia

All13 countries

62

57

51

48

27

24

18

18

16

12

7

6

4

28

Source: Obserwator Cetelem 2007

The value of Polish e-commerce market

Source: eCard, Allegro.pl, IAB Polska, Sklepy24.pl, InternetStandard

mlnPLN

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

48 60 152

180 32

841

0

980

921 13

0018

00 2000

3000

3470

4600

E-stores Internet auctions

Persons shopping on the Web

Year Number of Rate ofInternet users Internet users (%)

2007 5,819,510 45.002006 3,350,420 28.712005 1,542,876 18.292004 789,436 10.692003 692,173 10.612002 459,008 7.912001 264,894 5.95

Source: SMG/KRC NetTrack, December 2001-2007

shopping at e-stores. The group of persons shoppingboth at e-auctions and e-stores is also numerous andencompasses 34% of Internet users. The results of thestudy hardly changed as compared with 2006.

The most numerous group of Polish consumersdeclare that they make a few buys on the Web a year(39%), but groups which go shopping on the Web atleast once a month (19%) and a few times a month(13%) also seem quite numerous.

E-commerce does not have to fear anything in theimmediate future. If a user has successfully doneshopping on the Web, he most frequently declares tocontinue shopping with the same frequency (39%) ormore often (36%).


Places for e-shopping

Source: Gemius SA/Sklepy24.pl, E-commerce in Poland 2007, July 2007

Internet stores and auctions Only e-stores

Only auctions

24%

42%

34%

The frequency of e-shopping (May 2007)

11

4


Only once

About once a week

Several times a month

About once a month

A few times a year

About ance a year

Less than once a year

% 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

1

4

13

19

39

7

6

The frequency of e-shopping in the future(May 2007)


Hard to sayI do not intend to buy on the Web any more

More often

Less frequently than until nowSame frequency

36%

39%

1%

1%

23%

Categories of products purchased through the Internet

Source: SMG/KRC NetTrack, January/December 2007

Clothes, lingerie, shoes

Books

Radio/tv sets

Computers

Mobile phones. Accessories, cards

Cosmetics

Music (discs, cassettes, dvd, mp3)

Cars, motocycles, spare parts

Fashion accessories, jewellery, watches

Air and railway tickets

Cameras

Items for children

Sports/tourist accessories

Household equipment

Concerts tickets

Computer games

Films (vhs, dvd, cd-r)

Household appliances

Software

Tourist services

Items for collections, modelling, hobbies

Gardening accessories, plants, seeds

Musical instruments

Others

Never bought anything

16.83

10.21

10.18

10.12

9.71

9.04

7.40

6.41

6.25

6.07

6.06

5.92

5.91

4.98

4.90

4.69

4.59

4.50

3.69

2.70

2.03

1.37

2.06

% 10 20 30 40 50 60

1

1

1

1

9

9

7

6

6

6

6

5

5

4

4

4

4

4

3

2

2

1

2

50.96

17.54


Internet users declare that they most often buyclothes, lingerie and shoes on the Web (17,5% ofInternet users) and books (16,8%). Other most popularpurchases include radio and TV equipment, PCs, mobilephones/accessories/cards, says Net Track.

E-stores

The value of Polish e-store market in 2007 wasestimated at 3,47 billion PLN, and increased by 74% ascompared with previous year. Sklepy 24.pl site estimatesthat at the end of 2007 Poland had approximately4 thousand e-stores, as compared with about2.5 thousand in 2006.

In Sklepy 24.pl catalogue (almost 3,3K stores), themost numerous group encompasses home & garden, gifts

& accessories, health & beauty as well as photo& household appliances/radio & TV. Gifts and accessoriescategory recorded the highest increase of its share ascompared with 2006.

The study performed by Sklepy 24.pl shows that morethan a half of e-stores (52.1%) treats the Web as theadditional sales channel. The remaining part (almost 2Kof stores) are solely virtual brands. The study shows alsothat three quarter companies have one e-store, 18% ofpolled entities manage 2 stores with different productprofiles and 7% companies have three or more e-stores.

The e-commerce market in Poland is quite young, asmore than a half (54.2%) of polled stores have beenoperating on the Web for up to 2 years. However, thisgroup has decreased by almost 7% in the course of lastyear, in favour of companies with larger history ofoperations.

The Megapanel study shows that in December 2007the highest number of users visited Merlin.pl (1.75million) and Empik.com (1,04 million). The marketleaders with respect to the number of users are not alwaysthe same as the leaders with respect to the trade volume;the product profile also plays an important role. Theranking published by Sklepy 24.pl/Internet Standard, thehighest volume of trade was achieved by Agito.pl(120 million PLN) and Komputronik.pl (100 million PLN),with Merlin on the third place. The YTY dynamic growthof the e-commerce market shapes optimistic approachof e-traders. 76% of them expect higher volume of tradein the coming year, showed a poll by Gemius.


Product range structure of Polish e-stories

Source: Sklepy24.pl, December 2006/2007

2006 2007

Home & market

Gifts & accessories

Health & beauty

Photo, radio/tv,householdappliances

Computer

Clothing

For children

Hobby

Sport & tourism

Books & multimedia

Car/parts

Delicatessen

% 3 6 9 12 15

13.914.8

9.310.5

10.510.3

11.310.3

10.110.1

8.38.9

8.57.5

7.17.2

6.96.7

6.56.1

5.15.1

2.52.5

The length of operation of Polish e-stories


2006 2007

25.720.3

Less than 1 year

1-2 years

2-5 years

More than 5 years

% 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

220 322

35.333.9

32.136.7

6.99.2


Revenue of Polish e-stories


2007 2008

Agito.pl

Komputronik.pl

Merlin.pl

Oponeo.pl

Max24.pl

Hoopla.pl

Empik.com

Megamedia.pl

Sirius.pl

Stereo.pl

e-Cyfrowe.pl

Militaria.pl

mln PLN 20 40 60 80 100 120

12053

10047.5

8063

6330

6025

51.727

40-5017.9

4023

2716

207.5

1713.5

10.77.5

12-month revenue change forecast for e-stories (2007)

Hard to say

Will remain on the present level

Will increase

Will decrease

76%

11%12%

1%

Auction platforms

Auction platforms generated in 2007 a revenueamounting to PLN 4.6 billion, or 57% of total e-commercemarket, reporting an increase of 53% as compared with2006. The market leader is Allegro.pl, which according toMegapanel was visited by 7.42 million users in December2007, due to which the platform ranked fourth in the realusers ranking. In December 2006, the platform occupiedthe same position. For comparison, the number of userswho visited eBay.pl at the same time was 1.77 million,while Swistak.pl was visited by 0.86 million users. Theannual value of transactions concluded at Allegro in 2007was 3.8 billion PLN, increasing by 52% as compared with2006. It is estimated that more than 80% of totaltransaction value is processed by Allegro.pl.

Annual value of transactions made at Allegro.pl

Source: Allegro.pl

mlnPLN

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

68 171386

831

1554

2500

3800


The continuing growth trend is reported also withrespect to the number of items sold annually: in 2007this figure exceeded 70 million, exceeding by 53% thefigures from previous year. Allegro users most frequentlysell lifestyle products, that is clothing, collections,radio/TV equipment, household appliances andcomputers. Allegro offers daily more than 3.5 millionauctions, reporting an increase as compared with2 million auctions daily in 2006.

A study by Net Track shows that although the rateof Internet users shopping on the Web is constantlyon the increase, while this rate hardly grows forparticipants in e-auctions. In December 2007, 21.8%users participated in auction trade, and the same figurefor 2006 amounted to 19.6%.



Annual number of items sold at Allegro.pl

Source: Allegro.pl

thousandsitems

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

80,000

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

469 1,677 4,550

11,885

25,900

46,000

70,579

Percentage of Internet users participatingin e-auctions

Year Number Rateof users of users (%)

2003 462,390 7.12004 737,043 10.02005 1,303,997 15.52006 2,283,637 19.62007 2,825,087 21.8

Source: SMG/KRC NetTrack, December 2003-2007

VFP Communications Sp. z o.o. Ltd.ul. Wał Miedzeszyński 630, 03-994 Warszawa

tel.: 022 514 65 00, faks: 022 740 51 00di l

Special Report 2009

CONTACT: [email protected], phone: 022 514 65 00

INTERNETINTERNETin February!

IN REPORT.:

Interactive Agencyof the Year;Start-Up of the yearawards;Polish Internet – annual summary.

In search for an opinion

The Trust Barometer study released in 2006 byEdelman says that 68% of respondents trusts others asstrongly as they trust themselves while making decisionson purchases. After less than two years, this trend wasreflected also in the behaviour of online buyers.

The activation time of Internet users in the Web 2.0era considerably affected the contents of the Internet.Today, the strength of a network is determined to a largeextent by the so-called user generated contents, createddirectly by users. It is reflected primarily by opinions onproducts and services used by them in real life. Thisphenomenon is of paramount importance now, when e--shopping has gained immense popularity. Internet usersbuy more and more and e-sellers give up theirreservations, opening still more e-commerce projects.

The Internet Standard E-commerce 2007 reportshows that we buy increasing numbers of products in e--stores and on e-auctions. Our purchasing decisions areaffected primarily by recommendations of our friends.A study by J.C. Williams Group performed for theCanadian branch of Yahoo! proved thatrecommendations are the most trusted source of productinformation (selected by 60% of the polled), leavingbehind magazines which are treated as the keyinformation on products by 31% of respondents. Thepoll confirmed the fact that 38 buyers online compareoffers by various e-stores. This figure has grown by 4 ascompared with 2006.

Social shopping becomesfashionable

Internet is an excellent source of product and companyinformation, providing opinions which affect purchasedecisions or even employment decisions. Opinions onproducts published within a community provide a base fora new trend defined as social shopping. One third of Internetusers admit that their purchasing decisions are affected bycommunity sites. In 2007, Jupiter Research performed apoll on the issue, with results published as iProspect SocialNetworking User Behaviour Study, April 2007. Thequestionnaire provided a definition of a community site asa site which enables users to add their own contents andopinions, including for instance Amazon.com and similarsites where users can exchange information on products.56 of TripAdvisor visitors, 39% of Yahoo!, Answers andCraigslist users and 32 of Village users seek primarilyproduct and service information.

A study by Forrester Research, with approximately5 thousand Internet users as respondents, concerned themost desirable contents and functionalities of e-commercesites and showed that most users want the access tocomments and product rankings. 64% of consumers saidthat they best appreciate comments on products provided byother Internet users. However, only 23% expect that Internetsites should provide an option to add one’s own contents.Almost the same number of respondents want to se clearlydetermined prices. 61 of them pointed to details of specialdeals, while 59 wanted access to price comparison tools forindividual products.


CHAPTER 7

Internet as a source ofinformation onproducts andcompanies


Consumer Power!

Members of WOMMA (Word of Mouth MarketingAssociation), Bazaarvoice and Vizu Corporation createda study on the importance of consumer comments.It proved that eight out of ten Americans trust brandswhich use consumer comments in their marketingactions. 75% of the polled is of the opinion that resultsof consumer analyses should be consulted prior tomaking a purchase. 85% of respondents preferconsumer comments to expert opinions. This situationhas been confirmed by a study by eMarketer which saysthat comments by common users are considered mosttrustworthy by Internet users. However, the position ofexperts remains safe: corporate analysts are a valuablesource of knowledge for 56% of Internet users, andscientists – for 54% of users. 12% of the polled trustbloggers, and 23% – heads of companies.

Online supports offline

Power Reviews (a member of WOMMA) conducteda study on the potential of Internet comments onproducts in the U.S. It proved that 22% consumersalways browse through comments before productspurchase. 43 of respondents do it in most cases, andonly 2% do not user comments.

Results of the most recent study by eMarketer, signedby Jefferey Grau (“EMarketer The Multi-ChannelRetailing”, February 2008) confirm that modernconsumers gain product information in the Internet fortheir non-virtual shop purchases as well. Estimates ofthe analytical team at eMarketer.com show that the realsales supported by Internet promotions reached in theU.S.A. in 2007 the value of 471 billion USD, while thevalue of online sales amounted only to 136 billion USD.The poll showed that the major part of purchases madein real world is preceded by seeking information online.Estimates by eMarketer show that real world purchasesaffected by Internet promotions, combined with e--commerce sales made up 15% of total retail sales in2007 in the U.S.A. All things considered, this indicatorwill probably double by the year 2012, reaching thelevel of 28%.

Monitoring of Internetcommunications

This year’s Internet crises which affected such renownedbrands and organisations as mBank or Allegro.pl show that

information on the Web can spread with the speed of light.Just a single information on a specialised site, such asHacking.pl is enough to affect newsmen from the bestopinion-making and most frequently viewed portals. For thisreason, current and constant monitoring of Internet gains anincreased importance.

Internet monitoring may be performed with ownresources of the company, or can be outsourced toa specialised media monitoring firm. Monitoring withone’s own resources uses Internet and news searchengines, news aggregators and RSS readers.

Internet searchengines

Internet search engines are the most popular Internetmonitoring tools (e.g. Google, Onet – Szukaj/Morfeo,WP/Net Sprint.pl, which return the highest amount ofsearch results in Polish. However, a feature, commenton a site or a post has a chance to appear within searchresults after 24 hrs from posting it. Its ranking withinsearch results depends mostly on the popularity of thesite on which it was placed, as search engines returnsearch results in the order compliant with its searchalgorithm, which is mostly oriented towards sitepopularity.

News search enginesand aggregators

Other commonly available tools are new searchengines, which can operate as separate sites, such asthe first Polish news search engine Donosiciel launchedby Net Sprint.pl, or as a functionality of large Internetportals (such as Gazeta.pl, WP.pl or IDG.pl). Newssearch engines do not require installing any extraapplications, they are used in a way similar to standardsearch engines; however, the functions of the tool aremore advanced, as it can inform on the placement ofnews of interest to the user. The information is deliveredby e-mail or via RSS channel; the tool can also browsenews within a predefined time bracket or return searchresults for a specified key words.

RSS aggregators(readers)

Other tools which facilitate Internet browsers are RSSaggregators (readers) such as. Cafe News, BRE Info,



intraVnews, News Feed, Paseczek, RSS Bandit, RSSReader, RssSpeed or Wiadomek. RSS aggregators orreaders consist of software which has to be loaded intothe operating system, and configured. The mostproblematic functionality of a RSS reader is adding newinformation channels, as it can monitor only the sitesand blogs whose existence is known to the operators.Another condition is presence of the RSS channel ona site in question, as the reader skips sites without thecannel. Newly launched sites have RSS channels asa standard option, but many sites created before Web2.0 lack such channels.

Blog search engines

Browsing blog contents is possible via blog searchengines. The best known foreign tools of this typeinclude Blog Pulse.com and Technorati.com, and Polishones include Blog Frog and 10przykazan.com. Blogsearch engines monitor the activities of bloggersmeasured with the frequency of publishing their entries,the popularity of words and phrases, the popularity ofblogs measured with the number of visits, quotationsand numbers of comments. The results are presented ina simple and understandable manner. Such searchengines can yield results as graphic presentations or canprovide results for several queries at the same time (e.g.names of two U.S. political parties). Their drawbacksinclude limiting the results to the newest entries onlyand skipping older entries referring to the topic inquestion. Some blog search engines require registrationon their site and placing the site logo in the source codeof the blog, which limits the search areas to pre-registered blogs.

Systems for monitoringInternet communications

Systems for monitoring Internet communications aremore advanced than the solutions listed above. They donot require any installation, as they are serviced by anadministration panel to which the users can log in. Theirusage is similar to news search engines, but they offeran option for advanced information analysis, such aspopularity trends, quality of information messages,editors’ activity in a given area or topic and comparativeanalyses of the above data. The engines also haveinformation management tools including thearchivisation of selected information in a user-definedformat, news feed – an option allowing to place links to

selected texts on the user’s site – e-mail, RSS or SMSalerts and contextual search.

In this respect, the systems for monitoring Internetcommunications are similar to services of companieswhich provide monitoring of traditional media.

Some of the systems re specialised in monitoring ofa specific sector. For instance, Media Explorerintroduced its GPW Watcher service which wasoriginally intended to work as a stock exchangecompanies monitoring tool (such companies require fastaccess to information).

The best known monitoring systems of this typeworldwide include Cyber Watcher and E-watch.

The first Polish solutions was NewsPoint system offeredby Net Sprint.pl, a company specialised in Internetmonitoring. Such services are provided by the largestmedia monitoring companies, such as Press -Service (byNet Patrol), Instytut Monitorowania Mediów, ePrasa.com,Newton (working in partnership with NewsPoint in thearea of its Internet services), Media Explorer (in mid 2007acquired by Press-Service), Pan Media and a multitude ofsmaller companies.

The larger provider of such services with respect tothe number of monitored sites is NewsPoint whichcurrently monitors 1.3K sites in Polish and more than650 foreign sources. It is the only company on thePolish market offering a platform for browsing,generating and managing acquired informationimmediately after placing it on the Web. Its customerspay a fixed monthly subscription for Internet monitoringservices with unlimited number of keywords.

NewsPoint is closely followed by Press-Service withits Net Patrol solution (1K sites) and the InstytutMonitorowania Mediów (715 sites). These companiesoffer search services paid per keyword, delivering searchresults in the form of individual cut-outs to theircustomers, via e-platforms. However, their customers donot have the option to browse through Internet in realtime. The strong point of such companies is the optionto browse a large number of traditional media, as thecompanies in question originally specialised intraditional media monitoring and expanded theirservices when the Internet developed.

A report by Monika Kaczmarek-Śliwińska, Ph.D. onInternet monitoring, based on studies made at thebeginning of 2006 says that the range of servicesoffered by monitoring companies is very broad,encompassing the monitoring of information fromportals, vortals, topical sites, news sites and e--newspapers and magazines. However, not all



companies were able to offer monitoring of radio or TVstations broadcast via Internet (respectively 91.67%and 83.33%). A half of polled companies offered alsothe monitoring of discussion lists and groups, forumsand chats, while one third of companies offeredmonitoring of blogs.

Envisaged trends

Due to the expected increase in the number ofInternet users and resulting increase in the number ofsites or user generated contents, experts expect anincreasing importance of such services in the comingyears. A study by Monika Kaczmarek-Śliwińska, Ph.D.,shows that although clients declare the press monitoringas the most important aspect (70% of respondents),monitoring of the Internet is gaining importance(expected increase of user interest up to 70%). Theresearch is confirmed by a change in the structure ofreports with media publications, noticeable in thecourse of two recent years: initially, press publicationswere achieving higher numbers, then the percentagebecame balanced, and then the number of itemspublished on the Web exceeded the number of itemspublished in the press. This phenomenon reflectschanges on the press market, where Internet editorialoffices are being developed together with the contents ofonline equivalents of newspapers/magazines, on theexpense of their paper versions.

Another trend is the introduction of technologicallyadvanced solutions for monitoring user generatedcontents such as blogs, internet forums, video/music/photo file sharing sites etc. This trend will beaccompanied by market education concerning thenecessity of monitoring such site. The research byKaczmarek-Śliwińska shows that monitoring of suchcontents has the same number of supporters andopponents. On the other hand, the U.S. market showsnow a trend for developing solutions which integratevarious types of information placed in the Internet (suchas media monitoring data and company site statistics)with data provided by CRM systems, corporate imageresearch such as DIY Dashboard solution. This willprovide users with more detailed information on PRresults, not limited to the immediate effects, but alsoincluding the long-lasting ones.



The fast development of Internet as an equivalentmedium not only affected public relations activities, butalso changed basic guidelines underlying this sector. Today,the borders of marketing and PR increasingly overlap.Internet changed primarily the model of communicationswith the final recipient. In the era of traditional mediadomination, media served as a channel which linked therecipient, but on the other hand they created a distance,due to which PR people were dependent on journalists.Internet liberated PR from this dependency, althoughduring all-national debates it is noticeable that a largegroup of PR specialists shy away from the Web and takesthe number of journalistic publications as the onlyindicator of their efficiency.

The Internet allows to establish direct relationshipwith the final recipient, giving an opportunity to presentnot only a concrete message, but also to interact. Oneshould be aware of the fact that the audience is tiredwith the mainstream and a participation in a local ortopical forum may be more efficient than another pressconference or individual press releases published innewspapers. A lot of PR specialists are afraid ofparticipating in Internet discussions, however,discussions on the subject of their interest will continue,irrespective of whether they take part in them or not.Active participation provides not only a chance for thedialogue and clarifying doubts, but also for showingrespect to direct recipients/users.

As it has been mentioned earlier, the Internet blursthe border between PR and marketing, and for thisreason a number of PR tools used in the Internet can bejust as well considered to be marketing tools. With theexception of systems of virtual press offices andmonitoring, all the other tools, such as forums, blogsand community sites are used both by marketing andPR. A modern marketing division should treat PRexperts as partners for campaign creators and let himparticipate in campaign development, instead of limitinghis activities to sending out another press release.

The recent year brought about numerous negativeeffects of ignoring Internet users by PR experts; a fewsome instances in which a blogger forced a largecompany to change its policy considerably affected PRsector and Internet users as well. In the era of theInternet, the brand publicity is created not only by PRexperts, press spokesmen and company presidents, butalso by consumers who joined newsmen and investorsin becoming a fully authorised group of public relationcustomers: they want to subscribe newsletters, obtainpress information and participate in conferences.Bloggers seem to be most active in this respect.

New media relations

PR more and more frequently discusses the effect ofthe Internet on media relations, one of its mostimportant branches. The appearance of a prosumer, thatis an active consumer and recipient who gets involved ina dialogue with the company and often is a leader ofpublic opinion on the Internet, changed the approach tomedia relations. The audience of press releases on theInternet is no more limited to newsmen only, but it alsoincludes bloggers and other users.

Press information directed to the Internet should beconcise (not exceeding 1000 characters), wellsupported with links to source pages and to pages onsimilar topics, and supplied with attachments includinggraphic and/or video contents in a suitable format whichshall not unnecessarily burden the e-mail box ofa newsmen.

Interestingly enough, the Internet liberated PR peoplefrom deadlines. The production cycle of a monthlyapproximates 30 days and of a daily – 24 hours, butInternet media count time in minutes which aresometimes decisive of who will be quoted as a source ofinformation. Internet media newsmen work in a differenttime frame than traditional editors. For this reason,information can be sent out on business days and also



CHAPTER 8

WE ARE ME DIA PR in the Internet era"Success is the measure of how many little things you do right"

Jef frey Eisen berg

on weekends. The distribution date should depend onthe priority of the issue of the press release and shouldnot wait for a suitable date before editorial meeting.

Due to the common use of the Internet and thecontinuous information flow, PR experts, spokesmenand employees in charge of communications receive anincreasing number of questions from media, scientists,bloggers and other Internet users. This situation isa huge challenge, not only due to time pressure but alsoto the importance of answers: every information placedon the Web may affect company image.

The efficiency of media relations depends also on theavailability of materials (virtual press offices are quitehelpful in this respect – see information below) as wellas on the ability to undertake a dialogue with theInternet community and to pay attention to all thegroups of recipients.

Virtual press office– something more thana corporate site

A virtual press office is often identified with themodule of a corporate site which is usually named “TheCompany” or “About us”. However, the term meanssomething more. Virtual press offices not only allow forefficient publication of releases for media, but also forcreating a platform for communications between mediarelations experts and journalists and Internet usersinterested in a sector.

Although a few years ago the market offered systemsproviding comprehensive press office management andadministration, this report has not yet discussed themseparately. They are worth attention, for instance due toexcellent search engine positioning of informationpublished in such systems, which allows to accessrecipients interested in the issue in a precise way, notinvolving any additional costs. The benefits of a virtualpress office include its availability on the 24/7 basis,information available via RSS, search for pressinformation by dates and key words, adding newmaterials such as messages in other formats, sourcefeatures, videos and links without overloading mailboxes of journalists, and granting access to suchmaterials to all interested parties. Advanced virtualpress office systems allow for registering newsmen whohave to provide their contact details and specify theirarea of interests in the process, which allows for an easydevelopment of a valuable media database and for moreprecise targeting of information.

Pioneering companies to use virtual press officesinclude BRE Bank SA group (www.media.grupabre-banku.pl), TP group (www.biuroprasowe.tp.pl) andEricsson (www.media.ericsson.pl). At present the mostactive clients of virtual press offices are banking,finance, telecoms and Internet companies. One of theproviders of such services, NetPR.pl, says that suchsolutions are currently used by about 200 companiesincluding enterprises, capital groups and PR agencies.In 2007, the number of virtual press offices increasedby 30%.

The largest systems of virtual press offices servicetraffic on the level of 100K visits per month (data byNetPR.pl system). This number does not seem excessiveas compared with the total number of Internet users, butone should remember that it concerns a niche, preciselytargeted service. The value of the traffic is also provenby the character of the site and its focus on theinformation on a concrete company.

Providers of press offices expect to provide in 2008a number of new solutions such as an option to placeand use videos in players a module of press conferencesonline and an option for managing relations withinvestors.

Blogs as a new PRcommunicationschannel

Blogs turned into a long tail of public relationsand marketing. Another thing which makes thema particularly efficient tool for both of these areas is thefact that blog readers treat them as one of the forms ofauthentic communications, while remaining scepticaland distanced towards advertisements, treating them asmessages which do not belong to the sphere of reality.In contrast to general opinion, Internet users, and youngusers in particular, do not divide the world into virtualand real. Internet is a part of their everyday activities.This fact, combined with the confidence in the contentspresented in blogs has been noticed by modern PR.

Blogs as communications tools provide:1. A simple manner of monitoring opinions of millions

of users on products, brands, companies etc.2. An opportunity to participate in a discussion by

posting comments. 3. An opportunity to commence and shape discussions

by creating and writing one’s own blog.



Discussing the role of blogs in PR activities, oneshould mention two basic activity paths:communications with bloggers and creating one’s ownblog. In both cases, one should accept some generalrules respected in blogosphere:

The language used in contacts with Internet users,particularly in the blogosphere, should be natural.The recipients are best convinced by people whospeak their own language. This task is particularlydifficult for PR people who sometimes haveproblems with getting rid of habitual use of theirlingo. All actions should be transparent, not only due tothe ethical codes (including the code of the Wordof Mouth Marketing Association), but also due tothe fact that mystifications and false identities arevery quickly decoded by Internet users. The lack of communications is also a message.The lack of communications with bloggers,particularly those active in the sector of interest,means no influence on the opinions expressed onthe product or brand in question by millions ofInternet users, both authors and readers.

According to a report published in February 2008 byBlox.pl and Gemius SA (Source: Behavioural motivationsand opinions of blog readers and authors, a report ona poll by Blox.pl and Gemius SA), although most ofbloggers are young people in general, one-third of themis over 30, and most of them are employees (66%) orstudents. The report shows bloggers as very activeInternet users: 92% of them find information onproducts, services or companies on the Web, 85% usediscussion forums and groups, 76% go e-shopping and66% participate in e-auctions.

The results of the report confirm that one should notlook down even at inexperienced bloggers. The studyshows that no experience does not negatively affect thenumber of readers and comments. The most frequentlyupdated blogs turn most popular. A half of authors ofblogs read by at least 1000 persons per week is over30 years of age.

The quoted report proves that blogs are read in bulk(every third person polled declared that he reads at leastseveral blogs). As many as 92% of blog authors enablecomments, which is a proof of their openness todialogue. Two thirds of the polled bloggers checkpersons who place links to their blogs and quote them.37% of respondents reading blogs at least once metpersonally with somebody with whom they made

acquaintance in the role of a blog author orcommentator, and 80% of bloggers discuss their blogswith friends. These figures indicate a huge activity fieldavailable for PR.

Many PR people, particularly those attached totraditional media and used to them, can commit a basicmistake, failing to understand bloggers, their role inshaping the opinion and importance in thecommunications process. While discussing blogosphereas the new PR communications channel one shouldremember that, although bloggers are no newsmen, thisis not a reason to marginalise their importance.



Daily Service“Media & Marketing Polska”

Tadeusz Bogdal, PHONE: +48 22 514 65 64E-MAIL: [email protected]:

The da ily se rvi ce “Me dia & Mar ke ting Pol ska”sup plies the in for ma tion on the la test news from the me dia, ad ver ti sing and mar ke ting fields. It con si sts ma in di vi sions: lo cal news, pu blic or der in for ma tion and in ter na tio nal news (ba sed on the exc lu si ve li cen se of “Ad ver ti sing Age”).

Eve ry day the sub scri bers re ce ive an e -ma il with the la test sec tor news ga the red di rec tly by the jo ur na li sts of “Me dia & Mar ke ting Pol ska” (abo ut 30-45 per day). Mo re over, each sub scri ber has an in di vi du al ac cess pas sword to the web si te www.dzien nik.me dia.com.pl, which con ta ins full in for ma tion as well as se rvi ce ar chi ve.

The measurement ofpopularity of Internetsites in Poland

ME GA PA NEL PBI/GE MIUS

Megapanel, a project conducted by Polskie BadaniaInternetu Co and research company Gemius, expertsconsiderable influence on the whole Internet andadvertising market in Poland.

Megapanel PBI/Gemius is based on fourdifferent data sources: social and demographicinformation from recruitment questionnaires, useractivity statistics of participants in the study at WWWsites, data on popularity of WWW sites audited bygemiusTraffic and data on the number and structure of

Internet user in Poland provided by Millward BrownSMG/KRC.

The panel providing data on WWW sites has presentlyabout 20 thousand registered Internet users.

Megapanel PBI/Gemius provides data on the numberand profiles of users of almost 9 thousand WWW sitesvisited by Polish users and the number and profiles ofusers of Internet messengers (instant messagingapplications). As of September 2007, the measurementembraces also RSS readers and desktop applications.

In addition to basic statistics such as the number ofreal users, page views, sessions and total time spent byusers at the site, one can use also a number of derivativeindicators such as the average number of page views peruser, average time per user, user/page view matchingaffinity index, aggregated viewing figures for selected


CHAPTER 9

Internet marketresearch


Figure 1: Window with an analysis of Megapanel PBI/Gemius results in gemiusExplorer

sites. The data can be analysed only for selected targetgroups, and the filter option can also restrict the scope ofthe analysis to sites with selected value levels forindividual indicators.

Results of Megapanel PBI/Gemius are publishedevery month as of October 2004 for monthly periods,and from December 2005 also for 7-day periods. Fileswith reports are made available up to the 20th day of thesecond month following the month of the research. Thedata are available in the format of gemiusExplorerapplication, enabling the expert of current analysis toCSV format and copying it into the clipboard.

Simultaneously with the study results, the authorspublish also a so-called topical tree which groups theresearched sites into categories with similar characterand contents. The tree includes 12 main categories ofsites:

– culture and entertainment, information, features,media,

– communities,– new technologies,– lifestyle,– business, finance, law,– education,– automotive,– sports,– tourism, – jobs,– construction and real estate.GemiusExplorer allows also to develop one’s own

aggregate trees for performing analyses, includingauthorised aggregate trees which combine sitesbelonging to one editor or sites with advertising spacesold by a single broker.

Ale xa.com

Due to free access, Alexa.com statistics system isa popular tool used by some site owners formeasurement and comparing the viewing figures forindividual Internet sites. Viewing figures tens of millionsof Internet sites are generated by a measurement ofactivities of some million users worldwide who haveinstalled a mechanism built in the Alexa Toolbarapplication.

The available statistics are in fact limited to the reachand number of page views.

Results for individual sites available at Alexa.com areof questionable value, due to the fact that the sampleselection (volunteers who installed the toolbar) is not

representative for the population of all Internet users,and particularly for Web users from individual countries.Due to its special character and low resolution of theresults, Alexa can be used only for estimating changes inviewing trends, solely for larger WWW sites.

Tracking research ofsite viewing figures

ge miu sTraf fic

GemiusTraffic is the most popular tracking system forWWW site tracking of visibility figures. The system isprovided by Gemius, and according to the research byits provider, embraces almost 100% sites providingadvertising services in the Internet in Poland.

Data on user traffic on the sites are collected ona running basis by counting scripts placed in theWWW site code. The cookies technology which allowsfor identifying Internet users lets the system recordevery page viewing. Results are presented in realtime via an interface available through Internetbrowsers.

GemiusTraffic provides a large amount of informationon the behaviour of users on the monitored site. Thebasic measurement unit is a page view, or an eventwhich consists in displaying a site on the user’s screen(assuming that he reads the contents), which has thecounting script. The registered page views serve as thebase for calculating page view number indicator(a series of subsequent page views), the number ofunique users (cookies) visiting the site in a predefinedperiod (hour, day, week month) and the time spent onviewing the site.

These basic indicators lets gemiusTraffic counta number of derivative indicators for more precisedescription of the character of traffic. The interfaceincludes, for instance, information on the average timespent on the site by users, the length and extension oftheir visits, and the statistics of referrals (referring sites,search engines and catalogues) leading users to themonitored site.

The systems allows also for a precise analysis ofvisits of users on the site, including paths along whichthey travel. GemiusTraffic collects also system variables,such as versions of used browsers, type and version ofoperating systems, resolution of the screen and geo-location details allowing for locating the visitorgeographically (by continent, state, province and city inPoland).



Another important strong point of the system is theoption to create an individual measurement tree,reflecting the structure of the monitored site, andallowing for tracking the viewing of its individual parts,practically down to any complexity level of choice(whole site, module, sub-module, single page).

The interface provides also a number of optionsfacilitating the management of highly complex sites,including the export of reports with source figures,viewing forecasts, average values for individual viewingindicators, script sorting etc.

Sta t24

Stat24 is another tracking tool for monitoring usersand their behaviour on site, which enjoys considerablepopularity in Poland. The product is intended primarily forsmall and medium sites which have relatively simplestructure, not requiring more complex tools. Due to its

integration with technological platform of Gemius,viewing figures available at Stat24 are practicallyidentical with those provided by gemiusTraffic, differingonly with the manner of interface presentation of results.At present, Stat24 services more than 1.1 millionaccounts and measures traffic which exceeds 2.5 billionpage views per month.

Stat24 products are available in four main versions:free of charge, corporate and for business online. Thebasic version, recommended for owners of home pages,blogs, topical and hobby pages, is available free ofcharge, provided that the owner places Stat24 logo onthe main page of the monitored site and expressescontents for editing research questionnaires in the site.The version has no page view limit, but it allows only forusing two scripts belonging to one domain. It does notallow for monitoring sites made in flash technology, sitesprovided in safe connection (SSL) and URL clicks(measurement of redirecting). The version makes it



Figure 2: gemiusTraffic results interface

slightly more difficult to use the presented datasimultaneously, as the interface does not providesummary data, fast statistics options and a number ofdetailed information on site traffic.

The corporate version, provided in two variants:statOptimum and statOptimum PLUS is recommended forcorporate and product sites as well as for vortals, allowsfor using up to 50 counting scripts belonging to a singledomain, and has a monthly limit of page views registeredby the system. Similarly to the free of charge version, itdoes not provide an option for sites provided with safeSSL connection and URL click counting, but it allows formeasuring flash sites. The only limitations on the level ofdata presentation include the number of available figures,as some more advanced measurements remain inactive.

The most comprehensive version of the statistics,offered in two variants: statBiznes and statBiznes PRO isintended for Internet editors, using up to 200 countingscripts belonging to a single domain and has no

restrictions placed on the less comprehensive versions ofthe product. All paid options relate subscription price tothe average number of page views recorded on the site inthe course of three subsequent calendar months.

Go ogle Ana ly tics

Free statistics system offered by Google as GoogleAnalytics is enjoying increasing popularity in Poland.This tracking solution is used primarily by smaller sites,as the free version has no restrictions in monthlynumber of page views only for sites which are GoogleAd Words clients. All the other sites have a limit of5 million page views per month. Google Analytics issuitable for companies which do not need real timeinformation on the statistics, as the viewing results areprovided by Google once in 24 hrs.

Undoubtedly, the added value of Google Analyticsconsists in a strong linking of this system with Google



Figure 3: Standard Stat24 result interface

Ad Words service enabling to track behaviour andprofitability of users who find the site through individualadvertisements, search engines and e-mail campaigns,to analyse conversion indicators and the effect ofInternet advertising.

Research on thenumber andcharacteristics ofInternet users

Net Track

Net Track is at present the sole broad pollingresearch tool providing information on the number anddemographical/social profile of Internet users in Poland.The project focuses on the following issues:

– current use of the Internet,– areas of using the Internet, types of information

sought there,– place of using the Internet (internet access),– average time of using the Internet at home, at

work, at school/university, at friends’ place/family,in an Internet cage/computer store and in otherplaces,

– frequency of using Internet in general and in detail:at home, at work, at school/university, at friends’place/family, in an Internet cage/computer store andin other places,

– the access of Internet at home (home access, plansfor obtaining home access in the coming 6 months,manners of accessing the Internet, number ofpersons using the Internet at home),

– top-of-mind, spontaneous and assisted knowledgeof the most popular sites in Poland,

– Internet sites visited most frequently in the courseof a week and month,

– e-shopping,– Internet messenger services,– services of Internet call operators. Results of Net Track can be analysed for typical

demographic/economic/social profiles such as sex, age,education level, place of residence (old and newprovince borders, region, localities by size), maritalstatus, social and professional status and monthlyincome (total for the whole family and per person ina household).

The unquestionable value of Net Track research isthat it is performed as a single source project together

with such syndicate projects as Millward BrownSMG/KRC, press readership research (Polskie BadaniaCzytelnictwa) and Target Group Index (TGI). In theresult, it includes additional cross-cut analyses ofInternet user community in Poland with respect topsychographical characteristics, consumer behaviour,lifestyle, approaches and attitudes, interests, preferredentertainment and leisure.

Net Track is performed by Millward Brown SMG/KRCas of the beginning of 2000 on a representative sampleof Poles between 15-75 years of age. The results arecollected by personal interviews made by pollsters athomes of the polled. The current sample size is4 thousand of persons by month, which allows forproviding high resolution, precise results. The results ofthe research are provided every month in the SoftReport Explorer format.

Ad hoc Internetresearch

Ad hoc Internet research on Internet user communityhas been enjoying increasing popularity in recent years.Such research, as compared with traditional tools, isa low-cost method performed in a short time, withpractically no geographical restrictions. The research isconducted in two ways: involving once-off samplesrecruited individually for every project, and involvingInternet user panels.

Ge miu sA dHoc

GemiusAdHoc research offered by Gemius isperformed by way of questionnaires displayed in pop-upwindows on Internet sites. Questionnaires are displayedat random to Internet users who are a representativesample of Polish Internet users, of a group of site users(or type of sites) or a group selected for its particularsocial, demographic and behavioural characteristics.

Due to its special character, gemiusAdHoc can meeta variety of various needs of the ordering parties.Depending on the subject and frequency of research(once-off, regular, constant), the tool can support boththe ongoing operations of companies and their strategicdecision making. It can be used for solving a variety ofmarketing problems by delivering information on theneeds and preferences of consumers, segment structureof the market, corporate image, brand awareness,satisfaction and loyalty of customers and on markettrends.


Raport strategiczny IAB Polska: Internet 2007


Raport IAB 2007

Panel research

The largest Internet panel in Poland is at present theePanel conducted by ARC Rynek i Opinia. The panelwas launched in May 2001 as the first service of thistype in Poland, and at present it has more than 40Kpersons registered. The panel is a continuing project,with research areas including the Internet itself and theopinions of respondents on the newly emergingproducts, advertisements and brands. An Internetconsumer panel is not limited to examining opinions ofInternet users or of a population of persons includingmany Internet users (e.g. owners of mobile phones,credit cards, banking services etc.) but it can also beused for research on products and services not relateddirectly to the Internet such as test of products,packaging, logo, advertising slogans, concepts etc., aswell as for many other types of marketing research.Panel members are rewarded for their participation withpoints which can be exchanged directly for cash ortransferred to a selected charity organisation.

IMAS OnLine panel by IMAS International operates ina similar manner The company uses general andspecialised panels for expressing opinions and attitudesvia Internet questionnaires and concerning a multitudeof topics.

Centrum Badań Marketingowych “Indicator” inpartnerships with Zapera.com of Denmark develop theirInetpanel project which is an international researchproject involving Internet from Baltic countries. Currentlythe number of its registered members approaches20 thousand.

IPSOS offers InnoTrack research for detaileddiagnosing of new product results. The researchidentifies individual consumer groups and their profiles(acquainted with the product, testing, using it andrejecting) together with a comprehensive analysis ofreasons for purchase and rejection of products.

Pentor Research International offers its e-Panelproject with ongoing monitoring of consumerpreferences, allowing to acquire in-depth knowledge oncustomer expectations, needs and opinions. The panel isbased on the concept of creating an Internet communityand using qualitative methods in marketing research.

Other companies which developed their own Internetpanels include Instytut Badań Rynku i Opinii PublicznejCEM, GfK Polonia and Millward Brown SMG/KRC.

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2008.09 Strategic report IAB Poland 2007 - ENGLISH VERSION

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Transcript of 2008.09 Strategic report IAB Poland 2007 - ENGLISH VERSION