Look, Ma - no hands! ... And my website gets 80 bazillion hits a day

<p>Growing numbers of Web start-ups are relying on Internet advertising as </p><p>their revenue model. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Traditional advertisers are increasingly allocating budgets to online </p><p>advertising to reach an engaged, educated and higher-income demographic </p><p>and build one-to-one relationships with them. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Internet advertising has experienced some exciting growth in the past </p><p>quarters and great opportunities, but there are also some substantial </p><p>challenges ahead. One issue that is in need of addressing is the lack of </p><p>Internet advertising standards, research and measurement in Greater </p><p>China. The goal of the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) in Hong Kong </p><p>(www.iabhk.net) is to address these issues head-on. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The Internet Advertising Bureau was founded in the US in 1996 and is the </p><p>leading online advertising association in the world, with chapters in </p><p>more than a dozen countries. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The IAB in Hong Kong is the first such chapter in Asia and is focused on </p><p>evaluating and recommending standards and practices, fielding research </p><p>to document the effectiveness of the online medium and educating the </p><p>advertising industry about the use of online advertising. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>So: what are the issues, what can be done and how should they be </p><p>addressed? </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The Story: "How big a budget should I allocate to online </p><p>advertising? </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>One sales rep at a 'Net start-up told me: 'Just go huge or go home, </p><p>dude'. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Is there some recent reliable data on Internet ad spending in Greater </p><p>China to help me make a decision?" </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The Hitch: There is not yet any reliable, granular data available on </p><p>Internet adspend in Greater China. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The IAB: There will be soon as the IAB is presently undertaking an </p><p>Internet adspend for Hong Kong for 1999 in conjunction with </p><p>PriceWaterhouseCoopers that will be published in just a few weeks. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The Story: "Which sites should I choose to include in my client's </p><p>plan? </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>One site claims it gets two million hits a day. Another claims two </p><p>million pageviews a day. Yet another site claims two million visits per </p><p>month. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"Help! How can I make an apples-to-apples comparison so that I can put </p><p>together the best plan for my client?" </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The Hitch: There unfortunately is not yet a universally adopted standard </p><p>in Greater China for reporting of unique visits or page views, etc. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The IAB: Standards do exist (visitors generate pageviews, which are </p><p>generated by hits, but more on this in my next piece) and while the IAB </p><p>HK is trying to implement them, it is also up to advertisers and buyers </p><p>to demand consistent statistical reporting from sites. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Once many sites start to report in a standard fashion, then all sites </p><p>will follow. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The Story: "OK, well if there are no adopted standards, then I'll just </p><p>take the numbers reported and try to compare them on my own and then put </p><p>together a media plan from that. Thing is, how do I know the numbers I </p><p>am getting are reliable - I just heard that one new site is getting five </p><p>million pageviews a day! </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The Hitch: While a few sites have undertaken Third Party assurance of </p><p>their server logs to verify traffic, there is no established leader in </p><p>the website traffic assurance space in Greater China. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The IAB: Third Party assurance of traffic has already being undertaken </p><p>by Outblaze.com and has continuously been done by Yahoo! in Asia. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The IAB fully supports companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, AC </p><p>Nielsen, and i@masia which are working to ensure that the visitors </p><p>visiting and the pages viewed are properly reported. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>These issues can be resolved quite rapidly if the industry rallies </p><p>together and demands that the standards be adhered to. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>In the next IAB article, these standards and terms for measurement will </p><p>be covered so that we'll all be on the same hit, er, pageview. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>- Mr Robinson can be reached at richard@renren.com. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>