TimesofIndia.com claims to have emerged as world's No.1 English newspaper website
13 July, 2009
TimesofIndia.com, the online edition of The Times of India newspaper, claims to have emerged as the world's No.1 English newspaper website in terms of page views. According to the latest figures from internet marketing research company comScore, TimesofIndia.com recorded 159 million page views in May 2009 and was way ahead of the New York Times, Sun, Washington Post, Daily Mail and USA Today websites.
According to comScore, the Top 5 English newspaper websites in the world in May 2009 were TimesofIndia.com (159 million page views), Sun.co.uk (142 million page views), NYTimes.com (124 million page views), DailyMail.co.uk (73 million page views) and WashingtonPost.com (61 million page views).
The Times of India group has said that the real number of page views for TimesofIndia.com would be higher than the comScore figures because comScore does not take into account the traffic from cyber cafes, which according to estimates is about one third of the total traffic from India.
According to TOI, the comScore figures also reveal that the time spent by readers per visit on the TOI site is greater than that for any of the top sites mentioned above. Whereas visitors to the NYT website spend an average of 2.8 minutes per visit, TimesofIndia.com readers spend 5.2 minutes per visit.
Commenting on the latest comScore figures, Vineet Jain, managing director, Times Group, has said, “The news makes us happy, but there is much more to come. At present, internet penetration in India is only 5 per cent and it's growing at about 30 per cent a year. As newer technologies are introduced and we further empower our readers, in the coming years we will see an exponential growth in our online readership. TOI will become a far bigger player on the global stage.”
Its the Indian economy and the IT sector's phenomenonal growth in this last decade which could also be responsible for this. More people now are interested in India related news.
Considering India's burgeoning population, is this any surprise?
If you consider the level of internet penetration in India, this is quite a feat by the Times of India. I cannot visualize an american reading India news early morning at breakfast unless he is the ambassador to India!
What is really required is extensive education of the great mass of Indians, build-up of infrastructure for internet use and cheap computers and then the internet penetration will grow exponentially
Consider that in such a large country, with so many IT professionals, internet penetration is so abysmal. If the full potential is realized, India can become quite a powerhouse
We have not progressed further than the NYT. But this research study has set us thinking. We have clicked on the TOI site. Its engrossing, for sure.
If people spend more time on the TOI site (5.2 minutes) compared to NYT (2.8 minutes), virtually double, does it mean we may have more relevant information on TOI?
This bit of news particularly gladdens us. Use of Computers, penetration of the internet will ensure less trees are cut for paper! This has been our company's objective, we seek a paperless office. What, truly elates us, is that a paperless society leads to environmental protection too
Better be precise - in terms of page view. Quality drives the business!
Thats Great News !!! Internet penetration in India is growing at a slow & steady pace.
internet penetration in India is only 5 per cent and it's growing at about 30 per cent a year... We have been seeing 5% numbers for last three years...
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