Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.
Email Alert

Internet Daily 
for Wednesday, December 26, 2001
by Frank Barnako CBS MarketWatch.com


Sites tout strong online holiday sales

Yahoo says visitors spent $10.3 billion online in the fourth 
quarter, beating analysts' expectations of 10% growth by more 
than eight times. Sales volume during the period running from 
Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve was up 86% compared to the same 
period last year, said Rob Solomon, vice president and general 
manager of Yahoo Shopping. He said bargain hunting was a major 
driver this season -- and one to which his site is catering 
after Christmas. Yahoo launched a post-holiday sales center 
Wednesday morning, through which it will offer discounts of 50% 
to 75% on items from Banana Republic, Old Navy and SonyStyle. 
Yahoo will also open an Unwanted Gifts showcase on its auction 
site. "Consumers can auction off their undesirable gifts and 
shop for products they really want," Solomon said.

Separately, comparison shopping site BizRate.com's estimate of 
online shopping was similar to Yahoo's. During the weekend 
before Christmas, online shopping transactions were valued at 
$345 million, a gain of 73% compared to last year, BizRate.com 
said. Another interesting factoid: 52% of the shoppers were men.

Meanwhile, Terra Lycos said results of its online shopping 
season confirmed early predictions that bargain hunting would be 
in the forefront of consumers' minds were right on target. "The 
tone and attitude of this season was different," said Kim Kluck, 
group product manager for Lycos Shopping. Moreover, she said 
there was plenty of evidence of cocooning. "The values of giving 
and gathering, or keeping family close together and safe at the 
holidays, emerged early," she said.

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Media Metrix makes accuracy revisions

Web audience-measurement company Jupiter Media Metrix has 
decided to separately report Web site visits generated by 
pop-up, pop-under and other "involuntary" means. Previously, the 
company's listings of Web properties included sites that use 
such advertising techniques. The decision to include such 
traffic in a new "promotional servers" category reflects 
adaptation to "the evolving Internet landscape and industry's 
needs," Media Metrix said. Sites in this category will not 
appear in any of the company's other measured categories, but it 
will include sites that sell email lists, opt-in email 
providers, image servers and promotional links.

Media Metrix also said it would include elements of major portal 
sites in its popularity ranking of Web sites by category of 
content. This means traffic to the personal-finance, real-estate 
and travel portions of AOL Time Warner's America Online, 
Microsoft Corp.'s MSN, Yahoo  and others will be reported as if 
they were stand-alone properties in those categories. The reason 
to do this, said Will Hodgman, president of the company's 
measurement business, is demonstrated by the finding that AOL 
properties ranked among the top 10 in 37 categories, while 
Microsoft and MSN-branded components were in the top 10 in 30 
categories, and Yahoo's placed in 10 of the top 30 as well. 
"This will provide the most accurate snapshot and reliable 
performance metrics to meet the needs of all companies with a 
stake online," he said.

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