London,UK.,- July 19, 2007 -Keynote Competitive Research, the industry analyst arm of Keynote Systems, Inc., today released the first results of data from its new UK and Ireland Web performance indices, which monitors the leading web sites in sixteen vertical industries, including News & Media, Social Networking and Telecoms. The results show a wide variance between the leading players in their fields, which in an Internet savvy market can mean the difference between keeping customers or losing them to competitors.
The results for the week commencing 8th July 2007 follow below:
News and Media
Leading the pack are the BBC and ITV in number one spots for speed and performance respectively. During the week of 08/07 the BBC averaged 0.25 seconds response time, with ITV following closely behind with 0.26 seconds. ITV was also 100% available this week, as was Sky News, the Telegraph and the Times Online, with the BBC following at 99.84%. At the other end of the chart, Reuters was more than six times slower with an average 6.57 second response time and the Guardian’s availability fell five places with a 98.68% success rate.
Week of July 07, 2007: News and Media websites
|
RESPONSE TIME |
AVAILABILITY OR “SUCCESS RATE” |
||||||
Rank |
Site |
Time |
Rank last week |
Rank |
Site |
Availability % |
Rank last week |
|
1 |
BBC |
0.25 |
2 |
1 |
ITV |
100.00 |
1 |
|
2 |
ITV |
0.26 |
1 |
1 |
Sky News |
100.00 |
11 |
|
3 |
FT |
0.33 |
3 |
1 |
Telegraph |
100.00 |
1 |
|
4 |
Sky News |
0.44 |
4 |
1 |
Times Online |
100.00 |
12 |
|
5 |
Reed Business |
0.88 |
5 |
5 |
Reed Business |
99.85 |
7 |
|
6 |
Telegraph |
1.26 |
6 |
6 |
BBC |
99.84 |
8 |
|
|
Media/news avr |
1.34 |
|
7 |
CNN Europe |
99.79 |
9 |
|
7 |
Guardian |
1.96 |
7 |
|
Media/news avr |
99.69 |
|
|
8 |
Times Online |
2.55 |
8 |
8 |
Reuters |
99.64 |
10 |
|
9 |
CNN Europe |
3.57 |
9 |
9 |
FT |
99.53 |
6 |
|
10 |
msnbc |
4.99 |
10 |
10 |
msnbc |
99.52 |
3 |
|
11 |
Bloomberg |
5.60 |
11 |
11 |
Bloomberg |
99.38 |
4 |
|
12 |
Reuters |
6.57 |
12 |
12 |
Guardian |
98.68 |
5 |
Online Mobile Telecommunications
O2 is certainly flying this week (08/07) ranking top in both speed and performance, with a extremely quick 0.46 second average load time and 100% availability. Also ranking high in performance are Phones4u and T-Mobile who also scored 100% availability for the week commencing 08/07. T-Mobile ranks fairly in performance with a 0.61 second average load time, followed closely by 3 who rank third with 0.69 seconds. The Link falls slightly behind, coming twelfth in both speed and performance, with a 3.11 second average loading time and 97.26% availability.
Week of July 07, 2007: Online Mobile Telecommunications
|
RESPONSE TIME |
AVAILABILITY OR “SUCCESS RATE” |
||||||
Rank |
Site |
Time |
Rank last week |
Rank |
Site |
Availability % |
Rank last week |
|
1 |
O2 |
0.46 |
1 |
1 |
O2 |
100.00 |
6 |
|
2 |
T-Mobile |
0.61 |
2 |
1 |
Phones4u |
100.00 |
7 |
|
3 |
3 |
0.69 |
3 |
1 |
T-Mobile |
100.00 |
4 |
|
4 |
Orange |
0.93 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
99.95 |
3 |
|
5 |
Virgin |
0.99 |
4 |
4 |
Orange |
99.95 |
1 |
|
6 |
Carphone Warehouse |
1.07 |
6 |
6 |
Carphone Warehouse |
99.84 |
9 |
|
|
Mobile telco avr |
1.10 |
|
7 |
Vodafone |
99.63 |
8 |
|
7 |
Phones4u |
1.65 |
7 |
|
Mobile telco avr |
99.48 |
|
|
8 |
Vodafone |
2.55 |
9 |
8 |
Virgin |
98.71 |
2 |
|
9 |
The Link |
3.11 |
8 |
9 |
The Link |
97.26 |
5 |
Online Social Networking Web Sites
Web 2.0 has taken social networking to a whole a new level, bringing with it an enormous amount of competition between websites to attract and, more importantly, keep new users. In this case, performance is everything and it looks like in the week commencing 08/07 Friends United and Facebook got it just right, achieving first (average 0.34 secs) and second (average 0.59 secs) places for speed respectively. Looking at the success rates we can see that Facebook, Ringo, Face-pic and Piczo have all achieved 100% availability. But Wayn and Spaceslive.com are struggling to keep up with averages of 4.57 and 5.88 seconds to load and performance of 99.56% and 99.80% respectively.
Week of July 07, 2007: Online Social Networking Web sites
|
RESPONSE TIME |
AVAILABILITY OR “SUCCESS RATE” |
||||||
Rank |
Site |
Time |
Ranklast week |
Rank |
Site |
Availability % |
Rank last week |
|
1 |
Friendsreunited |
0.34 |
1 |
1 |
|
100.00 |
8 |
|
2 |
|
0.59 |
2 |
1 |
Ringo |
100.00 |
7 |
|
3 |
myspace |
1.53 |
3 |
1 |
Face-pic |
100.00 |
14 |
|
4 |
Flickr |
1.57 |
4 |
1 |
Piczo |
100.00 |
6 |
|
5 |
Piczo |
2.04 |
5 |
5 |
Friendsreunited |
99.95 |
1 |
|
5 |
Hi5 |
2.04 |
6 |
5 |
Namesdatabase |
99.95 |
1 |
|
7 |
Bebo |
2.40 |
7 |
7 |
Hi5 |
99.90 |
11 |
|
|
Social Networking avr |
2.41 |
|
8 |
Spaceslive.com |
99.80 |
1 |
|
8 |
Namesdatabase |
2.87 |
8 |
|
Social Networking avr |
99.68 |
|
|
9 |
Ringo |
3.00 |
9 |
9 |
Bebo |
99.66 |
1 |
|
10 |
Lunastorm |
3.44 |
10 |
10 |
WAYN |
99.56 |
10 |
|
11 |
YouTube |
3.79 |
11 |
11 |
Flickr |
99.51 |
12 |
|
12 |
Face-pic |
4.08 |
12 |
12 |
YouTube |
99.42 |
13 |
|
13 |
WAYN |
4.57 |
13 |
13 |
myspace |
99.38 |
1 |
|
14 |
Spaceslive.com |
5.88 |
14 |
14 |
Lunastorm |
99.13 |
9 |
Other sites currently being monitored include Travel, Events, and Retail sites, details of which can be found on http://www.keynote.com/keynote_competitive_research/performance_indices/uk/.
“As we can see from the results, although the differences in performance among the high profile web sites appear fairly small, when your main competitive differentiator is the service you deliver to the customer, those extra seconds it takes to load a page can mean make or break. It’s even worse when a site is down, no-matter how brief the period of outage” said Martin Stern of Keynote U.K.
Stern continues: “For media companies faced with dwindling subscriptions and an industry shift towards web content delivery, they need to be sure their online presence stands up to the quality of their print or TV channels. Unless media sites can be relied on to deliver up-to-date and breaking news stories online within a two to four second time frame, their ability to cope with unexpected traffic peaks must be questionable.”
“Mobile telecoms providers are now relying on their web sites more than ever to provide services for their customers, including online billing, promotional services and now web 2.0 – all of which put additional pressures onto the website” said Stern. “Companies must ensure they deliver these new services to the same high standard as their more basic sites or risk failing to capitalise on their site upgrade investment.”
“Customer loyalty is probably most-critical for social networking sites, where allegiance is predominantly determined by how well the website handles and displays the content submitted by users,” explains Stern. “Being able to satisfy the ever-increasing demands of users wanting to display large files including videos online is critical. If the bigger players fail to provide the top performance levels required by users, they may find their usually loyal subscribers turning to new ‘hip’ alternatives – and taking their friends with them.”
Keynote’s UK Performance Indices UK are composed of the most active sites on the Web, as determined by industry experts and analyst reports. All the Web pages monitored for the new Keynote indices are measured 24/7 from six different ISPs in locations around the UK and Ireland, using Keynote’s commercially available Application Perspective® service.
For more information about this and other indices please visit: http://www.keynote.com/keynote_competitive_research/performance_indices/uk/
For more information about Keynote’s Application Perspective® please visit http://www.keynote.com/products/web_performance/performance_measurement/application_perspective.html.
About
Keynote
Keynote Systems
(Nasdaq “KEYN”) is the global leader in test & measurement solutions that improve
mobile communications and online business performance. As an independent and
trusted third-party, Keynote provides IT and marketing executives with an
unbiased view into their Internet services from around the world. For over a
decade, we have been providing measurement data and testing capabilities that
allow companies to understand and improve their customer’s online and mobile
experience. Keynote has four test and measurement businesses: Web performance,
mobile quality, streaming & VoIP, and customer experience/UX. In addition,
our industry analysis group called Keynote Competitive Research publishes
proprietary studies measuring customer experience and service levels across a
wide range of industries.
Known as The Mobile and Internet Performance Authority™, Keynote has a
market-leading infrastructure of 2,400 measurement computers and mobile devices
in over 240 geographic locations around the world. Keynote also maintains one
of the most representative panels of online users consisting of 160,000
consumers. Our on-demand, hassle-free infrastructure allows businesses to
access services they need, when they need them to pinpoint and fix mobile
quality and Internet problems before they impact customers.
We help over 2,600 corporate customers become “the best of the best” by helping
them improve online business performance and mobile communications quality.
Our customers represent top mobile and Internet companies including American Express,
BP, Caterpillar, Dell, Disney, eBay, ESPN Mobile, E*TRADE, Expedia, FedEx,
Microsoft, SonyEricsson, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and Vodafone.
Keynote Systems, Inc. is headquartered in San Mateo, California and can be reached at www.keynote.com. Keynote, The Internet Performance Authority and Perspective are registered trademarks and The Mobile and Internet Performance Authority is a trademark of Keynote Systems, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2007 Keynote Systems, Inc.
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