MALES DOMINATE MIDDLE EAST VISITORS TO THE WORLDWIDE WEB
Vigyan Arya

Emirates Business 24/7
July 02, 2009

Economic gloom is raising the need for measuring the reach of various
media, especially the digital media which is gaining ground and faith
of media agencies. Realising that requirement, Effective Measure
conducted an online survey in which it looked at 555 million page
impressions in the Middle East during June. Scott Julian, CEO of
Effective Measure, said this represents approximately nine million
unique internet browsers and 32 million user sessions. Defining the
need of this survey, Julian said: "The survey results will help a
number of groups in the region. "Firstly, we think consumers will
benefit because publishers will be better able to tailor their content
towards their audience. Meaning more relevant, more interesting
content on what really interests people. "Secondly, publishers and
advertisers will benefit by being able to better understand who is
looking at their content, and what products and services are attractive
to these people, enabling them to make better advertising decisions."

Effective Measure uses this information in conjunction with opt-in
survey data to understand the demographics, behaviour, lifestyle,
purchasing habits, motivations and influence of browsers. "The sheer
scale of measurement that Effective Measure are now undertaking in
the Middle East makes it the most comprehensive and accurate tool for
assessing internet users in the region," said Julian. This allows a
precise understanding of how user patterns and the profile of these
users change throughout the seasons, particularly during summer
holidays and Ramadan. It also ensures the results are representative
and statistically reliable with more than 30,000 people participating
in the survey to date, with growth expected to remain at above 10,000
every month. The survey covers Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, India,
Morocco, Algeria, Pakistan, Jordan, Kuwait, Ethiopia, Syrian, the
Philippines, Iran, the US, Britain, Bahrain and Armenia. Dan Healy,
CEO of Real Opinions, Effective Measure’s Middle East distributor,
said they had trained more than 50 internet media buyers in using the
newly available data. "We work with the buyers to help them ensure
their internet advertising is efficiently used to focus on websites
their target audience visit, when they are there and how they behave
when they arrive," said Healy. "Effective Measure has been positioned
to allow all websites to participate and it allows all media buyers
to assess the uniqueness of visitors, no matter how big or small
they are. "Advertisers want to focus on who are visiting websites
and to gain an accurate understanding of the number of people they
are reaching – this has not being entirely possible before."

Majority of the surveyed responded in English (54.68 per cent), while
39.13 per cent responded in Arabic and the remaining (6.19 per cent)
in French. Analysing this data over time will help websites to see
the impact their website modifications are having from an end-user
perspective and how to improve further. Results collected so far show
that the average length of time on websites range from 20 seconds
to two minutes. This has a dramatic impact for those advertising on
websites seeking to maximise the length of time their advertisement is
exposed to visitors. "At the end of the day, media buyers are being
held accountable with what they have been able to achieve with their
expenditure. And Effective Measure increases the transparency and
impact advertising has," said Healy. According to Healy, Effective
Measure’s single most important feature is Digital Helix which solves
the issue of over calculation of unique website visitors caused by
visitors deleting cookies. "Don’t let others pretend that this isn’t
an issue," said Healy and added: "The global industry has been looking
at this for many years as over-calculation of visitors has increased."

Middle east web users Who is browsing from the Middle East: – 70 per
cent of the audience is male (on some websites more than 60 per cent
are females) – More than 30 per cent are above the age of 35 – 22 per
cent earn more than $100,000 annually – More than 60 per cent have are
in the process of getting some form of tertiary education – Majority
access the internet from home (63 per cent) or at work (23 per cent).