• by Masha Geller , September 12, 2002

The at-work Internet audience continues to grow, according to a survey released today by Nielsen//Net Ratings.

There were 46 million Americans on the Web at work in August, 17% more than a year ago and the highest number since Nielsen//Net Ratings began tracking it in January 2000.

NetRatings says that more men than women accessed the Web at work. There were more than 25 million men on the Web during the business day, up 12% from August 2001. But the amount of women logging on during office hours jumped twice as much, 23%, to 20.4 million in August 2002.

Men also led the way in the amount and types of usage, the Nielsen//Net Ratings study found. They spent an average 54 sessions and 1,900 pages for a total of 31 hours in August, compared to 50 sessions, 1,700 pages and 27 hours a month for women.

The at-work Internet usage begins around 8 a.m., peaks between 10 a.m. and noon with overall usage pegged at 86%, and winds down by about 4 p.m. The peak at-home Internet use is 8 p.m. Charles Buchwalter, Nielsen//Net Ratings VP of client analytics, said the study appears to show that the male skew of the at-work Internet population is perhaps turning toward the 52% women/48% men split of at-home Internet use. He said when the Web began becoming popular in the mid-1990s, usage was male dominated and continued until the end of 1999 and early 2000 when more women started using the Web.

”That move is starting to happen at work,” Buchwalter said.

He also said that Nielsen//Net Ratings’ August survey shows that growth is continuing and it’s going to continue, although the rate “isn’t going to be as big as it’s been in the past.”

He also predicted that daypart analysis is going to become more prevalent among advertisers and buyers, a phenomenon that is dominant in TV. With information from Nielsen//Net Ratings, advertisers are now able to determine what demographic spends the most time online and when and then plan online campaigns with that information in hand.

“This kind of daypart analysis is going to play more and more of a role,“ he said.

Nielsen//Net Ratings also tracked the top 10 companies that own popular sites and the top 10 Web sites by brands. Microsoft led the first list, with 86 million Internet users spending an average of one hour, 37 minutes on the sites in an average week. AOL Time Warner (82 million and 56 minutes per week), Yahoo! (78 million and two hours, 16 minutes), the U.S. government (36 million and 24 minutes) and Terra Lycos (35 million and 21 minutes) rounded out the top five. Also on the list were Google, Amazon, About/Primedia, eBay and USA Network.

The top 10 brands were Yahoo!, MSN, Microsoft, AOL, Google, Lycos Networks, Amazon, eBay, About Network and CNN.

Both rankings measure reach as the number of unduplicated Internet users who visit a site. Buchwalter said one surprise on the parent-site list was the appearance of the U.S. government, which he said was unusual but a sign that the federal government was starting to understand the power of the Web and the starting to see success.

Amazon.com Inc. led Nielsen//Net Ratings list of the Web’s top advertisers, with 3.5 billion impressions in August. Bertlesmann AG was second with 2.8 billion impressions, Classmates.com third with 2.8 billion, Bank One Corp. fourth with 2.2 billion and USA Interactive fifth with 2.1 billion impressions. Rounding out the top 10 were Barnes & Noble Inc., the Estee Lauder Co., Columbia House Co., Hewlett Packard and Bonzi Software. The number of impressions do not include house ads served on an advertisers’ own website.