BUSINESS
Euro 2004 site breaks records
06-07-2004
by Craig Liddell
Over half a billion page views and over 40 million visits have been registered on euro2004.com since its May launch, creating a new record.
UEFA New Media, the organisation who created euro2004.com, reported on Monday that the figures have increased over 285 percent on the 128.8 million page views registered on the comparable Web site in 2000.
The site, available in nine languages, has received visitors from 230 countries, with over 50 percent coming from outside Europe, including 27 percent from Asia and 20 percent from North America. European visitors made up 45 percent of the site's traffic.
"UEFA Euro 2004 is a European event, but the euro2004.com traffic figures show that the tournament is followed by a global audience. We are delighted that the site has been used by millions of fans around the world to keep up with all the action in Portugal," said Alexandre Fourtoy, CEO of UEFA New Media.
During June 2004, Web measurement company Nielsen//NetRatings revealed that more sports fans than ever where logging on to the Internet for news, team updates and commentary.
Analysis of the total UK audience from the first week of the competition showed a unique audience of more than 900,000 people for BBC Sport, while the other four sites, including Yahoo! Sports and UEFA Euro 2004, attracted between 150,000 and 200,000 individuals.
In 2002, the World Cup became one of the most popular on-line sports events in history, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. Interest in the tournament continued despite some key countries being knocked out of the tournament.
Meanwhile, an on-line survey of over 10,000 euro2004.com users, conducted by UEFA New Media during the tournament, showed that 97 percent valued the site as a source of accurate information.
For the first time at a UEFA Euro tournament, fans had access to live text commentary, real-time statistics and photos, an interactive expert chat and the chance to vote for the official "Man of the Match." The service proved popular with users and was responsible for the site's highest peak during the England versus Portugal quarterfinal on 24 June, when 16.7 million page views were recorded.
Interestingly, 75 percent of visitors accessed euro2004.com using a broadband connection.
By contrast to previous years, euro2004.com was produced completely in-house by a team of 40 journalists and technicians from 20 nationalities.
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