The Cutting Edge: COMPUTING / TECHNOLOGY / INNOVATION : Nielsen, I / PRO to Track the Net
Nielsen Media Research, the leader in measuring the popularity of TV shows, and a high-tech start-up said Tuesday they are forming a venture to bring the ratings game to cyberspace.
Nielsen, a Dun & Bradstreet Corp. unit, said its venture with Internet Profiles Corp. (I/PRO) will help figure out how many people are surfing the Net and viewing ads.
Nielsen will take a minority equity interest in San Francisco-based I/PRO, but terms were not disclosed. However, industry sources said they believe Nielsen is taking a 10% stake in I/PRO for about $1 million.
“To focus on the numbers misses the point. This is a full partnership,” said John Dimling, president and chief operating officer of New York-based Nielsen Media.
The companies aim to make their combined service the equivalent of what Nielsen is to television--a standard for measuring Internet usage. In the television industry, Nielsen estimates the number of people tuning in to a particular show. Broadcasters base their advertising rates on the ratings.
So far, experts say, less than 20 companies have actually put advertising on the Internet. Advertisers want to make sure there are tools to measure the audience before they throw more advertising dollars into cyberspace.
More accurate and standardized auditing technology could convince far more companies eventually to do just that, said Rod Kuckro, managing editor of the newsletter Information & Interactive Services Report.
Nielsen estimates that companies have already created 15,000 “Web sites,” the interactive graphic, print and video computer sites that make up the Internet’s World Wide Web. Some of the sites get millions of visitors and others just a handful, making it difficult for the corporate sponsors of the web sites to tell where they stand.
The two companies will jointly market and brand I/PRO’s two services for the World Wide Web: the I/COUNT Web measurement system, and the I/AUDIT Web site auditing service. I/COUNT will provides owners of Web “sites” with the total numbers of “users” visiting the location, the time spent per “page” at the site and the geographic location of users. I/AUDIT is an auditing and verification service.
Customers, such as advertisers and media buyers, receive monthly or quarterly reports. A one-time report costs about $5,000. Quarterly reports cost roughly $3,000, while monthly reports cost about $1,500 each.
The services will be renamed Nielsen I/PRO I/COUNT and Nielsen I/PRO I/AUDIT. The companies also plan to develop new Internet measurement products and services.
