5. COUNSELORS:
Alain Heureux, Filip Pieczyński,
Jarosław Sobolewski
AUTHORS:
Małgorzata Dudko, Michalina Pelc,
Bartosz Wardziński
CONTRIBUTORS:
Tamás Ács, Vesselin Angelov, Mikhail
Doroshevich, Catalin Emilian, Tomáš
Gregor, Vladimir Houba, Vlad Ionescu,
Ľuboš Ivanič, Vibor Kalogjera, Marta
Klepka, Alexander Levshin, Dmytro
Lysiuk, Gökhan Mertay, Gregor
Nišavič, Toms Panders, Jolita Reidman,
Natalia Szymańska, Judit Völgyesi,
Paap Peterson, Ieva Knāķe
SUPPORT:
Marcin Dukat, Dawid Fillmann, Łukasz
Urbański, Katarzyna Zagórska
The authors of „Do you CEE? The Internet Market of Central and Eastern Europe
in 2010” wish to thank Romanian Audit Bureau of Circulations (BRAT) for providing
access to data concerning the Romanian internet and for preparing the chapter
on the online market in Romania.
WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Ričardas Baltaduonis, Tomáš Búřil, Joanna Gajewska, Dmitry Gizhdevan, Elvijus
Gudžiūnas, Hristo Ivanov, Jan Jilek, Plamen Kalinikov, Edgars Kalniņš, Alexander
Kim, Piotr Kowalczyk, István Kürti, Martin Kyncl, Tomáš Lauko, Gergana Marinova,
Péter Novák, Cezar Paraschiv, Sergey Petrenko, Laurentiu Pop, Igor Rõtov, Viktors
Rožkalns, Andrey Sebrant, Dmytro Sholomko, Petar Simeonov, Egidijus Sirvydis,
Saša Škorić, Radoš Skrt, Aleksander Stelmakh, Orkun Tekin, Silviu Toma, Gabor
Tóth, Tomáš Varga, Adina Vasilescu, Dilyan Velichkov, Meelis Vill, Alex Visa, Artur
Waliszewski, Jurij Ziccer Anatoljewicz
6. ALAIN HEUREUX
IAB Europe President and CEO
After the enormous success of the first Do you CEE? report produced in
collaboration with Gemius, I’m delighted to get back to the industry with
a second report explaining the dynamics of the CEE region in 2010. Other
regional reports will be provided by IAB Europe in response to the positive
feedback from the members.
CEE remains a special region for us, as we can feel the energy, innovation,
creativity and strong growth of these markets. Jarosław Sobolewski (Manager
of IAB Poland, Board member IAB Europe and Regional Manager on the CEE
Region) and Martin Radelfinger (International Business Director Goldbach
Media-Adconion) are working closely with the European team, the Board as
well as partners like Gemius in supporting the growth, training local IABs and
Partner associations and providing information to the industry. This report
serves as a source of valuable information not only for marketers, media houses
and advertisers who are looking for new areas for expansion, but also for
the younger markets to measure their own progress and identify areas where
they can continue to develop and grow.
FILIP PIECZYŃSKI
Gemius Management Board Vice President
Gemius has the great pleasure to present you Do you CEE? The Internet Market
of Central and Eastern Europe in 2010. This is already our second compendium
of knowledge on the CEE online reality. The last year’s report proved to be
immensely popular and revealed the scale of demand for credible and unbiased
compilation of data concerning the entire region. The report has also become
one of the most eminent and prestigious projects carried out by Gemius.
Like in 2009, this year’s report presents a landscape of the region and
an overview of each CEE market, discussing its main players, online audience
and most popular tools. Those familiar with the 2009 version of the report
will appreciate the inclusion of interesting data from two more markets into
the analysis: Belarus and Turkey. It is in these countries that Gemius successfully
started its operations in the years 2009 and 2010.
I would like to thank our partner in this and last year’s project, IAB Europe,
as well as all those whose effort made the creation of the report possible.
I cordially invite you to join us in analysing the online reality of Anno Domini 2010
– a year marked by the growing importance of video content, invariable
popularity of social networking websites and a battle of web browsers.
Do you CEE?
7.
8. TABLE OF CONTENTS
10 CEE Online Landscape
24 Belarus
40 Bulgaria
58 Croatia
72 Czech Republic
88 Estonia
102 Hungary
120 Latvia
138 Lithuania
156 Poland
172 Romania
192 Russia
206 Slovakia
218 Slovenia
230 Turkey
246 Ukraine
260 Methodological Note
264 SATI Methodology
9. 10
ONLINE LANDSCAPE
The online market in Central and characteristics, let us look at the data
Eastern Europe is developing; describing the landscape of this fertile
therefore the dynamics of its growth online land.
is still one of the key factors indicating
its great potential. Despite the fact The comprehensive description of
that differences in the development of the online area in Central and Eastern
the internet in various CEE countries Europe should focus on three basic
are visible, an increase in the number and interrelated elements: size of
of new users in the whole region is market, its level of development and
not losing momentum. In this respect, its business potential. In this chapter
the Central and Eastern European all three approaches will be presented
online market is growing from and discussed.
strength to strength and appears to
be a forward-moving and extremely
promising business sector. To better
understand its nature and general
MARKET SIZE
Central and Eastern Europe is a market Ukraine is one of the exceptions.
of over 300 million people, therefore At the beginning of 2010 there were
the online area has tremendous over 45 million people in the country
opportunities for growth. According and less than 8.4 million internet
to the gemiusAudience study, at the users. At the same time the online
beginning of 2010 in all CEE countries population in Romania was 7.6 million,
(plus Turkey) there were over in the Czech Republic it was slightly
117 million internet users. However, over 5.2 million and in Hungary almost
this region is extremely diverse and 4.2 million. In contrast, the CEE region
the differences in sizes of these also covers such small online markets
markets are great. The largest market as Latvia (1.2 million internet users),
is Russia, where in January 2010 Slovenia (1.1 million internet users)
exactly 40.1 million individuals were and Estonia (0.8 million internet
using the internet on a regular basis. users). However, the absolute number
The second largest and attention- of internet users is only the first step
drawing online market is Turkey in an exhaustive description of the
(almost 22 million internet users), market.
however, it is often not counted
among the relevant CEE markets. Such It is extremely important to note
uncertainty does not concern Poland, that what makes the online markets
where almost 15 million people interesting is also the dynamics of
regularly use the internet. their growth.
All other markets are proportionately
smaller and the size of each online
population in most cases reflects the
actual size of each particular country.
Do you CEE? Online Landscape
10. 11
Milions of users Internet population
Chart 1 Internet population in the CEE region (January 2010);
source of data: Ukraine: gemiusAudience; Hungary: gemius/Ipsos Fusion Data; Latvia: gemiusAudience; Belarus: gemiusAudience; Turkey:
gemiusAudience; Czech Republic: NetMonitor - SPIR - Mediaresearch & Gemius; Romania: Mercury Research; Slovakia: AIMmonitor - AIM
- Mediaresearch & Gemius; Bulgaria: gemiusAudience (data collected using Synovate research); Poland: Megapanel PBI/Gemius;
Slovenia: gemiusAudience; Russia: Gemius estimation based on FOM statistics/gemiusAudience Data; Estonia: gemiusAudience (data
collected using TURU-UURINGUTE AS research); Lithuania: gemiusAudience; Croatia: gemiusAudience [age groups – CEE: 15+; Russia: 18+;
Romania: 14-64; Lithuania: 15-74]
11. 12
Since the beginning of 2009 the As for the largest markets, the
general online population in the dynamics of their development seem
whole region of Central and Eastern to be inversely proportional to their
Europe (together with Turkey) grew size. From January 2009 to January
by over 9 million new internet 2010 the number of internet users in
users. That is more than the entire Poland increased by 8% and in Russia
population of Slovakia. Even more by barely 6%.
important is the fact that when
growth dynamics are taken into The slowest online population growth
consideration, it becomes obvious in 2009 was observed in Lithuania
that the largest internet markets are and Croatia. In both countries the
not those which develop fastest. In number of regular internet users
2009, as in the previous year, Ukraine increased by 3% (from 1.45 to 1.49
was the country which experienced, million) and 2% (from 1.63 to 1.66
relatively speaking, the greatest million), respectively.
increase in the number of internet
users (15%). During the same period
the online population of Hungary
increased by 13% and in Latvia by
12%. It is worth noting that the
Latvian market is one of the smallest
in the whole CEE region.
Internet users 2009-2010
Milions of users
Growth 2009 - 2010
Chart 2 Internet population in the CEE region – growth (January 2009 – January 2010);
source of data: Ukraine: gemiusAudience; Hungary: gemius/Ipsos Fusion Data; Latvia: gemiusAudience; Turkey: gemiusAudience; Czech
Republic: NetMonitor - SPIR - Mediaresearch & Gemius; Romania: Mercury Research; Slovakia: AIMmonitor - AIM - Mediaresearch &
Gemius; Bulgaria: gemiusAudience (data collected using Synovate research); Poland: Megapanel PBI/Gemius; Slovenia: gemiusAudience;
Russia: Gemius estimation based on FOM statistics / gemiusAudience Data; Estonia: gemiusAudience (data collected using TURU-
UURINGUTE AS research); Lithuania: gemiusAudience; Croatia: gemiusAudience [age groups – CEE: 15+; Russia: 18+; Romania: 14-64;
Lithuania: 15-74]
Do you CEE? Online Landscape
12. 13
MARKET DEVELOPMENT
The size and speed of growth attest to equally promising parts of the world,
the potential of the CEE online market. the situation is improving fast.
However, in answer to the question
of the state of its development, This is the case in Ukraine, which
another indicator may be useful, i.e. for several years has been the most
internet penetration. If one takes dynamically developing online market
into account the differences in the and in the following comparison holds
size of CEE countries, it becomes the last position with its internet
possible to determine the real level penetration level at a mere 21%.
and diversification of the development According to the gemiusAudience
of the internet infrastructure in the study, a quite low internet penetration
region. level is also found in Belarus
(35%) and Russia (36%), which,
The general observation does not as a large and extremely diverse
refer directly to the data. When market, still faces many obstacles
comparing the CEE online market as to the development of its internet
a whole with its western counterpart, infrastructure. Similarly, Turkey, one
it becomes evident that this region still of the newest markets participating in
does not display a penetration level the gemiusAudience study, recorded
similar to that found in more ‘mature’ an internet penetration level of 40%
economies. However, as in other at he beginning of 2010.
13. 14
Internet penetration
Internet penetration [%]
Chart 3 Internet penetration in the CEE region (January 2009 – January 2010)
source of data: Ukraine: gemiusAudience; Hungary: gemius/Ipsos Fusion Data; Latvia: gemiusAudience; Czech Republic: NetMonitor
- SPIR - Mediaresearch & Gemius; Romania: Mercury Research; Slovakia: AIMmonitor - AIM - Mediaresearch & Gemius; Bulgaria:
gemiusAudience (data collected using Synovate research); Poland: Megapanel PBI/Gemius; Slovenia: gemiusAudience; Turkey: Ipsos
KMG; Russia: Gemius estimation based on FOM statistics/gemiusAudience Data; Estonia: gemiusAudience (data collected using
TURU-UURINGUTE AS research); Lithuania: gemiusAudience; Croatia: gemiusAudience; Belarus: gemiusAudience (February 2009,
January 2010); Romania: Mercury Research; [age groups – CEE: 15+; Russia: 18+; Romania: 14-64; Lithuania: 15-74]
Interestingly, the highest level of Should this result be regarded as
internet penetration in Central satisfactory? Yes, especially seeing
and Eastern Europe is the domain that no country in this part of the
of small and very small countries, world is sluggish when it comes to
which have already managed to cope internet penetration growth. Since
with a host of challenges associated last year this indicator has increased
with infrastructural and business in all CEE markets. The greatest
development. In this respect, Estonia growth took place in Belarus.
appears to be the undisputed leader Between January 2009 and January
of the whole region. In January 2010 2010 internet penetration in this
internet penetration in this country country increased by astounding
reached a level of 71%. At the 9 percentage points. Significant
forefront of the list are the other growth of internet penetration in
Baltic countries: Latvia (65%) and 2009 has also been observed in
Lithuania (57%), as well as Slovenia Poland (7 percentage points) and
(62%) and the Czech Republic Latvia (6 percentage points). In turn,
(58%). In turn, the average internet for the Czech Republic, Croatia,
penetration for the whole region Hungary and Romania 2009 was
at the beginning of 2010 equaled 49%. a year of moderate development,
Do you CEE? Online Landscape
14.
15. 16
as internet penetration grew on CEE markets is much lower than
these markets by 5 percentage in Western European countries.
points. Incidentally, the average The leading position in Europe
increase of internet penetration in this respect belongs to the
for the entire region was also exactly Nordic markets (Iceland, Sweden,
5 percentage points. Norway, Denmark, and Finland),
small countries like the Netherlands
While considering the problem of or Luxembourg, as well as ‘mature’
internet development in Central economies such as the United
and Eastern Europe, the issue of Kingdom.
broadband internet penetration
cannot go unnoticed. It is worth In the CEE region there is one
remembering that the share of small, yet very interesting and
modern, high-speed internet stigmatic market. Croatia, which is in
connections on the market is not question, appears to have a virtually
only a precise illustration of its brand new internet infrastructure.
status, but also a key foundation The ‘online boom’ on that market
for its future development. began suddenly and caused a
massive flood of completely new
Apart from Estonia, where technologies. Croatia did not have
broadband internet penetration time to develop the infrastructure
per household amounted to 62% of the internet gradually; it began
in 2009, the share of high speed with the introduction of the newest
internet connections on other possible solutions available.
Broadband penetration - 2009
Broadband penetration [%]
Chart 4 Broadband internet penetration per households in the CEE region and Western Europe;
sources of data: Eurostat, broadband.ua, Gemius calculations based on ITU, Ipsos, Turkey census, Russian census, National Statistical
Committee of the Republic of Belarus and ANCOM (National Authority for Administration and Ruling in Communications of Romania)
Do you CEE? Online Landscape
16. 17
This is rather an extreme example;
however, it shows clearly one of
the most important characteristics
of the whole region. Despite the fact
that the penetration of broadband
internet remains lower than in
Western Europe, it is crucial to
remember that the whole online
industry in CEE began to develop
later than in western economies.
Due to this fact, the natural process
of improving and exchanging old
internet technologies, practically
speaking, does not apply to most
countries in this part of Europe.
This is one of the features which
make this region a place with
extraordinary potential. The CEE
online market is something akin
to a half-written book. In the near
future it will be filled only with
the newest content.
17. 18
MARKET POTENTIAL
When a new medium creates a space often making significant shifts within
for lucrative business activities, general budgets for all types of media.
it immediately becomes a huge Although the global economic crisis
industry. This stage of development has led to a slowdown in the dynamics
has already taken place for the of online adspending on some CEE
internet in Central and Eastern Europe. markets, the general trend has been
For years the ultimate indicator of its maintained. It is important to note at
development has been - and still is this point that the interpretation of
- money. And whenever money met data for online adspends must precede
the internet, online advertising always awareness that the methodology used
triumphed. to measure it differs from country to
country and depends on the research
Currently, there is no need to convince company. However, the overall picture
anybody in the CEE region that online of online adspends in this region
advertising is the future and the basis appears to be quite clear.
for commercial operations within
digital media. Year on year, advertisers In 2009 on all CEE markets included
spend more money on the internet, in this summary over 1.3 billion Euro
Online adspends
Chart 5 Online adspends in the CEE region (2008-2009);
source of data: TNS Gallup; BG Piero & Argent; SPIR (Admonitor); TNS Emor; IAB Europe; PricewaterhouseCoopers; TNSMI; lra.lv; Ukra-
inian Advertisement Coalition; AKAR; marketing.by; Gemius; (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia,
Slovenia, Turkey: gross values; Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine: net values)
Do you CEE? Online Landscape
18. 19
was spent for various kinds of online Due to the global economic collapse,
advertising. This equates to a 11% 2009 was also a year of significant
increase of online adspends compared declines in online advertising spends.
to the previous year. The largest The greatest falls were observed
amount of online ad-money is found in Lithuania (-33%), Latvia (-32%)
on the largest markets, like Russia, and Estonia (-22%). Thankfully,
where in 2009 advertisers spent the prognosis for 2010 is very
almost 494 million Euros. During promising. For example, a 15%
the same period in Poland the volume increase in Romania and a 16%
of online advertising expenditures increase in Lithuania are expected
equaled slightly more than 296 million within the next year.
Euro, while in the Czech Republic
almost 250 million Euro was spent. As it is the case with describing online
This market recorded the second market size, one should remember
largest increase in online advertising that in estimating business potential,
expenditures, 32% to be exact. absolute values represent only a half
The most rapid increase of online of the truth. When the total volume
adspends in the period between 2008 of online adspends is compared with
and 2009 was observed in Ukraine. the number of internet users living in
In 2009 almost 15 million Euro each country, the juxtaposition of CEE
was spent on this market, which is markets leaders changes profoundly.
an increase of 45%.
19. 20
Online adspends per internet user
Chart 6 Online adspends per internet user in the CEE region (2009);
source of data: TNS Gallup; BG Piero & Argent; SPIR (Admonitor); TNS Emor; IAB Europe; PricewaterhouseCoopers; lra.lv; Ukrainian
Advertisement Coalition; AKAR; marketing.by; Gemius; (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia,
Turkey: gross values; Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine: net values)
Although the largest amount of spent barely one Euro per average
money on online advertising is spent Belarusian internet user last year.
in Russia, the industry fights for the Great hopes are pinned on the recent
average internet user most fiercely campaign aiming to activate the
in the Czech Republic, where 48 Euro Belarusian internet industry. One thing
was spent on this purpose in 2009. is certain: this market is definitely
In the same period, advertisers in worth fighting for.
Poland and Hungary spent 20 Euro
to attract and acquire one customer
on the internet. Russia comes fifth
among all CEE markets with a result
of 12 Euro per average internet user.
A similar amount of money for online
advertising is spent in Slovakia (11
Euro).
Finally, the weakest market in
the CEE region is Belarus. In 2009
only 4.3 million Euro was spent on
online advertising in this country.
The rapid increase in the number
of internet users has caused the
amount of money available to shrink
in a relatively constant manner.
It is noteworthy that advertisers
Do you CEE? Online Landscape
20.
21. 22
A STEP FORWARD
It is easy to demonstrate that
the online market in Central and
Eastern Europe is a very interesting
and promising area of business.
It is also one of the fastest-growing
markets. The internet industry in this
part of the world is already relatively
strong and year on year is becoming
larger, more developed and more
affluent.
Moreover, the most important
feature of the CEE online market is
that it is extremely diverse, colorful
and unique. This market not only has
much more room for new media and is
a fertile ground for new investments,
but is also a perfect field to conduct
complex and valuable research
studies.
To summarize, the objectives can
differ, but one simple need is common:
it is worth knowing as much as
possible about the CEE online market
because in the near future it will
most certainly play one of the most
significant roles in the global network
which we know as the internet. Thus,
it is hard to understate the value of the
present report. It includes a detailed
description of the online industry in all
CEE countries. In this document one
can find the detailed characteristics of
the major internet players, the online
audiences, the most significant online
industry organizations operating in
the region and much, much more.
We hope that this year’s Do You CEE?
report will be absorbing, practical and
useful.
Do you CEE? Online Landscape
24. 25
1. MAIN PLAYERS
1.1. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY REACH
WEBSITE’S CATEGORY NUMBER OF REAL NUMBER OF PAGE PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USERS VIEWS USER USER
1 mail.ru horizontal portal 1 155 292 203 421 963 176 04:23:36 37%
2 onliner.by new technologies portal 351 367 30 300 784 86 01:41:32 11%
3 kp.by news portal 242 600 2 310 352 10 00:20:27 8%
4 irr.by classified ads 226 648 15 174 480 67 00:51:12 7%
5 readme.ru news aggregator 201 415 1 626 006 8 00:20:31 7%
6 naviny.by news portal 160 206 1 052 255 7 00:09:23 5%
7 rbc.ru news portal 146 605 2 384 651 16 00:48:33 5%
8 loveplanet.ru dating service 111 857 17 789 718 159 02:21:29 4%
9 utro.ru news portal 110 218 512 713 5 00:06:51 4%
10 relax.by entertainment directory 103 822 1 620 685 16 00:16:20 3%
Table 1 Top 10 websites in Belarus by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)
Two of the most significant features According to the gemiusAudience
illustrating the Belarusian online study results, in March 2010 the
market can be easily revealed by greatest number of Belarusian internet
analyzing the above ranking of top users visited mail.ru, one of the
online market players. The first is that, leading Russian horizontal portals,
according to the gemiusAudience which takes second place on its own
study, 50% of the top 10 most domestic market. However, the other
popular places on the web visited places on the ranking are occupied by
by local internet users are Russian local players. The second website in
websites. The second characteristic is Belarus is onliner.by, which is a vertical
that only two websites covered portal and extended discussion forum
in the above ranking are something focused on new technologies and
other than portal or news services. lifestyle. In March 2010 it gained
The strong market position of a reach level among Belarusian
horizontal platforms is a common internet users of 11%. In turn, the
phenomenon observed in many CEE third place was taken by kp.by, the
countries; however the great popularity most popular classical news service.
of news services may be especially
symptomatic for the Belarusian The website irr.by heads the group of
online area, where free and objective most popular online sites in Belarus
information seems to be of great value outside the top three in March 2010.
and is sought after by many internet This internet database of classified
users. ads took fourth place among the most
Do you CEE? Belarus
25. 26
popular websites, attracting over 9th place in the ranking of websites by
220,000 real users and gaining reach are respectively: a Russian news
a reach of 7%. Despite the fact that aggregator, readme.ru (7% reach), and
this website is dedicated to a local two Russian news portals: rbc.ru
audience and has a .by domain, (5% reach) and utro.ru (4% reach).
it cannot be considered as a purely However, when it comes to fun and
local project. Irr.by is owned by entertainment, Belarusians seem
BELPRONTO, which is the Belarusian to trust their own local solutions.
branch of the famous Russian media Although 4% use the Russian dating
holding, Pronto-Moscow. service loveplanet.ru, the ranking
of top 10 websites on the market is
One of the most interesting top propped up by the local website
websites in Belarus is naviny.by, relax.by. This website is an extended
a news portal run by BelaPAN, online directory of places to go
a private local information agency out in Minsk (related to cultural
providing political, economic, and entertainment activities). Its
commercial and financial news. This database includes information on
site, established by Ales Lipai, was in cafes, restaurants, clubs, cinemas,
2006 the first Belarusian website to bowling centers, hotels, casinos and
win the Runet prize, a distinction given much more. This website seems to
by the Russian Federal Agency for maintain a visible interest of the
Press and Mass Communications. online audience. According to the
gemiusAudience study, in March 2010
Finally, what kind of internet activities it gained a reach of 3%. At the same
are popular among Belarusian internet time, its users spent an average of
users? They most certainly read news more than 16 minutes on the site.
on Russian websites. The 5th, 7th and
1.2. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY AVERAGE TIME SPENT PER USER
NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME REACH
REAL USERS USER PER USER
1 mail.ru 1 155 292 176 04:23:36 37%
2 torrents.by 58 905 143 02:30:01 2%
3 loveplanet.ru 111 857 159 02:21:29 4%
4 semeistvo.by 57 455 85 01:52:45 2%
5 borda.ru 26 090 72 01:46:54 1%
6 onliner.by 351 367 86 01:41:32 11%
7 sng.by 4 739 50 01:33:33 0,2%
8 charter97.org 100 646 48 01:18:27 3%
9 belaruspartisan.org 60 696 40 01:14:47 2%
10 football.by 19 645 41 00:56:45 1%
Table 2 Top 10 websites in Belarus by average time spent per user (gemiusAudience, March 2010)
Do you CEE? Belarus
26. 27
Among the websites participating in certainly lead to a situation where
the gemiusAudience study in Belarus, native products and solutions will take
three of the top ten most popular ones over from foreign players.
are Russian. According to the results
of the above-mentioned research for How about Belarusian websites
March 2010, the average internet user which presently engage local internet
in Belarus spent almost 4.4 hours and users most often? They seem to be
generated over 170 page views using developing at a rapid rate and look
a Russian horizontal portal, mail.ru. and operate more professionally,
The last six months in Belarus were an although most of them use very
extremely successful period for this simple business models. The most
brand, which experienced over 10% ‘engaging’ Belarusian website, which
growth without bearing any significant holds second place in the above
costs. The high quality of this product, ranking, is a torrent tracker. Torrent.by
the similarity of both languages was created almost one year ago
(Russian and Belarusian) and a lack and it is a file exchange database
of local alternatives have made its dedicated to Belarusian internet users
development possible and, to some only. As its administrators explain,
extent, natural. the outbound traffic of this website
is closed not because of legal issues
Mail.ru is not the only Russian website or internal regulations, but because
which Belarusian internet users seem of the cost ($3 per 1GB transmitted
to love. ’Love’ is the apt word here outside Belarus). Indeed, the
because the website in 3rd place is telecommunications market in Belarus
a Russian dating platform, loveplanet.ru. is still dominated by Beltelecom, which
Despite the fact that this website is a government-controlled monopoly.
enjoys only a 4% reach among This example is an excellent illustration
Belarusian internet users, those who of the problems local online
used it in March 2010 remained active developers and publishers in Belarus
for over two hours while looking for must continue to struggle with.
‘love’ or casual acquaintances.
Among all the websites monitored in
In this top ten, there is also one very the gemiusAudience study in Belarus,
interesting player from Russia, such sites as: semeistvo.by (an online
borda.ru. This website is not forum for parents, especially mothers,
particularly popular in Belarus – only run by a private individual), sng.by
1% of the general audience (slightly (a small but strong online community
more than 26,000 real users) visited of gamers) and football.by (a vertical
it in March 2010. However, those portal devoted to football with only
individuals spent an average of almost 1% reach) can be defined as the most
2 hours chatting and exchanging engaging ones. However, the ranking
information with others during this of the top 10 websites by average
period. Considering the fact that the time spent per user also includes
Belarusian market is still undeveloped three other significant and interesting
but is growing extremely fast, the players.
position of this player cannot be
deemed strong or enduring. The Let us begin with Onliner, a Belarusian
revival of local forces, the inflow portal devoted to lifestyle and
of capital and the development of new technologies. It is owned by
infrastructure and local initiatives will a private unitary enterprise „Onliner”.
Do you CEE? Belarus
27. 28
This website was established in 2001 characteristics (at least in terms of
and was initially an online forum, the local market). They operate as an
then, after the implementation of opposition, partisan in some manner,
ICT-News, a directory and many to other sources of information on
other subservices, became more of the Belarusian internet. It is no secret
a regular horizontal platform. From that independent media in Belarus is
its beginnings, onliner.by has not lost still a thorny issue, therefore (despite
its lifestyle character, but has grown the high quality of information and
and gained significant popularity. engagement of users) advertisers
According to the gemiusAudience are afraid to use these websites as
study, it is currently the second largest placements for their online campaigns.
website in Belarus with a reach among It is a pity, considering that the results
internet users of 11%. of the gemiusAudience study indicate
that in March 2010 the average
The 8th and 9th places in the above internet user spent more than an
ranking belong to particularly hour on each of these two websites.
interesting players, charter97.org This would be a particularly long
and belaruspartisan.org. These two exposure time for any potential piece
news websites have very specific of advertising.
1.3. TOP PORTALS
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USERS USER USER
1 mail.ru 1 155 792 176 04:23:36 37%
2 onliner.by 351 367 86 01:41:32 11%
3 naviny.by 160 206 7 00:09:23 5%
4 myminsk.com 77 447 3 00:03:00 3%
Table 3 Top 4 portals and news services in Belarus by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)
Among all the portals participating in Russia’s greatest player, Yandex.ru.
the gemiusAudience study in Belarus, What is most interesting is that the
the unquestionable leader is mail.ru, high interest in Yandex’s search
which in March 2010 gained a reach services in Belarus has caused the
of 37%. However, the largest Moscow-based service to prepare
horizontal platform on the market full entry into this market. Yandex
is tut.by, which, according to some announced last year its intention to
estimates, is said to attract around open an office in Minsk and run
2 million users (understood as unique a dedicated search engine in the .by
visitors) each month. Tut.by is a typical domain. According to the results of
information portal. gemiusTraffic, Yandex enjoys more
than half of all visits which are begun
Russia plays a significant role on the (with gemiusTraffic-participating
Belarusian online market, in particular websites) using any search engine.
Do you CEE? Belarus
28. 29
However, this excellent result is covers mainly local news, classified
decreasing year on year in favor of advertising as well as cultural and
Google. Therefore, Yandex must hurry. entertainment information. In March
2010 it attracted almost 80,000 real
Apart from onliner.by and naviny.by, users with a reach of 3%.
the sector of internet portals in
Belarus also includes sites such as
open.by (the oldest Belarusian portal
run by the Open Group, the owner of
the largest Belarusian e-commerce
platform, shop.by) and interfax.by
(a news portal of the well-known
information agency). Another Russian
portal, rambler.ru, also has a relatively
strong market position. The ranking
of top portals measured in the
gemiusAudience study is propped
up by myminsk.com, a small website
for Minsk citizens. This city portal
1.4. SOCIAL NETWORKS
The social networking sector in horizontal portal (my.mail.ru), attracts
Belarus does not differ from other more Belarusian internet users than
parts of online market in this country the most popular social networking
in terms of the major players. Like the platform in the world, Facebook,
whole online area, foreign services which is the top global player on this
also visibly dominate here. The leaders developing online market. Despite the
are, of course, Russian. Based on the worldwide popularity of services such
reliable estimates, the most popular as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, at
social networking website in Belarus present they do not have any chance
is vkontakte.ru and second place to compete with the Russian brands.
is held by another Russian service, However, they successfully compete
odnoklassniki.ru. In turn, the third with Belarusian community websites,
major player on the Belarusian social such as i.tut.by (the online community
networking market is livejournal.com, run by tut.by portal) and vceti.by.
the blogging platform owned by At this point in time, only one
LiveJournal, Inc., but licensed and Russian online community service,
operating in Russia by SUP, a media habrahabr.ru is less popular than
company founded in Moscow in 2006 these two sites.
by Andrew Paulson and Alexander
Mamut. Its ownership is split between
Mamut, the Kommersant Publishing
House and the management.
Apart from these three social
networking websites, another service
from Russia is also found on the
Belarusian market. The community-
based subservice of the mail.ru
Do you CEE? Belarus
29. 30
1.5. ONLINE CLASSIFIED ADS BY REACH
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USERS USER USER
1 irr.by 226 648 67 00:51:12 7%
2 slanet.by 71 350 9 00:06:43 2%
3 migom.by 65 902 13 00:11:29 2%
Table 4 Top 3 online classified ads in Belarus by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)
Classified advertising seems to be onliner.by, which on its site runs
a perfect activity for local players a section devoted to this kind of
in Belarus. Among the three most advertising, catalog.onliner.by. The
popular websites of this kind there are Belarusian online market is also
no Russian or global sites. According filled with well performing thematic
to the gemiusAudience study results classified advertising services. The
for March 2010, the leading classified best example of this is kosht.com,
advertising service is irr.by, which is which aggregates computer hardware
also generally one of the most popular announcements. According to
websites in Belarus (it takes fourth gemiusAudience, it attracted almost
place in the ranking of top 10 websites 68,000 real users in March 2010
by reach). Second and third place, gaining slightly more than 2% reach.
taken by slanet.by and migrom.by,
gained over 71,000 and almost 66,000
users, respectively during the same
period, which gave them identical
reach levels of 2%.
It is worth noting that a significant part
of the internet classified advertising
market belongs to the second most
popular horizontal portal in Belarus,
1.6. TOP FINANCE SITES BY REACH
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USERS USER USER
1 afn.by 60 634 21 00:35:14 2%
2 ej.by 30 651 9 00:13:05 1%
3 belmarket.by 12 926 6 00:07:06 0,4%
Table 5 Top 3 finance sites in Belarus by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)
Do you CEE? Belarus
30. 31
The area of finance seems to be belmarket.by attracted just under
an unfilled niche on the Belarusian 13,000 real users, which gave it less
internet. Apart from the journalistic than 0.5% market reach.
activity of rbc.ru, which holds
a strong position on the market, Another interesting website in
the popularity of websites devoted Belarus is rbcard.com; it is devoted
to these topics is still very low. to banking and dedicated primarily
The greatest one measured in the to individuals owning various kinds
gemiusAudience study, afn.by, gained of payment and credit cards. RBCARD
a reach of barely 2% in March 2010, was established in 2002, but during
however, at the same time its users the last eight years did not manage
were active for an average of over to gain any significant popularity.
35 minutes. AFN (АФН) has been According to the results of the
operating on the information market gemiusAudience study, in March 2010
since 1995 providing financial news it attracted slightly more than 7,000
regarding the Belarusian, Russian and real users and kept them active for an
Ukrainian economy. average of 4 minutes. However, there
are also much more successful and
The second most popular financial better performing financial services
website participating in the on the Belarusian online market,
gemiusAudience study in Belarus namely infobank.by and select.by,
is ej.by, which in March 2010 both operating since 2007.
gained only a reach of 1%. Ej.by
(Ежедневник) basically operates as
an internet-based economic magazine
(available in PDF) and extended
economic news service. Its creators
claim that it is the first e-press project
in Belarus and is a response to the
huge gap in the market.
Among the finance websites
participating in the gemiusAudience
study in Belarus there is yet
another player worth mentioning:
belmarket.by, an online version of the
economic newspaper „Belarusians
and the Market” (“Белорусы и
рынок”), formerly “Belarusian
Market” (“Белорусский рынок”),
established in 1990. This weekly
magazine is considered the first
independent newspaper in Belarus,
which started to deal with complex
economic analyses, problems in the
country, new businesses. It promotes
democratic institutions within society.
According to the gemiusAudience
study results, in March 2010
Do you CEE? Belarus
31. 32
2. ONLINE AUDIENCE
As on most other CEE markets, the academic environment, from
the gender structure of the online students with incomplete higher
population of Belarus is also education to individuals with science
very balanced. According to the degrees (together making up 46%
gemiusAudience study for March 2010 of the total). The least represented
almost 51% of internet users are men group of internet users in Belarus
and just over 49% of the whole online are individuals with an MBA degree,
population are women. Internet use making up only 0.34% of the whole
in Belarus remains equally distributed online population.
among both genders and no significant
fluctuations within this area are being The largest group of Belarusian
observed. internet users (exactly 38.3%) live in
the Minsky region. The high density
Internet users in Belarus of users in this region is due to the
are very young. According to the fact that in Belarus the majority of
gemiusAudience study for March people who are active on the internet
2010, almost 40% are aged between live in the capital city (as with other
15 and 24 years. Moreover, almost young and underdeveloped markets).
68% of the whole online population According to the gemiusAudience
consists of individuals younger than study for March 2010, almost 33%
34 years old. On the other hand, of the whole online population of
users aged 55 years or over represent this country consists of individuals
only 1.6% of the all internet users. who live in Minsk. Individuals from
This visible disproportion is caused other regions of Belarus represent
mainly by the immaturity of the a proportionally smaller share within
Belarusian online market, which is not the internet user population, that is
yet experiencing the phenomenon of from 16% in the case of Gomelsky
aging (along with its users). It is highly region to a mere 9% in the case of
probable that in the near future the Mogilevsky region.
share of individuals older than 45 and
55 years will rise year on year. Three biggest groups of
Belarusian online population are
The educational structure of students, specialist/chief specialists
Belarusian internet users does and engineers/technical workers. They
not differ a great deal from those constitute nearly 50% of internet users
characteristic of other CEE markets. in this country. The other half consists
Within the whole online population of other occupations with almost
of this country there are three major equal shares.
groups of users: individuals with a
high education (32%), vocational
education (26%) and those who have
graduated from a secondary school
(22%). However, when broader
categories are taken into account, it
becomes very clear that the dominant
group of internet users in Belarus
consists of people connected with
Do you CEE? Belarus
32.
33. 34
3. TOOLS
3.1. BROWSERS
Chart 1 Top browsers in Belarus by share of page views generated by internet users who visit the
Belarussian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2009 – 1Q 2010)
3.1. Browsers the market at the end of first quarter
of 2009, when it beat off its rival -
The web browser most intensively Mozilla Firefox. The third force on the
used in Belarus is Opera. According market is Microsoft Internet Explorer.
to gemiusTraffic, in the first quarter In the first quarter of 2010 its users
of 2010 almost 49% of all page views were responsible for 19.4% of all page
generated by Belarusian users on views recorded in the gemiusTraffic
websites monitored in the study have study.
been made using this browser. In this
regard the Belarusian online market 3.2. Operating systems
is similar to Ukraine, where Opera is
also the dominant software used for Internet users in Belarus are not an
web browsing. In Belarus, Opera won exception when it comes to the usage
3.2. OPERATING SYSTEMS
Chart 2 Top operating systems in Belarus by share of page views generated by internet users who
visit the Belarussian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2009 – 1Q 2010)
Do you CEE? Belarus
34. 35
of operating systems. Windows XP
head the list and the whole market 3.3. SEARCH ENGINES
is dominated by Microsoft products
(non-MS Windows operating systems
hold less than a 3% share). According
to the gemiusTraffic study, in the first
quarter of 2010, Windows XP was
responsible for almost 83% of all page
views monitored in the study, while
the second most intensively used
operating system, Windows 7, was
responsible for slightly more than 10%
of all page views. Interestingly, the
latter is experiencing dynamic growth Chart 3 Top search engines in Belarus by share of visits made by internet users who visit the Belarus-
on the Belarusian market. At the sian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2009 – 1Q 2010)
beginning of 2009 it was completely
absent in Belarus, in the second
3.4. SCREEN RESOLUTIONS
quarter of 2009 it gained 0.67% of all
page views and by the first quarter of
2010 its market share had increased
more than 15 times.
3.3. Search engines
The search engine most frequently
used in Belarus is Russian-based
Yandex. According to gemiusTraffic, in
first quarter of 2010 more than 56%
of all visits on websites monitored
Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Belarus by share of page views generated by internet users who visit
by Gemius in this study have their the Belarussian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 1Q 2009 – 1Q 2010)
origins in Yandex search results.
The second search engine most
frequently used by Belarusians is
3.5. MOBILE DEVICES
Google, which accounts for more
than 41% of all visits on websites
monitored by gemiusTraffic. Other
engines, including Microsoft MSN,
have a negligible market share and
are single-handedly unable to break
the 1% barrier.
3.4. Screen resolutions
The most popular screen resolution
in Belarus is 1280x1024, the visitors
of which generated nearly 28% of all
page views on websites monitored Chart 5 Top 5 mobile devices in Belarus by the website-averaged percentage share of page views
in the gemiusTraffic study in the generated by internet users form Belarus who visit the Belarusian websites using gemiusTraffic
(gemiusTraffic, 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10
first quarter of 2010. What is most **to 2010-07-25
Do you CEE? Belarus
35. 36
important is the fact that at the the average Belarusian website using
beginning of 2010 there was no gemiusTraffic. The other devices in
screen resolution which could be the top 5 ranking were SonyEricsson
identified as strongly dominant on the products and each gained around a
Belarusian market (the shares of the 3% share.
most popular ones are distributed in a
very balanced manner).
3.5. Mobile devices - models
Unlike the majority of CEE countries
where the iPhone dominates the
mobile devices market, according
to the gemiusTraffic study, the most
popular mobile tool used to access
the web in Belarus is Nokia 6300. In
July 2010 it was responsible for 8%
of page views generated by mobile
devices on the average website.
Apple’s iPod had a 5% share which
gave it second place in the ranking.
However, the popularity of both
market leaders is gradually decreasing
and over two months both products
lost approximately 1 percentage
point. The third most popular mobile
device was Nokia 5800. Its users
generated 4% of the mobile traffic on
4. ADVERTISING NETWORKS
GENERAL CONTACT INFORMATION
FULL NAME HOMEPAGE URL REACH MAIN OFFICE CONTACT
ADDRESS ADDRESS
Phone: +375-17-222-3204
416-14,
1 Mediacode mediacode.by 24% Fax: +375-17-222-3204
Pervomaiskaya Street, Minsk
Email: manager@mediacode.by
Phone: +375-17-217-02-42
109 - 24/2
2 Red red.by N/A Fax: +375-17-217-02-42
Pervomaiskaya Street
Email: admin@red.by
Phone: +375-17-296-62-62
214-5.
3 Webody webody.by N/A Fax: +375-17-296-62-62
Oktaybrskaya Street, Minsk
Email: welcome@activemedia.by
Do you CEE? Belarus
36. 37
5. OPINIONS FROM THE MARKET
Aleksander Stelmakh
Director, Onliner.by
Online advertising market
What are the opportunities and obstacles for the Belarusian online
advertising market?
The online market is still extremely small; worth only about $3 million in
2009. Moreover, rapid growth is not expected in 2010. This is partly due to
the tardiness of the whole advertising market (including TV, radio „Outdoor”
advertising amongst others) compared to, for example, the Ukrainian
market, even if the discrepancy in population sizes is taken into account.
Advertising is a sign of activity in the economy. In Belarus most companies
depend on the government in some form or another, which (with a few
exceptions) promotes products and services using „kuplyay Belarusian”
methods (national products don’t need advertisement). However, the
advertising market is still at a low level and no changes in the short term are
expected.
In addition, we should not have any illusions about the purchasing power
of the population even in the capital, Minsk. The average household here
operates with a budget of approximately $673 (2 million BYR) per month.
The main problem of the local market is a fixation on media advertising.
Banners, which are sold daily, are at the level of the past decade and
publishers forget that there are more efficient ways to direct monetization
than banners.
The market faces many difficulties and not all of them are related directly to
the online sphere.
Global vs. local players
Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete
with the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this
battle?
The local players do not have much chance to compete unless they provide
the services that are truly demanded. One well-known site in Belarus
formerly positioned as a search portal with a mail service and various
subsites, also became popular as a content aggregator, gathering news
from other services. The portal then tried to create their own content, but
Do you CEE? Belarus
37. 38
its quality was low, even when compared to Belarusian counterparts. The
service has lost users in favour of Russian sites like vkontakte.ru and mail.ru.
This could lead to greater losses in user numbers unless the portal changes
its development strategy.
Yury Zisser
Founder and co-owner, Tut.by
Online advertising market
What are the opportunities and obstacles for the Belarusian online
advertising market?
Share of internet advertising in total advertising is growing each year. In the
crisis period this share rose from 4.5% in 2008 to a surprising 7% in 2009
(the entire media market fell by 21.4% while the internet grew by 16%).
Another serious obstacle to dynamic growth is the modest size of the private
sector, the lack of small- and medium-sized businesses.
Dominating trends
What are the recent trends on your local online market? What areas are
expected to develop most in the future?
In 2009 a new trend appeared on the market: the transfer of ads sales
to specialized structures, sales houses which form a professional market
using clear rules. Position of sales houses will strengthen in the future.
Market will grow, technology will improve. Role of mobile, contextual and
video advertising and advertising with possibility of targeting using socio-
demographic profiles will grow.
Global vs. local players
Are the local players present on your local market strong enough to compete
with the global giants? What advantages and strategies do they use in this
battle?
Successful local players use brand strategy to create powerful local brands.
The lion’s share of advertising sales is held by Belarusian players. All the
efforts of foreign players, mostly Russian, have not as yet been
successful. Global brand expansion in Belarus has not happened and will not
come soon due to the small capacity of the Belarusian market.
Do you CEE? Belarus
38. 39
Market specifics
What makes your local online market unique? Are there any specifics that
make it different from others in the CEE region?
Due to the above mentioned weakness of small- and medium-sized business,
search advertising is not well developed in Belarus. Its share in Belarusian
internet advertising does not exceed 20% and over the last years there has
been slow increase. There is a concentration of advertising budgets around
the main players: the Belarusian portal tut.by which accounts for one third
of all the budgets of banner advertising or about half the budgets of all
media advertising on the Belarusian internet.
Do you CEE? Belarus
40. 41
1. MAIN PLAYERS
1.1. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY REACH
WEBSITE’S CATEGORY NUMBER OF REAL NUMBER OF PAGE PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USERS VIEWS USER USER
1 abv.bg mail service 1 954 947 335 065 970 171 02:34:07 60%
2 dir.bg horizontal portal 1 340 402 89 431 095 67 01:18:54 41%
3 gbg.bg horizontal portal 945 424 15 177 123 16 00:25:48 29%
4 start.bg horizontal portal 893 066 7 247 182 8 00:09:41 27%
5 btv.bg horizontal portal 777 131 20 184 745 26 00:21:54 24%
6 svejo.net social bookmarking 761 397 5 547 144 7 00:09:45 23%
7 vesti.bg news portal 745 950 14 796 523 20 00:29:02 23%
8 bg-mamma.com lifestyle portal 674 676 26 259 938 39 01:00:44 21%
9 mobile.bg auto classified ads 669 052 149 438 163 223 01:57:50 20%
10 sportal.bg sports portal 659 510 47 819 851 73 01:49:03 20%
Table 1 Top 10 websites in Bulgaria by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)
The most popular website in Bulgaria package of searching options including
measured by gemiusAudience is a huge bank of images as well as video
abv.bg, a free web mail service. It not content. Gbg.bg gathers over 47,000
only reaches 60% of the audience, selected sites and their number is
but also outnumbers other players constantly increasing. The next player,
in terms of user engagement, with start.bg, had a reach level of 27%.
a result of over 2.5 hours spent by
average user monthly. The service is Among the market leaders there are
owned by NetInfo, the digital media also two news services: btv.bg and
company, which in turn belongs to vesti.bg that gained reach levels of
Sanoma Media International. Apart 24% and 23% respectively in March
from the mail service it also provides 2010. The first is the site of the most
its users with a search option, news, popular private TV station in Bulgaria,
weather forecasts and entertainment. and at the beginning of 2010 it was
bought by CME, the international
With a 41% reach, dir.bg, the largest media company. The second, vesti.bg
and trusted Bulgarian portal, takes is third among the four players present
second place. The top 3 is propped up in the ranking owned by NetInfo. The
by the web directory gbg.bg, which last site is svejo.net, which ranked
reaches 29% of the Bulgarian online 6th in March 2010. It is a social
audience. The site, created in 1997, bookmarking portal reaching 23% of
belongs to the same owner as abv.bg. the audience.
The website offers its users a complete
Do you CEE? Bulgaria
41. 42
The second significant group within sports events as well as the Sportal
the Bulgarian online market includes TV service with a large amount of
specific portals such as bg-mamma. HD videos. In March 2009 its reach
com and sportal.bg. The first is mainly level amounted to 11% but in March
dedicated to women and contains 2010 this grew to 20%. Its rising
a great deal of useful information popularity makes it a preferable site
related to children, health, beauty for advertisers.
and lifestyle. The strongest part of the
site is its forum, where women can Another popular site on the
exchange views and ask other users Bulgarian online market in March
for their opinion. In March 2010, the 2010 was mobile.bg, a classified ads
website had almost 660,000 real users service specializing in automotive
and the number is growing. advertisements. It had almost 670,000
real users, who constituted a reach
The second website, sportal.bg, is level of 20%. In terms of average
a portal containing sports news, time spent per user, mobile.bg, came
especially popular among the male second among the top 10 websites by
online audience. The site offers reach level with almost 2 hours
detailed information about different a month spent per user.
1.2. TOP 10 WEBSITES BY AVERAGE TIME SPENT PER USER
NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME REACH
REAL USERS USER PER USER
1 ladypopular.bg 132 271 602 07:13:40 4%
2 aha.bg 374 559 1,005 07:03:59 11%
3 impulse.bg 598 852 483 07:03:56 18%
4 prodavalnik.com 47 095 239 04:40:30 1%
5 forum.levski.com 5 289 259 04:10:04 0.2%
6 focus-news.net 224 209 81 03:29:48 7%
7 conquiztador.bg 68 653 472 03:17:56 2%
8 abv.bg 1 954 947 171 02:34:07 60%
9 mobile.bg 669 052 223 01:57:50 20%
10 novsport.com 111 604 47 01:52:04 3%
Table 2 Top 10 websites in Bulgaria by average time spent per user (gemiusAudience, March 2010)
Three major groups can be average user spent more than 7 hours
distinguished in the ranking of top in March 2010.
10 websites by average time spent
per user. The first one includes Like in other CEE online markets,
ladypopular.bg, aha.bg and impulse. people in Bulgaria tend to spend most
bg. These are sites on which the of their online time making friends
Do you CEE? Bulgaria
42. 43
and having fun. Ladypopular.bg is The last player in this group is
an online game for girls who dream of conquiztador.bg, with a result of
becoming popular. Users create 3 hours 18 minutes spent on average
a ‘lady’, follow her career, take care on this website by users. It is an online
of her pet and organize virtual garden game, where users have to answer
parties. The game has a pleasant questions to conquer new territories
design and is available after free on a virtual map.
registration. Moreover, the site is
available in 25 languages. The other The last group of sites includes ones
two sites with an average time per with an average time spent online per
user of over 7 hours, aha.bg and user of around 2 hours. One of them is
impulse.bg, are social networking sites mobile.bg, the previously-mentioned
with reach levels of 11% and 18%. automotive classified ads website,
which is very popular in Bulgaria.
The second group consists of sites
with average online time per user of Abv.bg, the market leader in terms
3-5 hours a month. Prodavalnik.com is of reach, does not dominate as far
an online auction mainly for women, as the average time spent per user is
with a great deal of information about concerned and ranks 8th with a result
babies, gardening, home and family. of just over 2.5 hours. This is mainly
Moreover, there are direct links to due to the fact that abv.bg is primarily
other websites with the same theme: a mail service.
clothes, baby toys, etc. In March 2010
this site had on average 239 page The last website is a sport site:
views generated by each of the more novsport.com. It presents news
than 47,000 real users. concerning sports events, teams and
players. Moreover, it keeps statistics of
The next website in this group is forum match results, covers live games and
levski.com. Although in March 2010 its contains many helpful links for sports
reach level amounted to only 0.2%, fans.
it ranked fifth in the ranking presented
above, with 4 hours and 10 minutes
spent by the average user. It is a
forum for FC Levski supporters, where
they can exchange views, meet other
fans and be up-to-date with news
concerning their favorite football
team.
A news service can also be found
in this group: focus-news.net. It is
a part of the first Bulgarian private
information agency FOCUS. One of the
greatest advantages of focus-news.net
is the fact that it offers news, analysis
and comments not only in Bulgarian
but also in English 24 hours a day. In
March 2010 its reach level amounted
to 7%.
Do you CEE? Bulgaria
43. 44
1.3. TOP PORTALS
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USERS USER USER
1 dir.bg 1 340 402 67 01:18:54 41%
2 gbg.bg 945 424 16 00:25:48 29%
3 start.bg 893 066 8 00:09:41 27%
4 btv.bg 777 131 26 00:21:54 24%
5 vesti.bg 745 950 20 00:29:02 23%
Table 3 Top 5 portals and news services in Bulgaria by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)
The importance of horizontal portals 14 websites including blog.bg,
and news services in Bulgaria can be dnes.bg and snimka.bg. In 2004 it
demonstrated by the fact that the five was listed on the Bulgarian Stock
most popular ones were also included Exchange and is said to have a market
in the top 10 websites by reach. share of almost 10%. Start.bg has
links classified into 22 categories and
In March 2010, the leading position approximately 1,900 topics, which
belonged to dir.bg, which is just like enables its users to search for any
the year before. It is seen as information they may need. In March
a trustworthy portal containing 2010 its reach level amounted to 27%
a variety of information and catering (in March 2009 it was 32%).
for the needs of visitors in terms
of entertainment, discussion Btv.bg is a website run by the
forums, classifieds; it also includes most popular private TV station
communication tools. in Bulgaria. On the 1st June 2000
bTV broadcasted for the first time
According to the gemiusAudience thus breaking the monopoly of the
study, gbg.bg ranked second with national public TV station. Over
a reach level of 29%. This portal was the years it has established its
created in 1997 and since that time position as the most watched TV
has been offering a wide range of channel in Bulgaria. According to the
options enabling its users to search gemiusAudience study, its reach level
for online content. Moreover, it has amounted to 24% in March 2010
a huge bank of images and videos giving it the third place in the top 5
and its directory contains over 47,000 portals ranking. bTV has been present
selected sites. on the market for almost two years.
In February 2010 an agreement for
The 3rd player in this category is its sale was reached. It was bought by
start.bg, a horizontal portal and the Central European Media Enterprises
largest online catalog, owned by (CME), one of the leading radio and
Investor.BG AD, a leading internet television groups in Central and
media company in Bulgaria with Eastern Europe.
Do you CEE? Bulgaria
44. 45
The last place in the ranking is
taken by vesti.bg, formerly known
as Netinfo.bg, which in March 2010
had a reach level of 23%. The site
provides its users with current news
from Bulgaria and the world. Thanks
to a modern and user-friendly design,
visitors can quickly find everything
they are searching for. Moreover, the
site offers a section with the most
popular news for busy users.
1.4. SOCIAL NETWORKS
NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS AVERAGE TIME REACH
REAL USERS PER USER PER USER
1 impulse.bg 598 852 483 07:03:56 18%
2 dir.bg-CLUBS.dir.bg 493 509 15 00:10:59 15%
3 dir.bg-GLOG.dir.bg 420 138 15 00:10:32 13%
4 teenproblem.net 404 388 17 00:15:45 12%
5 aha.bg 374 559 1,005 07:03:59 11%
Table 4 Top 5 social networking sites in Bulgaria by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)
There is no dominant leader on the Clubs.dir.bg and glog.dir.bg both
local social networking market in belong to dir.bg. The first includes
Bulgaria. Although in March 2010 clubs, in which people with the same
impulse.bg had the greatest reach interests are grouped together. In
level (18%), it was only 3 percentage March 2010, clubs.dir.bg had almost
points higher than clubs.dir.bg, 500,000 real users who spent an
which ranked second. However, as average of 11 minutes online a month.
mentioned before, impulse.bg is Glog.dir.bg enables its users to create
undoubtedly the leader when it comes their own profile and use it to stay in
to number of page views per user. touch with friends or make new ones.
In terms of average time per user Its reach level of 13% gave this social
it took second position, right after networking site 3rd place in the top 5
aha.bg. Impulse.bg is a typical social ranking.
networking site offering its users
the possibility to make new friends The last two most popular Bulgarian
or retain old ones. It also includes social networks, measured in the
a section devoted to classified ads, gemiusAudience study in March
clubs with users grouped together by 2010 were teenproblem.net (12%)
interest with access to almost 60,000 and aha.bg (11%). They both belong
topics as well as a games section. to Investor Group (start.bg, blog.bg,
Do you CEE? Bulgaria
45. 46
etc.). Teenproblem.net is popular with gives its users a chance to meet new
young people. On the website they people, exchange messages, create list
can find answers to their questions of friends and watch music videos.
and problems, including some
embarrassing ones, as well as general
info about anything that can be of any
interest to a teenager. The site is very
user-friendly and is designed to attract
young online audience.
The second site, aha.bg, has a more
diversified user structure with users
aged 19-35 predominating. This
popular social networking website
1.5. ONLINE CLASSIFIED ADS BY REACH
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USERS USER USER
1 mobile.bg 669 052 223 01:57:50 20%
2 imot.bg 219 376 104 01:12:24 7%
3 karieri.bg 202 899 6 00:06:35 6%
Table 5 Top 3 online classified ads in Bulgaria by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)
Each of the top 3 online classified ads The third place belonged to karieri.bg.
in Bulgaria specializes in a different It had over 200,000 real users
field. Number one in March 2010 interested in job offers. Beside regular
with a reach level of 20% was job advertisements, there are also
mobile.bg. It is the most popular offers of training sessions, educational
Bulgarian site where people can buy courses and the like.
or sell a car. The site also contains
many other automotive
advertisements of different kinds,
from VIP to regular. The price is related
to the ad’s type.
The second player on the Bulgarian
classified ads market is imot.bg, whose
reach level amounted to 7%. Users and
dealers publish ads related to buying
and selling real estate. Like other sites
of this kind, there are various kinds
of advertisements and their prices
depend on what options are used.
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46. 47
1.6. TOP FINANCE SITES BY REACH
NUMBER OF REAL PAGE VIEWS PER AVERAGE TIME PER REACH
USERS USER USER
1 econ.bg 304 865 16 00:03:54 9%
2 odit.info 256 078 20 00:24:55 8%
3 investor.bg 214 850 24 00:39:36 7%
Table 6 Top 3 finance sites in Bulgaria by reach level (gemiusAudience, March 2010)
According to the gemiusAudience and on average 20 page views per
study from March 2010, there visitor. It is a popular website owned
was no definite leader among finance by Economedia, which publishes the
sites in Bulgaria. Although the reach most current information especially
level of econ.bg gave it first place, for accountants. There is a section
the difference between it and the with notices on courses and seminars
reach levels of odit.info (2nd) and as well as a forum.
investor.bg (3rd) was just 1 percentage
point. In terms of average time spent Another important finance site in
online per user, the leader is investor.bg Bulgaria was investor.bg with a reach
with almost 40 minutes a month per level of 7% in March 2010. It is a
user. site with business information from
Bulgaria and the world. Apart from
Econ.bg is a business portal with typical financial sections such as
over 300,000 real users. The site was Exchange or Forex, it also has a section
created through the cooperation of dedicated to lifestyle.
the Center for Economic Development
(CED) and the United States Agency
for International Development (USAID)
and was launched in April 2001. Apart
from presenting business news from
Bulgaria and the world, its users
can also find interviews, analyses,
classified ads and a law section here.
An additional feature is the English
version of the site. Even though it
contains information which is often
2 months old, it is a useful source of
information for English-speaking users,
especially considering the fact that
econ.bg gives its users free access to
an archive of all information uploaded
on the site since its creation in 2001.
The second significant player, odit.info,
had over 250,000 users in March 2010
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47. 48
2. ONLINE AUDIENCE
The gender structure of the 2010, 27% of the Bulgarian online
Bulgarian internet population is quite population lived in Sofia, the capital
balanced and does not differ much of Bulgaria. Cumulatively, users living
from those observed on other CEE in cities with over 100,000 citizens
markets. In March 2010, women accounted for 60% of the online
constituted 51.5% of the online population. Another significant group
population, while men comprised of users (19%) lived in cities, in which
48.5%. However, what distinguishes there are 20,000 – 99,999 people.
the Bulgarian online population from
other CEE countries is the fact that With regards to occupation
men on average spent one hour more the most numerous group among
than women surfing the web. Bulgarian internet users in March 2010
were specialists and office workers.
Undoubtedly, the Bulgarian online The second force on the internet was
market is dominated by young people. the group made up of unemployed
According to the gemiusAudience internet users. The unskilled
study, in March 2010 people aged workers accounted only for 1% of
15-24 accounted for 29% of the online the researched internet audience,
population. Moreover, they spent however this occupation group was
the greatest amount of time surfing the most active and in March 2010 the
the studied websites, i.e. 19 hours. average user from this group spent
Increasingly more elder people have over 19 hours surfing the web.
become interested in the internet
during the last twelve months. In
March 2009 the share of people over
55 years old was 5%, and in March
2010 it was 9%.
The Bulgarian online population is
quite well-educated. In March 2010 a
mere 1% of internet users had primary
or no education. The majority had
graduated from secondary school and
27% had a degree. With regards to
average time spent online per user, in
March 2010 the groups of users with
basic or lower education consistently
spent approximately 21.5 and 18.5
hours online, whereas users with
higher education spent only 10 hours
and 44 minutes online.
As it is the case in the majority
of CEE countries, the greatest
number of internet users in Bulgaria
live in big cities. According to the
gemiusAudience study from March
Do you CEE? Bulgaria
48.
49. 50
3. TOOLS
3.1. BROWSERS
Chart 1 Top browsers in Bulgaria by share of page views generated by internet users who visit Bulga-
rian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)
3.1. Browsers the top browsers in Bulgaria. The
popularity of Opera and Chrome is
There are two main players on the not of any significant value. However,
Bulgarian browser market. Number it is important to note that Chrome is
one is Firefox with a market share of gaining popularity extremely quickly.
46%. At the end of 2009 it overtook Also, while Opera’s market share grew
Microsoft Internet Explorer, whose during the past year by 0.5 percentage
popularity has been declining for some point, Chrome’s market share rose by
time already. After the first quarter 4 percentage points.
of 2010 its market share was 42%
giving MSIE the second place among
3.2. OPERATING SYSTEMS
Chart 2 Top operating systems in Bulgaria by share of page views generated by internet users who
visit Bulgarian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)
Do you CEE? Bulgaria
50. 51
3.2. Operating systems
3.3. SEARCH ENGINES
Like in the other markets in Central
and Eastern Europe, the most popular
operating system in Bulgaria was
Windows XP with an 82% share in the
first quarter of 2010. However, this was
9 percentage points less than a year
ago. This is mainly due to Windows 7,
Microsoft’s newest operating system
launched in the second quarter of
2009. Since then it has been constantly
gaining popularity, and in the first
quarter of 2010 its market share
accounted for 9% overtaking Windows
Chart 3 Top search engines in Bulgaria by share of visits made by internet users who visit Bulgarian
Vista with its 8% share. The market websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)
share of Linux is relatively stable at the
level of 0.3%.
3.4. SCREEN RESOLUTIONS
3.3. Search engines
Google is the leader of the Bulgarian
online search engine market. In the
first quarter of 2010 its share of the
market accounted for almost 99%.
Second place belonged to MSN, and
third to Yahoo. However, their market
shares declined during 2009 and
according to the gemiusTraffic study
they did not even exceed 1% in the first
quarter of 2010.
Chart 4 Screen resolutions in Bulgaria by share of page views generated by internet users who visit
Bulgarian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic study 3Q 2007 – 1Q 2010)
3.4. Screen resolutions
The market share of 1024 x 768 3.5. MOBILE DEVICES
monitor screen resolutions has
been decreasing over the last years.
However, in the first quarter of 2010
it was still the most popular choice
among Bulgarians. Other popular
screen resolutions among internet
users who visit Bulgarian sites using
gemiusTraffic were 1280 x 1024 and
1280 x 800. Also, the screen resolution
of 1440 x 900 has been gaining
popularity in recent years and after the
first quarter of 2010 its market share
was 6%. There is also a newcomer,
1366 x 768, whose popularity has
Chart 5 Mobile devices in Bulgaria by the website-averaged percentage share of page views genera-
been growing and during one year this ted by internet users from Bulgaria, who visit Bulgarian websites using gemiusTraffic (gemiusTraffic,
resolution gained a market share of 4%. 10.05.2010 - 25.07.2010, weighted average for months) *from 2010-05-10 **to 2010-07-25
Do you CEE? Bulgaria
51. 52
3.5. Mobile devices - models popular. During the same period,
Apple’s latest product, the iPad, has
A wide variety of mobile devices can been consistently gaining popularity,
be found on the Bulgarian market. increasing its share by 3 percentage
The five most popular tools constitute points from May 2010.
less than 50%. However, like in
majority of CEE markets, Bulgaria’s
top mobile device is the iPhone,
which in July 2010 had a share of
over 17%. However, compared to the
previous month, it decreased slightly.
The next three positions were taken
by Nokia devices among which the
Nokia 5530 XpressMusic is the most
4. BRANCH ORGANIZATIONS
Interactive Association Bulgaria association is to protect the interests
of its members with regard to the
www.iabulgaria.bg development of e-commerce and
also to enhance public confidence
Description: The mission of IAB in it. Moreover, BEAT aims to create
is to show the advantages and professional ethical standards to
possibilities of interactive marketing: be followed by its members. BEAT
targeting, on-line measurement, also concentrates on cooperation
high effectiveness, a great variety of with public authorities in creating
formats and different approaches laws and regulations relating to
and to the internet as one of the internet trade and in monitoring their
main channels of communication, implementation.
next to TV, radio, press and outdoor
advertising. Members: BGPRINTER Ltd., JAR
Computers Ltd., Interminds Ltd., SILA
Members: The greatest rivals and BG, Store Ltd., SuperHosting.BG, Bw
leading internet players include: Time Ltd.
Darik News, Dir.bg, Economedia,
Investor.bg, NetInfo.bg, mail.bg and
an associate member, ABC Design and Bulgarian Web Association
Communication.
www.bwa.bg
Bulgarian e-commerce association Description: The Bulgarian Web
Association (BWA) is an internet
www.baet.bg industry association, representing
the interests of web companies and
Description: The main objective professionals in Bulgaria. At present,
of the Bulgarian e-commerce the Bulgarian Web Association
Do you CEE? Bulgaria
52. 53
(BWA) is the only association with web services: User Media Ltd.,
activities directed to the benefit DIDZHITREYS Ltd., ESRI Bulgaria Ltd.,
and protection of legal entities and ET-MarMaN Mario Mankov, Ripped
natural bodies, working on the design, Ltd., Imaynd Ltd.
arrangement, organization, realization
and hosting of internet sites, web
design and internet advertisement.
All activities of the Bulgarian Web
Association (BWA) are in the service
of the interests of the Bulgarian web
market operating in the free economy
environment.
Members: associated web studios:
Studio 3B, Etaligent.Net, You Eye
Design Ltd, Blekbord Studio Ltd.,
By BG Ltd., DOTmedia DZZD, Dream
Studio Ltd., DriymMediya Ltd., Exsisto
Ltd., Leks.BG AD, MediaBasket OOD,
Need BG Ltd., Stenik Group Ltd.,
Studio IDA, associated web media:
Inteldey Solutions Ltd., Programme
Media Group Ltd., associated
5. ADVERTISING NETWORKS
GENERAL CONTACT INFORMATION
FULL NAME HOMEPAGE URL MAIN OFFICE CONTACT
ADDRESS ADDRESS
61 Vitosha Blvd, Phone: +359-2-988-09-75
1 Httpool httpool.bg
1000 Sofia, Bulgaria Email: info@httpool.bg
Nikola Vaptzarov Blvd 29,
Phone: +359-2-962-29-94
2 Easy Trader stat.easytrader.bg et. 2, floor B, ap.13,
Email: ivanchev@easytrader.bg
1407 Sofia, Bulgaria
Solunska 59, et. 4, Phone: +359-2-954-29-70
3 User Media - Student.forums usermedia.net
1000 Sofia, Bulgaria Email: reklama@usermedia.net
Solunska 59, et. 4, Phone: +359-2-954-29-70
4 User Media - Autoforums usermedia.net
1000 Sofia, Bulgaria Email: reklama@usermedia.net
Solunska 59, et. 4, Phone: +359-2-954-29-70
5 User Media - Sportforums usermedia.net
1000 Sofia, Bulgaria Email: reklama@usermedia.net
7, Danail Dechev st.
6 Direct direct.dir.bg Phone: +359-2-969-45-33
1407 Sofia, Bulgaria
70, Tsaribrodska Blvd,
Phone: +359-2-489-50-63
7 E- target etarget.bg office 3,
Email: business@etarget.bg
Sofia 1309, Bulgaria
Do you CEE? Bulgaria
