According to both Jupiter Media Metrix and Nielsen NetRatings American Online is currently the number-one Web destination with many of its 40 million members launched onto AOL.com prior to surfing the Web (see Table, 23)
. The only purely financial sites in Jupiter’s top 50 are NextCard (#29) and American Express (#35). Homestore.com (#45) and iPlace.com (#48) also offer financial services as do the top portals such as Yahoo, AOL, and MSN. Next month, we’ll look at financial sites in depth.

Table 1

U.S. Web Activity

millions of adult (18+) users, Q2 2001

Sources: All info except buyers: Nielsen NetRatings, 10/01; estimated from panel of 62,000 U.S. at-home users, and 8,000 U.S. at work users
Buyers: NRF/Forrester, 10/01

* averages across active users    hrs = hours; mins = minutes; secs = seconds

Table 2

U.S. At-Home Connection Speed

millions of adult (18+) users, Q2 2001

Source: Nielsen NetRatings, 10/01; estimated from panel of 62,000 U.S. at-home users, and 8,000 U.S. at-work users, from

In May, Jupiter reported 32.8 million unique U.S. visitors to financial sites, up 2.4% year-to-date (see Table 20, below). In July, Jupiter redefined its categories, lumping financial sites with business. Under the new system, the company reported 52.4 unique visitors for the month, up 20% since February. Breaking out banks only, Jupiter estimated 18.4 million unique visitors across all banking sites, 19% of total users (see Table 21, below).

Table 3

U.S. Web Usage by Category (A)
millions of unique visitors during May vs. Jan. 2001

Source: Jupiter Media Metrix, 10/01  www.jmm.com

Table 4

U.S. Web Usage by Category (B)
millions of unique visitors during July vs. Feb. 2001, at home or work

Source: Jupiter Media Metrix, 10/01  www.jmm.com

Table 5

Top 35 Most Visited Web Properties from Jupiter Media Metrix
millions of unique U.S. visitors in Aug. 2001, at home or work

Source: Jupiter Media Metrix, 9/01, www.jmm..com, based on sample of 100,000 Web users: at-home and at-work users. 

(1) now part of Disney; (2) now part of InfoSpace; (3) now part of AOL; (4) now part of CNET; (5) data from July 2001

Table 6

Top 25 in August Across 3 Sources
millions of unique U.S. visitors in Aug. 2001, home or work

Source: companies, 10/01

(1) Does not include 40.6 million users at Microsoft.com which is ranked fourth

Table 7
PC & Online Penetration
percent of U.S. adults

Source:  Harris Interactive, telephone survey of 2,012 adults interviewed between Aug. 10 and Sep. 17, 2000

Table 8
What they Buy Online (U.S.)
millions of dollars

Source: NRF/Forrester Online Retail Index as reported by CyberAtlas from Internet.com, 10/01
Methodology: 5,000 responses to an online panel fielded by Greenfield Online during the first 10 days of each month

Table 9
What They Do Online
percentage of U.S. survey respondents indicating they do the following activities monthly

Source: Jupiter Media Metrix, 10/01; survey of online consumers fielded May 2001 and May 2000 asking, “Thinking about your use of the Internet over the last year, which of the following activities did you conduct online monthly or more frequently?”