Traffic metrics and Web 2.0‐ness

Abstract

PurposeThere has been considerable discussion of various aspects of the “Web 2.0” concept in the past several years. However, the Web 2.0 concept as a whole has not been analysed through the lens of the Web 1.0 metrics on which managers rely heavily for planning and evaluation. This paper aims to analyse the relationships among a site's audience metrics and its degree of Web 2.0‐ness.Design/methodology/approachData collected from an online panel's clickstreams were aggregated to derive the web audience metrics. A web site's degree of Web 2.0‐ness was evaluated through a three‐step procedure by a series of binary criteria as to whether the site accommodates popular Web 2.0 applications. Pearson and Spearman correlations were conducted for the empirical analysis of data consisting of clickstreams gathered from an online panel coupled with expert scoring of web sites.FindingsIt was found that the size of a web site's visitor base is positively associated with the average number of page views per visitor. The average number of page views per visitor is in turn positively associated with the speed at which the visitors consume the site's content. Furthermore, a site's degree of Web 2.0‐ness is positively associated with the average number of page views per visitor and the speed of content consumption on the site.Practical implicationsFirst, the “double jeopardy” phenomenon of small brands found in the consumer package goods market is also observed for small sites in cyberspace in terms of audience metrics. Second, the accommodation of more Web 2.0 applications in a web site enhances the site's attractiveness so that its visitor base grows and its visitors will have a deeper relationship with the site.Originality/valueThis paper examines the Web 2.0 phenomenon through the Web 1.0 lens by exploring the relationships among web audience metrics and the degree of Web 2.0‐ness across web sites. It characterises the relationships among a web site's audience metrics and those between such metrics and the site's degree of Web 2.0‐ness. In addition this study fills an important gap in the literature and could serve as a stepping‐stone for further exploration of Web 2.0 issues from the market perspective.