Outsourced e-business provider WebSideStory, Inc. is reporting America Online (AOL) continues to lead all other Internet service providers (ISPs) worldwide by a wide margin. According to a San Diego-based StatMarket report, AOL held a global usage share of approximately 14 percent as of Feb. 27.
AOL’s nearest competitor is a friendly one. Road Runner, which is owned by AOL’s parent company, AOL Time Warner , had a global usage share of 2.76 percent as of the same date. UUNet ranked third at 2.18 percent. Sympatico claimed a 1.04 percent share with Mindspring at 0.79 percent and T-Online at 0.61 percent.
Global usage share is the percentage of people worldwide that are using a particular ISP.
Since the discontinuation of Excite@Home, which in June claimed a 4.5 percent global usage share, Road Runner has come on strong, moving into the number two spot behind AOL among ISPs. Road Runner’s global usage share has climbed from less than 2 percent a year ago.
StatMarket is a Web site design and software optimization service that publishes market share data such as browser versions, operating systems and plug-ins. The information is gathered from more than 60 million Internet users a day to more than 125,000 sites actively using WebSideStory’s HitBox Enterprise, HitBox Commerce, and other HitBox e-business intelligence services. StatMarket segments global Internet user trend data from visitors in 245 countries to sites in 120 industry categories.
“AOL has held its lead steadily as the Internet has continued to grow,” said Geoff Johnston, vice president of product marketing for StatMarket. “However, as the preference for high-speed connections at home increases, we see cable modem providers like Road Runner gaining more momentum.”
Of interesting note is that AOL’s global usage share fluctuates between 16 percent and 18 percent on the weekends as more people log onto the Internet from home computers, StatMarket reported.
Each month, WebSideStory analyzes more than 30 billion page views for its clients, including Cisco Systems, Intel, Sun Microsystems, Alaska Airlines, Northwest Airlines, Autodesk, SportsLine.com, and Brooks Brothers.