June 03, 2009

Nielsen Audit Confirms UK, European Growth Of OnTheSnow Leaps 150 Percent In One Year

A fast-track growth cycle in the UK and Europe has led to OnTheSnow becoming the dominant most visited snow sports Web site in the world. The leap in unique European visitors from a Nielsen audit in January 2008 (240,000) to another Nielsen audit in Jan. 2009 (607,000), showed an increase of 153 percent. UK monthly visits to OnTheSnow.co.uk alone rose from 124,000 in 2008 to 298,000 in January 2009.

Nielsen//NetRatings reports OnTheSnow captured 53.6 percent of the snow sports portal market share by logging 1,592,879 million unique worldwide visitors in January 2009 with page impressions at 9,592,823. The ranking, certified by Hitwise Competitive Intelligence, increases OnTheSnow market share from 49.6 percent a year ago. OnTheSnow is published by Mountain News Corp.

The results prove skiers and snowboarders remain passionate about their sport even during the current global economic malaise.

“Skiers and snowboarders are resilient and absolutely passionate about their sport,” said Mountain News European General Manager Philipp Heinzelmann. “With Western Europe’s roughly 22 million skiers and snowboarders, we see Europe as extremely important to our worldwide product, potentially eclipsing our long time North American audience for the first time in 2009-2010.

“The continued audited growth is an affirmation that skiers and snowboarders use the Web as their primary media source. OnTheSnow features the type of news and comparative information content that winter mountain visitors are looking for,” Heinzelmann said.

The Web site features worldwide snow condition reports, lift ticket and travel deals, resort-related weather, breaking news, events, and visitor reviews. OnTheSnow produced seven European editions during the 2008-09 season in their respective languages.