Press Release 18/06/2009

INFORMATION SOCIETY SURVEY FAMILIES -2009

The digital press still at the top of the ranking of the most visited websites in 2009

“tuenti.com”, the virtual social network, consolidated its position in the ranking and moved up to sixth place

Yet again this quarter, regular Internet users in the Basque Country, first of all, opted for the websites offered by the media, followed by those relating to leisure, institutions, electronic banking and travel, according to the data for the frist quarter of 2009.

Special mention should be made of the “tuenti.com” website, a virtual social network created in 2006, which moved up to sixth place with a total of 38,900 hits, accounting for 4.1% of the quota, which was up by 20,300 hits on the fourth quarter of 2008.

Other pages that shot up the ranking were “Bilbao.net”, which rose from 139th to 51st, “noticiasdeGipuzkoa.com”, that rose from 118th to 46th, along with “ikea.es”, that leapt up 47 places from 102nd to 55th.

By province, Alava Internet users favoured tourism, music and sports websites, banking and institutional sites were most popular with users in Gipuzkoa and leisure and virtual social network sites with people in Bizkaia.

The website with the most hits continued to be “elcorreodigital.com”, as 13.5% of the total Internet users visited that space, which came to a total of 126,500 hits. In terms of hits, this was followed by the "diariovasco.com” (6,6%) and marca.es (4.5%) newspapers.

After the media websites, the most popular sites were leisure-related sites, such as “youtube.com”, with 44,900 hits, which accounted for 4.8% of the total. The presence of “tuenti.com” and “hotmail.com” was also noteworthy and was mentioned by 4.1% and 3.2% of Internet users, respectively.

No changes to the places held by Basque Public Administration and electronic banking on the list of the most visited websites in 2009

The Basque Government website D “euskadi.eus”) was in a key position, as it accounted for 4.4% of the total hits, was visited a total of 41,200 times and was in fifth place on the ranking. The Osakidetza website moved up to 20th, with 9,300 hits.

The sites run by banks for their customers are among the most popular sites: “kutxa.net”, with 3.6% of the total hits, “bbk.es” with 2.3% and “cajalaboral.es” with 1.6%.



Nearly 98% of Internet users in the Basque Country use “Google” as the search engine

With regard to search engines, Internet users in the Basque Country prefer Google, which has ousted the others. 97.9% of this collective, which stands at over 940,200 Internet users aged 15 and over, use Google, compared to 1,8% that resort to Yahoo and 0.3% that use other search engines. The number of people using Google has increased by 20,000 people in 2009.

Ranking of the 20 most visited websites by Internet users. 4th quarter of 2008 and 2009

Source: EUSTAT

For further information:

Basque Statistics Office C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Tlf:+34-945-01 75 00 Fax:+34-945-01 75 01 E-mail: eustat@eustat.es Contact: Pilar Martínez Rollón Tel:+34-945-01 75 97 Fax:+34-945-01 75 01 Online press releases: www.eustat.es Databank: www.eustat.eus/bancopx/english/indice.asp