Community category added to OPA reporting

A fifth category has been added to the Online Publishers Association’s Internet Activity Index which reflects the importance of social networking websites.

by Helen Leggatt

OPA%20logo%20alert.jpg As of January, 2008, the Online Publishers Association (OPA) began to include Community as a category in their monthly Internet Activity Index (IAI). The new category adds to the existing four – Content, Communications, Commerce and Search.

“The addition of Community reflects the increasing popularity of sites such as MySpace and Facebook that don’t clearly fit into a single existing IAI category,” said OPA president Pam Horan.

January’s figures demonstrated that Internet users dedicate a relatively small amount of time to Community when compared to Content and Communications, at 7.5% compared to 42.7% and 28.7% respectively. Only Search had less share of online time than Community with 5%.

"Even with Community added, our initial data reflect the same pattern found over the last 15 months,” said Horan. “The bulk of consumers’ online time is spent with Content, well outpacing Communications and Commerce. While Content dominates, Search and Community capture relatively small shares of consumers’ overall online time.”

But at what point does a website become a Community or Content or Communications site, and what of those sites that have elements of all these categories?

Francois Gossieaux of the Emergence Marketing blog said in his recent article, “…adding community as a category at the same level as content, communications, search and commerce, is like comparing apples and oranges. Or better yet, comparing apples and oranges with air or water. Communities are combinations of content, commerce, communications and search. And communities affect the usage pattern of all the above categories and vice versa. So if I am spending time on Amazon.com, am I spending time with commerce, content, search or community?”