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Cambridge, Massachusetts - (Cheap Web Hosting Directory) - November 28, 2005 - According to Akamai Technologies, today’s “Cyber Monday” e-commerce revenue is anticipated to be the highest ever, based on recent surge of online visitors to shopping sites ahead of the year-end holidays.

The company reports that online retail shopping website traffic has been increasing 3.6 percent weekly since October 31, 2005, with peaks occurring on Monday afternoons.

Akamai Technologies, Inc. is a leading global service provider for accelerating web content. The company today released data that confirms a steady increase in visitors to online shopping sites, with specifics on how retail Internet traffic has been building in advance of the year-end holidays. The Akamai Net Usage Index for Retail (www.akamai.com/netusageindex) indicates that global audiences visiting leading shopping web sites have been increasing at an average rate of 3.6 percent weekly since October 31st, 2005, with traffic at its highest on Mondays at approximately 4 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).

The Monday after the Thanksgiving weekend is traditionally the largest online shopping day of the year in the U.S., according to recent retail reports, and the Akamai Net Usage Index for Retail indicates that trend will repeat this year. The Index will be tracking the actual size of today’s turnout at major shopping sites worldwide. The Akamai Net Usage Index for Retail measures the habits of online shoppers worldwide by providing an aggregate view of total visitors per minute to more than 200 global e-commerce sites delivered by Akamai.

Early findings of the Net Usage Index for Retail reveal a steady increase of e-commerce visitors:

Weekly North American Online Retail Visitor Growth              Peak visitors     Day and time    Week       per minute     of peak visitors  Percent change in peak beginning… for the week       per minute         from prior week———————————————————————-                            Wednesday, Nov. 2nd  Oct. 31st    1,305,000       at 5 p.m. EDT              NA                                (Weds. after                                 Halloween)———————————————————————-  Nov. 7th     1,393,000    Monday, Nov. 7th at         6.32%                                 4 p.m. EDT———————————————————————-  Nov. 14th    1,442,363    Monday, Nov. 14th at        3.42%                                 4 p.m. EDT———————————————————————-  Nov. 21st    1,626,365    Sunday, Nov. 27th at        11.31%                                 9 p.m. EDT———————————————————————-                                                Average weekly change:                                                        7.02%                                                ———————-Weekly Global Online Retail Visitor Growth             Peak visitors     Day and time    Week       per minute    of peak visitors   Percent change in peak beginning… for the week      per minute          from prior week———————————————————————-                           Tuesday, Nov. 1st at  Oct. 31st    2,325,600         2 p.m. EDT               NA———————————————————————-                           Monday, Nov. 7th at 2  Nov. 7th     2,477,200          p.m. EDT              6.12%———————————————————————-                           Monday, Nov. 14th at  Nov. 14th    2,536,349         2 p.m. EDT             2.33%———————————————————————-                           Monday, Nov. 21st at  Nov. 21st    2,599,200       1:30 p.m. EDT            2.43%———————————————————————-                                                Average weekly change:                                                        3.63%                                                ———————-

According to Akamai President and CEO Paul Sagan, ”Now for the first time, the world can watch in real-time just how many people are visiting many of the leading online merchants and learn where e-commerce is growing the fastest and at what pace. The Akamai Net Usage Index for Retail records in real-time the breakneck pace at which online shopping is increasing, demonstrating again how the balance of power in the global economy has shifted from sellers to buyers in what we have dubbed the emerging Demand Economy.”

Data from website visitor traffic delivered by Akamai during the past three months shows that people around the globe visit e-commerce sites most often on Mondays. Among online shoppers in North America, peak traffic to retail sites occurs in the late afternoon EDT. Globally, peak online shopping time is Monday in the mid-afternoon EDT.

The Akamai Net Usage Index for Retail has recorded a consistent significant dip in retail website traffic on Saturdays around the world. Also, the Index saw a discernable drop in online retail traffic in North America during the evening of Halloween, a Monday, when people’s interests were apparently focused on holiday festivities.

Earlier this year, Akamai launched the Net Usage Index for News, which tracks online consumption of news across a representative set of Akamai’s news websites and portals. Both indices are intended to provide unique insight into the massive cultural and economic changes resulting from new ways people worldwide get news and information and act as consumers online.

The Akamai Net Usage Index for Retail helps to confirm and provide real-time insight into the trend of consumers increasing their share of spending on the web.

Forrester Research Analyst Charlene Li in her May 2005 report US Online Marketing Forecast: 2005 to 2010 stated, ”Online consumers spend 7 percent of shopping dollars online, and that number is expected to rise 12 percent by 2009. In 2004, 36.8 million U.S. households, or 34 percent of all households, shopped online. While there will be a steady growth of new households shopping online for the first time, broadband adoption - which will reach 60 percent in 2009 - will spur new online spending.”

The end of the year has proven to be the busiest shopping time - both offline and online. The Akamai Net Usage Index for Retail tracks the online retail traffic of more than 200 e-commerce sites around the world by continent in real-time, with historical data also available. The index is tracking those companies that sell goods over the Web and have the items packaged and shipped to consumers. The Index does not include traffic to sites that deliver digital goods such as music downloads, or services such as airline tickets.

Akamai is not collecting data on individual end users, nor releasing specific traffic levels for any particular retail site. Rather, the Akamai Net Usage Index for Retail measures Internet traffic dedicated to e-commerce sites by geography, as well as the world as a whole. Akamai is not tracking the products visitors viewed and will not specifically track if a product was purchased. Akamai is simply tracking visitors per minute to aggregate retail sites by geography to show measurements such as when people around the world go online to search or shop for products, if the release of certain items or products cause a spike in online traffic.

For more information, please visit: www.akamai.com.

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