Market Research - Netratings Inc.

NETRATINGS INC.

One market research upstart, NetRatings, was founded in the summer of 1996 by David Toth, a vice president for the software arm of Hitachi. Toth used $3 million in venture capital from Hitachi to get the Internet demographics information provider up and running. The firm gathered its information on how World Wide Web surfers used the Internet by compiling panels of regular Internet users willing to install NetRatings tracking software on their personal computers (PCs).

In 1998, NetRatings and ACNielsen jointly created Nielsen/NetRating, a service that measured Internet usage, including audience demographics and advertising, in the U.S. and Canada. The following year, ACNielsen and NetRating created ACNielsen eRatings.com, which monitored Internet usage in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. According to an August 2001 Business Wire release, the combined services track "the entire spectrum of Internet user behavior: who's online, where they're going, what ads they're viewing and clicking on and how much time they spend." In October of 2001, NetRatings announced its intent to buy competitor Jupiter Media Metrix for $71.2 million. The purchase was scheduled for completion in early 2002.