Hitwise Intelligence - Alan Long - Asia Pacific
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The Last Olympic Post - Part Two
September 03, 2008
Yesterday we reviewed the comparative interest in the Olympics, the specific events that captured the attention and the relative site performance in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Today, using our Search Intelligence product we are looking at how users found their way to the Olympic sites and which athletes stood out on a local and international basis.
While the sites reviewed yesterday are interesting, search terms provide a snapshot of the breadth of interest in the Games from supporters of all kinds. Australian's used a massive amount of search terms by comparison to all other countries in generating traffic to the Olympics category for the 4 weeks ending August 23, 2008. (New Zealand 12 weeks, Singapore 24 weeks ending August 23, 2008)
In all countries, Olympics and Beijing are the predominant search term variants that delivered the largest volume of traffic to the categories. The following table includes the top 5 search terms with the percentage of visits delivered to the Olympics category in each country.
| Australia | New Zealand | Singapore | UK | US |
| olympics | olympics | beijing olympics | olympics | olympics |
| beijing 2008 olympic games | beijing 2008 olympic games | olympics | beijing 2008 olympic games | nbc olympics |
| beijing olympics | beijing olympics | beijing 2008 olympic games | beijing 2008 | olympics 2008 |
| beijing 2008 | beijing 2008 | olympic | olympics 2008 | beijing 2008 olympic games |
| olympics 2008 | olympics 2008 | beijing 2008 | beijing olympics | 2008 olympics |
The most searched for Athletes in each country highlight the parochialism of sport and its part in building national pride /support. But as varied as the search terms are country to country the Games created two truly global stars – Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt.
Over 11,500 athletes competed at the Beijing Olympic Games and made up our Search Term Portfolio, below are lists for Australia, New Zealand and Singapore of the most searched for local athletes and international athletes and the share of the Athletes Portfolio delivering traffic to the Olympics category in each country.
Australia
Local Athletes
| Rank | Athlete | Sport | % of Portfolio Traffic |
| 1 | stephanie rice | Swimming | 17.72% |
| 4 | grant hackett | Swimming | 3.37% |
| 5 | eamon sullivan | Swimming | 3.34% |
| 6 | cadel evans | Cycling | 2.33% |
| 8 | leisel jones | Swimming | 1.44% |
| 9 | melissa wu | Diving | 1.41% |
| 10 | lauren jackson | Basketball | 1.26% |
| 11 | tamsyn lewis | Athletics | 1.04% |
| 14 | nikki hudson | Hockey | 0.85% |
| 16 | sally mclellan | Athletics | 0.81% |
Australia
International Athletes
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Sport | % of Portfolio Traffic |
| 2 | michael phelps | USA | Swimming | 5.57% |
| 3 | usain bolt | Jamaica | Swimming | 3.44% |
| 7 | amanda beard | USA | Swimming | 2.19% |
| 12 | nastia liukin | USA | Artistic Gymnastics | 0.95% |
| 15 | shawn johnson | USA | Artistic Gymnastics | 0.84% |
| 17 | roger federer | Switzerland | Tennis | 0.81% |
| 18 | leo | Brazil | Football | 0.72% |
| 19 | rafael nadal | Spain | Tennis | 0.69% |
| 21 | laure manaudou | France | Swimming | 0.62% |
| 25 | alicia sacramone | USA | Artistic Gymnastics | 0.59% |
New Zealand
Local Athletes
| Rank | Athlete | Sport | % of Portfolio Traffic |
| 2 | valerie vili | Athletics | 3.96% |
| 3 | mahe drysdale | Rowing | 3.66% |
| 6 | sarah walker | Cycling | 2.11% |
| 8 | mark todd | Equestrian | 1.89% |
| 12 | hayden roulston | Cycling | 1.57% |
| 13 | moss burmester | Swimming | 1.52% |
| 14 | marina erakovic | Tennis | 1.49% |
| 18 | nick willis | Athletics | 1.15% |
| 21 | julian dean | Cycling | 1.02% |
| 22 | beatrice faumuina | Athletics | 0.97% |
New Zealand
International Athletes
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Sport | % of Portfolio Traffic |
| 1 | michael phelps | USA | Swimming | 7.55% |
| 4 | usain bolt | Jamaica | Athletics | 3.40% |
| 5 | ana ivanovic | Serbia | Tennis | 2.35% |
| 7 | leo | Brazil | Football | 1.90% |
| 9 | shawn johnson | USA | Artistic Gymnastics | 1.82% |
| 10 | amanda beard | USA | Swimming | 1.80% |
| 11 | nastia liukin | USA | Artistic Gymnastics | 1.80% |
| 15 | roger federer | Switzerland | Tennis | 1.49% |
| 16 | stephanie rice | Australia | Swimming | 1.47% |
| 17 | maria sharapova | Russia | Tennis | 1.23% |
Singapore
Local Athletes
| Rank | Athlete | Sport | % of Portfolio Traffic |
| 9 | tian wei feng | Table Tennis | 2.08% |
| 15 | bei bei sun | Table Tennis | 1.32% |
| 22 | yue gu wang | Table Tennis | 0.90% |
| 25 | ronald susilo | Badminton | 0.82% |
| 43 | bryan tay | Swimming | 0.34% |
| 63 | lynette lim | Swimming | 0.20% |
| 116 | calvin kang | Athletics | |
| 162 | li tao | Swimming | |
| 260 | terence koh | Sailing |
Singapore
International Athletes
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Sport | % of Portfolio Traffic |
| 1 | michael phelps | USA | Swimming | 13.15% |
| 2 | usain bolt | Jamaica | Athletics | 4.11% |
| 3 | ana ivanovic | Serbia | Tennis | 3.83% |
| 4 | rafael nadal | Spain | Tennis | 3.77% |
| 5 | maria sharapova | Russia | Tennis | 3.58% |
| 6 | yining zhang | China | Table Tennis | 3.18% |
| 7 | roger federer | Switzerland | Tennis | 2.62% |
| 8 | ronaldinho | Brazil | Football | 2.14% |
| 10 | shawn johnson | USA | Artistic Gymnastics | 2.06% |
| 11 | leo | Brazil | Football | 1.92% |
UK
Local Athletes
| Rank | Athlete | Sport | % of Portfolio Traffic |
| 3 | victoria pendleton | Cycling | 3.44% |
| 5 | paula radcliffe | Athletics | 2.23% |
| 6 | rebecca adlington | Swimming | 2.18% |
| 7 | kelly sotherton | Athletics | 2.07% |
| 9 | chris hoy | Cycling | 1.74% |
| 11 | gail emms | Badminton | 1.61% |
| 12 | andy murray | Tennis | 1.52% |
| 14 | rebecca romero | Cycling | 1.37% |
| 17 | beth tweddle | Artistic Gymnastics | 1.26% |
| 20 | thomas daley | Diving | 0.99% |
UK
International Athletes
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Sport | % of Portfolio Traffic |
| 1 | michael phelps | USA | Swimming | 6.03% |
| 2 | usain bolt | Jamaica | Athletics | 5.84% |
| 4 | shawn johnson | USA | Artistic Gymnastics | 2.67% |
| 8 | rafael nadal | Spain | Tennis | 1.75% |
| 10 | nastia liukin | USA | Artistic Gymnastics | 1.72% |
| 13 | leo | Brazil | Football | 1.38% |
| 15 | amanda beard | USA | Swimming | 1.35% |
| 16 | roger federer | Switzerland | Tennis | 1.28% |
| 18 | alicia sacramone | USA | Artistic Gymnastics | 1.25% |
| 19 | jo | Brazil | Football | 1.21% |
US
Local Athletes
| Rank | Athlete | Sport | % of Portfolio Traffic |
| 1 | michael phelps | Swimming | 17.11% |
| 2 | shawn johnson | Artistic Gymnastics | 8.57% |
| 3 | alicia sacramone | Artistic Gymnastics | 6.69% |
| 4 | nastia liukin | Artistic Gymnastics | 4.95% |
| 5 | amanda beard | Swimming | 4.30% |
| 7 | dara torres | Swimming | 3.08% |
| 8 | kerri walsh | Beach Volleyball | 2.54% |
| 9 | lolo jones | Athletics | 2.29% |
| 10 | natalie coughlin | Swimming | 1.81% |
| 12 | ryan lochte | Swimming | 1.45% |
US
International Athletes
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Sport | % of Portfolio Traffic |
| 11 | usain bolt | Jamaica | Athletics | 1.64% |
| 13 | kate walsh | Great Britain | Hockey | 1.40% |
| 14 | laure manaudou | France | Swimming | 0.92% |
| 15 | maria sharapova | Russia | Tennis | 0.91% |
| 17 | stephanie rice | Australia | Swimming | 0.68% |
| 19 | leo | Brazil | Football | 0.65% |
| 22 | roger federer | Switzerland | Tennis | 0.56% |
| 25 | ronaldinho | Brazil | Football | 0.46% |
| 31 | rafael nadal | Spain | Tennis | 0.39% |
| 38 | james avery | Canada | baseball | 0.35% |
As Robin pointed out the British emerged above Australia on the Medal Count, we've all seen the medal tally recalculated and indexed against populations, but, I have my own way of doing things and have decided to stack it up against the online populations of each country (source: www.internetstats.com) .. and see how the British performed! The lower the number the better the performance.
Maybe better luck in London for the British, on current calculations they'd need to win 197 medals to top the count .. not in my lifetime!
Roll on Vancouver 2010!
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Posted by Alan Long at 10:32 AM
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In Categories Beijing 2008 | Entertainment | Olympics | Search | Sport
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Comments
I can certainly vouch for the fact that I had a significant spike in traffic (by a factor of more than 10 times) over the final weekend of the Olympics when I published medal tallies by population and GDP.
Posted by Sean Carmody | September 3, 2008 02:53 PM
Hi Alan, The Stubborn Mule did some interesting analysis of Olympic medal count by GDP http://www.stubbornmule.net/2008/08/olympic-update/ which caught some of the traffic you're talking about. CB
Posted by Chris Bishops | September 3, 2008 02:34 PM