Online Searches for 'fuel watch' Surge by 75%

Consumers who spend time searching for best petrol deals are amongst both the most affluent and financially stretched consumer groups in Australia.

Melbourne - 24 April 2008 - According to Hitwise, the leading online competitive intelligence service, searches for 'fuel watch' increased by 75% comparing weeks ending 12 April 2008 and 19 April 2008. Searches were prompted by the announcement of a national fuel watch scheme starting in December that will publish petrol station prices for the next day online. The scheme aims to maximise transparency in petrol pricing by informing consumers about where the best deals can be found.

The FuelWatch scheme in Western Australia has been cited as a precedent of a successful program. In December 2007 Fuel Watch WA (www.fuelwatch.wa.gov.au) achieved its highest rank over a 36-month period of 15th position in the Hitwise Automotive industry.

Consumer searches have trended strongly over the year, with the term 'fuel watch' increasing more than 5-fold comparing 4 weeks ending 21 April 2007 and 19 April 2008.

There are two predominant household groups with contrasting socio-economic backgrounds likely to visit Fuel Watch WA. Hitwise Lifestyle Mosaic Groups, 'Privileged Prosperity' - the most affluent households in the most desirable locations, and 'Family Challenge' - mixed families with stretched budgets in outer suburbs, have the highest representation amongst visits to Fuel Watch WA compared to other segments of the Australian population. This indicates that consumers who spend time searching for the best petrol deals online are amongst both the most affluent and financially stretched consumer groups in Australia.

MotorMouth (www.motormouth.com.au) is another example of a consumer website that monitors and reports fuel prices in Queensland, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. The website has a high representation of visits from Internet users in the ACT, Queensland and South Australia. MotorMouth is under-represented in visits by Internet users in the remaining states, particularly Victoria with a swing against the online population of -12% for the 12 weeks ending 12 April 2008.

Concern about fuel prices was also evident in searches for 'everydayrewards.com.au', an initiative by Woolworths that allows consumers to redeem fuel-saving offers stored electronically on an Everyday Rewards card. According to Hitwise Search Intelligence™ data, 'everydayrewards.com.au' ranked amongst the top 10 fast moving search terms during the 4 weeks ending 12 April 2008. Users in the 55+ age group were the most likely to visit the Woolworths Everyday Rewards website, 33.4% more likely than the population average.

Chart: Australian Share of Searches for 'fuel watch', April 07 - April 08

 

For more information email press.au@hitwise.com

About Hitwise:

Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Only Hitwise provides its 1,400 clients around the world with daily insights on how their customers interact with a broad range of competitive websites, and how their competitors use different tactics to attract online customers.

Since 1997, Hitwise has pioneered a unique, network-based approach to Internet measurement. Through relationships with ISPs around the world, Hitwise's patented methodology anonymously captures the online usage, search and conversion behavior of 25 million Internet users. This unprecedented volume of Internet usage data is seamlessly integrated into an easy to use, web-based service, designed to help marketers better plan, implement and report on a range of online marketing programs.

Hitwise, a subsidiary of Experian (FTS: EXPN) www.experiangroup.com operates in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. More information about Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.com.

For up to date analysis of online trends, please visit the Hitwise Intelligence-Analyst Weblogs at http://weblogs.hitwise.com and the Hitwise Data Center at www.hitwise.com/datacenter