No sure measure for site popularity
"I haven't seen any reliable research on the popularity of internet sites," said Michal Sulkiewicz, an account executive at McCann Erickson Polska's interactive division, which handles internet, multimedia and CD-Rom advertising.
However, based on informal findings, internet industry members mention six Polish sites that appear to be the most popular.
As in other parts of the world, portals, internet sites that serve as indexes or guides to the internet, are by far the most popular sites in Poland, said Piotr Wyrzykowski, director of online activities at Chip Magazine, a Polish-language print and web publication about the internet. The two Polish portals most often cited as the most popular are Wirtualna Polska, owned by Gdansk-based Centrum Nowych Technologii, and Onet, owned by a Krakow-based joint venture of Optimus and Pascal Multimedia.
Other portals frequently mentioned are Polski Infoseek and Poland Online.
Portal sites account for 80% of all internet traffic worldwide, said Marek Borzestowski, managing director of Wirtualna Polska, adding that the ratio is probably similar in Poland. He estimated that his site receives about 20 million visits per month, from 400,000 individual users.
"Gdansk, as a port city, used to be a gateway to the world," Borzestowski said. "Now we like to say that Wirtualna Polska is continuing this tradition by electronic means."
After portal sites, the next most frequently nominated sites all belonged to the online versions of Polish newspapers and magazines. The most frequently cited was Chip Online, a publication devoted to the IT industry. Rzeczpospolita and Gazeta Wyborcza were also cited frequently. Other popular sites belong to Polityka and Wprost, the major news weeklies, Gazeta Bankowa and Machina, a pop culture magazine.
But internet users in Poland are not just attracted to portals and newspapers. "There are also some Quake pages which are extremely popular," Chip's Wyrzykowski said. Quake is a 3-D shoot 'em up game.
There are about 1.5 million internet users in Poland, Borzestowski said. That number is projected to grow to 7 million by 2003, said Slawomir Chmielewski, general director of Pegasus Advertising.
Popular Polish web sites
Wirtualna Polska:
http://www.wp.pl
Onet:
http://www.onet.com.pl
Polski Infoseek:
http://www.infoseek.icm.edu.pl
Poland Online:
http://www.polandonline.com
Chip Online:
http://www.chip.pl
Rzeczpospolita:
http://www.rzeczpospolita.pl
Gazeta Wyborcza:
http://www.gazeta.pl
Polityka:
http://www.polityka.pol.pl
Wprost:
http://www.wprost.pl
Gazeta Bankowa:
http://www.bankowa.com.pl
Machina:
http://www.machina.com.pl
However, based on informal findings, internet industry members mention six Polish sites that appear to be the most popular.
As in other parts of the world, portals, internet sites that serve as indexes or guides to the internet, are by far the most popular sites in Poland, said Piotr Wyrzykowski, director of online activities at Chip Magazine, a Polish-language print and web publication about the internet. The two Polish portals most often cited as the most popular are Wirtualna Polska, owned by Gdansk-based Centrum Nowych Technologii, and Onet, owned by a Krakow-based joint venture of Optimus and Pascal Multimedia.
Other portals frequently mentioned are Polski Infoseek and Poland Online.
Portal sites account for 80% of all internet traffic worldwide, said Marek Borzestowski, managing director of Wirtualna Polska, adding that the ratio is probably similar in Poland. He estimated that his site receives about 20 million visits per month, from 400,000 individual users.
"Gdansk, as a port city, used to be a gateway to the world," Borzestowski said. "Now we like to say that Wirtualna Polska is continuing this tradition by electronic means."
After portal sites, the next most frequently nominated sites all belonged to the online versions of Polish newspapers and magazines. The most frequently cited was Chip Online, a publication devoted to the IT industry. Rzeczpospolita and Gazeta Wyborcza were also cited frequently. Other popular sites belong to Polityka and Wprost, the major news weeklies, Gazeta Bankowa and Machina, a pop culture magazine.
But internet users in Poland are not just attracted to portals and newspapers. "There are also some Quake pages which are extremely popular," Chip's Wyrzykowski said. Quake is a 3-D shoot 'em up game.
There are about 1.5 million internet users in Poland, Borzestowski said. That number is projected to grow to 7 million by 2003, said Slawomir Chmielewski, general director of Pegasus Advertising.
Popular Polish web sites
Wirtualna Polska:
http://www.wp.pl
Onet:
http://www.onet.com.pl
Polski Infoseek:
http://www.infoseek.icm.edu.pl
Poland Online:
http://www.polandonline.com
Chip Online:
http://www.chip.pl
Rzeczpospolita:
http://www.rzeczpospolita.pl
Gazeta Wyborcza:
http://www.gazeta.pl
Polityka:
http://www.polityka.pol.pl
Wprost:
http://www.wprost.pl
Gazeta Bankowa:
http://www.bankowa.com.pl
Machina:
http://www.machina.com.pl
