In the lead up to the Beijing Olympics Opening Night tonight, Hitwise showed us an interesting Weekly Market share of visits by country. Australia and New Zealand has picked up considerable interest in the last two week leading to the Olympics.
No doubt each of the UK and US market will have their own local Olympics news sites from major media networks such as NBC, ESPN, etc. The style, local heroes focus, and tonality will still drive a majority of local visitors to local sites. In reflection of Yahoo7’s brand flat or little growth in audience numbers, they will be relying on the Olympics and current brand campaign to deliver the audience numbers.
Google Trends (http://www.google.com/trends?q=olympics&ctab=0&geo=all&date=mtd&sort=0) also shows Australia and New Zealand is also interestingly driving the top 1 and 2 spot in searching the keyword “Olympics” in the last 30 days.
It’s time for Australia to get excited!