January 11, 1999 New Thinking:
Nua Internet Surveys

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• That information is one of the key drivers in an Information Society
• That, for a small company in particular, it is better to cater for ‘niche’ information needs
• That you should supply information that is relevant to your target market
• That supplying information to the media is an essential function today
• That you give away ‘free’ information so as to get back brand recognition, trust and loyalty – and future business
• That the Internet is the perfect environment within which to leverage already existing information and create new value from it
• That in an age of information overload, those who save people time by supplying the right information will make money
• That on the Internet it is vital to have a long-term vision and back up that vision with investment and commitment

Nua Internet Surveys has become the world’s premier resource for Internet trends and demographics. Between the website and the weekly email, it reaches over 130,000 people every week. It has been translated into Russian, German, Greek, Portuguese, Italian, Hebrew and Spanish.

Journalists and consultants simply love Nua Internet Surveys as a resource. It gives them quality, well-organized and searchable information. They pay by referencing Nua widely, thus building the Nua brand. There are few better ways to build a brand than to have respected third parties reference you.

As a result, Nua Internet Surveys has been quoted by such publications as USA Today, ABC News, CNN Online, Yahoo, ZDNet, Mecklermedia, Wall Street Journal, The Irish Times, The Australian, the US Dept. of Commerce, etc.

Wired magazine has written a story about it, American Vice President Al Gore has quoted its figures, and it has been described by the San Jose Mercury (the newspaper of Silicon Valley) as “the place to go to when you’re confused about the Internet.” The Guardian newspaper voted Nua Internet Surveys as one of its top ten websites of 1998.

Managers who want to develop for the Internet need to put together a plan. Part of that plan invariably involves an analysis of Internet demographic and trend information. There is no better place on the Internet to get such information than at Nua Internet Surveys.

Thus, what happens is that Nua gets into the mind-space and becomes a trusted resource for the manager. This is a clear advantage for Nua over competitors when the manager is looking for a company to help them implement their plan. As a result, Nua has acquired clients such as Lucent Technologies, Thomas Publishing and Gateway. In the last month it has helped us acquire two of the world’s largest brands.

In creating the information for Nua Internet Surveys, Nua uses a technique which we call ‘information sampling.’ Like rappers sample classic riffs from old songs so as to create new songs, Nua Internet Surveys samples/summarizes quality information from reports and articles on Internet trends and demographic.

The added value that Nua Internet Surveys delivers is that it brings together into one central resource, in a highly structured manner, all this information. The other information sources are quite happy to be ‘sampled’ by Nua, because if the person wants the ‘full story’ there is a direct link to the source.

Nua Internet Surveys also seeks to minimize the cost of production of information by maximizing the database potential of the information. Let’s say, for example, that we have come across a report on ecommerce in Europe.

What happens is that when the article on this report is being put together, it is written in such a way that the first sentence can stand on its own. It is then entered into the database and is categorized by date, geographic area and by subject matter (ecommerce, intranets, travel, etc.).

What then happens is that the database takes the heading, date and first line of the article and places it on the front page, with the full story behind it as a link. The same story can then also be accessed by choosing ‘Europe’ under the geographic categories, and/or by choosing ‘Ecommerce’ under the subject matter categories.

Thus, the story has created four points of potential value. The first is as a heading and first line snippet. The second is as an article by chronological context. The third is as an article within the context of other European stories. The fourth is as an article within the context of other Ecommerce stories.


Gerry McGovern


 

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