Almost 10 percent of all Australian Internet traffic for June 2002 was directed at sites in the 'Computers and Internet - Software' category of Hitwise's survey, up from 7.58 percent at the beginning of the year. Much of this increase, Hitwise attributes to file-sharing services such as the Australian-owned Kazaa network.
Kazaa captured more than half of Internet traffic aimed at 'Entertainment - Multimedia', and was the 11th most popular site overall for the week ending July 13, a vast increase since ranking outside the top 50 last year. As a comparison, legal music MP3 sites Audio Galaxy and MP3.com saw just over five percent of traffic combined.
Alison Barr, manager of the MP3.com.au Web site, which captured just 0.46 percent of traffic, according to the Hitwise survey, told ZDNet Australia that business at her site was increasing, a fact borne out by Hitwise. -It is quite a prospect to ask people to pay for digital downloads," she said, -takeup will be slow".
Barr said the most popular part of the site was the promotional downloads, where customers can download songs a couple of weeks before the album is released. The MP3s stop working after a period of time - usually the date of release. -The [downloads] that are converting into sales are increasing all the time too," she said.
Phillip Whinnen, vice president of Red Sheriff, south Asia, told ZDNet Australia that more than 60 percent of users who responded to the last survey indicated a positive attitude towards file sharing. However, it included the exchange of things like books and documents online.
