LSE listed Experian Plc is planning to launch its Hitwise Internet Measurement service in India: on the sidelines of the India Digital Summit earlier this month, an Experian representative told MediaNama that the launch is expected in January 2011. According to its website, Hitwise tracks anonymous ISP website logs, for assessing metrics like page requests, visits, average visit length, search terms and behaviour; it then combines ISP data with that from an opt-in panel partners, and region specific consumer demographic and lifestyle information. Hitwise operates in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, France and Brazil. In November, Experian launched email marketing service CheetahMail in India. The launch of Hitwise effectively gives Media Planners more information to work with, and with Nielsen also preparing to launch its analytics in India, we wonder if all these analytics solutions are really solving a problem, or adding to the confusion. If there is consensus in the results, then there is a solution. Otherwise, claims and counter claims using different metrics will add to the noise. Remember that metrics influence decisions made by media planners, and hence the advertising that a website receives. Hitwise appears to have delayed the announcement of its launch in India. A press release dated 7th December 2010, which was pulled from its website (cache) reveals the following information for the week ending November 27th 2010, in terms of top websites and industry segments: Our recent coverage of metrics businesses in India: IMRB - Part 1: How IMRB’s…
