Internet retail sites experienced the highest growth in popularity of any category of Internet sites in the six months up to the end of November 1999.

52 percent more Internet users visited ecommerce sites in that time than had previously, according to Nielsen NetRatings. The percentage of Internet users who visited shopping sites increased to 41 percent from 31 percent in the previous six months. Clicks-and-mortar retailers based in the US experienced particularly significant increases in traffic. Visitors to the JC Penney website increased by 302 percent while traffic to Wal-Mart was up 270 percent. Sports sites also enjoyed increased popularity, with 38 percent more visitors than before. Traffic to technology sites was up 34 percent and finance sites received 32 percent more visitors. Traffic to news sites was up a quarter and 20 percent more users visited portal sites. Portals experienced the slowest growth in traffic but this is understandable when their already dramatic penetration is taken into account. Traffic to portals increased by 2.5 percent on average to 87.8 percent in the half year ending November 1999. A small number of portals enjoyed enviable growth, including the Microsoft portal MSN and the AOL portal, both of which experienced growth in traffic of more than 40 percent. Visitors also flocked to new search engine sites. The overall number of Net users grew by 17 percent in the period and this figure acted as the benchmark figure for comparative popularity. Prominent sites where the increase in traffic was lower than the overall increase in Internet users included Lycos and Excite.