euro2004.com breaks record

More than half a billion (500 million) page views and over 40 million visits have been registered on euro2004.com since the site launched on 31 March 2004 - a new record for an official EURO website. This is an increase of more than 285 per cent on the 128.8 million page views registered by euro2000.org.

Visitors from 230 countries
The site, available in nine languages, has received visitors from 230 countries, with over 50 per cent coming from outside Europe - 27 per cent from Asia and 20 per cent from North America. European visitors made up 45 per cent of the site's traffic.

'Global audience'
"UEFA EURO 2004™ is a European event, but the euro2004.com traffic figures show that the tournament is followed by a global audience. We are delighted that the site has been used by millions of fans around the world to keep up with all the action in Portugal," said Alexandre Fourtoy, CEO of UEFA New Media. Furthermore, an online survey of more than 10,000 euro2004.com users conducted during the tournament showed that 97 per cent of respondents value the site as a source of accurate information.

England v Portugal
The record traffic figures have been driven by the success of euro2004.com's live match console - MatchCentre. For the first time at a EURO tournament, fans had access to live text commentary, real-time statistics and photos, an interactive expert chat and the chance to vote for the official Man of the Match - all in one state-of-the-art application. The service proved popular with users and was responsible for the site's highest peak during the Portugal v England quarter-final on 24 June, when 16.7 million page views were recorded.

Audio and video service
The euro2004.com Action broadband service gave fans the chance to listen to live audio commentary and watch video highlights of each match shortly after the final whistle. The service has received more than two million visits since its launch and 92 per cent of respondents to the user survey said they were satisfied with the site's multimedia offering. In total, 75 per cent of visitors accessed euro2004.com using a broadband connection.

Fanzone section
An integral part of the rights package received by official EURO 2004™ partners was the online activation of their rights on euro2004.com. This was achieved by integrating the partners into the site's content offering with maximum exposure given to the gaming and community features of the Fanzone section of the website. The popularity of these features highlight their success - in total more than 10.7 million visits were made to the Fanzone section.

Produced in-house
"The Official UEFA EURO 2004™ website is an invaluable communication tool for the partners of the competition as it gives a unique legitimacy. Our user survey shows that 80 per cent of euro2004.com users found sponsor communication more credible and less cluttered than advertising on other websites," said Fourtoy. A team of 40 journalists and technicians from 20 nationalities produced euro2004.com - the first time an official EURO tournament website has been produced completely in-house by UEFA New Media.

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