Subject: [NEXTEL-1] People Flock to Web, Text Messages as Conflict with Iraq Heats Up

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2003 13:56:42 -0500

People Flock to Web, Text Messages as Conflict with Iraq Heats Up

Online news sites in the U.S. and China saw traffic spike as missiles began to
fly over Iraq. Then Web surfers began to let loose floods of messages. The U.S.
and China are the world's biggest Web countries, with one billion users
between them. The 15 top news sites saw their traffic soar an average of 41
percent on Tuesday. On Wednesday, sites such as Yahoo news and MSNBC
saw traffic increase two-to-three times normal volumes. In China, thousands
signed-up to receive news alerts via text message from Web portals Sohu.com
and Sina.com in the first few hours after the conflict began. Sina.com expects
to sign up 500,000 new text message users by the end of the year due to the
attention generated by war. In the Philippines, where 80 million people send
165 million text messages a day, mobile phone network operators increased
network capacity in anticipation of a surge in use
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thu Mar 20, 7:08 AM ET

As Missiles Fly, So Do Web Messages

By Juliana Liu and Reshma Kapadia

BEIJING/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Moments after the first missiles hit Iraq (news - web sites),
Web surfers around the world logged on to get the latest news and unleash their own
barrage of messages.

Online news portals (news - web sites) in the United States and China -- which have nearly
a quarter of a billion Web users between them -- reported three times as much traffic as
usual, showing the power of the Net as a major source of information and ringing up
profits for Web portals.

"Our page views went through the roof," said Sohu.com spokeswoman Caroline Straathof. Some
20,000 people had registered for the Chinese portal's SMS-based news service in the first
few hours of the war, paying about 25 yuan ($3) a month to receive urgent news on their
mobile phones, she said.
People across the world also tapped away on their mobile phones, sending each other phone
text messages of fear, outrage and black humor.

"Have you heard that when the United States takes over Iraq it will divide the country
into three zones -- premium, regular and unleaded," said one message circulating in Manila
-- a hotbed of text messaging.

BUSH BASHED

Chat rooms at three of China's portals were humming with activity, with many users bashing
the United States.
"Let's beat down U.S. imperialism! Bush is the ringleader of the invader! Bush is Hitler
of the 21st century!" said one Web user named "xuchangc" on NetEase.com.

"Think of those poor children, elders and women in Iraq, they are innocent! Long life
Saddam, long live Iraq!"
The Internet has emerged as a key source for news, communication and comfort during major
events, especially after the September 11 attacks on the United States.

The United States and China are the world's biggest Web countries, with about 170 million
U.S. and 59 million Chinese Internet users in 2002, the semi-official China Internet
Network Information Center said in January.
Yahoo Inc.'s news site saw about three times more traffic than it would in a typical hour
directly after President Bush (news - web sites) told Americans in a speech that the U.S.
had launched a war on Iraq, according to spokeswoman Joanna Stevens.

Traffic at the Internet arm of cable news network MSNBC was running at two to
two-and-a-half times normal levels after the war started, said Dean Wright,
editor-in-chief.
The Web site would target people at work who have high-speed connections by adding a live
video television stream in the next few days, he said.

SLOW MOTION WAR

Some Philippine mobile phone operators had boosted network capacity to cope with an
anticipated surge in calls, particularly because some 1.3 million Filipinos work in the
Middle East, but they reported no spikes in usage.

"This has been a sort of slow-motion war and many of those that have been concerned have
probably already talked to their relatives abroad in the past few days," said Ramon
Isberto, head of public affairs at Smart Communications Inc, a cellular unit of Philippine
Long Distance Telephone Co (PLDT).

The Philippines' 80 million people send an estimated 165 million messages a day, making
them among the busiest users of thumbs on their phones in the world.

"America has lost its moral ascendancy," said one Filipino in a text message to his
brother, an officer in the U.S. Navy (news - web sites), before the attacks began.
"As a soldier of a mighty nation that's about to swat a fly with tons of ammunition,
you'll always have our prayers."

NEWS DRIVES NET

In the first six hours after the attack started, about 40 million users visited the
Chinese portal's Sina.com's site compared with a daily average of just 20 million users,
Chen said.

Customers also flocked to sign up for Sina.com's short messaging (SMS) news alert service
which costs between eight to 30 yuan, he said, adding the firm expected to double its SMS
users to 1,000,000 people by the end of the year because of attention generated by the
war.

"From a purely business point of view, this war will have a positive impact," Sina.com
editor in chief Chen Tong told Reuters. "It will be a major source of information for
Chinese, especially because cable news does not run 24 hours a day here."

The search for news of the threat of war has driven many Americans to the Web. The 15 top
news sites had an average 41 percent more traffic on Tuesday than their daily average over
the previous four weeks, according to Comscore Media Metrix.

The conflict with Iraq will be the biggest war involving the United States since the
Internet became a major medium. In the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites), the Internet was
in very early stages of development and cable television networks were the dominant source
for breaking news for many people.

While activity on the Internet picked up after Bush's speech, there was no crush of Web
traffic because many Americans were at home watching TV rather than at work in front of
their computers.

"People are still watching the television and right now this is a visual thing," said Eric
Siegel, principal consultant at Keynote Systems, which measures the performance of
Internet sites. "As more information appears than they can get from the TV, people will
turn to the Web." (Additional reporting by Michael Barker and Dolly Aglay in Manila,
Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo and Muralikumar Anantharaman in Singapore)

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