Online advertising still pulls the punters

Last year, most of the top 25 newcomer sites used word-of-mouth, direct marketing, sweepstakes and promotions to drive traffic to their sites, according to the research. Grab.com, a gaming site with a $1bn jackpot, was the top of the newcomer league attracting 13.5 million unique visitors in December.

These new sites do not focus on brand building and their predominant aim is to push up visitor numbers through direct-response marketing.

A senior analyst at Jupiter Research, Patrick Keane is quoted by Reuters as saying: "Despite marketplace scepticism, the top newcomers in 2000 are proof that online advertising still works."