HBC Readership Analysis


Figure 1.--This American boy was photographed in the 1890s wearing a stripped sailor suit and long sockings. He looks to be about 5 or 6 years of age. He has short hair, looking rather like Eddie Munster. This is not a hair style HBC has commonly noted. I assume that the tricycle is the boy's prized possession and not a studio prop.

Some HBC readers might be interested in where HBC readers come from. As might be expected for an English-language site, over half of our readers come from America or Britain. We also are visited by readers in many other countries, primarily European countries. We have had had visits from people in virtually every country in the world, with a few exceptions such as North Korea. The number of visitors from some countries, however, is very small. We understand why readers in English speaking countries are the most active readers of HBC. We are more than a little puzzled, however, at the some of the countries that are and are not on the list of major HBC readers. We would be interested in reader thoughts about this. We have been trying to add foreign language material and foreign language terms, but Americans continue ti be the primary users. The principal five most important countries are fairly stable, but the order of the next five fluctuiates more.

#1 United States

The United States gave birth to the internet and Americans still provide the bulk, but a declining proprtion of internet users. Thus is is only logical that the bulk of visitors to our English-language site are Americans. American readers were:
March 2002: 44 percent
August 2002: 49 percent

#2 United Kingdom

The U.K. is the third most populace English speaking country. Thus it is understandable that the British are major visitors to our website. The British visitors in additon have made many valuable contributions, including quite a number of personal communications. British readers were:
March 2002: 12 percent
August 2002: 10 percent

# 3 Germany

The most important non-English speaking country is Germany. This is understandable as Germany is the most populace European nation and increasingly avid internet users. Unfortunately, relatively few of our German visitors took time to contribute to our HBC website. This has changed somewhat in mid-2002 and we have received some substantail German contributions. German readers were:
March 2002: 4 percent
August 2002: 5 percent

# 4 Canada

Canada has a relatively small population. Several Canadian readers have made interesting contributions to HBC. Most come from the English-speaking majority, but a few French Canadians have also made some contributions. Canadian readers were:
March 2002: 4 percent
August 2002: 3 percent

# 5 Australia

Australia is another country with a small population, but provides a substantial number of visitors. Here English is a major factor as well as relatively high internet usage. Australian readers were: March 2002: 2 percent
August 2002: 3 percent

# 6 France

France is the next most important user of HBC. Given the French interest in fashion, we had expected this to be higher, at least higher than the Netherlands and perhaps even Germany. Unlike some coubtries, interest usage is not the reason for relatively limited visits to HBC. We suspect that the major impediment here is that many French internet uswers do not feel comfortable in English and are more reluctant than the Germans to visit foreign language sites. French readers, however, have made major contributions to HBC. French readers were:
March 2002: 2 percent
August 2002: 2 percent

# 7 Japan

Japan has a large population that because of their affluence and education are heavy internet users. Relatively high internet costs, however, discotrage surfing to some extent. The fact that HBC is an English language site is another major limitation. A Japaese reader tells us that most Japanese internet users primarily visit domestic Japanese sites. Unfortunately, very few ever stop to make contributions. Thus we have realtively little information about Japan on HBC. Japanese readers were:
March 2002: 2 percent
August 2002: 2 percent

# 8 The Netherlands

The Dutch are major HBC readers, especially given the rather small population of the Netherlands. We suspect that the realtively high level of English competency and extensive internet usage are factors here. Dutch readers have made especially important contributions to HBC. Because of their language skills they have also helped out with insights on Germany and Belgium. Dutch readeres were:
March 2002: 3 percent
August 2002: 2 percent

# 9 Ireland

Ireland has only a small population, yet has appeared ninth on our list of HBC readers. Certainly Lanuage is a factor here as the Irish speak English. Unfortunately we have received realtively few contributions from Ireland. Irish readers were:
March 2002: Unavailable
August 2002: 1 percent

# 10 Finland

Finland appears tenth on our list of HBC readers. Unfortunately we have received few contributions from Finland and know virtully nothing about clothing fashions there. There are quite a few countries that use HBC at about the same rate. We noticed that Russia was in the tenth spot until just a few days ago. Finish readers were:
March 2002: Unavailable
August 2002: 1 percent

Unknown

We do not know where many readers come from. This unknown rate varies from 7-14 percent and has fallen in recent months. We suspect that most of these are American readers.

Other countriess

Readers from all other countries account to 12-16 percent of HBC visitors. We have had visitors from vurtually every country in the world, but in many cases very small numbers of hits.

Italy

One of the countries which has surprised us has been Italy, especially given the importance of the fashion industry. We assume that the primarily limitation here is that HBC is an English-language site. We are not sure about the level of internet usage in Italy. Very few Italian readers have made contributions to our site, leaving Italy poorly covered in HBC.

Belgium

We were somewhat surprised that so few Belgians visit HBC. Belgium is a realtively small country, but we assumed that given the strong French influence and interest in Fashion that we would receive numerous Belgian visitors, at least more than Dutch visitors. But such has not been the case.

India

India is a very minor HBC user. India is the English speaking country with the largest population. Many Indians, however, do not speak Engish as their mother language and only a small percentage can afford internet connections.








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Created: March 28, 2002
Last updated: August 23, 2002