The Internet in numbers – using metrics to measure online performance

Written by Adelina Chelniciuc on March 8, 2010. Posted in Articles, KPI

Online businesses have an important role in today’s economy, many of them being best practices lasting for decades. eCommerce and online service delivery are considered some of the fastest growing trends on the Internet. As we are facing an exponential growth of Internet usage, performance indicators provide essential information about the online market and the performance of online businesses.

Used wisely, the indicators can reveal market trends, spot potential problems or opportunities and guide target setting.

Some of the performance indicators used widely in the Online / eCommerce space are:

There are many online videos presenting data about the Internet and social media, by using measures and performance indicators. One of the latest is the one below, published in February 2010.

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from JESS3.

What is interesting about this kind of videos is that they quickly become outdated due to the speed these numbers and targets evolve. For example, if at the end of 2009 Facebook was reporting over 350 million active users (as shown in the video), in February 2010 Facebook reached over 400 million active users.

There is a wide range of performance indicators available and many more that can be developed to fit the need of specific projects or organizations. However, performance indicators are not KPIs until selected and applied as key to a specific project or business.

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