Top 40 digital brands: Amazon top of the digital brands

iPods last year. The service jumped 24 places in our survey to 11th,
from 35th last year.

The study uses GfK NOP's e-Omnibus survey, which regularly polls the
opinions of 1,000 UK users, to find out which digital brands are most
highly regarded.

It gauges respondents' perceptions of digital brands against six
criteria: innovation; recognition, customer care, value for money,
reliability and longevity.

ITunes failed to make the top 10, which is, again, dominated by the
biggest names on the internet, but its success in our survey reflects a
year during which it saw more than 200 million songs sold in Europe. The
service only launched outside the US in 2004.

BIG MOVERS

Within the top 10 itself, it is Amazon, which, for the third year
running, takes the top spot. It was named by more respondents than any
other as being a brand that cares for its customers and offers value for
money.

Elsewhere in the top 10, this year's findings reveal a landmark event -
for the first time, eBay overtook Google to take second place. EBay is
the brand most people think of as being innovative and, surprisingly,
also the most instantly recognisable. And it is also the brand most
people think will flourish over the next 10 years.

Other big movers in the top 40 are online retailer Play.com, insurance
service esure and shopping-comparison engine Kelkoo, all of which jumped
more than 10 places. Play.com scored well for offering value for money
and being reliable.

The success of esure, the online insurance company launched by Direct
Line founder Peter Wood, can be put down almost entirely to its
advertising presence. It easily scored highest for being an instantly
recognisable brand. Meanwhile, Kelkoo, which is now owned by Yahoo,
performed well for being both innovative and reliable.

The highest new entries were property service Right Move, placed 17th,
and utilities-switching service uSwitch, which came 22nd. USwitch scored
highest for being instantly recognisable, suggesting that its recent
above-the-line ad campaign - as well as PR following its acquisition by
US company Scripps earlier this year - have helped to raise its profile.
The year's biggest story, user-generated content sites, produced one
entry in the top 40, MySpace, which came in at number 32.

This year, the list of 77 brands surveyed was revisited to ensure that
only those services that can be considered genuine digital brands were
taken into account. Thus the online presence of offline companies and
services were removed, which included BA.com, BT.com and BBC.co.uk.

However, services such as FT.com, Guardian Unlimited, Tesco.com and
Sainsbury's To You were considered to be digital brands in their own
right. Of these, Tesco.com once again made the top five, gaining a
ranking on last year to claim fourth place. Its rival, Sainsbury's To
You, may have benefited from a relaunch last year to rise eight places
to 20th.

Guardian Unlimited was named the best online newspaper brand, claiming
34th place. It scored best for being instantly recognisable. Meanwhile,
FT.com scraped into the top 40, once again performing best for being
instantly recognisable.

METHODOLOGY

Revolution and GfK NOP drew up an initial shortlist of 75 brands.

This comprised those 75 brands measured in 2005 minus those that no
longer exist, are less prominent than a year ago and also those that are
online arms of traditional brands. New digital-only brands and others
considered to have had a successful 2005-06 were then added.

Consumer awareness and usage of these 75 brands were then measured and
each brand was rated, by those internet users aware of it, on six
attributes: innovation, value, visibility, customer care, reliability
and longevity.

Mean scores were calculated for each of these attributes and then
averaged out to provide a brand's overall rating.

The data-capture mechanism was GfK NOP's e-Omnibus survey, a regular
online study that polls 1,000 respondents who are representative of
weekly GB internet users. Fieldwork was undertaken in the first two
weeks of August 2006, and data were correctively weighted back to the
representative market profile, as established by GfK NOP 's GB Internet
User Profile Study.

For additional survey information, contact Richard Somerville, director,
GfK NOP (Consumer - New Media) at: revolutionsurvey2006@gfk.com

RECOGNITION

1. eBay

2. Google

3. Amazon

4. Argos.co.uk

5. AOL

6. Tesco.com

7. Yahoo

8. Orange

9. MSN

10. Friends Reunited



CUSTOMER CARE

1. Amazon

2. eBay

3. Tesco.com

4. Google

5. Argos.co.uk

6. FriendsReunited

7. Yahoo

8= AOL

8= Virgin.net

10. Sainsbury's to you



NUMBER OF RESPONDENTS

2006 2005 Company Mean Innov- Reli- Recogn- Caring Money 10Yrs Base

ative able isable

1 1 Amazon.co.uk 632 584 718 806 468 618 599 1019

2 4 eBay 605 620 539 860 391 553 666 998

3 2 Google 565 581 729 836 346 331 569 998

4 5 Tesco.com 484 208 574 752 372 473 524 101

5 6 Argos.co.uk 477 207 632 791 329 523 379 101

6 9 Yahoo 342 257 425 669 216 182 304 998

7 15 AOL 323 280 323 775 209 129 221 998

8 14 Friends- 323 403 335 569 233 141 260 998

Reunited

9 10 MSN 321 308 397 613 176 119 312 101

10 13 Orange 284 155 340 630 198 104 275 101

11 35 iTunes 269 309 302 418 135 144 308 998

12 16 Virgin.net 265 154 284 533 209 140 272 101

13 18 Egg 237 161 263 515 181 132 169 998

14 22 Yell.com 230 132 355 483 112 92 208 1019

15 19 Lastm3- 217 224 254 341 101 196 187 998

inute.com

16 29 Play.com 216 166 242 245 188 261 196 998

17 Right Move 216 166 242 245 188 261 196 998

18 26 Expedia 195 191 237 276 117 150 198 1019

19 27 Multimap 185 201 319 241 70 122 155 998

20 28 Sainsbury's 180 93 223 300 208 123 135 998

to you

21 37 esure 167 110 171 358 133 119 111 998

22 uSwitch 165 155 177 214 108 164 170 998

23 31 CD WOW 164 120 215 183 132 209 127 998

24 11 Ask 154 171 222 255 87 72 118 998

25 40 Kelkoo 152 190 195 178 77 137 139 1019

26 36 Streetmap 147 165 255 193 63 84 121 1019

27 Cheapflights 142 164 131 136 73 207 143 998

28 Confused.com 136 185 133 187 75 117 118 1019

29 Fish4 125 150 157 226 59 67 92 998

30 Money- 123 157 134 124 63 123 137 1019

supermarket

31 38 Cahoot 118 100 144 215 85 43 121 1019

32 MySpace 118 174 102 156 62 46 168 998

33 Elephant 115 89 119 240 78 78 85 1019

co.uk

34 Guardian 114 55 190 217 81 47 91 1019

Unlimited

35 Blueyonder 114 98 148 197 88 65 92 998

36 eBookers 104 107 119 136 46 86 128 1019

37 Napster 104 138 82 221 35 55 91 998

38 Thetrain- 104 74 190 116 82 69 68 998

line.com

39 Lycos 98 83 141 217 51 28 69 1019

40 FT.com 91 28 171 209 48 27 64 1019

OUR TOP 10 IN 2006

1. AMAZON.CO.UK

Having named former T-Mobile boss Brian McBride as UK MD in December,
Amazon has ploughed a familiar though quiet furrow. In March, it added a
wedding list and opened a new customer service centre, with jobs for 450
people, in Cork, Ireland.

2. E BAY

EBay's star has risen as it continues to innovate and develop new
revenue streams. Its motor channel is a serious rival to classified
businesses, and it has signed deals with blogging communities and sites
such as Wikipedia.

3. GOOGLE

The world's most popular search engine has boosted its share of UK
search to 77 per cent. It hired former TV sales chief Mark Howe as UK MD
this year and Dennis Woodside as MD for the UK, Ireland and Benelux.

4. TESCO'S

The UK's most used grocery-shopping service continues to expand,
reflecting Tesco's own move into non-food lines. It has also found
success in new digital channels, its latest offer being a free online
phone service.

5. ARGOS

A big year saw Argos and Homebase demerged from GUS group and renamed
the Home Retail Group, while the Argos site saw online orders for home
delivery rise 46 per cent.

6. YAHOO

Yahoo's year was dominated by its UK and Europe redesign, unveiled in
July. It said: "The new home page delivers a greater focus on search,
content, community and personalisation."

7. AOL

AOL is in limbo as its US parent seeks a buyer for its internet access
business in France, Germany and the UK. Meanwhile, the firm has pushed
on with signing content deals, including one to offer film
downloads.

8. FRIENDS REUNITED

2006 saw one of the last UK dotcoms give up its independence as Friends
Reunited was sold to ITV for £175m, signalling the final departure
of founders Steve and Julie Pankhurst. The brand has since appeared on
TV, on ITV's digital channel Play and as an advertiser.

9. MSN

A tumultuous year saw MSN try to define itself after the launch of
Microsoft's Windows Live services. MSN UK chief Gillian Kent left,
partly replaced by Sharon Baylay, who is in charge of all UK web
services, including Live.

10. ORANGE

Orange became a fully-fledged digital brand as it subsumed web access
business Wanadoo to offer free broadband to Orange users in Europe. It
looks strong enough to cope.

INNOVATION

1. eBay

2. Amazon

3. Google

4. FriendsReunited

5. iTunes

6. MSN

7. AOL

8. Yahoo

9. Lastminute.com

10. Tesco.com



LONGEVITY

1. eBay

2. Amazon

3. Google

4. Tesco.com

5. Argos.co.uk

6. MSN

7. iTunes

8. Yahoo

9. Orange

10. Virgin.net



RELIABILITY

1. Google

2. Amazon

3. Argos.co.uk

4. Tesco.com

5. eBay

6. Yahoo

7. MSN

8. Yell.com

9. Orange

10. FriendsReunited



VALUE

1. Amazon

2. eBay

3. Argos.co.uk

4. Tesco.co.uk

5. Google

6= Play.com

6= Right Move

8. CD-Wow

9. Cheapflights

10. Lastminute.com