Ten million expected at Olympics Internet site
11 July 1997SOCOG and its main technology sponsor, IBM, are planning one of the world's biggest Internet sites for the Sydney 2000 Olympics - for 10 million visitors a day. It will be used to distribute general information about Sydney and the Games, as well as competition results. Merchandise will be sold from the site, and possibly tickets to some events.
The manager of the Olympics project for IBM, Mr Garry Willinge, said: "You can think of in excess of a hundred million hits a day as a realistic projection." Hits represent the number of times someone looks at a page on an Internet site, and most visitors are estimated to account for an average of 10 hits each time they visit a site; that means IBM is expecting about 10 million virtual visitors daily.
That is about the same number as visited IBM's official Atlanta Internet site during the entire 17 days of the last year's Games.
The number is a conservative estimate of the site's popularity, Mr Willinge said.
