Online Media of the Year: IT News No. 7 Apple Daily

Category: IT News

Owned by: Next Media

CEO, Next Media: Stephen Ting

Chinese-language paper Apple Daily is currently the second most popular paper in Hong Kong, having successfully nudged aside competition with its "signature feature of openness, liberalism, vibrancy and quest for truth" since its inception in 1995.

The paper is owned by Hong Kong's largest publicly listed Chinese-language print media company - Next Media, which has a stake in six other leading publications in Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as a commercial printing and internet operations arm. Its online version, Apple Daily Online is managed by Atnext.com, the number one online Chinese news and current events portal which also belongs to Next Media.

Apple Daily Online is the online equivalent of its print contemporary, offering its users access to the latest financial, sports, entertainment and local news presented in neat, clearly demarcated sections. According to a Nielsen//Netratings site census in 2005, Apple Daily Online reaches out to over 1.3 million unique users monthly, with the majority of them aged between 20 to 29 years, hailing from the IT/computer industry.

Apple Daily Online was ranked 7^th place overall in the IT news site category of Marketing's Online Media of the Year survey, with a majority of respondents ranking it 1^st  place than at any other place. Apple Daily Online was also more popular with respondents from companies of foreign origin than with those from companies of local origin - accumulating twice as many votes from the former than it did from the latter.

Survey results also revealed that Apple Daily Online was more popular with respondents with local area of responsibilities than with respondents with regional area of responsibilities - the number of votes from former was double that of the latter. The same could be said for the website's popularity with respondents of local origin, whose votes totalled three times more than those from respondents of foreign origin.

Looking at responses by agency/client divide, Apple Daily Online garnered marginally more votes from agency-side respondents than client-side respondents, suggesting that the website possessed more mindshare with agencies than with clients. By job function, agency-side respondents performing creative functions favoured Apple Daily Online the most, with 5.66% of all agency-side respondents performing creative function voting for the website within top three places - on par with 4^th placed Yahoo's performance with the same group of respondents.

.