FT.com intensifies web growth

Hong Kong - In an aggressive move to increase web audience, The Financial Times has partnered with Google and 30 other partner websites to launch a ‘First Click Free' program that will allow users to click through to FT.com content free of charge, without registration or subscription.

The initiative follows FT.com's recent introduction of a new access model that allow users to access up to 30 stories per month at no cost.

Ien Cheng, managing editor and publisher for FT.com said: "We want FT.com to become both a more integral part of the internet's web of links and a fast-growing destination site in itself."

"Our new access model allows any site or blog to link to our stories, which are now freely accessible to anyone, up to 30 stories per month. There is, of course, a small chance that a user will reach the monthly limit when linking through from another site and so our ‘First Click Free' allows partners to guarantee that their users will get free access to the specific story they are linking to," Cheng added.

FT.com said its monthly unique users had grown more than 70% to 6.5 million in the last year with page views up 50% to 43 million and on-line revenues rose by 40%.

"We're pleased they are using ‘First Click Free' to ensure we can include their content in all of Google's search results, and to ensure our users always get access to the FT stories they are looking for," Josh Cohen, business product manager for Google News said.