BBC.com hailed a success after first year

Hong Kong - BBC.com, the commercial arm for BBC sites outside the UK, has been hailed as a success just one year after its launch, with the site claiming twice the reach of its online news competitors.

Launched in November 2007, BBC.com allows advertising to appear on the BBC site outside of the UK.

After just one year, the site boasts an international audience of 26 million unique users, according to comScore data for January to June 2008.

Speaking from her London office, Kym Niblock, managing director of BBC.com who managed the launch of the site, said between April and September this year the site generated 7.2 million unique users across the Asia Pacific, twice the reach of competitors like CNN.com, Reuters.com, Forbes.com, Bloomberg.com, the Financial Times Group, Time.com and WSJ online.

While Niblock described the first year as "one hell of a ride" she said the growth rates have been a "pleasant surprise".

"The reaction from Asia has been brilliant," she said. "We are arguably the worlds largest start-up. The reality is we are still a bunch of people sitting in London trying to figure out what to do with this."