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BBVA’s Economic Research Department triples the number of reports disclosed through its website
31 August 2009
BBVA’s new Research Department website, which was presented to the public on 4 March this year, has seen a threefold increase in the number of reports downloaded by users over the past six months as compared to the same period in 2008.
The prestige the Economic Research Department enjoys amongst analysts, an effective web-based reporting policy and the news on the differentiation of BBVA’s business model and its successful strategic vision, which ratify its position as one of the most robust financial groups in the midst of a recession, explain the growing interest in the economic forecasts and analyses made by BBVA’s economists.
The second quarter of 2009 has recorded a 10% increase in the number of visitors to the website, with a monthly average of over 25,000 hits. In the first month alone, the revamped website received over 29,000 visits.
The same period has recorded a twofold increase in the number of pages visited, increasing on average from 3 to 6 for each visit made. A further highlight is the increase in the number of individual visitors; that is, the number of different readers visiting the Research Department’s website has risen by 28%.
These visitors log on from 83 different countries, although Spain provides the majority of the hits, followed by Mexico and Colombia. Special note should be taken of the interest from the United States, which now accounts for 10% of all visits.
Yet the most remarkable aspect of this progression is the threefold increase over 2008 in the number of monthly downloads, which in June was close to 73,000 reports, with an average of 58,000 from March to June.
This figure, combined with the average duration of each visit, which has reduced by half (from 12 to 6 minutes), shows that visitors to the Research Department’s new website have greater access to more documents, finding them more quickly and downloading them more easily. This ratifies the success of the design and presentation of information on the new website.
The main channel used for downloading information is the website itself, although there is a noticeable and steady increase in the number of visitors using alternative channels that keep users up-to-date with the latest developments, such as e-mail and the RSS alerts system, which is used on 20% of occasions.
The types of documents that arouse the greatest interest are “In Depth”, “Forecasts” and “Flash”, which account for 83% of the downloads. Over these past few months, the report that has generated the most traffic is Spain Watch. Generally speaking, the most sought after content refers to the trends and forecasts for European markets, followed by that specific to Mexico, Spain, Latin America and Asia, without forgetting reports on the global situation and those dealing with each one of the Latin American economies.
Users have found the search option for finding reports by geographical areas to be an efficient tool for locating documents of interest, making this the most visited page, as it accounts for 40% of the hits. It is followed by the pages that classify content by topic areas, with 14% of hits.
These figures confirm the interest in the reports that BBVA’s Economic Research Department publishes on a regular basis, as well as the effectiveness of a new website that provides specialist readers and the public at large with independent reports drafted by one of the most prestigious and influential teams of economists within the economic and financial scenario.
Furthermore, the frequent news reports on the Group’s strength, its management style - a key to the dominant position it holds in these present times of uncertainty - and its latest operations in the United States, have also meant that markets and analysts have shown a greater interest in the opinion of BBVA’s economists.
