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Internet Failing Europe’s World Cup Fans
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Adam Eisner, theWHIR.com
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June 5, 2002 – As nations worldwide
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geared up for the World Cup, one of the world’s greatest sporting
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showcases, nearly everyone expected there would be an upset or two on
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the soccer pitch when the action began earlier this week.
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Few people, however, guessed there would
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also be a number of related upsets because of the Internet. But as the
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first week of the World Cup draws to a close, it has become painfully
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apparent that the Internet is failing users both in Europe and
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worldwide as Web sites buckle under the pressure of user demand.
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Thousands of seats for several matches
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have been reportedly left empty for several games – The Washington Post
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said today 8,500 seats were left for co-host Japan’s match against
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Belgium – even as organizers assured the public that the games had been
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sold out. Meanwhile, obtaining results for several matches online from
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major Web properties has been difficult because of overwhelming traffic
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volume slowing Web sites to a crawl.
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In order to rectify the ticket snafu,
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embarrassed organizers reportedly released blocks of the supposed
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“sold” seats for sale on the Internet recently, only to encounter angry
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customers who could not purchase seats because the Web site that was
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supposed to sell them was also inaccessible. As a result, organizers
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are now moving to a tried and true method of ticket sales – the
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telephone.
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But aside from the frustration of not
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being able to purchase or receive tickets, those who have been watching
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from home or following the action at work have often been stymied by
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slow moving or even inaccessible Web sites. According to reports, most
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major European portals and the official Web site of the 2002 World Cup,
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which is hosted by Internet giant Yahoo! (which provides commercial Web
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hosting services as well), did not load properly for hours following
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Senegal’s shocking victory over defending champions France.
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“There was a clear overload of users. It
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was almost like Sept. 11,” analyst Jaap Favier at Internet research
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group Forrester in Amsterdam told Reuters. The terrorist attacks of
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September 11 rendered many of the world’s most popular Web sites
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useless as Internet users worldwide attempted to log on and access
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additional information. Internet performance measuring firm Matrix.net
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called it “the greatest stress encountered over its 32-year history
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(including predecessor networks).”
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Given prior world events, which should
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have prepared major Web properties for traffic spikes, it is surprising
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that more Web sites did not appear to be ready. Even those that thought
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they were ready, however, had problems with demand. For example,
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according to Reuters, the BBC increased its server capacity by a factor
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of five for its World Cup Web site, and has seen traffic triple to
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eight million page views a day since the start of the tournament. Yet
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reports have pointed out that the site has still be slowed by user
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demand at times.
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Traffic levels have exceeded even FIFA
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and Yahoo!’s expectations, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, with
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FIFAWorldcup.com logging almost a whopping 80 million page views on
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Monday alone.
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A significant amount of the online volume
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frustration is centered to Europe, where most of the matches are played
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during business hours. Most parts of North America are several hours
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behind Europe, and even further behind Asia. As a result, the majority
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of matches are played early in the morning for North America, and
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during prime business and evening hours in Europe, likely prompting a
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significant part of Europe to try and access the same information at
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the same time. Europeans have also been strong supporters of ticket
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sales for the World Cup, and their lack of access to tickets will
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likely affect the tournament’s bottom line.
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Web properties that have invested in
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additional infrastructure and equipment in preparation for the World
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Cup should consider retaining their additions at the event’s conclusion
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in preparation for the next online “big event”. The World Cup is proof
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that most Web sites are still vulnerable to traffic spikes. Hopefully,
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some of the more popular Web properties will have learned their lesson
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by the time the World Cup finals roll around.
About theWHIR.com
Since 2000, The Web Host Industry Review has made a name for itself as the foremost authority of the Web hosting industry providing reliable, insightful and comprehensive news, interviews and resources to the hosting community. TheWHIR is an iNET Interactive property. For more information on iNET Interactive, visit http://www.inetinteractive.com
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