Internet Failing Europe's World Cup Fans

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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.