Launched a little over a year ago by the AMAF Financial Sector Promotion Commission, the www.MonacoForFinance website continues to meet with growing popularity among Internet users. Designed as a tool to provide information and transparency regarding the world of finance in a broad sense, it fully supports the openness and communication strategy promoted by the Principality.
More than 10,500 visitors at end October 2013
While in its initial months, Monaco For Finance (www.mff.mc) quickly attracted the interest of Internet users, after more than one year of existence and visits in excess of 10,500 users at the end of October, it was important to draw up a new a progress report and examine the make-up of this enthusiasm.
80% of the Internet users are from Western Europe
Consequently, the interest in obtaining more information on the Monaco financial centre is still very lively in our neighbouring countries, and in France first and foremost with nearly 36% of Internet uses. Switzerland ranks second with 7.45%, then the UK with 6.60% and Luxembourg with 5.25%.
Other countries follow; some geographically close ones such as Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain each total 1 - 2%, and others which are further away but just as interested in Monaco, such as the USA with over 3% and then China, India, Morocco and the Ivory Coast, all with 0.5 - 1% each.
But we should not forget Monaco itself, which as a country ranks second in terms of visitors every month, with over 27% of total visits.
More broadly speaking, looking at the different continents, 90% of visitors are from Europe, nearly 80% of whom from Western Europe alone and 7.5% from Northern Europe. The Americas account for around 4%, ahead of Asia at 3%.
In terms of cities, the distribution exhibits a quick world tour, starting from Monaco, before Nice - the capital city of our main employment area - then Paris, London, Luxembourg, and the three Swiss cities of Geneva, Zurich and Lugano. Finally comes New York and then Chengdu in China, following the special university relations in place and the specialised course taught in China – the Monaco DEES Banking with the cooperation of former bank executives from the Monaco financial centre, and this year a first class interested in this course with the aim of exploiting the Monaco experience to develop the market for private banks in this large country.
Over a third are regular visitors
Overall, a third of surfers return to this website with constant regularity, thus confirming the quality of its published information and the importance of maintaining good momentum in the articles or subjects structured by the editorial team comprising Financial Sector Promotion Commission members, with the active contribution of the EPI Communication group editorial team.
The international feedback received has encouraged us to continue our actions. Highly constructive relationships with embassies or consulates of the Principality abroad have also contributed to very positively supporting the image of the financial centre and the country in the broad sense; a phenomenon also confirmed by the number of American and Swiss visitors especially. The same applies to foreign missions’ visits to Monaco, including the German ‘Mittelstand’ and the official visit of a delegation from Kazakhstan.
The website will also have continued to expand the sphere of influence of finance within Monaco itself, with participation at various congresses and events - CIFA, Invest Tour Monaco, Banking and Financial Law Day – and to showcase technological progress in terms of communication and through the incumbent operator Monaco Telecom and 4G’s arrival in the Principality.
Average consultation time is 2 minutes 17 seconds
A more detailed analysis of the data allows us to distinguish those countries where there is a growing interest in the website. In this regard the following countries should be noted, based on the figures in absolute terms: Monaco, the UK, Switzerland and the USA. And from the data provided via percentages, weighted by the overall figures generated by the countries, we note Morocco, Belgium, Canada and India.
The average duration of visitors is around 2 minutes 17 seconds. This figure includes broad disparities, however: the average duration of Chinese surfers is 7 minutes 42 seconds, compared with the 1 minute 31 seconds of Americans.
Over 30% of visits are in the English language
In language terms, the lion’s share is split between French with slightly more than 60% of visitors and English with just over 30%.
Russian version coming very soon
The question of languages is certainly a fundamental element in the international readability of the website, and in relation to the strategy pursued to develop the financial centre. Thus, in order to take into account the evolution of the customer make-up in Monaco, and following the latest promotion mission in Russia – on the initiative of the CED and in the presence of the Sovereign Prince, in which we took part by hosting a session presenting the Monaco financial centre in Moscow – we wanted to encourage these developments by planning a Russian language version of our website. The project should be implemented by the end of the year. This contribution will undoubtedly give us important information on the evolution of visitors through this new language. Based on the results and their validation, we shall propose similar adaptations in other international languages.
