Business and finance websites have been amongst the most popular destinations of Europeans since Jupiter MMXI started measuring European Internet behaviour in October 1999. More than 20 million Europeans logged on to business and finance sites from home in May 2001, visiting local brands which offer online banking, financial information, online share trading, and insurance services. 70% of them were male.

Between May 2000 and May 2001 the proportion of French Internet users visiting business and finance sites from home more than doubled from 18.5% to 38%. They also increased time spent on these sites by more than 50% in the same period, from 19.5 to 31 average minutes per unique visitor per month.

In the UK 36% of all Internet users at home visited finance sites in May 2001, an increase of 28% from May 2000. Banking sites, such as Lloydstsb.com, Egg.com, Barclays.co.uk, Nationwide.co.uk, and Natwest.com make up the UK top ten in this category. Some of these sites have introduced partnerships with portals such as Lloydstsb.com with Lycos, Nationwide.co.uk with Excite, and Natwest.com with Yahoo.

In Germany, the reach of business and finance sites increased by 19% from May 2000 to May 2001, with 35.7% of people online visiting these sites from home. German Internet users spent more than one hour on business and finance sites in May 2001, more than any of their European counterparts. One reason for this is that in Germany websites offering online share dealing and stock market information are more popular than sites of traditional banks, although traditional banks are catching up.

Internet users in Spain and Italy are second only to the Germans in the amount of time they spent on finance sites in May 2001. Spaniards and Italians visit not only sites of traditional banks, but also those offering financial information. In Spain 37.5% of people online from home spent 54 average minutes on top finances sites, such as Lacaixa.es, Invertia.com, and Expansiondirecto.com, as well as online banking sites, such as BBVnet.com, BBVA.es, Bsch.es, and Ebankinter.com. One in three Italians (31.9%) visited financial information sites, such as Ilsole24ore.com, Voltrade.it and Borsaitalia.it, as well as banking sites, such as Fineco.it, Cartasi.it, and Cariplo.it. They spent on average 58.3 minutes on these sites in May 2001.

The Nordic region has the highest proportion of Internet users visiting business and finance sites. In Sweden, where Jupiter MMXI measures at work usage as well as at home usage, almost 60% of the online population visited finance sites in May 2001. Every second Norwegian (56.4%) and 45.1% of Danes online visited business and finance sites from home in May 2001.

In Switzerland almost one in three Internet users visited finance sites from home in May 2001. Although this is one of the smallest audiences for these sites in Europe, the Swiss spent an average of 27.9 minutes per unique visitor in May 2001 — more than people in Norway and Denmark, where the reach is much higher.

According to Patricia Lueer, finance analyst at Jupiter MMXI, "Our latest research shows that Europeans are happy managing their finances online. The most popular banks and financial services sites are those that provide up-to-date and comprehensive content which both attract and retain users. In the future, we expect to see a reduction in the amount of free content available. The Internet pure plays, as well as the banks and brokers, will have to charge their users for premium content, such as in-depth background research and real-time quotes."