A combination of COVID-19 stories and the launch of a new web platform have seen Wanaka App readership surge 90% for the three months to June (April-June 2020) compared to the same time last year.

Over 260,000 reader sessions were recorded between April 1, 2020 and June 30, 2020, up from 137,000 for the corresponding three months in 2019.

Unique users for the three months more than doubled at 17,253 against 8,459 last year, growth of 104%.

“It is very encouraging to see the growth in users and sessions,” Wanaka App co-owner Tony O’Regan said. “Launching a new web channel just before lockdown turned out to be good timing, with the web app adding considerably to the growth we were experiencing.”

The Wanaka App launched in 2016 as an app for mobile devices. In February this year the company expanded its channel offering by launching a web platform to complement the mobile channel. “The web app provides a browser-based channel for our local news and information,” Tony said.

“It makes content more discoverable in online search and also expands the sharing features for social media.”

The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown saw interest in local news peak in April and May, with over 100,000 reader sessions recorded in each month. “We had some staggering days as the pandemic story unfolded and as businesses opened up afterwards. The temporary pop-up takeaway page (5,800 views) and the dining page (11,000 views) experienced record traffic and the Covid-19 section (17,000 views) has also been popular. Some days the app was opened over 6,000 times,” said Tony.

Since January 1 this year the Wanaka App has recorded over 21,000 unique users who have read the app over 500,000 times. Page views are over 2.5 million for the six months.

PHOTO: Wanaka App