Handbag.com, a 50:50 joint venture between Boots and Hollinger Telegraph New Media, reported 509,629 unique users and 9.5 million page impressions in October 2001. It is due to announce its ABCE figures for February 2002 this month.
Associated New Media's femail.co.uk reported 234, 834 unique users and 4.2 million page impressions for January.
Phil Rooke, chief executive at iVillage UK, said: "We don't have the same marketing budget as handbag.com so we decided to prove to our advertisers that we have a bigger audience."
"But I'm not a fan of auditing,
he added. "The process often does not count white-label partnerships, such as our Ford-sponsored motoring channel or our shopping channel."
Rooke claims the site's figures have grown five-fold since its launch in December 2000.
Rebecca UIph, an analyst at Forrester Research, said: "I don't think Freeserve's icircle or ANM's femail.co.uk will disappear, as they are part of larger strategies. Handbag.com and iVillage will have a tougher time as they are standalone businesses, but if the ad market picks up, there should be room for both of them to survive."
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