According to a research by the internet traffic supervisor, Hitwise, the shift of The Times website behind a Paywall has charged the online paper market share, but opponent websites are not gaining.

Times. co. uk that substitutes timesonline. co. uk, observed a dip in daily market share from 4.37% to 1.81% in May and its daily average traffic has nearly halved.

Hitwise discovered that average session times dropped from five and a half minutes to three and a half, though this is more than expected, provided, that the visitors opt for not to register and would leave soon.

But with Times+ – an individual site, which gathers user registration data, providing them free access to content for this month before readdressing them to times. co. uk, taking up 17% of traffic from Times Online, there’s a hint that a considerable number of consumers are opting to get registered to access times. co. uk, according to Hitwise.

The largest recipient of weekly traffic from Times+ has been The Independent, with 0.6% of its traffic arriving from Times+.

As anticipated, The Telegraph, Guardian, Independent, Daily Mail and BBC News have also benefited to some extent.

Hitwise Research Director, Robin Goad said, “Since it forced users to register to view its content, The Times has lost market share. However, this decline has clearly not been catastrophic and none of the paper’s rivals has particularly benefited”.