Comscore Releases March 2008 European Search Rankings
8 in 10 European Searches Occur on Google Sites
Russian Search Engine Yandex Outpaces Yahoo! and Microsoft
LONDON, U.K., May 7, 2008 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its ranking of the top search properties in Europe based on data from its Comscore qSearch 2.0 service, which showed that Google Sites holds the leading position with more than 19 billion searches conducted in March, representing 79 percent of the European search market.
“With nearly 80 percent of all searches conducted in March, Google is far and away the leading search property in Europe,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of Comscore. “However, we are seeing key local players show leadership in Eastern Europe where English is spoken less than in Western markets. With Russia’s online population now the fastest growing in Europe, it is likely that some of these local search engines will continue to gain traction and market share.”
Eastern European Search Players Factor Prominently into Ranking
Google’s top position was followed by eBay, which accounted for 3.1 percent of European searches. Russian search portal Yandex ranked third with 2.2 percent search market share, slightly ahead of Yahoo! Sites at 2.0 percent and Microsoft Sites at 1.9 percent.
Two Polish properties, Nasza-Klasa.pl and QXL Ricardo also proved popular, with 1.3 percent and 1.2 percent shares, respectively. Another Russian property, Rambler Media, grabbed the tenth position with a 0.5-percent share.
Top 10 European Search Properties | ||
Property | Searches (MM) | Share of Searches |
Total Internet | 24,550 | 100 |
Google Sites | 19,434 | 79.2 |
eBay | 752 | 3.1 |
Yandex | 528 | 2.2 |
Yahoo! Sites | 486 | 2.0 |
Microsoft Sites | 469 | 1.9 |
NASZA-KLASA.PL | 320 | 1.3 |
QXL Ricardo | 298 | 1.2 |
AOL LLC | 224 | 0.9 |
Ask Network | 201 | 0.8 |
Rambler Media | 125 | 0.5 |
*Excludes searches from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.
Europeans Conducted 25 Billion Searches in March
In March, 221.2 million Europeans conducted 24.6 billion searches, averaging 111 searches per searcher. Searchers in Finland exhibited the heaviest search activity with 143 searchers per searcher, followed by Portugal (128 searches per searcher) and the U.K. (124 searches per searcher). Interestingly, Finland and Russia – two countries that share a border – showed the widest disparity in search intensity, with Russia, where Yandex led the search market, ranking at the bottom of the list with 78 searches per searcher, while Finland, a Google led search market, ranked at the top.
European Search Overview– Country by Country Breakdown* | |||
Country | Unique Searchers (000) | Searches (MM) | Searches Per Searcher |
Europe | 221,181 | 24,550 | 111 |
United Kingdom | 32,392 | 4,030 | 124 |
Germany | 36,011 | 3,935 | 109 |
France | 26,280 | 2,955 | 112 |
Italy | 17,562 | 1,867 | 106 |
Spain | 14,535 | 1,472 | 101 |
Russia | 14,621 | 1,141 | 78 |
Netherlands | 11,713 | 1,097 | 94 |
Sweden | 5,023 | 606 | 121 |
Belgium | 4,575 | 510 | 111 |
Portugal | 3,401 | 437 | 128 |
Switzerland | 3,630 | 401 | 111 |
Austria | 3,528 | 399 | 113 |
Finland | 2,653 | 378 | 143 |
Denmark | 2,997 | 260 | 87 |
Norway | 2,327 | 183 | 79 |
Ireland | 1,290 | 116 | 90 |
*Excludes searches from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.
About Comscore
Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/boilerplate