Retail-Food and Fragrance Sites See Gains Amid Valentine’s Day Celebration
Yahoo! Sites Maintains Commanding Lead in Japanese Market
TOKYO, JAPAN, March 28, 2008 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its February 2008 rankings of the largest and fastest-growing Internet properties and site categories in Japan, based on data from the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service. Valentine’s Day prompted growth in the retail-food and fragrances/cosmetics categories as women sent gifts to men to celebrate the holiday, while the government category grew as people prepared for tax season.
Mozilla was the fastest growing site in Japan, as it was in many countries around the world, due to the release of their updated Firefox browser. Traditionally February is a month when many musicians release new albums in Japan, leading several music information sites to experience increases, including Utapmap.com, Oricon.co.jp, and Sony BMG Music Entertainment. Yahoo! Sites continued their strong lead as the top web property in the Japanese market.
“Valentine’s Day has traditionally been celebrated in Japan with the women giving men gifts, especially chocolates, a practice that is slightly different from other parts of the world,” said Maru Sato, Managing Director of comScore Japan. “As a result, traffic to retail-food sites saw a sharp increase for the month as people took advantage of the convenience of online shopping and ordering.”
Top Gaining Site Categories for February 2008
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Top Gaining Site Categories by Number of Unique Japanese Visitors February 2008 vs. January 2007 Age 15+ Home and Work Locations* Source: comScore World Metrix |
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| Site Category | Total Unique Visitors (000) | ||
| Jan-2008 | Feb-2008 | % Change | |
| Total Internet : Total Audience | 54,544 | 54,395 | 0 |
| Retail - Food | 1,677 | 1,991 | 19 |
| Fragrances/Cosmetics | 4,133 | 4,682 | 13 |
| Lotto/Sweepstakes | 1,608 | 1,817 | 13 |
| Government | 9,488 | 10,349 | 9 |
| Job Search | 4,660 | 5,036 | 8 |
* Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.
Top Gaining Properties for February 2008
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Top 10 Gaining Properties by Number of Japanese Unique Visitors* February 2008 vs. January 2008 Age 15+ Home and Work Locations** Source: comScore World Metrix |
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| Property | Total Unique Visitors (000) | ||
| Jan-2008 | Feb-2008 | % Change | |
| Total Internet : Total Audience | 54,544 | 54,395 | 0 |
| The Mozilla Organization | 2,005 | 2,738 | 37 |
| COOKPAD.COM | 2,218 | 2,948 | 33 |
| Nissan | 2,016 | 2,617 | 30 |
| UTAMAP.COM | 2,330 | 2,858 | 23 |
| ORICON.CO.JP | 5,520 | 6,404 | 16 |
| IZA.NE.JP | 6,279 | 7,148 | 14 |
| Japan Airlines | 2,322 | 2,622 | 13 |
| BLOGMURA.COM | 2,530 | 2,849 | 13 |
| Sony BMG Music Entertainment | 3,122 | 3,484 | 12 |
| DAILYMOTION.COM | 2,844 | 3,100 | 9 |
*Ranking based on the top 100 Japanese properties in February 2008.
** Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.
Top 25 Properties for February 2008
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Top 25 Properties by Number of Japanese Unique Visitors* February 2008 vs. January 2008 Age 15+ Home and Work Locations** Source: comScore World Metrix |
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Feb-08 Rank |
Jan-08 Rank |
Property | Total Unique Visitors (000) Feb-08 |
| N/A | N/A | Total Internet : Total Audience | 54,395 |
| 1 | 1 | Yahoo! Sites | 42,906 |
| 2 | 2 | Google Sites | 33,250 |
| 3 | 3 | Rakuten Inc | 29,405 |
| 4 | 4 | Microsoft Sites | 28,958 |
| 5 | 6 | FC2 inc. | 27,550 |
| 6 | 5 | NTT Group | 26,580 |
| 7 | 10 | GMO Internet Group | 23,433 |
| 8 | 9 | Livedoor | 22,219 |
| 9 | 7 | Nifty Corporation | 22,185 |
| 10 | 8 | Wikipedia Sites | 20,906 |
| 11 | 11 | Amazon Sites | 18,124 |
| 12 | 14 | Apple Inc. | 15,941 |
| 13 | 12 | NEC Corporation | 15,381 |
| 14 | 15 | Sony Online | 15,217 |
| 15 | 13 | Sakura Internet | 15,166 |
| 16 | 16 | Excite Japan | 14,807 |
| 17 | 17 | AMEBLO.JP | 14,219 |
| 18 | N/A | Internet Initiative Japan | 12,848 |
| 19 | 19 | KDDI Corporation | 12,565 |
| 20 | 20 | MIXI, Inc. | 12,382 |
| 21 | 18 | Hatena | 12,224 |
| 22 | 21 | SEESAA.NET | 11,684 |
| 23 | 23 | NICOVIDEO.JP | 10,492 |
| 24 | 22 | TRACKWORD.NET | 10,288 |
| 25 | 24 | DTIBLOG.COM | 8,461 |
*Ranking based on the top 100 Japanese properties in February 2008.
** Excludes traffic 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
Contact:
Andrew Lipsman
Vice President, Industry Analysis
comScore, Inc.
+1 312 775 6510
press@comscore.com
