Holiday-Related Content Drove December Web Activity, According to comScore MMX Top 50 Online Property Ranking

Visitation to Shipping, Jewelry/Luxury Goods and Music Sites Rose over Previous Month

RESTON, VA, January 17, 2006 – comScore MMX today released its monthly analysis of consumer activity at top online properties and categories. As anticipated, holiday-related sites garnered strong traffic in December, with the strongest gains realized by shipping sites, jewelry/ luxury goods providers and retail – music outlets. December also saw a rise in visitation to multi-media content.

“Consumers once again turned to the Internet in December to aid them in all aspects of their holiday celebrations,” said Peter Daboll, president and CEO of comScore MMX. “From purchasing and shipping gifts, to sending holiday greetings and finding recipes for holiday meals, Americans utilized the Web to aid in their holiday planning and preparations.”

AROUND THE WEB

Shipping – Traffic to shipping sites grew 31 percent over a year ago showing the largest growth of any category in December. UPS Sites led the category with 18.6 million visitors (up 42 percent), followed by USPS.com with 15.2 million visitors (up 45 percent), and FedEx.com with 11.4 million visitors (up 35 percent). Stamps.com, a site that allows consumers to print their own stamps from a home printer, also generated a 35 percent increase in December, thanks in part to a feature that allows customers to personalize stamps by uploading their favorite photos.

Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories – After a strong November, the Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories category demonstrated continued momentum, showing a 22 percent gain in unique visitors during December. RedEnvelope.com also achieved significant growth in December, drawing 2.4 million unique visitors, up 62 percent versus the prior month. Consumers’ increased comfort in purchasing high-ticket items online this year also drove significant growth for online high-end retailers including Tiffany & Co. (2 million visitors, up 47 percent), Kay Jewelers (1 million visitors, up 63 percent), and BurberryUSAOnline.com (313,000 visitors, up 128 percent).

Retail Music – Online music retail concluded a strong 2005 with a 22 percent increase in December, compared to the previous month. Barnes & Noble led the category with 9.5 million visitors, up 33 percent from November. Ranking a close second in the category, iTunes drew 9.3 million visitors (also up 33 percent), as iTunes gift certificates proved to be a popular gift this holiday season. Some retailers even found success piggybacking on the iPod/iTunes phenomenon. Soundsgood.com, an audiobook retailer, almost certainly benefited from the combined popularity of portable digital media players and the tradition of holiday book-gifting, as it drew 1 million visitors in December (up 144 percent).

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

Spreading goodwill over the Internet during the holidays had a decidedly viral effect, as evidenced by the tremendous December growth in several sites devoted to multimedia content. Sites normally garnering very modest traffic saw visitation explode virtually overnight as friends and family members alike forwarded greetings, spoofs and humorous short videos.

• Powerpres.com – Animated holiday greetings on Powerpres.com, featuring colorful characters like a car-driving elephant and a drum-playing penguin, drove 6.4 million visitors to the site. The viral nature of these greetings fueled an astounding increase over the 31,000 unique visitors that frequented the site in November.
• ToonedIn.com – Multimedia site ToonedIn.com attracted 6.6 million visitors in December, driven by humorous “shorts” and trailers including seasonal offerings.
• JacquieLawson.com – Jacquie Lawson’s animated e-cards were a holiday hit once again as her site drew 6.4 million visitors in December (up 202 percent). A seasonal favorite for years,Jacquie debuted several new e-cards this December, including ones entitled “The 12 Days of Christmas,” “The Christmas Fishbowl,” and “White Winter.”
• MLB.com – Rumors of trades involving big-name players during Major League Baseball’s annual “Winter Meetings,” where front office executive meet to discuss trades and other personnel decisions, drew 6.8 million visitors to MLB.com, marking a 51 percent increase over the previous month.

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*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in December 2005.

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Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in December. For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 73 percent of the more than 170 million Internet users in December. The notation “**” indicates that the entity is an advertising network.

About comScore MMX

comScore MMX, a division of comScore Networks, provides industry-leading Internet audience measurement services that report – with unmatched accuracy – details of online media usage, visitor demographics and online buying power for the home, work and university audiences across local U.S. markets and across the globe. comScore MMX continues the tradition of quality and innovation established by its MMX syndicated Internet ratings – long recognized as the currency in online media measurement among financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers – while drawing upon comScore's advanced technologies to address important new industry requirements. All comScore MMX syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.

About comScore Networks

comScore Networks provides unparalleled insight into consumer behavior and attitudes. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given comScore explicit permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing. comScore panelists also participate in survey research that captures and integrates their attitudes and intentions. Through its proprietary technology, comScore measures what matters across a broad spectrum of behavior and attitudes. comScore consultants apply this deep knowledge of customers and competitors to help clients design powerful marketing strategies and tactics that deliver superior ROI. comScore services are used by global leaders such as AOL, Yahoo!, Verizon, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Tribune Interactive, ESPN, Nestlé, MBNA, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Merck and Orbitz. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com.

Contact:
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Vice President, Industry Analysis
comScore, Inc.
+1 312 775 6510
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