comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 U.S. Web Properties for February 2009
Super Bowl Ad Propels 55 Percent Gain at Hulu in February
Valentine’s Day, Tax Season and Travel Planning Influence Online Activity
RESTON, VA, March 20, 2009 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at the top online properties for February 2009 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. February represented a softer month for total Web activity due to having fewer days, with only a handful of site categories achieving gains versus January. Among the gaining categories were Flowers/Gifts/Greetings and E-cards, which benefited from Valentine’s Day, and travel and tax preparation sites, which also saw seasonal increases.
“Valentine’s Day was a key driver of online activity in February as Americans bought gifts and sent e-cards to their loved ones,” commented Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. “This month also saw a significant spike in activity to Hulu after it aired an ad during this year’s Super Bowl, which both ignited the site’s popularity and highlighted the growing mainstream appeal of online video.”
Hulu Captures #2 Growing Property Spot
Hulu, the online video joint venture of NBC Universal and News Corp, surged 55 percent to 7.8 million unique visitors in February, driven in large part by its TV ad campaign starring Alec Baldwin. This considerable growth helped Hulu secure the #2 spot in this month’s Top-Gaining Properties ranking. For figures on video viewing at Hulu, including videos viewed in its syndicated network of sites, please see the most recent comScore Video Metrix ranking: http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2741
Traffic to Tax Sites Surges as Season Continues
February marked another strong month for the Tax category as increasing numbers of Americans took to filing their 2008 returns. The category grew 22 percent to more than 30 million visitors. Among the three largest tax providers, Intuit's TurboTax division lead in growth with 36 percent (compared to 21 percent for all Intuit Properties) followed by TaxACT with 32 percent and H&R Block with 20 percent.
Valentine’s Day Drives Gains at Gift and E-Cards Sites
Valentine’s Day marked an occasion for Americans to express their love and appreciation for friends, family members and significant others. Traffic to Retail – Flowers/Gifts/Greetings sites jumped 15 percent to 35.6 million visitors, led by AmericanGreetings Property with 13.1 million visitors. Triple-digit growth was experienced by several sites, including ProFlowers.com (up 427 percent to 4.7 million visitors) and FTD.com (up 260 percent to 3.5 million visitors).
E-Cards sites also experienced gains in February, growing 5 percent to 21.3 million visitors. AG Interactive, which includes AmericanGreetings.com and BlueMountain.com, led the category with 6 million visitors, followed by Evite.com with 5 million visitors, and 123Greetings.com with 3.2 million visitors.
Travel Sites Gain as Americans Hunt for Spring Travel Bargains
Travel sites experienced seasonal gains in February sparked by spring travel planning. The Online Travel Agents category grew 1 percent to 39.5 million visitors, led by Expedia, Inc. with nearly 23 million visitors. Orbitz Worldwide ranked second with nearly 14 million visitors, followed by Priceline.com Inc. with 9.7 million visitors.
Other travel categories that experienced increases included the Travel – Information category, led by TravelAdNetwork with 10.4 million visitors, and the Travel – Hotel/Resorts category, led by Hilton Hotels with 4.7 million visitors.
Top 50 Properties
Google Sites continued to lead as the most visited property in February with nearly 149 million visitors, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 144.3 million visitors and Microsoft Sites with 121.1 million visitors. The remaining properties in the top ten maintained their positions from the January ranking.
Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking
Platform-A led the February Ad Focus ranking, reaching 90 percent of the 192.2 million Americans online. Yahoo! Network ranked second, reaching 85 percent, while ValueClick Networks captured the third position with an 82-percent reach. Specific Media moved up one spot to #6 with a 74-percent reach, while Google climbed two spots to #7 reaching 73 percent of online visitors.
TABLE 1
|
comScore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.) February 2009 vs. January 2009 Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix |
||||
| Total Unique Visitors (000) | ||||
| Jan-09 | Feb-09 | % Change | Rank by Unique Visitors | |
| Total Internet : Total Audience | 191,863 | 192,187 | 0 | N/A |
| The Mozilla Organization | 14,161 | 22,851 | 61 | 35 |
| HULU.COM | 5,022 | 7,796 | 55 | 127 |
| Wells Fargo | 11,724 | 18,121 | 55 | 53 |
| IRS.GOV | 14,663 | 22,068 | 51 | 39 |
| TaxACT | 5,883 | 7,771 | 32 | 130 |
| Hallmark | 3,827 | 4,863 | 27 | 222 |
| News International | 4,040 | 4,902 | 21 | 221 |
| Intuit** | 16,172 | 19,563 | 21 | 46 |
| H&R Block** | 6,073 | 7,269 | 20 | 143 |
| Betawave Partners - Partial List | 3,582 | 4,279 | 19 | 245 |
*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in February 2009.
**Intuit and H&R Block properties include non-tax related products and services such as Quicken, Quickbooks, and H&R Block Banking Services.
TABLE 2
|
comScore Top 10 Gaining Site Categories* by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.) February 2009 vs. January 2009 Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix |
|||
|
|
Total Unique Visitors (000) | ||
| Jan-09 | Feb-09 | % Change | |
| Total Internet : Total Audience | 191,863 | 192,187 | 0 |
| Business/Finances - Taxes | 24,703 | 30,088 | 22 |
| Retail - Flowers/Gifts/Greetings | 30,860 | 35,602 | 15 |
| Services - e-cards | 20,338 | 21,318 | 5 |
| Real Estate | 40,982 | 42,410 | 3 |
| Retail - Computer Software | 37,545 | 38,797 | 3 |
| Auto - Manufacturer | 19,938 | 20,274 | 2 |
| Travel - Online Travel Agents | 38,973 | 39,540 | 1 |
| Travel - Information | 40,753 | 41,119 | 1 |
| Travel - Hotels/Resorts | 29,976 | 30,094 | 0 |
| Community - Gay/Lesbian | 3,246 | 3,258 | 0 |
*Beginning with January 2009 comScore Media Metrix data, each media entity in comScore’s Client Focused Dictionary can only be classified into one content category and subcategory.
TABLE 3
|
comScore Top 50 Properties (U.S.) February 2009 Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations Unique Visitors (000) Source: comScore Media Metrix |
||||||
| Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) | Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) | |
| Total Internet : Total Audience | 192,187 | |||||
| 1 | Google Sites | 148,885 | 26 | Target Corporation | 26,961 | |
| 2 | Yahoo! Sites | 144,304 | 27 | Bank of America | 26,148 | |
| 3 | Microsoft Sites | 121,093 | 28 | Time Warner - Excluding AOL | 25,911 | |
| 4 | AOL LLC | 105,016 | 29 | Weatherbug Property | 25,515 | |
| 5 | Fox Interactive Media | 84,632 | 30 | Answers.com Sites | 24,997 | |
| 6 | Ask Network | 71,343 | 31 | Demand Media | 24,574 | |
| 7 | eBay | 67,474 | 32 | United Online, Inc | 23,860 | |
| 8 | Wikimedia Foundation Sites | 60,892 | 33 | Gorilla Nation | 22,968 | |
| 9 | Amazon Sites | 59,944 | 34 | Expedia Inc | 22,880 | |
| 10 | FACEBOOK.COM | 57,375 | 35 | The Mozilla Organization | 22,851 | |
| 11 | Glam Media | 51,121 | 36 | Photobucket.com LLC | 22,606 | |
| 12 | Apple Inc. | 50,867 | 37 | Gannett Sites | 22,289 | |
| 13 | Turner Network | 48,904 | 38 | AT&T, Inc. | 22,137 | |
| 14 | CBS Interactive | 48,872 | 39 | IRS.GOV | 22,068 | |
| 15 | New York Times Digital | 46,199 | 40 | WordPress | 22,015 | |
| 16 | Viacom Digital | 44,346 | 41 | JPMorgan Chase Property | 20,800 | |
| 17 | craigslist, inc. | 39,016 | 42 | Real.com Network | 20,407 | |
| 18 | Weather Channel, The | 37,215 | 43 | Shopzilla.com Sites | 20,154 | |
| 19 | AT&T Interactive Network | 35,324 | 44 | CareerBuilder LLC | 20,083 | |
| 20 | Adobe Sites | 33,287 | 45 | Everyday Health | 19,942 | |
| 21 | Comcast Corporation | 31,958 | 46 | Intuit | 19,563 | |
| 22 | Wal-Mart | 29,415 | 47 | Monster Worldwide | 19,559 | |
| 23 | Superpages.com Network | 28,956 | 48 | iVillage.com: The Womens Network | 19,433 | |
| 24 | Verizon Communications Corporation | 27,979 | 49 | WebMD Health | 19,339 | |
| 25 | Disney Online | 27,615 | 50 | NBC Universal | 19,091 | |
TABLE 4
|
comScore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.) February 2009 Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations Unique Visitors (000) Source: comScore Media Metrix |
||||||||
| Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) | Reach % | Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) | Reach % | |
| Total Internet : Total Audience | 192,187 | 100% | ||||||
| 1 | Platform-A** | 172,618 | 90% | 26 | AdBrite** | 82,008 | 43% | |
| 2 | Yahoo! Network** | 163,406 | 85% | 27 | YouTube.com | 81,306 | 42% | |
| 3 | ValueClick Networks** | 157,753 | 82% | 28 | Vibrant Media** | 75,291 | 39% | |
| 4 | Google Ad Network** | 156,481 | 81% | 29 | Undertone Networks** | 75,143 | 39% | |
| 5 | Yahoo! Sites | 144,304 | 75% | 30 | YuMe Video Network - Potential Reach | 74,858 | 39% | |
| 6 | Specific Media** | 142,774 | 74% | 31 | Monster Career Ad Network (CAN)** | 74,515 | 39% | |
| 7 | 140,863 | 73% | 32 | Centro - Potential Reach | 73,307 | 38% | ||
| 8 | Traffic Marketplace** | 139,372 | 73% | 33 | NNN Total Newspapers: U.S. | 71,664 | 37% | |
| 9 | Tribal Fusion** | 137,876 | 72% | 34 | Ask Network | 71,343 | 37% | |
| 10 | 24/7 Real Media** | 137,409 | 71% | 35 | TattoMedia** | 71,262 | 37% | |
| 11 | Tremor Media - Potential Reach | 132,219 | 69% | 36 | MySpace.com | 70,297 | 37% | |
| 12 | Casale Media - MediaNet** | 131,982 | 69% | 37 | Pulse 360** | 68,035 | 35% | |
| 13 | interCLICK** | 125,403 | 65% | 38 | Kontera** | 64,108 | 33% | |
| 14 | Adconion Media Group** | 124,792 | 65% | 39 | Gorilla Nation Media - Potential Reach | 63,647 | 33% | |
| 15 | Microsoft Media Network US** | 123,363 | 64% | 40 | ITN Digital Networks - Potential Reach | 61,336 | 32% | |
| 16 | CPX Interactive** | 122,323 | 64% | 41 | Adify** | 58,714 | 31% | |
| 17 | Turn, Inc** | 121,483 | 63% | 42 | IAC Ad Solutions | 58,425 | 30% | |
| 18 | ADSDAQ by ContextWeb** | 116,489 | 61% | 43 | Facebook.com | 57,375 | 30% | |
| 19 | Collective Network by Collective Media** | 113,284 | 59% | 44 | Ebay.com | 53,239 | 28% | |
| 20 | Burst Media** | 108,692 | 57% | 45 | MSN.com Home Page | 53,023 | 28% | |
| 21 | Revenue Science** | 108,259 | 56% | 46 | Glam Media | 51,121 | 27% | |
| 22 | MSN-Windows Live | 107,495 | 56% | 47 | Amazon.com | 50,067 | 26% | |
| 23 | Digital Broadcasting Group (DBG) - Potential Reach | 106,408 | 55% | 48 | NNN Top 25 | 49,112 | 26% | |
| 24 | AOL Media Network | 105,016 | 55% | 49 | Business.com Network | 47,501 | 25% | |
| 25 | BrightRoll Video Network - Potential Reach | 94,218 | 49% | 50 | Snap Shots Network** | 46,101 | 24% | |
Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in March. For instance, Yahoo! Sites was seen by 76 percent of the more than 192 million Internet users in March.
* Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated entities.
** Denotes an advertising network.
About comScore Media Metrix
comScore Media Metrix provides industry-leading Internet audience measurement services that report 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 Media Metrix reports are used by financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers. comScore Media Metrix syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.
About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.
Contact:
Sarah Radwanick
Manager Marketing Communications
comScore, Inc.
+1 206 268 6310
press@comscore.com
