Comscore MMX Releases Top 50 Web Rankings for October
Retail Sites Experience Growth as Consumers Prepare for the Holiday Season
Popular Monopoly Promotion Makes McDonald's the Top-Gaining Property in October
Tribal Fusion and Google Ad Network both Gain Three Positions in Ad Focus Ranking
RESTON, VA, November 20, 2007 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at top online properties for October 2007 from its Comscore MMX service. E-cards and flowers/gifts/greetings sites surged with the celebration of Halloween and Sweetest Day, while several retail categories experienced significant growth in anticipation of the holiday shopping season. Third quarter earnings announcements and volatile stock market conditions drove an increase in traffic to online trading sites.
“Holidays were the primary driver of Americans’ Web activity during the month,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of Comscore MMX. “With retailers moving their holiday season promotions earlier and earlier, October now represents the unofficial beginning of the holiday retail season. The surge in traffic to several online retail categories suggests that Americans are already beginning their hunt for holiday bargains.”
Halloween and Sweetest Day Draw Consumers to Card and Gift Sites
With both Halloween and Sweetest Day celebrated in October, e-card and flowers/gifts/greetings sites experienced a seasonal surge in traffic. E-card sites gained 23 percent to reach 33.8 million visitors, making it the top-gaining category for the month. The category was led by the American Greetings Properties with 10.3 million visitors (up 56 percent), followed by Evite.com with 8.2 million visitors (up 31 percent) and Hallmark.com with 5 million visitors (up 20 percent). The flowers/gifts/greetings category saw a 22-percent gain to 35.6 million visitors with PartyCity.com experiencing the largest growth of the category’s top sites with a 151 percent jump to 3.5 million visitors.
Retail Sites See Growth in Anticipation of the Holiday Season
Several retail-related categories, including malls, toys, retail food, consumer electronics and jewelry/luxury goods/accessories, posted significant gains in October as consumers geared up for the approaching holiday season. Mall sites rose 13 percent to 30.8 million visitors with the five most visited sites in the category all posting double-digit growth for the month.
Amid news of continued toy recalls, traffic to toy sites rose 12 percent to 23.6 million visitors. The category was led by Toysrus Sites with 8.7 million visitors (up 26 percent), with both KB Toys (up 105 percent to 1.8 million visitors) and Fisher Price (up 107 percent to 1.5 million visitors) posting triple-digit growth for the month.
High demand for hot electronic items helped boost traffic to the consumer electronics category 8 percent to 50.1 million visitors. Notable retailers in the top 10 consumer electronics sites included BestBuy.com (up 4 percent to 15 million visitors), Circuit City (up 22 percent to 10.8 million visitors), eBay Electronics U.S. (up 77 percent to 8 million visitors), Wal-Mart Electronics (up 9 percent to 3.8 million visitors), and Sony Electronics (up 22 percent to 2 million visitors).
Online Trading Sites Gain in October
Amid third quarter earnings announcements and heavy trading activity in the stock markets, online trading sites experienced a 21-percent increase to 12.4 million visitors. Fidelity Investments led the category with 3.8 million visitors (12 percent), followed by Scottrade Sites with 1.6 million visitors (up 7 percent), ShareBuilder.com with 1.3 million visitors (up 21 percent), and ETrade Financial Network with nearly 1.3 million visitors (also up 21 percent).
Top 50 Properties
October saw the top 10 properties remain unchanged from the previous month, with Yahoo! Sites holding the top position with 137 million visitors. AT&T Inc. gained 5 positions to number 15 with 33.7 million visitors, while Glam Media jumped 9 spots to number 23, attracting nearly 25.5 million visitors. YellowPages.com Network moved up 5 spots to number 25 with 24.9 million visitors. Connexus and WorldNow-LMN Sites both entered the ranking this month at positions 46 and 49, respectively.
Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking
Advertising.com remained atop the Ad Focus ranking in October, reaching 87 percent of the more than 182 million Americans online. Tribal Fusion catapulted three positions to grab the number two spot, reaching 76 percent of the Internet population, while Google Ad Network also rose three spots to capture the third position in the ranking. Blue Lithium and Casale Media Network both moved up one spot in the top 10 to capture positions seven and nine, respectively. ADSDAQ by ContextWeb (23) and IMDB.COM (49) both entered the ranking this month reaching 41 percent and 13 percent of the online audience, respectively.
TABLE 1
Comscore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.) | ||||
Total Unique Visitors (000) | ||||
Sep-07 | Oct-07 | % Change | Rank by Unique Visitors | |
Total Internet : Total Audience | 181,858 | 182,206 | 0 | N/A |
McDonald's | 1,514 | 4,358 | 188 | 242 |
TheStreet.com Sites | 3,984 | 8,961 | 125 | 115 |
R.H.Donnelley | 3,306 | 7,068 | 114 | 148 |
Become.com | 2,356 | 4,385 | 86 | 241 |
Revolution Health Network | 4,471 | 7,964 | 78 | 129 |
Hearst Digital Media | 6,003 | 10,489 | 75 | 90 |
Snopes.com | 4,058 | 6,793 | 67 | 153 |
Pronto.com | 3,180 | 5,220 | 64 | 204 |
Liberty Media Holding Corporation | 8,298 | 13,564 | 63 | 70 |
AmericanGreetings Property | 6,561 | 10,257 | 56 | 96 |
*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in October 2007
TABLE 2
Comscore Top 10 Gaining Categories by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.) | |||
| Total Unique Visitors (000) | ||
Sep-07 | Oct-07 | % Change | |
Total Internet : Total Audience | 181,858 | 182,206 | 0 |
e-cards | 27,442 | 33,829 | 23 |
Flowers/Gifts/Greetings | 29,238 | 35,631 | 22 |
Online Trading | 10,258 | 12,434 | 21 |
Taxes | 6,353 | 7,435 | 17 |
Mall | 27,306 | 30,806 | 13 |
Toys | 21,001 | 23,618 | 12 |
Retail - Food | 13,682 | 14,791 | 8 |
Consumer Electronics | 46,596 | 50,131 | 8 |
Genealogy | 8,265 | 8,892 | 8 |
Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories | 15,308 | 16,462 | 8 |
TABLE 3
Comscore Top 50 Properties (U.S.) | ||||||
Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) |
| Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) |
Total Internet : Total Audience | 182,206 | |||||
1 | Yahoo! Sites | 136,775 | 26 | Expedia Inc | 24,575 | |
2 | Google Sites | 131,639 | 27 | Verizon Communications Corporation | 24,389 | |
3 | Time Warner Network | 121,130 | 28 | Craigslist.org | 23,992 | |
4 | Microsoft Sites | 120,502 | 29 | United Online, Inc | 23,913 | |
5 | Fox Interactive Media | 84,205 | 30 | Shopzilla.com Sites | 23,569 | |
6 | eBay | 79,669 | 31 | CareerBuilder LLC | 23,000 | |
7 | Amazon Sites | 56,746 | 32 | ESPN | 22,937 | |
8 | Wikipedia Sites | 56,104 | 33 | Gannett Sites | 22,807 | |
9 | Ask Network | 55,512 | 34 | Bank of America | 22,761 | |
10 | New York Times Digital | 49,816 | 35 | Photobucket.com LLC | 22,177 | |
11 | Viacom Digital | 43,345 | 36 | Disney Online | 21,133 | |
12 | Apple Inc. | 43,157 | 37 | Lycos Sites | 20,229 | |
13 | Weather Channel, The | 38,796 | 38 | Real.com Network | 20,108 | |
14 | CNET Networks | 35,336 | 39 | WebMD Health | 19,904 | |
15 | AT&T, Inc. | 33,749 | 40 | Superpages.com Network | 19,402 | |
16 | Facebook.com | 32,910 | 41 | E.W. Scripps | 19,254 | |
17 | Gorilla Nation | 31,889 | 42 | ARTISTdirect Network | 19,105 | |
18 | Target Corporation | 31,090 | 43 | iVillage.com: The Womens Network | 18,495 | |
19 | Adobe Sites | 30,592 | 44 | NBC Universal | 17,462 | |
20 | Wal-Mart | 29,238 | 45 | The Mozilla Organization | 17,249 | |
21 | CBS Corporation | 28,262 | 46 | Connexus | 17,239 | |
22 | Monster Worldwide | 26,013 | 47 | NFL Internet Group | 17,052 | |
23 | Glam Media | 25,487 | 48 | Weatherbug Property | 17,051 | |
24 | Comcast Corporation | 25,277 | 49 | WorldNow - LMN Sites | 16,539 | |
25 | Yellowpages.com Network | 24,921 | 50 | Cox Enterprises Inc. | 16,414 |
TABLE 4
Comscore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.) | ||||||||
Source: Comscore MMX | ||||||||
Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) | Reach % | Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) | Reach % | |
Total Internet : Total Audience | 182,206 | 100% | ||||||
1 | Advertising.com** | 159,204 | 87% | 26 | AdBrite** | 70,766 | 39% | |
2 | Tribal Fusion** | 137,582 | 76% | 27 | AdDynamix.com** | 68,979 | 38% | |
3 | Google Ad Network** | 135,353 | 74% | 28 | Ebay.com | 68,194 | 37% | |
4 | ValueClick Networks** | 135,027 | 74% | 29 | CPX Interactive** | 67,304 | 37% | |
5 | Yahoo! | 134,979 | 74% | 30 | Gorilla Nation Media | 66,960 | 37% | |
6 | Specific Media** | 133,103 | 73% | 31 | PrecisionClick** | 61,790 | 34% | |
7 | Blue Lithium** | 132,334 | 73% | 32 | MSN.comHome Page | 57,263 | 31% | |
8 | 123,733 | 68% | 33 | Undertone Networks** | 56,365 | 31% | ||
9 | Casale Media Network** | 115,087 | 63% | 34 | Ask Network | 55,512 | 30% | |
10 | AOL Media Network | 110,714 | 61% | 35 | Mapquest | 49,870 | 27% | |
11 | MSN-Windows Live | 105,540 | 58% | 36 | YouTube.com | 48,579 | 27% | |
12 | DRIVEpm** | 104,497 | 57% | 37 | Business.com Network | 47,514 | 26% | |
13 | Traffic Marketplace** | 104,492 | 57% | 38 | Amazon.com | 46,537 | 26% | |
14 | Interclick** | 98,055 | 54% | 39 | Kontera** | 44,724 | 25% | |
15 | Yahoo.com Home Page | 95,170 | 52% | 40 | About.com | 41,963 | 23% | |
16 | 24/7 Real Media** | 92,743 | 51% | 41 | Ebay.com Home Page | 41,192 | 23% | |
17 | Tremor Media | 92,618 | 51% | 42 | Facebook.com | 32,910 | 18% | |
18 | AOL | 90,516 | 50% | 43 | Weather.com | 29,231 | 16% | |
19 | Burst Media** | 83,094 | 46% | 44 | Real Cities Network | 27,490 | 15% | |
20 | Centro | 80,134 | 44% | 45 | Walmart.com | 25,885 | 14% | |
21 | Collective Media** | 79,171 | 43% | 46 | Yellowpages.com Network | 24,921 | 14% | |
22 | adconion media group** | 75,674 | 42% | 47 | CNN | 24,387 | 13% | |
23 | ADSDAQ by ContextWeb** | 74,840 | 41% | 48 | CareerBuilder Network | 23,751 | 13% | |
24 | Vibrant Media** | 72,414 | 40% | 49 | IMDB.com | 23,388 | 13% | |
25 | MySpace.com | 71,982 | 40% | 50 | Nick Kids & Family | 23,257 | 13% |
Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in October. For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 74 percent of the more than 182 million Internet users in October.
* Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated entities.
** Denotes an advertising network.
About Comscore MMX
Comscore MMX 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 MMX reports are used by financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers. Comscore MMX syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.
About Comscore
Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given Comscore 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 analysts 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 more than 800 clients, including global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, BBC, Carat, Cyworld, Deutsche Bank, France Telecom, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Financial Times, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestlé, Starcom, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Verizon, ViaMichelin, Merck and Expedia. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com.
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