Comscore Releases Top U.K. Web Rankings for December
Christmas Shopping Drives Traffic to Retail and Greetings Sites
Facebook Breaks into U.K. Top Ten Property Rankings for First Time
LONDON, U.K., January 29, 2008 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its December rankings of the largest and fastest-growing Internet properties and site categories in the U.K. based on data from the Comscore World Metrix audience measurement service.
“The Christmas season had a significant impact on the prevailing traffic trends in December,” said Bob Ivins, EVP of European Markets for Comscore. “Eight of the top ten gaining properties were retail-related as consumers shopped for holiday gifts online, and online greetings also proved popular. That online coupon sites also grew so strongly suggests consumers may have been a bit tighter with their wallets this Christmas season.”
Top Gaining Categories for December
Online retail factored prominently into the top-gaining site category rankings for December as the culmination of the Christmas shopping season approached. The consumer goods category gained 21 percent for the month to nearly 9.7 million visitors, while the mall category jumped 10 percent to 14.6 million visitors. The mall category was led by Argos with 12 million visitors (up 18 percent from November).
Greetings sites also grew in December. The e-cards category experienced a 26-percent increase to 8.2 million visitors, while the flowers/gifts/greetings category gained 12 percent to 6.9 million visitors. Meanwhile, the shipping category grew 10 percent to 5.5 million visitors.
Top 10 Gaining Categories by U.K. Unique Visitors Age 15+ | |||
Property | Total Unique Visitors (000) | ||
Nov-2007 | Dec-2007 | % Change | |
Total U.K. Internet Audience | 32,711 | 32,981 | 1 |
Coupons | 2,048 | 2,622 | 28 |
e-cards | 6,530 | 8,238 | 26 |
Consumer Goods | 8,041 | 9,715 | 21 |
Gay/Lesbian | 492 | 574 | 17 |
Flowers/Gifts/Greetings | 6,141 | 6,890 | 12 |
Mall | 13,216 | 14,554 | 10 |
Shipping | 5,055 | 5,541 | 10 |
Retail - Music | 13,270 | 14,381 | 8 |
Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories | 3,683 | 3,913 | 6 |
Computer Software | 7,191 | 7,625 | 6 |
* Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.
Top Gaining Properties for December
ValueClick Sites gained 38 percent to 3.5 million visitors making it the top-gaining property for the month in the U.K. Fellow pure-play online retailer, Play.com Sites, increased 12 percent to 7.7 million visitors.
A number of multi-channel retailers ranked amongst the top-gaining properties for December. NEXT Group increased 20 percent to 4.7 million visitors, Dixons Stores Group grew 20 percent to 8.1 million visitors, and HMV jumped 19 percent to 5.7 million visitors.
Royal Mail Group jumped 12 percent to 4.4 million visitors as consumers shipped holiday packages to friends and relatives.
Top 10 Gaining Properties by U.K. Unique Visitors Age 15+* | |||
Property | Total Unique Visitors (000) | ||
Nov-2007 | Dec-2007 | % Change | |
Total U.K. Internet Audience | 32,711 | 32,981 | 1 |
ValueClick Sites | 2,532 | 3,489 | 38 |
NEXT Group | 3,947 | 4,735 | 20 |
Dixons Stores Group | 6,751 | 8,078 | 20 |
HMV | 4,820 | 5,732 | 19 |
Home Retail Group | 10,463 | 12,211 | 17 |
Game.co.uk | 3,544 | 4,108 | 16 |
Sainsburys | 2,224 | 2,575 | 16 |
MiniClip.com | 4,311 | 4,946 | 15 |
Royal Mail Group | 3,936 | 4,421 | 12 |
Play.com Sites | 6,834 | 7,666 | 12 |
*Ranking based on the top 100 U.K. properties in December 2007.
** Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.
Top 25 Properties for December
Google Sites maintained its position as the top Web property in the U.K. with nearly 29.3 million visitors, reaching 89 percent of the online population. Microsoft Sites ranked second with 27.8 million visitors, followed by eBay with 21.7 million visitors and Yahoo! Sites with 21.1 million visitors.
Facebook.com broke into the Top Ten properties ranking for the first time in the U.K. in December, displacing Fox Interactive Media (#11), which includes myspace.com, as the 10th ranked property with 12.4 million visitors.
The Christmas shopping season helped Home Retail Group (#12), Apple Inc. (#13) and Dixons Stores Group (#19) each gain several spots in the December ranking.
Top 25 Properties by U.K. Unique Visitors Age 15+* | |||
Dec Rank | Nov Rank | Property | Total Unique Visitors (000) Dec-2007 |
N/A | N/A | Total U.K. Internet Audience | 32,981 |
1 | 1 | Google Sites | 29,292 |
2 | 2 | Microsoft Sites | 27,760 |
3 | 3 | eBay | 21,683 |
4 | 4 | Yahoo! Sites | 21,070 |
5 | 5 | BBC Sites | 18,016 |
6 | 6 | Amazon Sites | 16,309 |
7 | 9 | Time Warner Network | 14,387 |
8 | 7 | Ask Network | 13,937 |
9 | 8 | Wikipedia Sites | 12,567 |
10 | 11 | Facebook.com | 12,438 |
11 | 10 | Fox Interactive Media | 12,224 |
12 | 15 | Home Retail Group | 12,211 |
13 | 14 | Apple Inc. | 11,690 |
14 | 13 | Bebo.com | 11,212 |
15 | 12 | Lycos Europe Sites | 10,937 |
16 | 16 | CNET Networks | 9,626 |
17 | 17 | Tesco Stores | 9,587 |
18 | 18 | DMGT | 8,238 |
19 | 21 | Dixons Stores Group | 8,078 |
20 | 19 | British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) | 7,792 |
21 | 20 | Play.com Sites | 7,666 |
22 | 24 | Viacom Digital | 6,647 |
23 | 22 | Adobe Sites | 6,280 |
24 | 25 | Kingfisher | 6,109 |
25 | 23 | Orange Sites | 5,864 |
*Ranking based on the top 25 U.K. properties in December 2007.
** 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. 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