Comscore MMX Releases Top 50 Web Rankings for March
Yellow Book Network and MLB.com Lead Top-Gaining Properties
March Madness Tournament Drives Traffic to Online Gambling Sites
RESTON, VA, April 14, 2008 – 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 March 2008 based on data from the Comscore MMX service. March saw traffic increase to online radio, gambling and retail-health care sites.
“American sports factored in prominently for the top gaining categories and properties in March,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of Comscore MMX. “The NCAA tournament drove substantial traffic to online gambling sites during the month, while the start of spring training made MLB.com one of the top gaining properties. Both events also contributed to ESPN.com’s surge in the top properties rankings.”
Top-Gaining Sites for March
Yellow Book Network secured the top-gaining site position for the month, with a 54-percent gain to 13.5 million visitors due, at least in part, to a new partnership with addresses.com. Baseball spring training and fantasy team drafts prompted a flood of earnest fans to MLB.com, which jumped 50 percent to 9.8 million visitors. Bankrate.com Sites witnessed a 46-percent increase to 5 million visitors with the addition of the InsureMe.com entity in March.
Radio Sites See Surge in Visitation
Radio sites experienced a sharp increase in traffic in March with the category growing 27 percent to 61.8 million visitors, making it the top-gaining category for the month. AOL Music led the category with 21.9 million visitors (up 5 percent), followed by Yahoo! Music with nearly 20.8 million visitors (up 4 percent) and Clear Channel Online with 11 million visitors (up 2 percent). Other significant increases were experienced by Pandora.com (up 9 percent), Citadel Broadcasting Corporation (up 11 percent), and Disney Music (up 17 percent).
Online Gambling Traffic Propelled by March Madness
The NCAA basketball tournament, also known as “March Madness,” attracted a flurry of online bettors, prompting a 14-percent gain to the online gambling category. Sportingbet PLC increased 35 percent to 975,000 visitors and SportsBetting.com rose 114 percent to 145,000 visitors.
Walgreen Co. Leads Retail – Health Care Category
Retail – Health Care sites experienced a 12-percent increase in March to 26.3 million visitors, as Walgreen Co. led the category with 5.4 million visitors (up 10 percent). Drugstore.com, Inc. captured the second position with 3.7 million visitors, followed by CVS with nearly 3 million visitors.
Top 50 Properties
The top 10 properties maintained their positions from February with Yahoo! Sites continuing to lead as the top property with 139.5 million visitors, followed by Google Sites with 137.5 million visitors and Microsoft Sites with 121 million visitors. ESPN jumped 12 spots on the popularity of March Madness and anticipation of the 2008 Major League Baseball season. Gains were also experienced by AT&T (up 8 spots to #18 with 31.3 million visitors), Target Corporation (up 5 spots to #20 with nearly 30 million visitors), and CBS Corporation (up 6 spots to #24 with 28.6 million visitors).
Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking
The top 10 Ad Focus properties also maintained their February rankings with Platform-A, the ad network combining Advertising.com, Tacoda, AOL, and Quigo, leading the ranking in March, reaching 91 percent of Americans online. interCLICK gained 9 spots in the ranking to position 14, reaching 58 percent of the 188 million Americans online. Real Cities Network and YuMe Video Network both entered this month’s rankings in positions 38 and 43, respectively.
TABLE 1
Comscore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.) | ||||
Total Unique Visitors (000) | ||||
Feb-08 | Mar-08 | % Change | Rank by Unique Visitors | |
Total Internet : Total Audience | 185,017 | 188,010 | 2 | N/A |
Yellow Book Network | 8,801 | 13,523 | 54 | 75 |
MLB.com | 6,519 | 9,799 | 50 | 104 |
Bankrate.com Sites | 3,441 | 5,027 | 46 | 218 |
Craveonline | 5,806 | 8,254 | 42 | 128 |
Six Apart Sites | 9,749 | 13,680 | 40 | 74 |
Break Media | 5,845 | 7,876 | 35 | 131 |
Bidz.com | 3,755 | 5,049 | 34 | 217 |
Eversave.com | 3,666 | 4,865 | 33 | 226 |
wikiHow.com | 3,561 | 4,678 | 31 | 240 |
Reunion.com | 6,875 | 9,003 | 31 | 117 |
*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in March 2008
TABLE 2
Comscore Top 10 Gaining Categories by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.) | |||
| Total Unique Visitors (000) | ||
Feb-08 | Mar-08 | % Change | |
Total Internet : Total Audience | 185,017 | 188,010 | 2 |
Entertainment - Radio | 48,508 | 61,786 | 27 |
Gay/Lesbian | 2,479 | 3,114 | 26 |
Online Gambling | 11,082 | 12,592 | 14 |
Retail - Health Care | 23,596 | 26,318 | 12 |
Teens | 27,824 | 30,738 | 10 |
Coupons | 19,986 | 22,009 | 10 |
Retail - Movies | 25,070 | 27,457 | 10 |
Technology - News | 44,320 | 48,226 | 9 |
Pharmacy | 15,384 | 16,730 | 9 |
Gaming Information | 42,197 | 45,802 | 9 |
TABLE 3
Comscore Top 50 Properties (U.S.) | ||||||
Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) |
| Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) |
Total Internet : Total Audience | 188,010 | |||||
1 | Yahoo! Sites | 139,518 | 26 | Superpages.com Network | 27,672 | |
2 | Google Sites | 137,480 | 27 | Disney Online | 27,302 | |
3 | Microsoft Sites | 121,013 | 28 | Comcast Corporation | 25,780 | |
4 | AOL LLC | 111,832 | 29 | Shopzilla.com Sites | 25,714 | |
5 | Fox Interactive Media | 88,284 | 30 | Expedia Inc | 25,089 | |
6 | eBay | 81,874 | 31 | Yellowpages.com Network | 24,962 | |
7 | Wikipedia Sites | 58,705 | 32 | Bank of America | 23,638 | |
8 | Amazon Sites | 58,683 | 33 | United Online, Inc | 22,992 | |
9 | Ask Network | 55,437 | 34 | ESPN | 22,357 | |
10 | Time Warner - Excluding AOL | 55,108 | 35 | Gannett Sites | 22,290 | |
11 | Apple Inc. | 48,374 | 36 | Monster Worldwide | 21,932 | |
12 | New York Times Digital | 47,755 | 37 | Photobucket.com LLC | 21,861 | |
13 | Viacom Digital | 44,826 | 38 | CareerBuilder LLC | 21,823 | |
14 | Weather Channel, The | 40,731 | 39 | WebMD Health | 20,200 | |
15 | Facebook.com | 35,510 | 40 | Real.com Network | 19,979 | |
16 | CNET Networks | 34,598 | 41 | E.W. Scripps | 19,938 | |
17 | Glam Media | 34,461 | 42 | Demand Media | 19,903 | |
18 | AT&T, Inc. | 31,297 | 43 | Cox Enterprises Inc. | 18,875 | |
19 | Adobe Sites | 31,098 | 44 | WordPress | 18,846 | |
20 | Target Corporation | 29,873 | 45 | AmericanGreetings Property | 18,841 | |
21 | Verizon Communications Corporation | 29,488 | 46 | iVillage.com: The Womens Network | 18,494 | |
22 | Wal-Mart | 29,474 | 47 | Hearst Corporation | 17,875 | |
23 | Gorilla Nation | 29,085 | 48 | Atrinsic, Inc. | 17,752 | |
24 | CBS Corporation | 28,583 | 49 | NBC Universal | 17,661 | |
25 | craigslist, inc. | 28,563 | 50 | WorldNow - ABC Owned Sites | 17,634 | |
TABLE 4
Comscore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.) | ||||||||
Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) | Reach % | Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) | Reach % | |
Total Internet : Total Audience | 188,010 | 100.0 | ||||||
1 | Platform-A** | 170,537 | 91% | 26 | CPX Interactive** | 73,768 | 39% | |
2 | Advertising.com** | 167,500 | 89% | 27 | MySpace.com* | 72,753 | 39% | |
3 | Yahoo! Network** | 160,336 | 85% | 28 | eBay.com | 69,452 | 37% | |
4 | Google Ad Network** | 152,048 | 81% | 29 | Undertone Networks** | 68,190 | 36% | |
5 | Specific Media** | 145,554 | 77% | 30 | Gorilla Nation Media | 67,180 | 36% | |
6 | ValueClick Networks** | 140,091 | 75% | 31 | YouTube.com | 64,754 | 34% | |
7 | Yahoo! | 137,819 | 73% | 32 | MSN.com Home Page | 57,474 | 31% | |
8 | Tribal Fusion** | 135,640 | 72% | 33 | Ask Network | 55,437 | 29% | |
9 | 132,349 | 70% | 34 | Quigo** | 54,141 | 29% | ||
10 | Casale Media Network** | 129,399 | 69% | 35 | Kontera** | 53,186 | 28% | |
11 | DRIVEpm** | 124,333 | 66% | 36 | Vizi Inc** | 51,466 | 27% | |
12 | adconion media group** | 117,469 | 62% | 37 | Ybrant/AdDynamix Network** | 48,688 | 26% | |
13 | AOL Media Network | 111,832 | 59% | 38 | Real Cities Network | 47,843 | 25% | |
14 | interCLICK** | 108,818 | 58% | 39 | MapQuest | 47,799 | 25% | |
15 | MSN-Windows Live | 105,925 | 56% | 40 | IB Local Network | 47,738 | 25% | |
16 | Traffic Marketplace** | 105,420 | 56% | 41 | AMAZON.COM | 47,575 | 25% | |
17 | Tremor Media | 101,143 | 54% | 42 | Turn, Inc** | 46,512 | 25% | |
18 | Collective Media** | 100,151 | 53% | 43 | YuMe Video Network | 44,927 | 24% | |
19 | 24/7 Real Media** | 94,525 | 50% | 44 | PrecisionClick** | 44,767 | 24% | |
20 | ADSDAQ by ContextWeb** | 94,459 | 50% | 45 | Business.com Network | 42,691 | 23% | |
21 | Burst Media** | 93,291 | 50% | 46 | EBAY.COM Home Page | 42,492 | 23% | |
22 | AOL | 92,254 | 49% | 47 | About | 40,935 | 22% | |
23 | AdBrite** | 84,114 | 45% | 48 | The Nabbr Network | 39,996 | 21% | |
24 | Centro | 81,427 | 43% | 49 | IACAS Network | 39,353 | 21% | |
25 | Vibrant Media** | 73,931 | 39% | 50 | Facebook.com | 35,510 | 17% | |
Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in March. For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 73 percent of the more than 185 million Internet users in March.
* 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. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/boilerplate
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Director, Regional Product Marketing
Comscore, Inc.
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