New Year’s Greetings and Resolutions Drive Traffic to French E-Card and Career Sites in January, According to Comscore Networks

Google Remains the Most-Visited Site in France for 17th Consecutive Month

London, UK, February 28, 2007 – Comscore Networks, a leader in measuring the digital age, today revealed the top French Internet properties and the top gaining properties during January, based on data collected through its Comscore World Metrix audience ratings service. Notable findings include:

  • Google Sites, Microsoft Sites and France Telecom retained their rankings as the top three properties among French Internet users, with 17.1, 16.0 and 13.7 million French visitors, respectively.
  • Benchmark Group and Wikipedia Sites bumped Groupe Aprovia and Orbus Groupe out of the top ten French sites, capturing the 9th and 10th rankings, respectively in January. Benchmark Group grew 22 percent to 8.1 million visitors, and Wikipedia Sites grew 13 percent to 8.1 million visitors.
  • As the French shifted their online focus from gifting to greetings in January, the 22-percent increase to Benchmark Group was driven largely by traffic to linternaute.com, a provider of e-cards, among other things. Additionally, e-card site Dromadaire increased 38 percent to 2.4 million visitors.
  • New Year’s resolutions generated a renewed focus on new career aspirations, as visitation to Monster Worldwide increased 35 percent to 1.9 million French visitors and visitation to ANPE Sites increased 26 percent to 2.6 million visitors.
  • In January, the French followed the warmer-than-average weather conditions, driving a 47-percent increase to MeteoFrance.com, which reached 3.4 million unique visitors.
  • CNAF, a government Web site involving state support for family and housing, was the second-biggest gaining site in January, increasing 42 percent to 2 million visitors.

January 2007
Total France – Home and Work Locations
Source: Comscore World Metrix

Dec.-06 (000)

Jan.-07 (000)

Percentage Change

Total FR Internet Audience, Age 15+

24,409

24,560

1%

Google Sites

16,846

17,090

1%

Microsoft Sites

15,651

15,966

2%

France Telecom

13,641

13,746

1%

Iliad/Free.fr Sites

12,092

12,764

6%

Yahoo! Sites

10,750

11,143

4%

eBay

10,704

11,038

3%

Groupe Pages Jaunes

10,378

10,993

6%

Groupe PPR

9,409

8,714

-7%

Benchmark Group

6,616

8,090

22%

Wikipedia Sites

7,109

8,062

13%

* Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in French Unique Visitors*
December 2006 vs. January 2007
Total French Visitors, Age 15+ – Home and Work Locations**
Source: Comscore World Metrix

Dec.-06 (000)

Jan.-07 (000)

Percentage Change

Total FR Internet Audience, Age 15+

24,409

24,560

1%

METEOFRANCE.COM

2,216

3,266

47%

CNAF

1,408

2,005

42%

DROMADAIRE.COM

1,714

2,367

38%

Monster Worldwide

1,390

1,878

35%

Groupe M6

3,638

4,705

29%

Camif

1,406

1,812

29%

ANPE Sites

2,086

2,633

26%

Socpresse

3,267

4,013

23%

Benchmark Group

6,616

8,090

22%

EVENE.FR

1,337

1,632

22%

*Ranking based on the top 100 French properties in January 2007.
** Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

About Comscore World Metrix

Comscore World Metrix is the first service to continuously measure and report online behaviour on a world-wide basis, providing visitation metrics and demographic characteristics for Web site audiences around the world. With active representation of countries that comprise the vast majority of the global Internet population, World Metrix provides its clients with worldwide Internet population estimates and harmonized online performance metrics based on a consistent methodology across all countries. More than 100 clients subscribe to Comscore’s World Metrix service, including 8 of the top 10 interactive advertising agencies.

About Comscore Networks
Comscore Networks is a global leader in measuring the digital age. 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 behaviour, 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 behaviour 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, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Verizon, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Tribune Interactive, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestlé, MBNA, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Merck and Expedia. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com.

Press
Bill Daddi
Daddi Brand Communications
646-370-1341
press@comscore.com