Comscore MMX Ranks Top 50 U.S. Web Properties for March 2009
Twitter.com Traffic More than Doubles to Rank as Fastest-Growing Property in March
Americans Seek Financial Advice Online as Economic Concerns Persist
RESTON, VA, April 22, 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 March 2009 based on data from the Comscore MMX service. Americans turned to the Web to plan spring and summer travel, and to manage their personal finances during the economic downturn. The month also saw the recent obsession with “tweeting” gain steam, as Twitter.com more than doubled its visitor base, ranking as the top-gaining property for the month.
“Twitter has certainly become an Internet phenomenon over the past few months, but March represented an especially big gain for the site as it added more than 5 million visitors versus the previous month,” commented Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of Comscore MMX. “With numerous celebrities and media personalities – including Oprah – recently jumping on the Twitter bandwagon, the site shows no signs of slowing.”
Twitter Captures Fastest-Growing Property Title
After several preceding months of strong double-digit growth, traffic to Twitter.com accelerated in March, growing 131 percent to 9.3 million visitors. Fueled in part by celebrity “tweeters” and substantial mainstream media attention, the site ranked as the top-gaining property for the month. For additional analysis of Twitter’s growth in March, please visit the Comscore Voices blog: http://www.comscore.com/blog/2009/04/breaking_news_and_making_news.html
Americans Seek Financial Advice Online
Many Americans sought financial advice online to help navigate the turbulent economy, resulting in a 12-percent gain at the Financial Information/Advice category. Consumer concerns about the status of their credit rating drove traffic to FreeCreditReport.com, which grew 6 percent to 6.6 million visitors and ranked as the most visited site in the category. Bankrate.com Sites, which provides rate information on various financial products such as mortgages, credit cards and money market accounts, reported a 12-percent increase to 3.9 million visitors.
Travel Sites See Gains as Visitors Plan for Summer Travel
As Americans prepared for spring travel and planned for summer vacations, several travel categories witnessed gains. Travel – Transactions led as the top-gaining category for the month, growing 18 percent to 4.5 million visitors.
The Car Rental and Airlines categories also saw double-digit gains, each growing 11 percent to 5.6 million and 29.8 million visitors, respectively. Southwest Airlines Co. led the Airlines category with 11.3 million visitors, up 20 percent from the previous month, followed by Delta Airlines with 6.5 million visitors (up 5 percent) and American Airlines with 5.8 million visitors (up 25 percent).
Top 50 Properties
Google Sites continued to lead as the most visited property in March with more than 151 million visitors, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 146 million visitors and Microsoft Sites with 122.3 million visitors. Facebook.com moved up one spot in the ranking to #9 this month with 61.2 million visitors.
Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking
Platform-A led the March Ad Focus ranking, reaching 90 percent of the 192 million Americans online. Yahoo! Network ranked second, reaching 86 percent, while Google Ad Network moved up one spot to #3 with an 84-percent reach.
TABLE 1
Comscore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.) | ||||
Total Unique Visitors (000) | ||||
Feb-09 | Mar-09 | % Change | Rank by Unique Visitors | |
Total Internet : Total Audience | 192,187 | 192,173 | 0 | N/A |
Twitter.com | 4,033 | 9,313 | 131 | 114 |
Grisoft | 4,260 | 7,764 | 82 | 145 |
Oprah.com | 2,814 | 4,505 | 60 | 243 |
Usmagazine.com | 3,863 | 5,943 | 54 | 190 |
Technorati Media | 11,692 | 16,021 | 37 | 59 |
MLB.com | 5,069 | 6,860 | 35 | 163 |
Groupe Lagardere | 4,253 | 5,705 | 34 | 199 |
Limewire.com | 7,861 | 10,414 | 32 | 102 |
Universal Music Group | 5,626 | 7,421 | 32 | 153 |
Nestle | 3,269 | 4,278 | 31 | 250 |
*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in March 2009.
TABLE 2
Comscore Top 10 Gaining Site Categories* by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.) | |||
| Total Unique Visitors (000) | ||
Feb-09 | Mar-09 | % Change | |
Total Internet : Total Audience | 192,187 | 192,173 | 0 |
Travel - Transactions | 3,770 | 4,463 | 18 |
Business/Finance - Financial Information/Advice | 35,325 | 39,518 | 12 |
Travel - Car Rental | 5,008 | 5,556 | 11 |
Travel - Airlines | 26,922 | 29,818 | 11 |
Entertainment - Humor | 21,441 | 23,446 | 9 |
Business/Finance - Banking | 73,096 | 79,031 | 8 |
Entertainment - Radio | 35,638 | 38,522 | 8 |
Community - Beauty/Fashion/Style | 21,861 | 23,368 | 7 |
Health - Information | 66,623 | 71,201 | 7 |
Directories/Resources - Classifieds | 50,401 | 53,839 | 7 |
TABLE 3
Comscore Top 50 Properties (U.S.) | ||||||
Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) |
| Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) |
Total Internet : Total Audience | 192,173 | |||||
1 | Google Sites | 151,241 | 26 | Disney Online | 27,728 | |
2 | Yahoo! Sites | 146,059 | 27 | Bank of America | 27,126 | |
3 | Microsoft Sites | 122,323 | 28 | Answers.com Sites | 26,460 | |
4 | AOL LLC | 104,416 | 29 | Photobucket.com LLC | 26,130 | |
5 | Fox Interactive Media | 85,057 | 30 | Demand Media | 25,863 | |
6 | Ask Network | 72,798 | 31 | The Mozilla Organization | 25,650 | |
7 | eBay | 70,021 | 32 | Weatherbug Property | 25,160 | |
8 | Wikimedia Foundation Sites | 61,446 | 33 | Time Warner - Excluding AOL | 25,144 | |
9 | FACEBOOK.COM | 61,224 | 34 | Expedia Inc | 24,578 | |
10 | Amazon Sites | 60,999 | 35 | WordPress | 24,403 | |
11 | CBS Interactive | 54,385 | 36 | United Online, Inc | 23,966 | |
12 | Apple Inc. | 53,089 | 37 | Gorilla Nation | 22,914 | |
13 | Glam Media | 52,220 | 38 | AT&T, Inc. | 22,509 | |
14 | Turner Network | 47,775 | 39 | Everyday Health | 22,112 | |
15 | Viacom Digital | 46,971 | 40 | CareerBuilder LLC | 21,648 | |
16 | New York Times Digital | 45,908 | 41 | Monster Worldwide | 21,534 | |
17 | craigslist, inc. | 42,167 | 42 | ESPN | 21,262 | |
18 | Weather Channel, The | 39,452 | 43 | WebMD Health | 21,210 | |
19 | AT&T Interactive Network | 35,903 | 44 | JPMorgan Chase Property | 20,952 | |
20 | Adobe Sites | 34,651 | 45 | Gannett Sites | 20,584 | |
21 | Verizon Communications Corporation | 33,857 | 46 | Shopzilla.com Sites | 20,511 | |
22 | Comcast Corporation | 31,205 | 47 | WhitePages | 20,454 | |
23 | Superpages.com Network | 30,576 | 48 | iVillage.com: The Womens Network | 20,425 | |
24 | Wal-Mart | 30,089 | 49 | Real.com Network | 20,082 | |
25 | Target Corporation | 27,990 | 50 | Wells Fargo | 19,017 |
TABLE 4
Comscore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.) | ||||||||
Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) | Reach % | Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) | Reach % | |
Total Internet : Total Audience | 192,173 | 100% | ||||||
1 | Platform-A** | 173,772 | 90% | 26 | AOL Media Network | 104,416 | 54% | |
2 | Yahoo! Network** | 165,578 | 86% | 27 | BrightRoll Video Network - Potential Reach | 95,654 | 50% | |
3 | Google Ad Network** | 160,762 | 84% | 28 | AdBrite** | 86,444 | 45% | |
4 | ValueClick Networks** | 156,662 | 82% | 29 | Gorilla Nation Media - Potential Reach | 83,323 | 43% | |
5 | Yahoo! Sites | 146,059 | 76% | 30 | Undertone Networks** | 82,797 | 43% | |
6 | 143,570 | 75% | 31 | YOUTUBE.COM* | 82,691 | 43% | ||
7 | 24/7 Real Media** | 141,728 | 74% | 32 | YuMe Video Network - Potential Reach | 76,074 | 40% | |
8 | Traffic Marketplace** | 141,078 | 73% | 33 | Vibrant Media** | 75,681 | 39% | |
9 | FOX Audience Network** | 140,922 | 73% | 34 | Centro - Potential Reach | 74,206 | 39% | |
10 | Tribal Fusion** | 137,627 | 72% | 35 | Pulse 360** | 73,804 | 38% | |
11 | Tremor Media - Potential Reach | 136,277 | 71% | 36 | Ask Network | 72,798 | 38% | |
12 | Specific Media** | 135,643 | 71% | 37 | NNN Total Newspapers: U.S. | 72,064 | 37% | |
13 | Casale Media - MediaNet** | 135,056 | 70% | 38 | MYSPACE.COM* | 70,147 | 37% | |
14 | interCLICK** | 131,595 | 68% | 39 | Adify** | 69,027 | 36% | |
15 | CPX Interactive** | 129,230 | 67% | 40 | Kontera** | 65,996 | 34% | |
16 | Adconion Media Group** | 127,445 | 66% | 41 | Monster Career Ad Network (CAN)** | 65,658 | 34% | |
17 | Turn, Inc** | 125,805 | 65% | 42 | TattoMedia** | 64,731 | 34% | |
18 | Microsoft Media Network US** | 123,192 | 64% | 43 | ITN Digital - Potential Reach | 63,104 | 33% | |
19 | Collective Network by Collective Media** | 121,731 | 63% | 44 | FACEBOOK.COM | 61,224 | 32% | |
20 | ADSDAQ by ContextWeb** | 118,929 | 62% | 45 | IAC Ad Solutions | 57,292 | 30% | |
21 | Platform-A Video Network - Potential Reach | 118,872 | 62% | 46 | EBAY.COM | 54,946 | 29% | |
22 | AudienceScience (formerly Revenue Science)** | 114,904 | 60% | 47 | Glam Media | 52,220 | 27% | |
23 | Burst Media** | 110,313 | 57% | 48 | AMAZON.COM | 51,688 | 27% | |
24 | MSN-Windows Live | 108,025 | 56% | 49 | NNN Top 25 | 49,557 | 26% | |
25 | Digital Broadcasting Group (DBG) - Potential Reach | 107,953 | 56% | 50 | Business.com Network | 49,369 | 26% |
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 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 and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.
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