Comscore Releases Japan Search Engine Rankings for September 2008

Nearly 6 Billion Searches Conducted in Japan during September

Yahoo! Sites Ranks as Top Search Property

TOKYO, Japan, November 26, 2008 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its ranking of the top search properties in Japan based on data from the Comscore qSearch service. In September, 5.9 billion searches were conducted in Japan with each searcher conducting an average of 96 searches during the month. Yahoo! Sites led in search query volume with 3 billion searches, followed by Google Sites with 2.3 billion searches.

“The search market in Japan is dominated by Yahoo! and Google, which combine for more than 90 percent of the market,” said Maru Sato, managing director of Comscore Japan. “Other players in the search market include both local Web properties, such as Rakuten, NTT and Mixi, and other American brands, such as Microsoft and Amazon.”

Yahoo! Sites Leads Search Market in Japan

Yahoo! Sites led the search ranking in Japan with more than 3 billion searches, representing a 51 percent market share, followed by Google Sites with 2.3 billion searches (39 percent market share). Rakuten Inc. captured the third position with 120 million searches (2 percent market share) and Microsoft Sites ranked fourth with 90 million searches (1.5 percent market share).

Top Search Properties in Japan
September 2008
Total Japan Internet Audience*, Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations
Source: Comscore qSearch

Searches (MM)***

Searches Per Searcher

Share of Searches

Total Internet

5,879

96.2

100.0

Yahoo! Sites

3,012

58.9

51.2

Google Sites**

2,294

54.7

39.0

Rakuten Inc

120

7.6

2.0

Microsoft Sites

90

10.5

1.5

NTT Group

80

10.9

1.4

Amazon Sites

55

6.5

0.9

Excite Japan

41

17.4

0.7

NEC Corporation

37

18.2

0.6

MIXI, Inc.

32

6.9

0.5

GMO Internet Group

19

4.5

0.3

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

**Google Sites includes searches from YouTube.com

***The sum of distinct searches. Searches with the same search term by the same user at the same entity in consecutive sequence are counted as one search, regardless of the number of search result pages presented.

Asia-Pacific Region Has Highest Number of Searchers and Searches in the World

In September, more than 340 million searchers conducted nearly 29 billion searches in the Asia-Pacific region, ranking it as the largest searcher population and search volume total of the five global regions reported by Comscore. China had the largest searcher population in the region with more than 149 million searchers, and the greatest number of searches conducted (12.8 billion). Japan ranked second on both measures with more than 61 million searchers and nearly 6 billion searches. Australia exhibited the heaviest search intensity with an average of 115 searches per searcher during the month, followed by South Korea (109 searches per searcher) and Singapore (106 searches per searcher).

Asia-Pacific Search Overview – Country Breakdown
September 2008
Total Asia-Pacific Internet Audience*, Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations
Source: Comscore qSearch

Country

Searches (MM)***

Unique Searchers (000)

Searches Per Searcher

Total Asia-Pac Internet**

28,967

341,850

84.7

China

12,758

149,219

85.5

Japan

5,879

61,130

96.2

Korea

2,303

21,072

109.3

India

1,169

22,931

51.0

Australia

977

8,523

114.6

Taiwan

618

9,735

63.5

Malaysia

405

6,207

65.2

Hong Kong

199

2,773

71.8

Singapore

171

1,617

105.6

New Zealand

135

1,500

90.1

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

**Improvements to universe estimates in certain Internet markets have recently been made. We caution against trending with data prior to July 2008.

***The sum of distinct searches. Searches with the same search term by the same user at the same entity in consecutive sequence are counted as one search, regardless of the number of search result pages presented.

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/boilerplate.

Contact:
Sarah Radwanick
Director, Regional Product Marketing
Comscore, Inc.
+44 (0) 20 7099 1784
worldpress@comscore.com