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January Marks Record Month for Search Volume in Japan with 6.8 Billion Searches, Up 9 Percent Versus Year Ago
TOKYO, Japan, March 10, 2009 – 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 January, 6.8 billion searches were conducted in Japan, representing a 9-percent increase versus year ago and the highest monthly search volume on record.
“2008 was another year of very solid growth in the search market in Japan,” said Maru Sato, managing director of Comscore Japan. “Home to the third largest Internet population in the world, Japan represents a valuable market for search engines. It is also one of the more competitive search markets, with two large companies, Yahoo! and Google, each controlling a significant share of the market.”
Yahoo! Sites Leads Search Market in Japan
Yahoo! Sites led the search ranking in Japan with 3.5 billion searches in January 2009, up 13 percent from the previous year, followed by Google Sites with 2.6 billion searches (up 5 percent) and Rakuten Inc. with 153 million searches (up 38 percent). Excite Japan had the strongest growth of any search property in the top ten, growing 362 percent versus year ago to 52 million searches.
Top Search Properties in Japan by Search Query Volume January 2009 vs. January 2008Total Japan Internet Audience*, Age 15+ - Home & Work LocationsSource: Comscore qSearch
Searches (MM)***
Jan-08
Jan-09
% Change
Total Internet
6,219
6,795
9
Yahoo! Sites
3,096
3,489
13
Google Sites**
2,481
2,596
5
Rakuten Inc
111
153
38
Microsoft Sites
119
113
-5
NTT Group
93
103
11
Amazon Sites
80
69
-14
Excite Japan
52
362
NEC Corporation
58
44
-25
MIXI, Inc.
40
23
-42
Nifty Corporation
19
22
14
*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.
Yahoo! Sites Attracts More than Half of All Searches in Japan
In January, searchers in Japan conducted an average of 100 searches per searcher during the month. Yahoo! Sites captured 51 percent of all search queries, followed by Google Sites with 38 percent and Rakuten Inc. with 2 percent.
Yahoo! Sites had the highest frequency of searches per searcher at 62, followed by Google Sites at 55 searches per searcher. Other search properties in the top ten with relatively high search engagement included NEC Corporation (24 searches per searcher), Excite Japan (20 searches per searcher), and Nifty Corporation (13 searches per searcher).
Top Search Properties in Japan Based on Share of Search QueriesJanuary 2009Total Japan Internet Audience*, Age 15+ - Home & Work LocationsSource: Comscore qSearch
Share of Searches
Searches Per Searcher
100.0
100.5
51.3
61.9
38.2
55.4
2.2
8.5
1.7
9.3
1.5
12.0
1.0
6.4
0.8
19.8
0.7
23.7
0.3
6.1
13.3
*Excludes searches from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs. **Google Sites includes searches from YouTube.com
About ComscoreComscore, 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.
Contact:Sarah RadwanickDirector, Regional Product MarketingComscore, Inc. +44 (0) 20 7099 1784worldpress@comscore.com