Comscore Announces Top Web Sites in France for September

French President’s Marital Issues Sends Political Sites’ Traffic up 58%

Seasonal Increases Also Seen in Wikipedia, Retail, Sports, and Career Sites

LONDON, UK, OCTOBER 31, 2007 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its report on the top ranked and fastest growing Internet properties in France for September, based on data from the Comscore World Metrix audience measurement service.

Top 10 Properties for September

Google was the most visited property in France, with 18.9 million unique visitors, reaching 69 percent of the total French Internet audience. It was followed by Microsoft Sites, which grew 3.2 percent to reach 17.3 million unique visitors in September, a reach of 63 percent.

Wikipedia was the fastest growing property in the top ten, increasing 24 percent by attracting its highest ever French audience of 9.3 million unique visitors. The online encyclopedia site showed a similar increase a year ago, when it grew by 29 percent to 6.6 million unique visitors between August and September 2006, reflecting the impact of students returning to their studies in September.

Two other sites in the top 10 that showed growth in September come from the e-commerce and retail sectors. Online marketplace, eBay, enjoyed a 6 percent traffic increase to reach 11.6 million unique visitors, while the Groupe PPR property, which controls a number of online retail channels such as Fnac.com and Laredoute.Fr, enjoyed a 5 percent growth to reach 8.8 million unique visitors.

Delphine Gatignol, Comscore’s Business Development Manager for France, observed: “Seasonal trends had a significant impact on French Internet use in September. The start of the school year drove traffic to online retail sites, and as happened this time last year, Wikipedia enjoyed substantial growth as a result of students getting back to their studies and using the site as a supplementary research tool.”

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

Top Gaining Properties for September

The fastest growing site in France was online translation service Lexilogos.com, which grew 61 percent to reach 1.6 million unique visitors. There was also notable growth for Government owned online gambling site, Francaise des Jeux, which increased 49 percent to reach 1.9 million unique visitors. Traffic to the site was boosted by two huge Euromillions Lottery jackpots in September.

Vente-Privee.com, a member’s only specialist shopping site that provides consumers with limited edition discounts and promotions from their favorite retailers, grew 58 percent to reach 1.9 million unique visitors. It was joined by Groupe Casino, the corporation behind a number of online retail channels including CDiscount.com, which grew 27 percent to reach 4.5 million unique visitors.

The French-hosted 2007 Rugby World Cup, which began in Paris on September 7, drove traffic to a number of sites. Media property, Groupe Amaury, grew 36.4 percent to reach 3.3 million unique visitors for the month. This growth can be attributed to its sports site, L’equipe.fr, which increased total traffic by 36 percent, from 2.3 to 3.1 million unique visitors. Traffic to L’equipe.fr’s rugby pages was clearly the driving force, increasing from 442,000 to 1.8 million unique visitors in September – a 304 percent increase. Newsweb, a sports focused site targeted at a male audience, also benefited, with traffic up 33 percent to reach just under 2 million unique visitors.

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

Top Gaining Categories for September

Political sites constituted the fastest growing category on the web in September. Traffic to the politics category was up 58 percent in September, reaching 1.6 million unique visitors. There was renewed interest in the political sphere throughout September as the French Internet audience clamored to read about the President’s separation from his wife of 11 years. Ironically, despite President Sarkozy’s refusal to comment on the issue, saying: "I was elected by the French to find solutions to their problems, not to comment on my private life", it was this private life that ultimately drove France’s newfound interest in the politics category, which attracted its largest audience since the French Presidential elections in June.

The career resources category also enjoyed a significant increase in traffic in September, growing 35 percent to 2.4 million unique visitors. This is part of a seasonal increase in September career site traffic that Comscore has observed in previous years.

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

About Comscore

Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world. 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 behavior, 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 behavior and attitudes. Comscore analysts 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 more than 700 clients, including global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, BBC, Carat, Cyworld, Deutsche Bank, France Telecom, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Financial Times, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestlé, Starcom, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Verizon, ViaMichelin, Merck and Expedia. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com

Ayaan Mohamud
Comscore, Inc.
+ 44 (0) 207-099-1775
worldpress@comscore.com