High-Street U.K. Retailers Enjoyed December Increase in Online Traffic
Facebook Moves Up to #4 in Top U.K. Property Ranking
Online Dating Picks-up Amidst Christmas Festivities
LONDON, U.K., January 27, 2009 –Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its December rankings of the largest and fastest-growing Internet properties and site categories in the U.K. based on data from the Comscore World Metrix audience measurement service.
The onset of the Christmas shopping season brought increased traffic to online retail sites, with the jewelry/luxury goods/accessories category experiencing the strongest growth, followed by the mall, music, and flowers/gifts/greetings categories. High street retailers were particularly influenced by the seasonal uptick, with retailers such as HMV, the John Lewis Partnership and the Dixons Stores Group all enjoying strong visitor growth.
The e-Cards and Shipping categories also achieved gains, while the Royal Mail Group property grew 31 percent to more than 4 million visitors.
Interestingly, visitation to online dating sites also grew significantly in December, as lonely hearts reached out to one another during the Christmas season. Meanwhile, Facebook.com continued its ascension towards the top of the online rankings - having captured the fifth spot in the ranking in September, the social networking property moved up yet again in December to rank as the fourth most popular property.
Top Gaining Site Categories for December 2008
Top 10 Gaining Site Categories by Number of U.K. Unique Visitors | |||
Site Category | Total Unique Visitors (000) | ||
Nov-2008 | Dec-2008 | % Change | |
Total Internet : Total Audience | 36,568 | 36,664 | 0% |
e-cards | 3,108 | 4,553 | 46% |
Retail - Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories | 3,245 | 4,094 | 26% |
Shipping | 4,225 | 5,259 | 24% |
Retail - Music | 10,140 | 11,805 | 16% |
Retail - Mall | 11,768 | 13,689 | 16% |
Retail - Flowers/Gifts/Greetings | 4,775 | 5,522 | 16% |
Retail - Department Stores | 9,701 | 11,087 | 14% |
Online Dating | 3,821 | 4,354 | 14% |
Retail - Computer Hardware | 16,203 | 18,425 | 14% |
Retail - Consumer Goods | 6,148 | 6,917 | 12% |
* Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.
Top Gaining Properties for December 2008
Top 10 Gaining Properties by Number of U.K. Unique Visitors* | |||
Property | Total Unique Visitors (000) | ||
Nov-2008 | Dec-2008 | % Change | |
Total Internet : Total Audience | 36,568 | 36,664 | 0% |
HMV | 3,108 | 4,232 | 36% |
Royal Mail Group | 3,181 | 4,163 | 31% |
John Lewis Partnership | 2,748 | 3,524 | 28% |
Dixons Stores Group | 5,609 | 7,097 | 27% |
Arcadia Group Limited | 2,614 | 3,274 | 25% |
NEXT Group | 3,225 | 4,036 | 25% |
Metacafe | 2,072 | 2,553 | 23% |
Home Retail Group | 9,134 | 11,169 | 22% |
Debenhams | 2,196 | 2,684 | 22% |
ValueClick Sites | 2,164 | 2,578 | 19% |
*Ranking based on the top 100 U.K. properties in December 2008.
** Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.
Top 25 Properties for December 2008
Top 25 Properties by Number of U.K. Unique Visitors* | |||
Dec-08 Rank | Nov-08 Rank | Property | Total Unique Visitors (000) Dec-08 |
N/A | N/A | Total Internet : Total Audience | 36,664 |
1 | 1 | Google Sites | 32,907 |
2 | 2 | Microsoft Sites | 29,548 |
3 | 3 | Yahoo! Sites | 22,431 |
4 | 5 | Facebook.com | 21,165 |
5 | 4 | eBay | 20,520 |
6 | 6 | BBC Sites | 18,379 |
7 | 7 | AOL LLC | 16,519 |
8 | 10 | Amazon Sites | 15,465 |
9 | 8 | Ask Network | 14,082 |
10 | 9 | Wikimedia Foundation Sites | 13,750 |
11 | 11 | Apple Inc. | 12,088 |
12 | 14 | Home Retail Group | 11,169 |
13 | 12 | Fox Interactive Media | 9,938 |
14 | 13 | Lycos Europe Sites | 9,720 |
15 | 15 | CBS Corporation | 9,377 |
16 | 17 | Glam Media | 8,189 |
17 | 19 | Tesco Stores | 7,838 |
18 | 16 | Sky Sites | 7,408 |
19 | 21 | Play.com Sites | 7,391 |
20 | 25 | Dixons Stores Group | 7,097 |
21 | 18 | DMGT | 7,048 |
22 | 20 | Adobe Sites | 6,225 |
23 | 23 | Yellow Book Network | 6,029 |
24 | 22 | News International | 5,811 |
25 | 28 | Shop Direct Group | 5,77 |
*Ranking based on the top 100 U.K. properties in December 2008.
** 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. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/boilerplate