Google and Facebook among Biggest Winners in 2007
RESTON, VA, January 30, 2008 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a report highlighting the major trends in U.S. Internet activity in 2007, including top gaining properties and site categories, and core search market growth. The biggest winners in 2007 featured some of the top Internet brands, including Google, Facebook, Wikipedia and Craigslist.
Top-Gaining Properties in 2007
A study of the growth in visitors among the top 100 U.S. Internet properties revealed that 2007 was a strong year for several of the largest properties. Social networking giant Facebook.com reaped the benefits of opening registration to all users, jumping 81 percent versus December 2006 to 34.7 million visitors in December 2007. Wikipedia Sites gained 34 percent to reach nearly 52 million visitors, continuing its reign as the Web’s most popular reference hub. Leading classified site Craigslist.org jumped 74 percent to 24.5 million visitors, while AT&T grew 27 percent to 30.2 million visitors boosted by its exclusive deal with Apple as carrier for the iPhone. Yellow Book Network jumped an impressive 137-percent to 10.4 million visitors
Several of the top-gaining properties were driven by the acquisition of Web entities including, but not limited to, the following:
Comscore Top 20 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.)December 2007 vs. December 2006Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet UsersSource: Comscore MMX
Total Unique Visitors (000)
Dec-06
Dec-07
% Change
Total U.S. Internet Audience
174,199
183,619
5
Everyday Health
2,690
12,073
349
Glam Media
7,994
25,028
213
OfficeMax
5,130
15,339
199
Demand Media
5,999
14,958
149
Yellow Book Network
4,386
10,388
137
ValueClick Sites
6,339
13,013
105
Facebook.com
19,105
34,658
81
WorldNow – ABC Owned Sites
8,714
15,474
78
Craigslist.org
14,075
24,468
74
Experian Interactive
8,054
12,500
55
Yellowpages.com Network
16,168
24,453
51
AmericanGreetings Property
11,982
18,102
Comcast Corporation
18,716
26,445
41
UGO
8,450
11,912
The Mozilla Organization
10,948
15,267
39
Answers.com Sites
10,707
14,899
Wikipedia Sites
38,585
51,851
34
iVillage.com: The Womens Network
13,545
17,234
27
AT&T, Inc.
23,833
30,212
Internet Broadcasting Systems
9,894
12,394
25
*Ranking based on the top 100 properties in December 2007.
Top-Gaining Site Categories in 2007
The top-gaining site categories in 2007 reflected trends in both the online and offline worlds. The politics category grabbed the top position, gaining 35 percent, as the 2008 presidential election and primary season kicked into high gear. Women’s community sites also jumped 35 percent, as the top two properties in the category, Glam Media and iVillage.com, saw strong growth. With the ever-increasing coverage of celebrity news, from Britney Spears’ meltdowns to Anna Nicole Smith’s death, entertainment news sites jumped 32 percent. Online classifieds had a strong 2007 growing 31 percent versus year ago, as it continued to impinge on traditional news media’s classified revenues.
Comscore Top 10 Gaining Categories by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.)December 2007 vs. December 2006Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet UsersSource: Comscore MMX
Politics
6,192
8,384
35
Community - Women
51,632
69,854
Entertainment - News
37,093
49,023
32
Classifieds
31,867
41,688
31
Career – Training and Education
7,865
10,279
Gay/Lesbian
1,843
2,367
28
Retail – Consumer Goods
28,829
35,936
Finance – News/Research
43,317
52,064
20
Teens
23,313
27,979
Religion
19,101
22,886
Core Search Query Growth in 2007
In 2007, searches at the five major core search engines increased 15 percent to 9.6 billion searches. Google Sites led with 5.6 billion searches in December 2007, up more than 30 percent from the previous year. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 2.2 billion searches, followed by Microsoft Sites (940 million), Time Warner Network (442 million), and Ask Network (415 million).
Comscore Core Search Report*December 2007 vs. December 2006Total U.S. – Home/Work/University LocationsSource: Comscore qSearch 2.0
Core Search Entity
Search Queries (MM)
Percent Change Dec-07 vs. Dec-06
Total Core Search
8,348
9,636
15%
Google Sites
4,317
5,629
30%
Yahoo! Sites
2,300
2,211
-4%
Microsoft Sites
871
940
8%
Time Warner Network
465
442
-5%
Ask Network
396
415
5%
* Based on the five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in the core search numbers.
More than 113 billion core searches were conducted in the U.S. during all of 2007, with Google Sites accounting for nearly 64 billion, representing a 56 percent share of the market.
About ComscoreComscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com.
Contact:Sarah RadwanickDirector, Regional Product MarketingComscore, Inc. +44 (0) 20 7099 1784worldpress@comscore.com