Europeans Nearly Fifty Percent More “Engaged” in Online Dating Compared to North Americans

European Online Personals Category up 26 Percent versus Year Ago according to Comscore World Metrix

London, U.K., September 25, 2006 – Comscore World Metrix, the leader in global digital media measurement, today released an analysis of usage of the online personals category, revealing that European Internet users are far more engaged in online dating than those in North America. According to the analysis, 18 percent of European Internet users (38.2 million) visited online personals sites in July compared to a slightly lower 17 percent of North American Internet users. However, European visitors viewed an average of 310 pages per visitor in July – 44 percent more pages than their North American counterparts, who averaged only 216 pages per visitor. Within Europe, German Internet users were the most active in July, viewing an average of 446 pages per visitor per month, compared to 343 pages in France and 213 pages in the U.K.

The growth rates for users of personals sites in North America and Europe are also remarkably different, as the online personals audience in North America remained flat compared to last July, while the personals audience in Europe grew 26 percent.

“In North America, large online personals sites like Match.com and Yahoo! Personals still lead the rankings in terms of reach, but their growth rates have slowed in the past year,” commented Bob Ivins, managing director of Comscore Europe. “In Europe, more specialist local sites such as Meetic in France and iLove in Germany have become successful, experiencing double-digit growth and dominating the category in their home countries.”

* Unique visitors to the site divided by unique visitors to the category.

“The leading North American online personals sites, which are generally subscription-based, are being pressured by free social networking sites like MySpace and more specialized subscription-based services which focus on interests and functions,” continued Mr. Ivins. “It will be interesting to see how the growth rates of the leading European players are affected as local social networking sites such as Bebo in the U.K. gain traction and as MySpace rolls out across Europe.”

Mr. Ivins is scheduled to speak at the iDate 2006 Internet Dating Conference on September 25 in Amsterdam. At the event, he will lead a discussion on the demographics, metrics, and statistics of the European online dating and social networking markets.

About Comscore World Metrix

Comscore World Metrix is the first service to continuously measure and report online behaviour on a world-wide basis, providing visitation metrics and demographic characteristics for Web site audiences around the world. With active representation of countries that comprise the vast majority of the global Internet population, World Metrix provides its clients with worldwide Internet population estimates and harmonized online performance metrics based on a consistent methodology across all countries. More than 100 clients subscribe to Comscore’s World Metrix service, including 8 of the top 10 interactive advertising agencies.

About Comscore Networks

Comscore Networks is a global leader in measuring the digital age. 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 behaviour, 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 behaviour and attitudes. Comscore consultants 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 global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Verizon, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Tribune Interactive, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestlé, MBNA, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Merck and Expedia. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com.

Press
Bill Daddi
Daddi Brand Communications
646-370-1341
press@comscore.com