Mother’s Day Prompts Growth to Flower and Gift Sites, while Summer Vacation Planning Drives Traffic to Travel Sites
Google Sites Remains #1 Property
RESTON, VA, June 18, 2008 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at the top online properties for May 2008 based on data from the Comscore MMX service. Content categories showing gains in May included flowers/gifts/greetings, jewelry/luxury goods/accessories, coupon, and travel sites.
“Mother’s Day was a key driver of Web activity in May, as the convenience of online shopping for flowers and gifts drew many to retail sites,” commented Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of Comscore MMX. “Summer travel was also on Americans’ minds this month as warmer weather and the end of the school year spurred vacation planning. With Americans feeling the pocket pinch of soaring gas prices, rising food costs and an unsteady market, scouring the Internet for hot travel deals was essential for many to ensure an affordable summer vacation.”
Honoring Mom Drives Traffic to Gift and Retail Sites
Flowers/gifts/greetings sites saw gains with the celebration of Mother’s Day on May 11. The category reached 42.4 million visitors, up 15 percent from April, making it the top-gaining category for the month. AmericanGreetings Property led the category with 15.7 million visitors (up 5 percent), followed by Hallmark with 5.5 million visitors (up 23 percent). Proflowers.com ranked third with nearly 5.5 million visitors, representing a 319-percent gain versus April and ranking it as one of the top-gaining properties for the month. The e-cards category also saw traffic increase, as it grew 8 percent to more than 35 million visitors. Other retail categories gained as a result of Mother’s Day, including jewelry/luxury goods/accessories (up 9 percent to 17.5 million visitors) and mall sites (up 9 percent to 29 million visitors). MSN Shopping led the mall category with 7 million visitors, a 25-percent jump from April.
Traffic to Coupon Sites Increases as Economic Concerns Rise
With rising consumer costs affecting many Americans, coupon sites saw their traffic soar in May as people looked for ways of reducing their monthly budgets. The category grew 11 percent to 24.5 million visitors during the month, as each of the top five sites in the category experienced double-digit gains. Coupons, Inc. led the category with 7.2 million visitors (up 20 percent), followed by Eversave.com with 5.2 million visitors (up 13 percent) and CoolSavings.com with more than 5.1 million visitors (up 24 percent).
Summer Vacation Draws Many to Travel Sites
With Memorial Day marking the unofficial beginning of summer and vacation season, several travel categories achieved gains. The travel-information category grew 9 percent to more than 47 million visitors, led by Travel Ad Network with 11.7 million visitors (up 7 percent), Yahoo! Travel with 10 million visitors (up 5 percent), and Tripadvisor Sites with 8.2 million visitors (up 16 percent).
Online travel agent sites grew 7 percent to 45 million visitors, led by Expedia Inc. with 25.4 million visitors (up 8 percent), Travelocity with 12 million visitors (up 10 percent), and Orbitz.com with more than 9 million visitors. Travel – ground/cruise sites also saw an increase, up 6 percent to 11.2 million visitors.
Top 50 Properties
Google Sites maintained its #1 position in the Top Properties ranking, reaching 143.4 million Americans in May. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with nearly 143 million visitors, followed by Microsoft Sites with 121.3 million visitors. Time Warner – Excluding AOL moved up one position to #9 with 56 million visitors. IRS.gov jumped 14 positions to #20 with 31 million visitors, propelled by Americans checking the status of tax refunds and stimulus checks.
Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking
Platform-A continued to lead the Ad Focus ranking, reaching 90 percent of the nearly 191 million Americans online in May. 24/7 Real Media moved up three spots to #15, while Turn, Inc. jumped 6 positions to #26, reaching 39 percent of the online population.
TABLE 1
Comscore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.)May 2008 vs. April 2008Total U.S. - Home, Work and University LocationsSource: Comscore MMX
Total Unique Visitors (000)
Apr-08
May-08
% Change
Rank by Unique Visitors
Total Internet : Total Audience
190,728
190,858
1
N/A
Proflowers.com
1,301
5,453
319
200
Vonage Holdings Corp
2,202
4,832
119
227
Vlaze Media Networks, Inc.
4,021
7,162
78
153
Discovery.com Sites
8,800
15,473
76
62
IRS.gov
23,354
31,113
33
20
UnitedHealth Group
3,999
5,302
203
Infospace Network
7,005
8,988
28
Groupe Lagardere
3,738
4,763
27
233
Hollywood.Net - Hollywood Online Network
6,111
7,665
25
141
Toyota
5,123
6,418
172
*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in May 2008
TABLE 2
Comscore Top 10 Gaining Categories by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.)May 2008 vs. April 2008Total U.S. - Home, Work and University LocationsSource: Comscore MMX
Flowers/Gifts/Greetings
36,729
42,421
15
Coupons
22,063
24,508
11
Travel - Information
43,330
47,272
9
Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories
16,044
17,476
Mall
26,641
29,009
Lotto/Sweepstakes
27,028
29,293
8
e-cards
32,591
35,319
Online Trading
11,071
11,961
Online Travel Agents
42,308
45,092
7
Travel - Ground/Cruise
10,546
11,193
6
TABLE 3
Comscore Top 50 Properties (U.S.)May 2008Total U.S. - Home, Work and University LocationsUnique Visitors (000)Source: Comscore MMX
Rank
Property
Unique Visitors
(000)
Google Sites
143,389
26
Adobe Sites
28,107
2
Yahoo! Sites
142,925
Comcast Corporation
26,564
3
Microsoft Sites
121,257
Yellowpages.com Network
26,505
4
AOL LLC
111,395
29
Expedia Inc
25,415
5
Fox Interactive Media
89,424
30
Gorilla Nation
24,747
eBay
78,271
31
Bank of America
23,966
Wikipedia Sites
59,090
32
Shopzilla.com Sites
23,937
Amazon Sites
58,314
United Online, Inc
23,768
Time Warner - Excluding AOL
55,930
34
CBS Corporation
23,456
10
Ask Network
54,563
35
CareerBuilder LLC
22,921
New York Times Digital
48,280
36
Photobucket.com LLC
22,698
12
Apple Inc.
48,050
37
Gannett Sites
22,592
13
Viacom Digital
43,669
38
Monster Worldwide
21,325
14
Glam Media
42,048
39
Demand Media
21,273
Weather Channel, The
36,380
40
WordPress
20,015
16
Facebook.com
35,594
41
Real.com Network
19,885
17
CNET Networks
33,142
42
ESPN
18,981
18
craigslist, inc.
31,489
43
E.W. Scripps
18,741
19
Wal-Mart
31,196
44
WebMD Health
18,391
IRS.GOV
45
Hearst Corporation
18,312
21
Superpages.com Network
30,769
46
WorldNow - ABC Owned Sites
18,035
22
Target Corporation
29,981
47
Cox Enterprises Inc.
17,853
23
AT&T, Inc.
29,691
48
Answers.com Sites
17,630
24
Verizon Communications Corporation
29,095
49
WhitePages
17,492
Disney Online
28,350
50
iVillage.com: The Womens Network
17,173
TABLE 4
Comscore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.)May 2008Total U.S. - Home, Work and University LocationsUnique Visitors (000)Source: Comscore MMX
Unique Visitors (000)
Reach %
100.0
Platform-A**
172,422
90%
Turn, Inc**
74,879
39%
Advertising.com**
170,722
89%
MySpace.com*
73,691
Yahoo! Network**
163,626
86%
NNN Total Newspapers: U.S.
71,398
37%
Google Ad Network**
158,514
83%
Undertone Networks**
70,605
Specific Media**
150,336
79%
YouTube.com
66,218
35%
ValueClick Networks**
145,884
76%
Gorilla Nation Media
66,152
Tribal Fusion**
141,908
74%
Quigo**
65,816
34%
Yahoo!
141,023
Ybrant Digital- AdDynamix/Oridian**
65,642
Google
135,390
71%
eBay.com
63,238
33%
Casale Media Network**
129,752
68%
IAC Ad Solutions – Media Partners
58,157
30%
adconion media group**
124,760
65%
MSN.com Home Page
57,169
DRIVEpm**
123,601
29%
Traffic Marketplace**
121,781
64%
Kontera**
53,936
28%
interCLICK**
114,506
60%
MapQuest
48,879
26%
24/7 Real Media**
113,626
NNN Top 25
48,660
25%
AOL Media Network
58%
Real Cities Network
48,213
MSN-Windows Live
107,710
56%
IB Local Network
47,668
ADSDAQ by ContextWeb**
104,152
55%
Amazon.com
47,446
Tremor Media - Media Partners
103,653
54%
YuMe Video Network - Media Partners
46,823
Burst Media**
89,450
47%
PrecisionClick**
46,461
24%
Collective Media**
84,129
44%
Business.com Network
46,228
AdBrite**
83,731
Userplane**
44,543
23%
Centro
82,215
43%
Vizi Inc**
44,542
CPX Interactive**
77,459
41%
The Nabbr Network - Exclusive Media Partners
40,512
21%
Vibrant Media**
76,155
40%
About
40,301
Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in Mayl. For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 74 percent of the more than 190 million Internet users in May.
* Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated entities.
** Denotes an advertising network.
About Comscore MMXComscore MMX provides industry-leading Internet audience measurement services that report details of online media usage, visitor demographics and online buying power for the home, work and university audiences across local U.S. markets and across the globe. Comscore MMX reports are used by financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers. Comscore MMX syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.
About ComscoreComscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/boilerplate
Contact:Sarah RadwanickDirector, Regional Product MarketingComscore, Inc. +44 (0) 20 7099 1784worldpress@comscore.com