Retail Sites Experience Growth as Consumers Prepare for the Holiday SeasonPopular Monopoly Promotion Makes McDonald's the Top-Gaining Property in OctoberTribal Fusion and Google Ad Network both Gain Three Positions in Ad Focus Ranking
RESTON, VA, November 20, 2007 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at top online properties for October 2007 from its Comscore MMX service. E-cards and flowers/gifts/greetings sites surged with the celebration of Halloween and Sweetest Day, while several retail categories experienced significant growth in anticipation of the holiday shopping season. Third quarter earnings announcements and volatile stock market conditions drove an increase in traffic to online trading sites.
“Holidays were the primary driver of Americans’ Web activity during the month,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of Comscore MMX. “With retailers moving their holiday season promotions earlier and earlier, October now represents the unofficial beginning of the holiday retail season. The surge in traffic to several online retail categories suggests that Americans are already beginning their hunt for holiday bargains.”
Halloween and Sweetest Day Draw Consumers to Card and Gift Sites
With both Halloween and Sweetest Day celebrated in October, e-card and flowers/gifts/greetings sites experienced a seasonal surge in traffic. E-card sites gained 23 percent to reach 33.8 million visitors, making it the top-gaining category for the month. The category was led by the American Greetings Properties with 10.3 million visitors (up 56 percent), followed by Evite.com with 8.2 million visitors (up 31 percent) and Hallmark.com with 5 million visitors (up 20 percent). The flowers/gifts/greetings category saw a 22-percent gain to 35.6 million visitors with PartyCity.com experiencing the largest growth of the category’s top sites with a 151 percent jump to 3.5 million visitors.
Retail Sites See Growth in Anticipation of the Holiday Season
Several retail-related categories, including malls, toys, retail food, consumer electronics and jewelry/luxury goods/accessories, posted significant gains in October as consumers geared up for the approaching holiday season. Mall sites rose 13 percent to 30.8 million visitors with the five most visited sites in the category all posting double-digit growth for the month.
Amid news of continued toy recalls, traffic to toy sites rose 12 percent to 23.6 million visitors. The category was led by Toysrus Sites with 8.7 million visitors (up 26 percent), with both KB Toys (up 105 percent to 1.8 million visitors) and Fisher Price (up 107 percent to 1.5 million visitors) posting triple-digit growth for the month.
High demand for hot electronic items helped boost traffic to the consumer electronics category 8 percent to 50.1 million visitors. Notable retailers in the top 10 consumer electronics sites included BestBuy.com (up 4 percent to 15 million visitors), Circuit City (up 22 percent to 10.8 million visitors), eBay Electronics U.S. (up 77 percent to 8 million visitors), Wal-Mart Electronics (up 9 percent to 3.8 million visitors), and Sony Electronics (up 22 percent to 2 million visitors).
Online Trading Sites Gain in October
Amid third quarter earnings announcements and heavy trading activity in the stock markets, online trading sites experienced a 21-percent increase to 12.4 million visitors. Fidelity Investments led the category with 3.8 million visitors (12 percent), followed by Scottrade Sites with 1.6 million visitors (up 7 percent), ShareBuilder.com with 1.3 million visitors (up 21 percent), and ETrade Financial Network with nearly 1.3 million visitors (also up 21 percent).
Top 50 Properties
October saw the top 10 properties remain unchanged from the previous month, with Yahoo! Sites holding the top position with 137 million visitors. AT&T Inc. gained 5 positions to number 15 with 33.7 million visitors, while Glam Media jumped 9 spots to number 23, attracting nearly 25.5 million visitors. YellowPages.com Network moved up 5 spots to number 25 with 24.9 million visitors. Connexus and WorldNow-LMN Sites both entered the ranking this month at positions 46 and 49, respectively.
Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking
Advertising.com remained atop the Ad Focus ranking in October, reaching 87 percent of the more than 182 million Americans online. Tribal Fusion catapulted three positions to grab the number two spot, reaching 76 percent of the Internet population, while Google Ad Network also rose three spots to capture the third position in the ranking. Blue Lithium and Casale Media Network both moved up one spot in the top 10 to capture positions seven and nine, respectively. ADSDAQ by ContextWeb (23) and IMDB.COM (49) both entered the ranking this month reaching 41 percent and 13 percent of the online audience, respectively.
TABLE 1
Comscore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.)October 2007 vs. September 2007Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet UsersSource: Comscore MMX
Total Unique Visitors (000)
Sep-07
Oct-07
% Change
Rank by Unique Visitors
Total Internet : Total Audience
181,858
182,206
0
N/A
McDonald's
1,514
4,358
188
242
TheStreet.com Sites
3,984
8,961
125
115
R.H.Donnelley
3,306
7,068
114
148
Become.com
2,356
4,385
86
241
Revolution Health Network
4,471
7,964
78
129
Hearst Digital Media
6,003
10,489
75
90
Snopes.com
4,058
6,793
67
153
Pronto.com
3,180
5,220
64
204
Liberty Media Holding Corporation
8,298
13,564
63
70
AmericanGreetings Property
6,561
10,257
56
96
*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in October 2007
TABLE 2
Comscore Top 10 Gaining Categories by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.)October 2007 vs. September 2007Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet UsersSource: Comscore MMX
e-cards
27,442
33,829
23
Flowers/Gifts/Greetings
29,238
35,631
22
Online Trading
10,258
12,434
21
Taxes
6,353
7,435
17
Mall
27,306
30,806
13
Toys
21,001
23,618
12
Retail - Food
13,682
14,791
8
Consumer Electronics
46,596
50,131
Genealogy
8,265
8,892
Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories
15,308
16,462
TABLE 3
Comscore Top 50 Properties (U.S.)October 2007Total U.S. - Home, Work and University LocationsUnique Visitors (000)Source: Comscore MMX
Rank
Property
Unique Visitors
(000)
1
Yahoo! Sites
136,775
26
Expedia Inc
24,575
2
Google Sites
131,639
27
Verizon Communications Corporation
24,389
3
Time Warner Network
121,130
28
Craigslist.org
23,992
4
Microsoft Sites
120,502
29
United Online, Inc
23,913
5
Fox Interactive Media
84,205
30
Shopzilla.com Sites
23,569
6
eBay
79,669
31
CareerBuilder LLC
23,000
7
Amazon Sites
56,746
32
ESPN
22,937
Wikipedia Sites
56,104
33
Gannett Sites
22,807
9
Ask Network
55,512
34
Bank of America
22,761
10
New York Times Digital
49,816
35
Photobucket.com LLC
22,177
11
Viacom Digital
43,345
36
Disney Online
21,133
Apple Inc.
43,157
37
Lycos Sites
20,229
Weather Channel, The
38,796
38
Real.com Network
20,108
14
CNET Networks
35,336
39
WebMD Health
19,904
15
AT&T, Inc.
33,749
40
Superpages.com Network
19,402
16
Facebook.com
32,910
41
E.W. Scripps
19,254
Gorilla Nation
31,889
42
ARTISTdirect Network
19,105
18
Target Corporation
31,090
43
iVillage.com: The Womens Network
18,495
19
Adobe Sites
30,592
44
NBC Universal
17,462
20
Wal-Mart
45
The Mozilla Organization
17,249
CBS Corporation
28,262
46
Connexus
17,239
Monster Worldwide
26,013
47
NFL Internet Group
17,052
Glam Media
25,487
48
Weatherbug Property
17,051
24
Comcast Corporation
25,277
49
WorldNow - LMN Sites
16,539
25
Yellowpages.com Network
24,921
50
Cox Enterprises Inc.
16,414
TABLE 4
Comscore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.)October 2007Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations Unique Visitors (000)
Source: Comscore MMX
Unique Visitors (000)
Reach %
100%
Advertising.com**
159,204
87%
AdBrite**
70,766
39%
Tribal Fusion**
137,582
76%
AdDynamix.com**
68,979
38%
Google Ad Network**
135,353
74%
Ebay.com
68,194
37%
ValueClick Networks**
135,027
CPX Interactive**
67,304
Yahoo!
134,979
Gorilla Nation Media
66,960
Specific Media**
133,103
73%
PrecisionClick**
61,790
34%
Blue Lithium**
132,334
MSN.comHome Page
57,263
31%
Google
123,733
68%
Undertone Networks**
56,365
Casale Media Network**
115,087
63%
30%
AOL Media Network
110,714
61%
Mapquest
49,870
27%
MSN-Windows Live
105,540
58%
YouTube.com
48,579
DRIVEpm**
104,497
57%
Business.com Network
47,514
26%
Traffic Marketplace**
104,492
Amazon.com
46,537
Interclick**
98,055
54%
Kontera**
44,724
25%
Yahoo.com Home Page
95,170
52%
About.com
41,963
23%
24/7 Real Media**
92,743
51%
Ebay.com Home Page
41,192
Tremor Media
92,618
18%
AOL
90,516
50%
Weather.com
29,231
16%
Burst Media**
83,094
46%
Real Cities Network
27,490
15%
Centro
80,134
44%
Walmart.com
25,885
14%
Collective Media**
79,171
43%
adconion media group**
75,674
42%
CNN
24,387
13%
ADSDAQ by ContextWeb**
74,840
41%
CareerBuilder Network
23,751
Vibrant Media**
72,414
40%
IMDB.com
23,388
MySpace.com
71,982
Nick Kids & Family
23,257
Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in October. For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 74 percent of the more than 182 million Internet users in October. * Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated entities.** Denotes an advertising network.
About Comscore MMX
Comscore 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. 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 800 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.
Contact:Sarah RadwanickDirector, Regional Product MarketingComscore, Inc. +44 (0) 20 7099 1784worldpress@comscore.com