Preparing for Tax Season Ranks as Top Priority as Americans Begin the New Year
Politics, Careers, Real Estate, and Travel Also Witness Strong Growth
RESTON, VA, February 18, 2008 – 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 January 2008 from the Comscore MMX service. The month saw increased visits to tax, politics, career, real estate and travel-related sites.
“The new year represents a time for Americans to reflect on the past year and plan for the coming year, whether it’s searching for a new job, a new residence, or preparing for tax season,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of Comscore MMX. “There was also a huge surge in activity at political content sites as the Democratic and Republican presidential primaries kicked off with the Iowa caucuses in early January.”
Tax Preparation Causes Category to Surge
The official beginning of tax season sent Americans online in droves, driving the tax category up 202 percent to more than 23 million visitors, making it the top-gaining category in January. IRS.gov led the category with 12.5 million visitors (up 181 percent), followed by TaxACT with 5.8 million visitors (up more than 1,000 percent), and H&R Block with 5.3 million visitors (up 312 percent).
Heated Presidential Primaries Boost Traffic to Politics Sites
As the presidential primaries kicked off, the politics category jumped 65 percent to 13.8 million visitors as Americans went online for news coverage and opinions and to visit candidate Web sites. BarackObama.com led the category with 2.2 million visitors, up 429 percent from December, followed by HillaryClinton.com with 1.1 million visitors (up 202 percent). On the Republican side, MikeHuckabee.com attracted 937,000 visitors, up 96 percent, while JohnMcCain.com grew 261 percent to 596,000 visitors.
New Year = New Career, Americans Search the Web for Jobs
As many Americans reevaluated their current career situations with the New Year, the career services and development category experienced a 31-percent gain for the month. The category was led by CareerBuilder LLC with 24.8 million visitors, followed by Yahoo! HotJobs with 17.4 million visitors and Monster with 17.1 million visitors.
Real Estate Category Experiences Seasonal Growth
Concerns over a shaky real estate market, along with those resolving to move residences in 2008, precipitated a 28-percent gain to 42 million visitors to the real estate category in January. Move Network led the category with 10.1 million visitors (up 49 percent), followed by Yahoo! Real Estate with 4.6 million visitors (50 percent), and Rent.com with 3.5 million visitors (up 51 percent).
Winter Weather Prompts Vacation Planning Travel-related sites experienced an increase in traffic as people looked to escape the winter doldrums and take advantage of post-holiday travel deals. Ground/cruise sites gained 27 percent to 11.3 million visitors, while car rental sites grew 26 percent to 5.1 million visitors, and hotels/resorts gained 23 percent to nearly 31 million visitors.
Top 50 Properties
Yahoo! Sites continued to lead as the top property with more than 138 million visitors, followed by Google Sites with nearly 135 million visitors and Microsoft Sites with 119 million visitors. Beginning with January Comscore MMX data, Time Warner Network has now been divided into AOL LLC, which includes all AOL related entities, and Time Warner – Excluding AOL. During the month, large increases were experienced by the following properties; Disney Online (up four spots to position 21), and Expedia Inc. (up nine spots to 32). CareerBuilder LLC entered the ranking this month grabbing position 27.
Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking
Platform A, the ad network combining Advertising.com, Tacoda, AOL, and Quigo, debuted this month in the top spot in the Ad Focus Ranking, reaching 91 percent of the more than 184 million Americans online. Substantial gains were achieved by Adconion Media Group (up four spots to 14), PrecisionClick (up six spots to 35), and Kontera (up four spots to 36). Three entities joined the ranking this month; Turn, Inc., IACAS Network, and CNN.
TABLE 1
Comscore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.)January 2008 vs. December 2007Total U.S. - Home, Work and University LocationsSource: Comscore MMX
Total Unique Visitors (000)
Dec-07
Jan-08
% Change
Rank by Unique Visitors
Total Internet : Total Audience
183,619
184,239
0
N/A
TaxACT
421
5,803
1,277
182
H&R Block
1,294
5,337
312
201
IRS.GOV
4,442
12,495
181
82
Kayak.com Network
3,234
6,871
112
150
Intuit
7,096
14,979
111
64
Weight Watchers International
2,287
4,552
99
240
PCH.COM
4,900
8,953
83
108
CareerBuilder LLC
13,914
24,752
78
27
Job.com Sites
3,567
5,654
59
190
ED.GOV
4,314
6,828
58
152
*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in January 2008
TABLE 2
Comscore Top 10 Gaining Categories by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.)January 2008 vs. December 2007Total U.S. - Home, Work and University LocationsSource: Comscore MMX
Taxes
7,729
23,336
202
Politics
8,384
13,807
65
Career Services and Development
49,150
64,144
31
Real Estate
32,747
41,991
28
Ground/Cruise
8,909
11,303
Car Rental
4,065
5,130
26
Retail - Computer Software
26,756
33,548
25
Financial Information/Advice
32,109
39,792
24
Hotels/Resorts
25,131
30,958
23
Online Travel Agents
34,581
42,530
TABLE 3
Comscore Top 50 Properties (U.S.)January 2008Total U.S. - Home, Work and University LocationsUnique Visitors (000)Source: Comscore MMX
Rank
Property
Unique Visitors
(000)
1
Yahoo! Sites
138,059
Superpages.com Network
26,237
2
Google Sites
134,886
3
Microsoft Sites
119,297
Glam Media
24,626
4
AOL LLC
109,442
29
Shopzilla.com Sites
24,210
5
Fox Interactive Media
83,752
30
Monster Worldwide
24,185
6
eBay
78,789
CBS Corporation
23,643
7
Amazon Sites
59,003
32
Expedia Inc
23,454
8
Wikipedia Sites
55,589
33
Gannett Sites
22,997
9
Time Warner - Excluding AOL
52,645
34
Bank of America
22,990
10
Ask Network
52,102
35
Yellowpages.com Network
22,869
11
New York Times Digital
48,471
36
United Online, Inc
22,065
12
Apple Inc.
48,413
37
E.W. Scripps
20,952
13
Viacom Digital
42,011
38
Photobucket.com LLC
20,497
14
Weather Channel, The
40,478
39
Real.com Network
19,747
15
CNET Networks
34,859
40
Lycos Sites
19,484
16
Facebook.com
33,861
41
WebMD Health
19,219
17
Adobe Sites
31,169
42
ESPN
19,166
18
Wal-Mart
30,747
43
WorldNow - ABC Owned Sites
19,115
19
AT&T, Inc.
27,890
44
NBC Universal
17,828
20
Target Corporation
27,874
45
Best Buy Sites
17,813
21
Disney Online
27,524
46
Weatherbug Property
17,456
22
Verizon Communications Corporation
27,220
47
iVillage.com: The Womens Network
17,383
Gorilla Nation
27,119
48
Cox Enterprises Inc.
17,286
Comcast Corporation
27,068
49
AmericanGreetings Property
16,771
Craigslist.org
26,660
50
Hearst Corporation
16,708
TABLE 4
Comscore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.)January 2008Total U.S. - Home, Work and University LocationsUnique Visitors (000)Source: Comscore MMX
Unique Visitors (000)
Reach %
100.0
Platform-A**
166,763
91%
Vibrant Media**
75,953
41%
Advertising.com**†
163,837
89%
CPX Interactive**
71,667
39%
Yahoo! Network**
155,822
85%
MySpace.com*
68,641
37%
Google Ad Network**
143,200
78%
Ebay.com
66,861
36%
Specific Media**
142,290
77%
Gorilla Nation Media
65,282
35%
ValueClick Networks**
137,548
75%
YouTube.com
61,375
33%
Yahoo!
136,243
74%
Undertone Networks**
59,273
32%
Tribal Fusion**
131,840
72%
MSN.com Home Page
58,548
Google
126,569
69%
28%
Casale Media Network**
121,893
66%
PrecisionClick**
51,156
AOL Media Network
59%
Kontera**
50,481
27%
MSN-Windows Live
103,424
56%
Amazon.com
48,324
26%
DRIVEpm**
102,085
55%
Business.com Network
48,181
adconion media group**
98,378
53%
AdDynamix.com**
46,625
25%
Yahoo.com Home Page
95,460
52%
MapQuest
44,537
24%
Traffic Marketplace**
95,254
Turn, Inc**
42,103
23%
Tremor Media
93,929
51%
YuMe Video Network
41,666
AOL
91,005
49%
About
41,487
24/7 Real Media**
90,483
Ebay.com Home Page
39,169
21%
ADSDAQ by ContextWeb**
88,984
48%
Vizi Media**
38,066
Burst Media**
88,097
IACAS Network
37,526
20%
AdBrite**
85,308
46%
The Nabbr Network
36,643
Collective Media**
79,832
43%
18%
interCLICK**
79,369
Weather.com
31,464
17%
Centro
78,460
CNN
29,157
16%
Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in January. For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 74 percent of the more than 184 million Internet users in January.
* Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated entities.
** Denotes an advertising network.
† Advertising.com is also included in the Platform A entity beginning with January 2008 MMX data.
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