Nearly 6 Billion Searches Conducted in Japan during September
Yahoo! Sites Ranks as Top Search Property
TOKYO, Japan, November 26, 2008 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its ranking of the top search properties in Japan based on data from the Comscore qSearch service. In September, 5.9 billion searches were conducted in Japan with each searcher conducting an average of 96 searches during the month. Yahoo! Sites led in search query volume with 3 billion searches, followed by Google Sites with 2.3 billion searches.
“The search market in Japan is dominated by Yahoo! and Google, which combine for more than 90 percent of the market,” said Maru Sato, managing director of Comscore Japan. “Other players in the search market include both local Web properties, such as Rakuten, NTT and Mixi, and other American brands, such as Microsoft and Amazon.”
Yahoo! Sites Leads Search Market in Japan
Yahoo! Sites led the search ranking in Japan with more than 3 billion searches, representing a 51 percent market share, followed by Google Sites with 2.3 billion searches (39 percent market share). Rakuten Inc. captured the third position with 120 million searches (2 percent market share) and Microsoft Sites ranked fourth with 90 million searches (1.5 percent market share).
Top Search Properties in Japan September 2008Total Japan Internet Audience*, Age 15+ - Home & Work LocationsSource: Comscore qSearch
Searches (MM)***
Searches Per Searcher
Share of Searches
Total Internet
5,879
96.2
100.0
Yahoo! Sites
3,012
58.9
51.2
Google Sites**
2,294
54.7
39.0
Rakuten Inc
120
7.6
2.0
Microsoft Sites
90
10.5
1.5
NTT Group
80
10.9
1.4
Amazon Sites
55
6.5
0.9
Excite Japan
41
17.4
0.7
NEC Corporation
37
18.2
0.6
MIXI, Inc.
32
6.9
0.5
GMO Internet Group
19
4.5
0.3
*Excludes searches from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.
**Google Sites includes searches from YouTube.com
***The sum of distinct searches. Searches with the same search term by the same user at the same entity in consecutive sequence are counted as one search, regardless of the number of search result pages presented.
Asia-Pacific Region Has Highest Number of Searchers and Searches in the World
In September, more than 340 million searchers conducted nearly 29 billion searches in the Asia-Pacific region, ranking it as the largest searcher population and search volume total of the five global regions reported by Comscore. China had the largest searcher population in the region with more than 149 million searchers, and the greatest number of searches conducted (12.8 billion). Japan ranked second on both measures with more than 61 million searchers and nearly 6 billion searches. Australia exhibited the heaviest search intensity with an average of 115 searches per searcher during the month, followed by South Korea (109 searches per searcher) and Singapore (106 searches per searcher).
Asia-Pacific Search Overview – Country Breakdown September 2008Total Asia-Pacific Internet Audience*, Age 15+ - Home & Work LocationsSource: Comscore qSearch
Country
Unique Searchers (000)
Total Asia-Pac Internet**
28,967
341,850
84.7
China
12,758
149,219
85.5
Japan
61,130
Korea
2,303
21,072
109.3
India
1,169
22,931
51.0
Australia
977
8,523
114.6
Taiwan
618
9,735
63.5
Malaysia
405
6,207
65.2
Hong Kong
199
2,773
71.8
Singapore
171
1,617
105.6
New Zealand
135
1,500
90.1
**Improvements to universe estimates in certain Internet markets have recently been made. We caution against trending with data prior to July 2008.
About ComscoreComscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/boilerplate.
Contact:Sarah RadwanickDirector, Regional Product MarketingComscore, Inc. +44 (0) 20 7099 1784worldpress@comscore.com