Yellow Book Network and MLB.com Lead Top-Gaining Properties
March Madness Tournament Drives Traffic to Online Gambling Sites
RESTON, VA, April 14, 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 March 2008 based on data from the Comscore MMX service. March saw traffic increase to online radio, gambling and retail-health care sites.
“American sports factored in prominently for the top gaining categories and properties in March,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of Comscore MMX. “The NCAA tournament drove substantial traffic to online gambling sites during the month, while the start of spring training made MLB.com one of the top gaining properties. Both events also contributed to ESPN.com’s surge in the top properties rankings.”
Top-Gaining Sites for March
Yellow Book Network secured the top-gaining site position for the month, with a 54-percent gain to 13.5 million visitors due, at least in part, to a new partnership with addresses.com. Baseball spring training and fantasy team drafts prompted a flood of earnest fans to MLB.com, which jumped 50 percent to 9.8 million visitors. Bankrate.com Sites witnessed a 46-percent increase to 5 million visitors with the addition of the InsureMe.com entity in March.
Radio Sites See Surge in Visitation
Radio sites experienced a sharp increase in traffic in March with the category growing 27 percent to 61.8 million visitors, making it the top-gaining category for the month. AOL Music led the category with 21.9 million visitors (up 5 percent), followed by Yahoo! Music with nearly 20.8 million visitors (up 4 percent) and Clear Channel Online with 11 million visitors (up 2 percent). Other significant increases were experienced by Pandora.com (up 9 percent), Citadel Broadcasting Corporation (up 11 percent), and Disney Music (up 17 percent).
Online Gambling Traffic Propelled by March Madness
The NCAA basketball tournament, also known as “March Madness,” attracted a flurry of online bettors, prompting a 14-percent gain to the online gambling category. Sportingbet PLC increased 35 percent to 975,000 visitors and SportsBetting.com rose 114 percent to 145,000 visitors.
Walgreen Co. Leads Retail – Health Care Category
Retail – Health Care sites experienced a 12-percent increase in March to 26.3 million visitors, as Walgreen Co. led the category with 5.4 million visitors (up 10 percent). Drugstore.com, Inc. captured the second position with 3.7 million visitors, followed by CVS with nearly 3 million visitors.
Top 50 Properties
The top 10 properties maintained their positions from February with Yahoo! Sites continuing to lead as the top property with 139.5 million visitors, followed by Google Sites with 137.5 million visitors and Microsoft Sites with 121 million visitors. ESPN jumped 12 spots on the popularity of March Madness and anticipation of the 2008 Major League Baseball season. Gains were also experienced by AT&T (up 8 spots to #18 with 31.3 million visitors), Target Corporation (up 5 spots to #20 with nearly 30 million visitors), and CBS Corporation (up 6 spots to #24 with 28.6 million visitors).
Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking
The top 10 Ad Focus properties also maintained their February rankings with Platform-A, the ad network combining Advertising.com, Tacoda, AOL, and Quigo, leading the ranking in March, reaching 91 percent of Americans online. interCLICK gained 9 spots in the ranking to position 14, reaching 58 percent of the 188 million Americans online. Real Cities Network and YuMe Video Network both entered this month’s rankings in positions 38 and 43, respectively.
TABLE 1
Comscore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.)March 2008 vs. February 2008Total U.S. - Home, Work and University LocationsSource: Comscore MMX
Total Unique Visitors (000)
Feb-08
Mar-08
% Change
Rank by Unique Visitors
Total Internet : Total Audience
185,017
188,010
2
N/A
Yellow Book Network
8,801
13,523
54
75
MLB.com
6,519
9,799
50
104
Bankrate.com Sites
3,441
5,027
46
218
Craveonline
5,806
8,254
42
128
Six Apart Sites
9,749
13,680
40
74
Break Media
5,845
7,876
35
131
Bidz.com
3,755
5,049
34
217
Eversave.com
3,666
4,865
33
226
wikiHow.com
3,561
4,678
31
240
Reunion.com
6,875
9,003
117
*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in March 2008
TABLE 2
Comscore Top 10 Gaining Categories by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.)March 2008 vs. February 2008Total U.S. - Home, Work and University LocationsSource: Comscore MMX
Entertainment - Radio
48,508
61,786
27
Gay/Lesbian
2,479
3,114
26
Online Gambling
11,082
12,592
14
Retail - Health Care
23,596
26,318
12
Teens
27,824
30,738
10
Coupons
19,986
22,009
Retail - Movies
25,070
27,457
Technology - News
44,320
48,226
9
Pharmacy
15,384
16,730
Gaming Information
42,197
45,802
TABLE 3
Comscore Top 50 Properties (U.S.)March 2008Total U.S. - Home, Work and University LocationsUnique Visitors (000)Source: Comscore MMX
Rank
Property
Unique Visitors
(000)
1
Yahoo! Sites
139,518
Superpages.com Network
27,672
Google Sites
137,480
Disney Online
27,302
3
Microsoft Sites
121,013
28
Comcast Corporation
25,780
4
AOL LLC
111,832
29
Shopzilla.com Sites
25,714
5
Fox Interactive Media
88,284
30
Expedia Inc
25,089
6
eBay
81,874
Yellowpages.com Network
24,962
7
Wikipedia Sites
58,705
32
Bank of America
23,638
8
Amazon Sites
58,683
United Online, Inc
22,992
Ask Network
55,437
ESPN
22,357
Time Warner - Excluding AOL
55,108
Gannett Sites
22,290
11
Apple Inc.
48,374
36
Monster Worldwide
21,932
New York Times Digital
47,755
37
Photobucket.com LLC
21,861
13
Viacom Digital
44,826
38
CareerBuilder LLC
21,823
Weather Channel, The
40,731
39
WebMD Health
20,200
15
Facebook.com
35,510
Real.com Network
19,979
16
CNET Networks
34,598
41
E.W. Scripps
19,938
17
Glam Media
34,461
Demand Media
19,903
18
AT&T, Inc.
31,297
43
Cox Enterprises Inc.
18,875
19
Adobe Sites
31,098
44
WordPress
18,846
20
Target Corporation
29,873
45
AmericanGreetings Property
18,841
21
Verizon Communications Corporation
29,488
iVillage.com: The Womens Network
18,494
22
Wal-Mart
29,474
47
Hearst Corporation
17,875
23
Gorilla Nation
29,085
48
Atrinsic, Inc.
17,752
24
CBS Corporation
28,583
49
NBC Universal
17,661
25
craigslist, inc.
28,563
WorldNow - ABC Owned Sites
17,634
TABLE 4
Comscore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.)March 2008Total U.S. - Home, Work and University LocationsUnique Visitors (000)Source: Comscore MMX
Unique Visitors (000)
Reach %
100.0
Platform-A**
170,537
91%
CPX Interactive**
73,768
39%
Advertising.com**
167,500
89%
MySpace.com*
72,753
Yahoo! Network**
160,336
85%
eBay.com
69,452
37%
Google Ad Network**
152,048
81%
Undertone Networks**
68,190
36%
Specific Media**
145,554
77%
Gorilla Nation Media
67,180
ValueClick Networks**
140,091
75%
YouTube.com
64,754
34%
Yahoo!
137,819
73%
MSN.com Home Page
57,474
31%
Tribal Fusion**
135,640
72%
29%
Google
132,349
70%
Quigo**
54,141
Casale Media Network**
129,399
69%
Kontera**
53,186
28%
DRIVEpm**
124,333
66%
Vizi Inc**
51,466
27%
adconion media group**
117,469
62%
Ybrant/AdDynamix Network**
48,688
26%
AOL Media Network
59%
Real Cities Network
47,843
25%
interCLICK**
108,818
58%
MapQuest
47,799
MSN-Windows Live
105,925
56%
IB Local Network
47,738
Traffic Marketplace**
105,420
AMAZON.COM
47,575
Tremor Media
101,143
54%
Turn, Inc**
46,512
Collective Media**
100,151
53%
YuMe Video Network
44,927
24%
24/7 Real Media**
94,525
50%
PrecisionClick**
44,767
ADSDAQ by ContextWeb**
94,459
Business.com Network
42,691
23%
Burst Media**
93,291
EBAY.COM Home Page
42,492
AOL
92,254
49%
About
40,935
22%
AdBrite**
84,114
45%
The Nabbr Network
39,996
21%
Centro
81,427
43%
IACAS Network
39,353
Vibrant Media**
73,931
17%
Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in March. For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 73 percent of the more than 185 million Internet users in March.
* 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