Summer Travel Season Sparks Increases in Several Travel Categories
Gaming, Movies and Lotto Sites Also Gain
RESTON, VA, July 21, 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 June 2008 based on data from the Comscore MMX service. Content categories showing gains in June were heavily leisure-oriented, including online gaming, travel, entertainment – movies and lotto/sweepstakes. But category gains were modest in a month in which the total number of Internet users decreased slightly and time spent online per user declined 4 percent.“With school letting out in June, Americans have begun to enjoy their summer vacations and appear to be spending less time online and more time basking in the sun,” commented Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of Comscore MMX. “And when they are online, they spend more time engaged in leisure-related activities, whether it’s playing games online, checking out reviews for this year’s summer blockbusters, or gearing up for their summer travel.”
Summer Travel Season
The online car rental category was the top-gaining in June, growing 4 percent to 6.5 million visitors. Enterprise Rent-A-Car Company led the category with 3.4 million visitors, followed by Avis Budget Group with 2.6 million visitors. Significant gainers in the category included Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. (up 39 percent to 1.1 million visitors), CarRentals.com (up 42 percent to 892,000 visitors), and Advantage.com (up 39 percent to 214,000 visitors).
The travel – ground/cruise category ranked as the third fastest-growing category in June, growing 3 percent to 11.5 million visitors. Amtrak led the category with 2.7 million visitors (up 11 percent), followed by VacationsToGo.com with 2.2 million visitors (up 14 percent), and Greyhound Lines with 1.6 million visitors (up 26 percent). The gains in ground travel lines like Amtrak and Greyhound may reflect Americans’ attempts to save on summer travel by avoiding the increasing costs of air travel and long car trips due to rising gas prices.
Summer Blockbusters Drive Traffic to Movie Sites
Several summer blockbusters reached theaters in June, driving a 2-percent gain to the entertainment – movies category. IMDB.com (Internet Movie Data Base) led the category with 20.8 million visitors, followed by Moviefone (15.6 million visitors) and Yahoo! Movies (15.2 million visitors). Interest in Disney’s summer blockbuster Wall-E drove a 24-percent gain to Disney Movies (4.7 million visitors), while the release of Kung Fu Panda resulted in a 182-percent gain to DreamWorks SKG (1.4 million visitors).
More Gaming Online When School’s Out
Online gaming typically increases during the summer months with kids out of school, and the category was among the ten fastest-gaining this month with more than 94 million visitors. The category was led by Yahoo! Games with 17 million visitors, followed by EA Online (13.8 million visitors) and Disney Games (12.8 million).
Top 50 Properties
Google Sites maintained its #1 position in the Top Properties ranking, reaching 140.2 million Americans in June, narrowly edging out Yahoo! Sites with 140.1 million, while Microsoft Sites ranked third with 119.7 million visitors. Apple Inc. moved up two positions to #10 as consumers swooned over the next generation Apple iPhone, which was announced in June. Disney Online and Adobe Sites each gained four spots to numbers 21 and 22, respectively.
Top 50 Ad Focus RankingPlatform-A led the Ad Focus ranking in June, reaching 90 percent of the nearly 190 million Americans online, followed by Yahoo! Network (83 percent reach), Google Ad Network (81 percent reach), and Specific Media (78 percent reach).
TABLE 1
Comscore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.)June 2008 vs. May 2008Total U.S. - Home, Work and University LocationsSource: Comscore MMX
Total Unique Visitors (000)
May-08
Jun-08
% Change
Rank by Unique Visitors
Total Internet : Total Audience
190,858
189,873
-1
N/A
GSN - Game Show Network
910
4,627
409
235
YOURDEGREE.COM
1,935
5,013
159
208
International Data Group
3,820
6,961
82
145
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)
3,983
6,759
70
152
EPRIZE.NET
4,160
6,370
53
165
Buzznet
5,427
6,920
28
147
Dow Jones & Company
6,613
8,304
26
124
Spill Group
4,345
5,311
22
196
PCH.COM
6,876
8,403
123
MANIATV.COM
3,809
4,550
19
236
*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in June 2008
TABLE 2
Comscore Top 10 Gaining Categories by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.)June 2008 vs. May 2008Total U.S. - Home, Work and University LocationsSource: Comscore MMX
Car Rental
6,261
6,504
4
Fragrances/Cosmetics
19,205
19,713
3
Travel - Ground/Cruise
11,193
11,484
Coupons
24,508
25,037
2
Lotto/Sweepstakes
29,293
29,800
Entertainment - Movies
69,666
70,751
Family
68,159
68,896
1
Games
93,158
94,127
Online Trading
11,961
12,079
Hotels/Resorts
31,982
32,282
TABLE 3
Comscore Top 50 Properties (U.S.)June 2008Total U.S. - Home, Work and University LocationsUnique Visitors (000)Source: Comscore MMX
Rank
Property
Unique Visitors
(000)
Google Sites
140,163
AT&T, Inc.
28,009
Yahoo! Sites
140,080
27
Target Corporation
27,978
Microsoft Sites
119,677
Comcast Corporation
27,519
AOL LLC
110,841
29
Yellowpages.com Network
25,685
5
Fox Interactive Media
85,998
30
Expedia Inc
24,481
6
eBay
72,972
31
Photobucket.com LLC
24,329
7
Amazon Sites
57,002
32
United Online, Inc
23,409
8
Wikipedia Sites
53,337
33
Bank of America
23,185
9
Ask Network
51,646
34
CareerBuilder LLC
22,033
10
Apple Inc.
45,396
35
Shopzilla.com Sites
21,425
11
Viacom Digital
45,053
36
Demand Media
21,028
12
Turner Network
43,515
37
CBS Corporation
20,867
13
New York Times Digital
42,373
38
ESPN
20,601
14
Glam Media
40,775
39
Gannett Sites
20,019
15
FACEBOOK.COM
37,375
40
Monster Worldwide
19,942
16
Weather Channel, The
34,963
41
Real.com Network
19,751
17
CNET Networks
32,822
42
WhitePages
19,196
18
craigslist, inc.
31,870
43
WordPress
18,899
Wal-Mart
30,398
44
Cox Enterprises Inc.
18,208
20
Superpages.com Network
30,155
45
WorldNow - ABC Owned Sites
18,128
21
Disney Online
30,012
46
WebMD Health
17,891
Adobe Sites
29,378
47
IRS.GOV
17,762
23
Time Warner - Excluding AOL
29,250
48
Hearst Corporation
17,535
24
Gorilla Nation
29,216
49
E.W. Scripps
16,853
25
Verizon Communications Corporation
28,266
50
Weatherbug Property
16,777
TABLE 4
Comscore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.) June 2008 Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations Unique Visitors (000) Source: Comscore MMX
Unique Visitors (000)
Reach %
100%
Platform-A**
170,312
90%
Vibrant Media**
72,080
38%
Yahoo! Network**
158,064
83%
Ybrant - Oridian - ADdynamix Network**
71,554
Google Ad Network**
154,419
81%
NNN Total Newspapers: U.S.
67,530
36%
Specific Media**
148,311
78%
Gorilla Nation Media
66,866
35%
ValueClick Networks**
141,915
75%
Undertone Networks**
65,945
Yahoo!
138,426
73%
YOUTUBE.COM
65,482
34%
Tribal Fusion**
137,569
72%
Yume Video Network – Media Partners
59,286
31%
Google
131,697
69%
MSN.COM Home Page
56,741
30%
Casale Media Network**
128,569
68%
EBAY.COM
56,698
adconion media group**
125,339
66%
TattoMedia**
56,616
DRIVEpm**
122,373
64%
IAC Ad Solutions – Media Partners
53,385
28%
interCLICK**
118,905
63%
27%
Traffic Marketplace**
116,267
61%
Kontera**
50,216
26%
AOL Media Network
58%
MapQuest
48,422
24/7 Real Media**
109,135
57%
PrecisionClick**
46,681
25%
MSN-Windows Live
107,272
56%
AMAZON.COM
46,666
Tremor Media - Media Partners
101,361
53%
NNN Top 25
44,926
24%
ADSDAQ by ContextWeb**
98,951
52%
Business.com Network
44,709
CPX Interactive**
88,911
47%
Real Cities Network
44,577
23%
Tur, Inc**
87,681
46%
IB Local Network
40,506
21%
Burst Media**
84,246
44%
20%
AdBrite**
81,133
43%
Quadrant One
37,347
Centro
76,733
40%
EBAY.COM Home Page
37,061
MYSPACE.COM*
72,777
The Nabbr Network - Exclusive Media Partners
37,039
Collective Media**
72,390
Clearspring Widget Promotion Channel - Media Partners
36,495
19%
Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in June. For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 73 percent of the 190 million Internet users in June.
* 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
PressBill DaddiDaddi Brand Communications646-370-1341press@comscore.com