RESTON, VA, June 15, 2006 - comScore Media Metrix today released its monthly analysis of consumer activity at top online properties and categories.  In addition to shopping for Moms and Grads, checking out job sites, and staying on top of personal finance and politics in May, Americans also flocked to their favorite TV show and  sports sites, including those focused on the World Cup and NBA playoff games.  The social networking phenomenon also continued its stratospheric ascent, as MySpace.com reached new heights with 50 million visitors in May and YouTube.com nearly doubled its traffic from April, reaching 12.6 million visitors. 

 

"The popularity of social networking is not expected to wane in the near future," said Peter Daboll, president and CEO of comScore Media Metrix. "This is a phenomenon we're seeing not only in the U.S., but also around the world.    The challenge for social networking sites will now be monetization and how advertisers will respond to the global marketing potential of these sites."

 

TABLE 1

 

Selected Social Networking Properties by Unique Visitors May 2006 Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix
Property	May-06 (000)
Total Internet Population	172,120
MYSPACE.COM	51,441
Classmates.com Sites	14,792
FACEBOOK.COM	14,069
YOUTUBE.COM	12,669
MSN Spaces	9,566
XANGA.COM	7,146
FLICKR.COM	5,163
Yahoo! 360°	4,936
LIVEJOURNAL.COM	3,904
MYYEARBOOK.COM	3,048

 

Professional Soccer and Basketball Garner Attention Weeks before June Championships

Americans demonstrated their interest in the World Cup soccer tournament and NBA Playoffs in the weeks preceding the June tournaments.  As evidence, the NBA Internet Network attracted 6.3 million visitors in May (a 24-percent increase versus April), and fifaworldcup.yahoo.com - the official World Cup site - doubled its traffic, reaching more than 788,000 visitors.   Even more impressive was the worldwide traffic to the official World Cup site during the opening days of the tournament, with more than 5 million unique visitors from around the globe visiting the site on the opening day, Friday, June 9.  Traffic to the site remained strong throughout the opening weekend, with average daily visitors through Sunday, June 11, surpassing 4.4 million visitors. 

 

Spring TV Sweeps Drive Web Traffic "Upfront" and Center

With spring sweeps in full swing, fans headed to TV Web sites in numbers to check out details for the season finales of their favorite shows.  ABC, which aggressively promoted streamed versions of its hit shows "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives," was rewarded with a 39-percent increase in visitors to ABC.com, surging to 6.9 million visitors.  Traffic to the official "Lost" site increased 71 percent to 1.2 million visitors in May.  Meanwhile, the "Desperate Housewives" site attracted 528,000 visitors, up 36 percent from the prior month, and the "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" site saw a 41-percent uptick in traffic to 286,000 visitors.  The season finale of NBC's long running ER drove traffic to the show's site, with 236,000 visitors in May, up 49 percent compared to April.

 

Moms Receive Buds and Bling for Mother's Day

Increases in visitation to the Flowers/Gifts/Greetings and Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories categories were likely attributable to shoppers researching and buying gifts for Mother's Day and graduation celebrations.  Traffic to the Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories category increased 15 percent versus April to 15.9 million visitors, with RedEnvelope.com leading the category at 1.6 million visitors (up 25 percent).  Traffic to the Flowers/Gifts/Greetings category rose 10 percent in May versus the prior month.  This rise helped fuel a 16-percent increase in online sales to the category during the week leading up to Mother's Day, compared to the same week in 2005 ($195.8 million vs. $168.5 million). Top gainers in the category during May included Proflowers.com and FTD.com, both achieving 120-percent gains versus April (4.1 and 5.4 million visitors, respectively). 

 

Jobs and Finances are a Focus in May

As Americans watched interest rates continue to rise, their visitation to sites in the Financial News/ Research category increased 12 percent in May (up to 48.8 million).  Traffic to Financial Information/ Advice sites also increased during the month from 39.9 million visitors in April to 42 million visitors in May, led by traffic increases at Freecreditreport.com (up 21 percent to 6.8 million visitors), and Loanweb.com (up 141 percent to 5.8 million visitors).

 

Additionally, traffic to job search and career resource sites saw impressive gains (see Table 3) as graduates readied themselves for the real world.  Leading the job search sites were CareerBuilder.com Job Search, with 8.1 million visitors in May (a 9 percent increase from April), Monster.com Job Search with 7.3 million visitors (a 9 percent increase), and Yahoo! HotJobs Job Search with 3.4 million visitors (a 12 percent increase).

 

Visitation to Political Web Sites Increases in May

As the buzz about upcoming Congressional and gubernatorial races grew in May, so did traffic to political Web.  In fact, the politics category was the top gaining category in May with 8.1 million visitors, rising 31 percent versus the previous month. Leading sites within the politics category include Capitol Advantage, dedicated to connecting organizations to national and state elected officials, (up 126 percent to 1.6 million visitors); WorldNetDaily.com, independent news site, (up 20 percent to 637,000 visitors) and political action site, Moveon.org, (up 14 percent to 492,000 visitors).

 

Top 50 Properties

Yahoo! Sites retained its position as the number one property in May, attracting more than 130 million unique visitors, while Time Warner Network traded places with MSN-Microsoft Sites to claim the number two spot, drawing slightly more than 119 million visitors.  Social networking site Facebook.com entered the ranking at number 49, attracting 13 percent more visitors than the previous month.  

 

Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking

In May, Advertising.com retained the number one spot, reaching 83 percent of Americans online.  Also within the top ten, advertising networks Tribal Fusion and Casale Media Network claimed the number five and six spots respectively, each reaching more than 100 million Americans.  Other noteworthy gainers included Monster.com, which jumped eight spots to number 41, and Travelocity All, which moved up four spots to number 39.  Mamma Media Solutions and Whitepages.com both reentered the ranking at numbers 46 and 50, respectively. 

 

 

TABLE 2

 

Top Ten Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* May 2006 vs. April 2006 Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix
Property	Apr-06 (000)	May-06 (000)	Percentage Change	Rank by  Unique Visitors
Total Internet Population	171,690	172,120	0%	N/A
TOPTVBYTES.COM	1,761	5,316	202%	170
LOANWEB.COM	2,411	5,807	141%	154
PROFLOWERS.COM	1,865	4,105	120%	218
FTD.COM	2,496	5,479	120%	161
YOUTUBE.COM	6,592	12,669	92%	61
1-800-Flowers	2,185	3,887	78%	228
Roxio, Inc	2,780	4,698	69%	192
FRONTIERNET.NET	2,163	3,575	65%	249
BIGFISHGAMES.COM	2,301	3,673	60%	242
HighBeam Research Sites	2,555	3,729	46%	239

*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in May 2006.

 

TABLE 3

 

Top Ten Gaining Categories by Unique Visitors May 2006 vs. April 2006 Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix
	Apr-06 (000)	May-06 (000)	Percentage Change
Total Internet Population	171,690	172,120	0%
Politics	6,238	8,146	31%
Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories	13,865	15,953	15%
Job Search	14,534	16,234	12%
Finance News/Research	44,450	48,802	10%
Flowers/Gifts/Greetings	35,473	38,906	10%
Ground/Cruise	10,009	10,932	9%
Community	116,074	123,219	6%
Career Resources	36,223	38,392	6%
Personals	24,765	26,156	6%
Financial Information/Advice	39,953	42,005	5%

 

TABLE 4

 

Top 50 Properties May 2006  Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations  Unique Visitors (000) Source: comScore Media Metrix
Rank	Property	Unique Visitors (000)		Rank	Property	Unique Visitors  (000)
	Total Internet Users	172,120
1	Yahoo! Sites	130,143		26	Bank of America	22,994
2	Time Warner Network	119,206		27	CareerBuilder LLC	22,339
3	MSN-Microsoft Sites	118,907		28	CBS Corporation	22,043
4	Google Sites	104,367		29	News Corp. Online	21,498
5	eBay	77,525		30	Disney Online	21,400
6	Ask Network	54,603		31	Vendare Media	20,725
7	MYSPACE.COM	51,441		32	Shopzilla.com Sites	20,282
8	Amazon Sites	48,278		33	Gannett Sites	20,137
9	New York Times Digital	40,342		34	Cox Enterprises Inc.	17,274
10	Verizon Communications Corporation	36,238		35	Comcast Corporation	16,840
11	The Weather Channel	35,600		36	ESPN	16,175
12	Wikipedia Sites	31,485		37	Weatherbug Property	15,958
13	Apple Computer, Inc.	30,885		38	E.W. Scripps	15,820
14	Monster Worldwide	29,882		39	ORBITZ.COM	15,494
15	Viacom Online	29,512		40	iVillage.com: The Womens Network	15,194
16	CNET Networks	28,996		41	WebMD Health	15,149
17	Expedia Inc	27,595		42	Citysearch	15,103
18	United Online, Inc	26,687		43	Trip Network Inc.	15,007
19	Adobe Sites	26,445		44	WhitePages	14,915
20	Wal-Mart	25,930		45	Ticketmaster	14,900
21	AT&T, Inc.	25,920		46	ARTISTdirect Network	14,558
22	Lycos, Inc.	24,417		47	Sears Sites	14,196
23	Real.com Network	24,140		48	Infospace Network	14,112
24	Gorilla Nation Media	23,533		49	FACEBOOK.COM	14,069
25	Target Corporation	23,200		50	OVERSTOCK.COM	14,043

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TABLE 5

 

 

Ad Focus Ranking May 2006  Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations  Unique Visitors (000)  Source: comScore Media Metrix
Rank	Property	Unique Visitors (000)	Reach %		Rank	Property	Unique Visitors (000)	Reach %
	Total Internet Users	172,120	100%
1	Advertising.com**	142,508	83%		26	Business.com Network	27,847	16%
2	Yahoo!	127,450	74%		27	WEATHER.COM	25,911	15%
3	ValueClick**	123,810	72%		28	Lycos Network	24,288	14%
4	AOL Media Network	112,176	65%		29	WebMD Health Network	24,231	14%
5	Tribal Fusion**	104,367	61%		30	CareerBuilder Network	23,174	13%
6	Casale Media Network**	102,911	60%		31	Disney Online	21,400	12%
7	MSN	100,660	58%		32	Vendare Media	20,725	12%
8	Google	99,743	58%		33	CNN	20,672	12%
9	Vendare Media - TrafficMarketplace**	97,441	57%		34	EXPEDIA.COM*	19,036	11%
10	AOL	86,794	50%		35	SuperPages Network	18,504	11%
11	YAHOO.COM Home Page	83,783	49%		36	IMDB.COM	18,295	11%
12	24/7 Real Media**	82,691	48%		37	REAL.COM*	17,767	10%
13	Burst Media**	76,213	44%		38	ESPN	16,175	9%
14	EBAY.COM	68,510	40%		39	Travelocity All	15,700	9%
15	Tremor Network	68,494	40%		40	WeatherBug	15,668	9%
16	DRIVEpm**	63,801	37%		41	MONSTER.COM*	15,599	9%
17	Gorilla Nation Media Network	60,089	35%		42	ORBITZ.COM	15,494	9%
18	Blue Lithium**	56,185	33%		43	iVillage.com: The Womens Network	15,194	9%
19	Ask Network	54,603	32%		44	CITYSEARCH.COM*	14,907	9%
20	MSN.COM Home Page	54,565	32%		45	WhitePages Network	14,870	9%
21	MYSPACE.COM	51,441	30%		46	Mamma Media Solutions**	14,833	9%
22	Vibrant Media**	40,762	24%		47	CLASSMATES.COM	14,792	9%
23	AdDynamix.com**	39,443	23%		48	ARTISTdirect Network	14,558	8%
24	EBAY.COM Home Page	39,095	23%		49	BIZRATE.COM	14,169	8%
25	ABOUT.COM	35,326	21%		50	WHITEPAGES.COM	13,821	8%

 

 

 

Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in May.  For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 74 percent of the more than 172 million Internet users in May. 

* Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated entities.

** Denotes an advertising network. 

 

About comScore Media Metrix

comScore Media Metrix, a division of comScore Networks, 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 Media Metrix continues the tradition of quality and innovation established by its Media Metrix syndicated Internet ratings - long recognized as the currency in online media measurement among financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers - while drawing upon comScore's advanced technologies to address important new industry requirements.  All comScore Media Metrix syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.

 

About comScore Networks

comScore Networks provides unparalleled insight into consumer behavior and attitudes. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given comScore explicit 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 consultants 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 global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Verizon, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Tribune Interactive, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestlé, MBNA, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Merck and Expedia.  For more information, please visit www.comscore.com.

 

 

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