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comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 U.S. Web Properties for March 2009
--Twitter.com Traffic More than Doubles to Rank as Fastest-Growing Property in March --Americans Seek Financial Advice Online as Economic Concerns Persist
RESTON, Va., April 22, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- 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 2009 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. Americans turned to the Web to plan spring and summer travel, and to manage their personal finances during the economic downturn. The month also saw the recent obsession with "tweeting" gain steam, as Twitter.com more than doubled its visitor base, ranking as the top-gaining property for the month.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080115/COMSCORELOGO)
"Twitter has certainly become an Internet phenomenon over the past few months, but March represented an especially big gain for the site as it added more than 5 million visitors versus the previous month," commented Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. "With numerous celebrities and media personalities - including Oprah - recently jumping on the Twitter bandwagon, the site shows no signs of slowing."
Twitter Captures Fastest-Growing Property Title
After several preceding months of strong double-digit growth, traffic to Twitter.com accelerated in March, growing 131 percent to 9.3 million visitors. Fueled in part by celebrity "tweeters" and substantial mainstream media attention, the site ranked as the top-gaining property for the month. For additional analysis of Twitter's growth in March, please visit the comScore Voices blog: http://www.comscore.com/blog/2009/04/breaking_news_and_making_news.html
Americans Seek Financial Advice Online
Many Americans sought financial advice online to help navigate the turbulent economy, resulting in a 12-percent gain at the Financial Information/Advice category. Consumer concerns about the status of their credit rating drove traffic to FreeCreditReport.com, which grew 6 percent to 6.6 million visitors and ranked as the most visited site in the category. Bankrate.com Sites, which provides rate information on various financial products such as mortgages, credit cards and money market accounts, reported a 12-percent increase to 3.9 million visitors.
Travel Sites See Gains as Visitors Plan for Summer Travel
As Americans prepared for spring travel and planned for summer vacations, several travel categories witnessed gains. Travel - Transactions led as the top-gaining category for the month, growing 18 percent to 4.5 million visitors.
The Car Rental and Airlines categories also saw double-digit gains, each growing 11 percent to 5.6 million and 29.8 million visitors, respectively. Southwest Airlines Co. led the Airlines category with 11.3 million visitors, up 20 percent from the previous month, followed by Delta Airlines with 6.5 million visitors (up 5 percent) and American Airlines with 5.8 million visitors (up 25 percent).
Top 50 Properties
Google Sites continued to lead as the most visited property in March with more than 151 million visitors, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 146 million visitors and Microsoft Sites with 122.3 million visitors. Facebook.com moved up one spot in the ranking to #9 this month with 61.2 million visitors.
Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking
Platform-A led the March Ad Focus ranking, reaching 90 percent of the 192 million Americans online. Yahoo! Network ranked second, reaching 86 percent, while Google Ad Network moved up one spot to #3 with an 84-percent reach.
TABLE 1
comScore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in
Unique Visitors* (U.S.)
March 2009 vs. February 2009
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Total Unique Visitors (000)
Rank by
Unique
Feb-09 Mar-09 % Change Visitors
Total Internet : Total
Audience 192,187 192,173 0 N/A
Twitter.com 4,033 9,313 131 78
Grisoft 4,260 7,764 82 114
Oprah.com 2,814 4,505 60 234
Usmagazine.com 3,863 5,943 54 47
Technorati Media 11,692 16,021 37 2
MLB.com 5,069 6,860 35 75
Groupe Lagardere 4,253 5,705 34 122
Limewire.com 7,861 10,414 32 71
Universal Music Group 5,626 7,421 32 49
Nestle 3,269 4,278 31 201
*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in March 2009.
TABLE 2
comScore Top 10 Gaining Site Categories* by Percentage
Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.)
March 2009 vs. February 2009
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Total Unique Visitors (000)
Feb-09 Mar-09 % Change
Total Internet : Total Audience 192,187 192,173 0
Travel - Transactions 3,770 4,463 18
Business/Finance - Financial
Information/Advice 35,325 39,518 12
Travel - Car Rental 5,008 5,556 11
Travel - Airlines 26,922 29,818 11
Entertainment - Humor 21,441 23,446 9
Business/Finance - Banking 73,096 79,031 8
Entertainment - Radio 35,638 38,522 8
Community - Beauty/Fashion/Style 21,861 23,368 7
Health - Information 66,623 71,201 7
Directories/Resources - Classifieds 50,401 53,839 7
TABLE 3
comScore Top 50 Properties (U.S.)
March 2009
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
Unique Visitors (000)
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Unique Unique
Visitors Visitors
Rank Property (000) Rank Property (000)
Total Internet :
Total Audience 192,173
1 Google Sites 151,241 26 Disney Online 27,728
2 Yahoo! Sites 146,059 27 Bank of America 27,126
3 Microsoft Sites 122,323 28 Answers.com Sites 26,460
4 AOL LLC 104,416 29 Photobucket.com LLC 26,130
5 Fox Interactive
Media 85,057 30 Demand Media 25,863
31 The Mozilla
6 Ask Network 72,798 Organization 25,650
7 eBay 70,021 32 Weatherbug Property 25,160
8 Wikimedia 33 Time Warner -
Foundation Sites 61,446 Excluding AOL 25,144
9 FACEBOOK.COM 61,224 34 Expedia Inc 24,578
10 Amazon Sites 60,999 35 WordPress 24,403
11 CBS Interactive 54,385 36 United Online, Inc 23,966
12 Apple Inc. 53,089 37 Gorilla Nation 22,914
13 Glam Media 52,220 38 AT&T, Inc. 22,509
14 Turner Network 47,775 39 Everyday Health 22,112
15 Viacom Digital 46,971 40 CareerBuilder LLC 21,648
16 New York Times
Digital 45,908 41 Monster Worldwide 21,534
17 craigslist, inc. 42,167 42 ESPN 21,262
18 Weather Channel,
The 39,452 43 WebMD Health 21,210
19 AT&T Interactive 44 JPMorgan Chase
Network 35,903 Property 20,952
20 Adobe Sites 34,651 45 Gannett Sites 20,584
21 Verizon
Communications
Corporation 33,857 46 Shopzilla.com Sites 20,511
22 Comcast
Corporation 31,205 47 WhitePages 20,454
23 Superpages.com 48 iVillage.com: The
Network 30,576 Womens Network 20,425
24 Wal-Mart 30,089 49 Real.com Network 20,082
25 Target
Corporation 27,990 50 Wells Fargo 19,017
TABLE 4
comScore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.)
March 2009
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
Unique Visitors (000)
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Unique Unique
Visitors Visitors
Rank Property (000) Reach % Rank Property (000) Reach %
Total Internet:
Total
Audience 192,173 100%
26 AOL Media
1 Platform-A** 173,772 90% Network 104,416 54%
27 BrightRoll Video
2 Yahoo! Network -
Network** 165,578 86% Potential Reach 95,654 50%
3 Google Ad
Network** 160,762 84% 28 AdBrite** 86,444 45%
29 Gorilla Nation
4 ValueClick Media - Potential
Networks** 156,662 82% Reach 83,323 43%
30 Undertone
5 Yahoo! Sites 146,059 76% Networks** 82,797 43%
6 Google 143,570 75% 31 YOUTUBE.COM* 82,691 43%
32 YuMe Video
7 24/7 Real Network -
Media** 141,728 74% Potential Reach 76,074 40%
8 Traffic
Marketplace** 141,078 73% 33 Vibrant Media** 75,681 39%
9 FOX Audience 34 Centro -
Network** 140,922 73% Potential Reach 74,206 39%
10 Tribal Fusion** 137,627 72% 35 Pulse 360** 73,804 38%
11 Tremor Media -
Potential Reach 136,277 71% 36 Ask Network 72,798 38%
37 NNN Total
12 Specific Media** 135,643 71% Newspapers: U.S. 72,064 37%
13 Casale Media -
MediaNet** 135,056 70% 38 MYSPACE.COM* 70,147 37%
14 interCLICK** 131,595 68% 39 Adify** 69,027 36%
15 CPX
Interactive** 129,230 67% 40 Kontera** 65,996 34%
16 Adconion Media 41 Monster Career Ad
Group** 127,445 66% Network (CAN)** 65,658 34%
17 Turn, Inc** 125,805 65% 42 TattoMedia** 64,731 34%
18 Microsoft Media 43 ITN Digital -
Network US** 123,192 64% Potential Reach 63,104 33%
19 Collective Network
by Collective
Media** 121,731 63% 44 FACEBOOK.COM 61,224 32%
20 ADSDAQ by
ContextWeb** 118,929 62% 45 IAC Ad Solutions 57,292 30%
21 Platform-A
Video Network -
Potential Reach 118,872 62% 46 EBAY.COM 54,946 29%
22 AudienceScience
(formerly Revenue
Science)** 114,904 60% 47 Glam Media 52,220 27%
23 Burst Media** 110,313 57% 48 AMAZON.COM 51,688 27%
24 MSN-Windows Live 108,025 56% 49 NNN Top 25 49,557 26%
25 Digital
Broadcasting
Group (DBG) - 50 Business.com
Potential Reach 107,953 56% Network 49,369 26%
Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that
viewed a particular entity at least once in March. For instance, Yahoo!
Sites was seen by 76 percent of the more than 192 million Internet users
in March.
* Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated
entities.
** Denotes an advertising network.
About comScore Media Metrix
comScore Media Metrix 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 reports are used by financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers. comScore Media Metrix syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.
About comScore
comScore, 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/companyinfo.
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http://www.comscore.com
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