comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 U.S. Web Properties for February 2009
RESTON, Va., March 20, 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 February 2009 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. February represented a softer month for total Web activity due to having fewer days, with only a handful of site categories achieving gains versus January. Among the gaining categories were Flowers/Gifts/Greetings and E-cards, which benefited from Valentine's Day, and travel and tax preparation sites, which also saw seasonal increases.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080115/COMSCORELOGO)
"Valentine's Day was a key driver of online activity in February as Americans bought gifts and sent e-cards to their loved ones," commented Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. "This month also saw a significant spike in activity to Hulu after it aired an ad during this year's Super Bowl, which both ignited the site's popularity and highlighted the growing mainstream appeal of online video."
Hulu Captures #2 Growing Property Spot
Hulu, the online video joint venture of NBC Universal and News Corp, surged 55 percent to 7.8 million unique visitors in February, driven in large part by its TV ad campaign starring Alec Baldwin. This considerable growth helped Hulu secure the #2 spot in this month's Top-Gaining Properties ranking. For figures on video viewing at Hulu, including videos viewed in its syndicated network of sites, please see the most recent comScore Video Metrix ranking: http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2741
Traffic to Tax Sites Surges as Season Continues
February marked another strong month for the Tax category as increasing numbers of Americans took to filing their 2008 returns. The category grew 22 percent to more than 30 million visitors. Among the three largest tax providers, Intuit's TurboTax division lead in growth with 36 percent (compared to 21 percent for all Intuit Properties) followed by TaxACT with 32 percent and H&R Block with 20 percent.
Valentine's Day Drives Gains at Gift and E-Cards Sites
Valentine's Day marked an occasion for Americans to express their love and appreciation for friends, family members and significant others. Traffic to Retail - Flowers/Gifts/Greetings sites jumped 15 percent to 35.6 million visitors, led by AmericanGreetings Property with 13.1 million visitors. Triple-digit growth was experienced by several sites, including ProFlowers.com (up 427 percent to 4.7 million visitors) and FTD.com (up 260 percent to 3.5 million visitors).
E-Cards sites also experienced gains in February, growing 5 percent to 21.3 million visitors. AG Interactive, which includes AmericanGreetings.com and BlueMountain.com, led the category with 6 million visitors, followed by Evite.com with 5 million visitors, and 123Greetings.com with 3.2 million visitors.
Travel Sites Gain as Americans Hunt for Spring Travel Bargains
Travel sites experienced seasonal gains in February sparked by spring travel planning. The Online Travel Agents category grew 1 percent to 39.5 million visitors, led by Expedia, Inc. with nearly 23 million visitors. Orbitz Worldwide ranked second with nearly 14 million visitors, followed by Priceline.com Inc. with 9.7 million visitors.
Other travel categories that experienced increases included the Travel - Information category, led by TravelAdNetwork with 10.4 million visitors, and the Travel - Hotel/Resorts category, led by Hilton Hotels with 4.7 million visitors.
Top 50 Properties
Google Sites continued to lead as the most visited property in February with nearly 149 million visitors, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 144.3 million visitors and Microsoft Sites with 121.1 million visitors. The remaining properties in the top ten maintained their positions from the January ranking.
Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking
Platform-A led the February Ad Focus ranking, reaching 90 percent of the 192.2 million Americans online. Yahoo! Network ranked second, reaching 85 percent, while ValueClick Networks captured the third position with an 82-percent reach. Specific Media moved up one spot to #6 with a 74-percent reach, while Google climbed two spots to #7 reaching 73 percent of online visitors.
TABLE 1
comScore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique
Visitors* (U.S.)
February 2009 vs. January 2009
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Total Unique Visitors (000)
Jan-09 Feb-09 % Change Rank by
Unique
Visitors
Total Internet : Total
Audience 191,863 192,187 0 N/A
The Mozilla Organization 14,161 22,851 61 35
HULU.COM 5,022 7,796 55 127
Wells Fargo 11,724 18,121 55 53
IRS.GOV 14,663 22,068 51 39
TaxACT 5,883 7,771 32 130
Hallmark 3,827 4,863 27 222
News International 4,040 4,902 21 221
Intuit** 16,172 19,563 21 46
H&R Block** 6,073 7,269 20 143
Betawave Partners - Partial
List 3,582 4,279 19 245
*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in February 2009.
**Intuit and H&R Block properties include non-tax related products
and services such as Quicken, Quickbooks, and H&R Block Banking Services.
TABLE 2
comScore Top 10 Gaining Site Categories* by Percentage Change in Unique
Visitors (U.S.)
February 2009 vs. January 2009
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Total Unique Visitors
(000)
Jan-09 Feb-09 %
Change
Total Internet : Total Audience 191,863 192,187 0
Business/Finances - Taxes 24,703 30,088 22
Retail - Flowers/Gifts/Greetings 30,860 35,602 15
Services - e-cards 20,338 21,318 5
Real Estate 40,982 42,410 3
Retail - Computer Software 37,545 38,797 3
Auto - Manufacturer 19,938 20,274 2
Travel - Online Travel Agents 38,973 39,540 1
Travel - Information 40,753 41,119 1
Travel - Hotels/Resorts 29,976 30,094 0
Community - Gay/Lesbian 3,246 3,258 0
*Beginning with January 2009 comScore Media Metrix data, each media
entity in comScore's Client Focused Dictionary can only be classified
into one content category and subcategory.
TABLE 3
comScore Top 50 Properties (U.S.)
February 2009
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
Unique Visitors (000)
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Rank Property Unique Rank Property Unique
Visitors Visitors
(000) (000)
Total Internet :
Total Audience 192,187
1 Google Sites 148,885 26 Target Corporation 26,961
2 Yahoo! Sites 144,304 27 Bank of America 26,148
3 Microsoft Sites 121,093 28 Time Warner -
Excluding AOL 25,911
4 AOL LLC 105,016 29 Weatherbug Property 25,515
5 Fox Interactive Media 84,632 30 Answers.com Sites 24,997
6 Ask Network 71,343 31 Demand Media 24,574
7 eBay 67,474 32 United Online, Inc 23,860
8 Wikimedia Foundation
Sites 60,892 33 Gorilla Nation 22,968
9 Amazon Sites 59,944 34 Expedia Inc 22,880
10 FACEBOOK.COM 57,375 35 The Mozilla
Organization 22,851
11 Glam Media 51,121 36 Photobucket.com LLC 22,606
12 Apple Inc. 50,867 37 Gannett Sites 22,289
13 Turner Network 48,904 38 AT&T, Inc. 22,137
14 CBS Interactive 48,872 39 IRS.GOV 22,068
15 New York Times
Digital 46,199 40 WordPress 22,015
16 Viacom Digital 44,346 41 JPMorgan Chase
Property 20,800
17 craigslist, inc. 39,016 42 Real.com Network 20,407
18 Weather Channel, The 37,215 43 Shopzilla.com Sites 20,154
19 AT&T Interactive
Network 35,324 44 CareerBuilder LLC 20,083
20 Adobe Sites 33,287 45 Everyday Health 19,942
21 Comcast Corporation 31,958 46 Intuit 19,563
22 Wal-Mart 29,415 47 Monster Worldwide 19,559
23 Superpages.com 28,956 48 iVillage.com: The
Network Womens Network 19,433
24 Verizon
Communications
Corporation 27,979 49 WebMD Health 19,339
25 Disney Online 27,615 50 NBC Universal 19,091
TABLE 4
comScore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.)
February 2009
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
Unique Visitors (000)
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Rank Property Unique Reach
Visitors (000) %
Total Internet :
Total Audience 192,187 100%
1 Platform-A** 172,618 90%
2 Yahoo! Network** 163,406 85%
3 ValueClick Networks** 157,753 82%
4 Google Ad Network** 156,481 81%
5 Yahoo! Sites 144,304 75%
6 Specific Media** 142,774 74%
7 Google 140,863 73%
8 Traffic Marketplace** 139,372 73%
9 Tribal Fusion** 137,876 72%
10 24/7 Real Media** 137,409 71%
11 Tremor Media -
Potential Reach 132,219 69%
12 Casale Media -
MediaNet** 131,982 69%
13 interCLICK** 125,403 65%
14 Adconion Media
Group** 124,792 65%
15 Microsoft Media
Network US** 123,363 64%
16 CPX Interactive** 122,323 64%
17 Turn, Inc** 121,483 63%
18 ADSDAQ by
ContextWeb** 116,489 61%
19 Collective Network** 113,284 59%
20 Burst Media** 108,692 57%
21 Revenue Science** 108,259 56%
22 MSN-Windows Live 107,495 56%
23 Digital Broadcasting
Group (DBG) -
Potential Reach 106,408 55%
24 AOL Media Network 105,016 55%
25 BrightRoll Video
Network - Potential
Reach 94,218 49%
26 AdBrite** 82,008 43%
27 YOUTUBE.COM 81,306 42%
28 Vibrant Media** 75,291 39%
29 Undertone Networks** 75,143 39%
30 YuMe Video Network -
Potential Reach 74,858 39%
31 Monster Career Ad Network
(CAN)** 74,515 39%
32 Centro - Potential Reach 73,307 38%
33 NNN Total Newspapers: U.S. 71,664 37%
34 Ask Network 71,343 37%
35 TattoMedia** 71,262 37%
36 MYSPACE.COM* 70,297 37%
37 Pulse 360** 68,035 35%
38 Kontera** 64,108 33%
39 Gorilla Nation Media -
Potential Reach 63,647 33%
40 ITN Digital Networks -
Potential Reach 61,336 32%
41 Adify** 58,714 31%
42 IAC Ad Solutions 58,425 30%
43 FACEBOOK.COM 57,375 30%
44 EBAY.COM 53,239 28%
45 MSN.COM Home Page 53,023 28%
46 Glam Media 51,121 27%
47 AMAZON.COM 50,067 26%
48 NNN Top 25 49,112 26%
49 Business.com Network 47,501 25%
50 Snap Shots Network** 46,101 24%
Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that
viewed a particular entity at least once in February. For instance,
Yahoo! Sites was seen by 75 percent of the 192 million Internet users in
February.
* 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.
SOURCE comScore, Inc.
http://www.comscore.com
Copyright (C) 2009 PR Newswire. All rights reserved