comScore Media Metrix Releases Top 50 U.S. Web Rankings for December
RESTON, Va., Jan 15, 2008 /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 top online properties for December 2007 from the comScore Media Metrix service. The month saw increased traffic to retail sites, shipping sites, and weather sites.
"While the online holiday shopping promotions begin in earnest in November, the heaviest shopping and online spending actually occurs in December," said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. "With shipping date guarantees extending later and in-store pickup options available, online holiday shopping is becoming increasingly conducive to the procrastinator."
Retail Sites Swell Before Holidays
Holiday shopping resulted in several retail categories experiencing significant growth during the month. The fragrances/cosmetics category climbed 30 percent to 21.5 million visitors, making it the top-gaining category for December, led by BathandBodyWorks.com with 4.4 million visitors (up 27 percent) and Sephora.com with 4.1 million visitors (up 41 percent).
The consumer goods category once again saw significant growth for the second consecutive month, gaining 23 percent to nearly 36 million visitors. OfficeMax led the category with 15.3 million visitors, up 170 percent from the previous month, with much of the growth generated by the popular Office Max branded viral holiday greeting site ElfYourSelf.com. OfficeMax also claimed the top-gaining property position for the month. Other consumer goods sites achieving growth included QVC Sites, up 3 percent to 6.1 million visitors, and retailer Hammacher Schlemmer's site Hammacher.com, up 9 percent to 807,000 visitors.
The retail - music category posted a 17-percent increase to nearly 28 million visitors, led by Barnes & Noble with 9.3 million visitors (up 20 percent), CDUniverse.com with 3.5 million visitors (up 4 percent) and eMusic with 3.4 million visitors (up 89 percent).
Other retail categories experiencing strong growth for the month included jewelry/luxury goods/accessories (up 22 percent to 24 million visitors), retail-food (up 14 percent to 19 million visitors), retail-sports/outdoors (up 13 percent to 36.6 million visitors), and flowers/gifts/greetings (up 12 percent to 44.6 million visitors).
Shipping Sites Surge Amid Holiday Package Rush
December saw shipping sites jump as consumers shipped and anxiously awaited their holiday deliveries. The category rose 21 percent to 37 million visitors for December, with UPS Sites leading the category with 18.3 million visitors (up 34 percent), followed by USPS.com with 16.8 million visitors (up 19 percent) and FedEx with 12.3 million visitors (up 28 percent).
Weather Category Gains in Anticipation of Wintery Conditions and Holiday Travel
Holiday travel plans and winter storms sent Americans searching for weather forecasts, resulting in a 14-percent increase in visitors to weather sites. The Weather Channel topped the category with 40.7 million visitors, up 19 percent from November. Other sites experiencing significant growth included Yahoo! Weather (up 23 percent to 12.5 million visitors), AOL Weather (up 52 percent to 6.3 million visitors) and MSN Weather (up 34 percent to 5.8 million visitors).
Top 50 Properties
Yahoo! Sites continued its reign as the top U.S. Web property in December with nearly 137 million visitors, followed by Google Sites (133 million visitors) and Microsoft Sites (120 million visitors). Apple Inc., which benefited from interest in popular holiday gifts like the iPod and iPhone, moved up one spot to capture position 10 with 47.7 million visitors. Holiday shopping also lifted Sears Sites, which jumped 10 spots to number 21, Best Buy Sites, which rose 5 spots to 22, and JCPenney Sites, gaining 5 spots to position 40. NBC Universal, iVillage.com: The Womens Network, and Weatherbug Property all entered the rankings this month capturing positions 48, 49, and 50, respectively.
Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking
Advertising.com continued to lead the Ad Focus ranking of ad networks and sites accepting advertising, reaching 86 percent of the more than 183 million Americans online in December. Specific Media gained four spots to capture the fourth position reaching 77 percent of the online population. Collective Media gained seven spots to position 14, while Amazon.com climbed three spots to 34. YuMe Video Network, About, and Disney Online all entered the ranking this month capturing positions 37, 44, and 48, respectively.
TABLE 1
comScore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique
Visitors* (U.S.)
December 2007 vs. November 2007
Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Total Unique Visitors (000)
Rank by
Unique
Nov-07 Dec-07 % Change Visitors
Total Internet: Total Audience 182,362 183,619 1 N/A
OfficeMax 5,687 15,339 170 59
JibJab Media 1,718 4,404 156 239
Intuit 3,154 7,096 125 140
FrontierNet.net 4,037 8,028 99 122
Visa 2,833 5,196 83 195
Buzznet 3,100 4,973 60 210
DicksSportingGoods.com 3,493 5,093 46 205
123Greetings.com 3,659 5,116 40 202
Infospace Network 3,727 5,151 38 197
Pronto.com 5,489 7,505 37 131
*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in December 2007
TABLE 2
comScore Top 10 Gaining Categories by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors
(U.S.)
December 2007 vs. November 2007
Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet
Users
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Total Unique Visitors (000)
Nov-07 Dec-07 % Change
Total Internet: Total Audience 182,362 183,619 1
Fragrances/Cosmetics 16,592 21,512 30
Consumer Goods 29,100 35,936 23
Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories 19,688 24,036 22
Shipping 30,693 36,990 21
Retail - Music 23,846 27,933 17
Gay/Lesbian 2,043 2,367 16
Retail - Food 16,629 19,000 14
Weather 60,132 68,388 14
Sports/Outdoor 32,244 36,586 13
Flowers/Gifts/Greetings 39,753 44,594 12
TABLE 3
comScore Top 50 Properties (U.S.)
December 2007
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 183,619
1 Yahoo! Sites 136,634 26 Disney Online 26,167
2 Google Sites 132,954 27 CBS Corporation 25,083
3 Microsoft Sites 120,034 28 Glam Media 25,028
4 Time Warner Network 119,545 29 CRAIGSLIST.ORG 24,468
5 Fox Interactive Media 81,847 30 Yellowpages.com
Network 24,453
6 eBay 79,892 31 Bank of America 23,771
7 Amazon Sites 65,205 32 Superpages.com
Network 23,448
8 Wikipedia Sites 51,851 33 Monster Worldwide 22,565
9 Ask Network 49,509 34 Real.com Network 20,988
10 Apple Inc. 47,724 35 ESPN 20,667
11 New York Times Digital 44,362 36 E.W. Scripps 20,207
12 Wal-Mart 44,341 37 Gannett Sites 20,163
13 Viacom Digital 43,109 38 United Online,
Inc 19,617
14 Target Corporation 42,634 39 Circuit City
Stores, Inc. 18,751
15 Weather Channel, The 40,663 40 JCPenney Sites 18,729
16 CNET Networks 35,773 41 Expedia Inc 18,702
17 Facebook.com 34,658 42 NFL Internet
Group 18,557
18 Adobe Sites 30,798 43 Lycos Sites 18,427
19 AT&T, Inc. 30,212 44 UPS Sites 18,314
20 Verizon Communications 45 AmericanGreetings
Corporation 28,656 Property 18,102
21 Sears Sites 27,203 46 Photobucket.com
LLC 18,060
22 Best Buy Sites 27,067 47 ARTISTdirect
Network 17,729
23 Gorilla Nation 26,642 48 NBC Universal 17,309
24 Shopzilla.com Sites 26,524 49 iVillage.com: The
Womens Network 17,234
25 Comcast Corporation 26,445 50 Weatherbug
Property 17,077
TABLE 4
comScore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.)
December 2007
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University
Locations
Unique Visitors (000)
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Unique Unique
Visitors Reach Visitors Reach
Rank Property (000) % Rank Property (000) %
Total Internet:
Total Audience 183,619 100 %
1 Advertising.com** 157,413 86 % 26 Vibrant Media** 71,901 39 %
2 Yahoo! Network** 155,511 85 % 27 MySpace.com* 68,905 38 %
3 Google Ad Network** 141,678 77 % 28 CPX
Interactive** 68,840 37 %
4 Specific Media** 141,104 77 % 29 Ebay.com 67,861 37 %
5 Yahoo! 134,496 73 % 30 Gorilla
Nation Media 66,993 36 %
6 ValueClick 31 Undertone
Networks** 133,982 73 % Networks** 61,512 34 %
7 Blue Lithium** 133,674 73 % 32 MSN.com Home
Page 59,212 32 %
8 Tribal Fusion** 126,321 69 % 33 YouTube.com 56,628 31 %
9 Google 125,319 68 % 34 Amazon.com 55,972 30 %
10 Casale Media 35 AdDynamix.com** 49,840 27 %
Network** 113,942 62 %
11 AOL Media Network 107,793 59 % 36 Ask Network 49,509 27 %
12 DRIVEpm** 105,991 58 % 37 YuMe Video
Network 46,997 26 %
13 MSN-Windows Live 103,675 56 % 38 Business.com
Network 44,939 24 %
14 Collective Media** 102,621 56 % 39 Ebau.com Home
Page 43,660 24 %
15 interCLICK** 98,635 54 % 40 Kontera** 43,629 24 %
16 Traffic 41 PrecisionClick** 43,473 24 %
Marketplace** 95,233 52 %
17 Yahoo.com Home Page 94,751 52 % 42 Mapquest 43,195 24 %
18 adconion media 43 Walmart.com 41,583 23 %
group** 92,499 50 %
19 Tremor Media 91,264 50 % 44 About 37,797 21 %
20 AOL 90,269 49 % 45 The Nabbr
Network 36,028 20 %
21 24/7 Real Media** 85,824 47 % 46 Facebook.com 34,658 19 %
22 Burst Media** 80,312 44 % 47 Weather.com 31,696 17 %
23 ADSDAQ by 48 Disney Online 26,167 14 %
ContextWeb** 80,111 44 %
24 AdBrite** 78,533 43 % 49 Vizi Media** 26,023 14 %
25 Centro 77,316 42 % 50 Real Cities
Network 25,404 14 %
Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in December. For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 73 percent of the more than 183 million Internet users in December.
* 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. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given comScore 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 analysts 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 more than 800 clients, including global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, BBC, Carat, Cyworld, Deutsche Bank, France Telecom, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Financial Times, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestle, Starcom, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Verizon, ViaMichelin, Merck and Expedia. For more information, please visit http://www.comscore.com.
SOURCE comScore, Inc.
http://www.comscore.com
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