TOKYO, Sept 17, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its ranking of the top search properties in the Asia-Pacific region based on data from the comScore qSearch 2.0 service, revealing that Google Sites continued to lead the region with 33.5 percent of the more than 27 billion searches conducted in July. Baidu.com Inc. ranked second with 27.4 percent search share, followed by Yahoo! Sites in third with 19.7 percent share.

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"Although Google leads the Asia-Pacific search market, powerhouse Chinese search engine Baidu.com follows closely on its heels with only a 6-percent difference separating the two," said Will Hodgman, comScore executive vice president for the Asia-Pacific region. "It will be interesting to watch Google and Baidu compete for the top spot in the region and the loyalty of the growing Asian population."

Google Leads Search Market in Asia Pacific

Google Sites led the search ranking with more than 9 billion searches conducted during July, followed by Baidu.com Inc. with 7.4 billion searches and Yahoo! Sites with 5.3 billion searches. Korea's NHN Corporation captured the #4 ranking with 1.2 billion searches (4.6 percent market share), while China's Alibaba.com Corporation ranked fifth with 823 million searches (3 percent market share).

    Top 10 Asia-Pacific Search Properties
    July 2008
    Total Asia-Pacific Internet Audience*, Age 15+ - Home & Work
    Locations
    Source: comScore qSearch
                                                     Searches       Share of
    Top 10 Properties                                  (MM)         Searches
    Total Internet**                                  27,059          100.0
    Google Sites                                       9,073           33.5
    Baidu.com Inc.                                     7,406           27.4
    Yahoo! Sites                                       5,342           19.7
    NHN Corporation                                    1,239            4.6
    Alibaba.com Corporation                              823            3.0
    TENCENT Inc.                                         513            1.9
    Microsoft Sites                                      457            1.7
    Lycos Sites                                          418            1.5
    Sohu.com Inc.                                        305            1.1

    *  Excludes searches from public computers such as Internet cafes or
       access from mobile phones or PDAs.
    ** Improvements to universe estimates in certain Internet markets have
       recently been made. We caution against trending with data prior to
       July 2008.

China Leads in Total Search Volume, Korea in Search Intensity

China hosts more searchers than any other country in the Asia-Pacific region, with 143.5 million searchers conducting 11 billion search queries in July. Japan ranks second in both metrics, with 61 million searchers conducting nearly 6.2 billion searches. Searchers in Korea exhibited the heaviest search intensity with an average of 102.8 searches per searcher during the month, followed by Australia (102 searches per searcher) and Japan (100.8 searches per searcher).

    Asia-Pacific Search Overview - Country Breakdown
    July 2008
    Total Asia-Pacific Internet Audience*, Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations
    Source: comScore qSearch

    Country                     Unique Searchers    Searches    Searches Per
                                     (000)            (MM)        Searcher
    Total Internet**                335,124          27,059          80.7
    China                           143,502          10,994          76.6
    Japan                            61,117           6,162         100.8
    India                            23,397           1,192          51.0
    Korea                            20,429           2,101         102.8
    Taiwan                           10,002             748          74.8
    Australia                         8,380             855         102.0
    Malaysia                          6,710             431          64.2
    Hong Kong                         2,812             228          81.0
    Singapore                         1,662             152          91.2
    New Zealand                       1,564             136          87.2

    *  Excludes searches from public computers such as Internet cafes or
       access from mobile phones or PDAs.
    ** Improvements to universe estimates in certain Internet markets have
       recently been made. We caution against trending with data prior to
       July 2008.

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 http://www.comscore.com/boilerplate.

SOURCE comScore, Inc.

http://www.comscore.com

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