TOKYO, Nov 26, 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 Japan based on data from the comScore qSearch service. In September, 5.9 billion searches were conducted in Japan with each searcher conducting an average of 96 searches during the month. Yahoo! Sites led in search query volume with 3 billion searches, followed by Google Sites with 2.3 billion searches.

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"The search market in Japan is dominated by Yahoo! and Google, which combine for more than 90 percent of the market," said Maru Sato, managing director of comScore Japan. "Other players in the search market include both local Web properties, such as Rakuten, NTT and Mixi, and other American brands, such as Microsoft and Amazon."

Yahoo! Sites Leads Search Market in Japan

Yahoo! Sites led the search ranking in Japan with more than 3 billion searches, representing a 51 percent market share, followed by Google Sites with 2.3 billion searches (39 percent market share). Rakuten Inc. captured the third position with 120 million searches (2 percent market share) and Microsoft Sites ranked fourth with 90 million searches (1.5 percent market share).

    Top Search Properties in Japan
    September 2008
    Total Japan Internet Audience*, Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations
    Source: comScore qSearch
                                       Searches      Searches Per    Share of
                                        (MM)***        Searcher       Searches
    Total Internet                      5,879            96.2          100.0
    Yahoo! Sites                        3,012            58.9           51.2
    Google Sites**                      2,294            54.7           39.0
    Rakuten Inc                           120             7.6            2.0
    Microsoft Sites                        90            10.5            1.5
    NTT Group                              80            10.9            1.4
    Amazon Sites                           55             6.5            0.9
    Excite Japan                           41            17.4            0.7
    NEC Corporation                        37            18.2            0.6
    MIXI, Inc.                             32             6.9            0.5
    GMO Internet Group                     19             4.5            0.3

    *   Excludes searches from public computers such as Internet cafes or
        access from mobile phones or PDAs.
    **  Google Sites includes searches from YouTube.com
    *** The sum of distinct searches. Searches with the same search term by
        the same user at the same entity in consecutive sequence are counted
        as one search, regardless of the number of search result pages
        presented.

Asia-Pacific Region Has Highest Number of Searchers and Searches in the World

In September, more than 340 million searchers conducted nearly 29 billion searches in the Asia-Pacific region, ranking it as the largest searcher population and search volume total of the five global regions reported by comScore. China had the largest searcher population in the region with more than 149 million searchers, and the greatest number of searches conducted (12.8 billion). Japan ranked second on both measures with more than 61 million searchers and nearly 6 billion searches. Australia exhibited the heaviest search intensity with an average of 115 searches per searcher during the month, followed by South Korea (109 searches per searcher) and Singapore (106 searches per searcher).

    Asia-Pacific Search Overview - Country Breakdown
    September 2008
    Total Asia-Pacific Internet Audience*, Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations
    Source: comScore qSearch
    Country                           Searches   Unique Searchers Searches Per
                                       (MM)***          (000)        Searcher
    Total Asia-Pac
     Internet**                        28,967         341,850           84.7
    China                              12,758         149,219           85.5
    Japan                               5,879          61,130           96.2
    Korea                               2,303          21,072          109.3
    India                               1,169          22,931           51.0
    Australia                             977           8,523          114.6
    Taiwan                                618           9,735           63.5
    Malaysia                              405           6,207           65.2
    Hong Kong                             199           2,773           71.8
    Singapore                             171           1,617          105.6
    New Zealand                           135           1,500           90.1

    *   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.
    *** The sum of distinct searches. Searches with the same search term by
        the same user at the same entity in consecutive sequence are counted
        as one search, regardless of the number of search result pages
        presented.

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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