London, UK, March 22, 2007 - comScore, a leader in measuring the digital age, today revealed the top U.K. Internet properties and the top gaining properties during February, based on data collected through its comScore World Metrix audience ratings service.  The Company also introduced a new suite of metrics based on site "visits."  A "visit" is a frequency measure and indicator of user engagement defined as an individual's set of interactions with a specific Web site.  In counting visits, if an individual does not interact with the site for at least a 30-minute period, that visit will be defined as having been concluded and a new visit will be counted when the individual next accesses the site.  Included among the new suite of metrics are total visits, average minutes per visit, average visits per visitor, and average visits per usage day.  

 

"With the increased usage of technologies like AJAX, the value of page views as an engagement metric is declining," said Bob Ivins, managing director of comScore Europe.  "In an attempt to keep pace with technology and provide our clients with the most relevant Web usage statistics, we are introducing a suite of metrics based on visits."

 

"Visits" an Effective Gauge of Frequency

While each of the "visits" metrics offers a different measure of frequency, the "average visits per visitor" is the most illustrative of return visits per individual during the course of a month.  Used in concert with the "unique visitors" metric, this measure can help give a more comprehensive view of a site's performance.

In February, the top two sites in the U.K. in terms of unique visitors (Google Sites and Microsoft Sites, respectively) happened to also be the top two sites measured by average visits per visitor.  Despite the congruence of the top two rankings, there were also some surprising differences between the lists.  This was illustrated, in particular, by sites like Bebo.com, which ranked as the third-most engaging property (as measured by average visits per visitor) but as the 15^th most-visited property; as well as Tiscali Sites, which was the 65th most-visited property in February but the seventh-most engaging property.

 

TABLE 1

Top 10 Properties by Unique Visitors (000) * U.K. Unique Visitors, Age 15+ February 2007  Total U.K. - Home and Work Locations**  Source: comScore World Metrix
Rank	Property	Unique Visitors (000)
	Total Internet Users	30,016
1	Google Sites	26,441
2	Microsoft Sites	25,999
3	eBay	21,667
4	Yahoo! Sites	20,396
5	BBC Sites	17,910
6	Time Warner Network	13,924
7	Amazon Sites	13,826
8	Ask Network	13,390
9	Fox Interactive Media	11,555
10	Wikipedia Sites	11,218

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

** Ranking based on the top 100 U.K. properties in February 2007.

 

TABLE 2

Top 10 Properties by Average Visits per Visitor* U.K. Unique Visitors, Age 15+ February 2007 Total U.K. - Home and Work Locations**  Source: comScore World Metrix
Rank	Property	Average Visits/Visitor
	Total Internet Visits	70.6
1	Google Sites	33.2
2	Microsoft Sites	31.9
3	BEBO.COM	17.0
4	Yahoo! Sites	16.4
5	Time Warner Network	12.9
6	eBay	12.4
7	Tiscali Sites	11.7
8	Fox Interactive Media	10.6
9	BBC Sites	9.4
10	Virgin Group	8.7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

**Ranking based on the top 100 U.K. properties in February 2007.

 

Other notable findings in the February data (as illustrated in Tables 3 and 4) include:

 

• Virgin Group led the list of top gainers due in large part to the launch of Virgin Media.  Virgin Group's 74 percent gain (to 10.7 million visitors) also catapulted it into the top 20 properties, landing it in eleventh place.  Several other music-related sites saw impressive gains in February as well, including Limewire.com, up 7 percent to 3 million visitors; HMV, up 6 percent to 2.6 million visitors; Real.com Network, up 6 percent to 4.2 million visitors; and ARTISTdirect Network, up 6 percent to 4.5 million visitors.

 

• American Greetings Property, the second-largest gainer, saw a 30-percent increase in visitation to 2.8 million visitors, due in no small part to Valentine's Day. 

 

• Retailers that saw marked increases in February included NEXT Group, up 26 percent to 4.2 million visitors; and Marks & Spencer, up 6 percent to 2.4 million visitors. 

 

• Social networking and blogging sites also appeared to take center stage in February with blogging property Six Apart Sites up 11 percent to 2.7 million visitors, Bebo.com up 10 percent to 7.2 million visitors, and Bolt Media up 6 percent to 4.9 million visitors.

 

TABLE 3

Top 20 Online Properties by Unique Visitors (000) U.K. Unique Visitors, Age 15+ February 2007  Total U.K. - Home and Work Locations* Source: comScore World Metrix
	Jan.-07 (000)	Feb.-07 (000)	Percentage Change
Total U.K. Internet Audience, Age 15+	30,072	30,016	0%
Google Sites	26,236	26,441	1%
Microsoft Sites	25,868	25,999	1%
eBay	21,251	21,667	2%
Yahoo! Sites	20,220	20,396	1%
BBC Sites	17,554	17,910	2%
Time Warner Network	14,282	13,924	-3%
Amazon Sites	13,645	13,826	1%
Ask Network	12,848	13,390	4%
Fox Interactive Media	11,150	11,555	4%
Wikipedia Sites	10,654	11,218	5%
Virgin Group	6,167	10,730	74%
Apple Computer, Inc.	9,477	9,450	0%
DMGT	9,383	9,330	-1%
CNET Networks	8,776	8,998	3%
BEBO.COM	6,525	7,153	10%
British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB)	6,951	7,135	3%
France Telecom	7,478	7,122	-5%
Home Retail Group	7,827	6,986	-11%
MULTIMAP.COM	6,917	6,799	-2%
New York Times Digital	6,861	6,616	-4%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

 

 

TABLE 4

Top 20 Gaining Properties Ranked by Percentage Change* U.K. Unique Visitors, Age 15+ February vs. January 2007 Total U.K. - Home and Work Locations** Source: comScore World Metrix
	Jan.-07 (000)	Feb.-07 (000)	Percentage Change
Total U.K.  Internet Audience, Age 15+	30,072	30,016	0%
Virgin Group	6,167	10,730	74%
American Greetings Property	2,170	2,817	30%
NEXT Group	3,311	4,168	26%
Six Apart Sites	2,388	2,653	11%
NATIONALLOTTERY.CO.UK	3,583	3,967	11%
Photobucket.com LLC	2,078	2,287	10%
British Midland	2,315	2,545	10%
BEBO.COM	6,525	7,153	10%