RESTON, VA, April 17, 2006 – comScore Media Metrix today released its monthly analysis of consumer activity at top online properties and categories. Consistent with previous years, the majority of March’s Web activity was seasonal, revealing spikes in the travel, genealogy, training/ education, religious, sports/ outdoor retail, classifieds, and auto categories. 

 

“Spring was in the air and it showed online during the month of March,” said Peter Daboll, CEO of comScore Media Metrix.  “Spikes in these categories are a clear indication that consumers are preparing to enjoy warmer weather and beginning to plan for holiday, spring and summer vacations. Additionally, this month shows undeniable growth within the online classifieds category, which grew an impressive 35 percent from last year, and 13 percent versus last month.  Notably, properties such as Craigslist.org have exploded since last year (up 155 percent since March 2005), an indication that online classifieds continue to draw attention from their print counterparts.”

 

Consumers Log On For Destination Deals and Information

With three of the top ten gaining categories this month falling under the travel umbrella, it is clear that March continued to be a time for making last minute travel, holiday, spring break, and/or summer plans.  Car rental properties saw the greatest growth this month – up 22 percent over last month with more than 6.8 million visitors.  Not far behind, the Ground Transportation/Cruise Category grew 17 percent over February with 9.8 million visitors, while visitation to Hotel and Resort sites increased 13 percent during the same period, with 32.9 million visitors. Of those, Hotels.com led the category in traffic (up 9 percent to 5.6 million visitors), followed by Marriott (up 11 percent to 4.7 million visitors).

Matriculation March: Students Prep for College Entrance Exams

With the SAT looming in early April, the popularity of online training and education sites soared during March. Overall, the Training and Education category rose 22 percent over February.  Visits to the College Board Property, the official SAT Web property, rose 14 percent to 2.8 million visitors, while PrincetonReview.com saw traffic increase 39 percent to 693,000 visitors.  Additionally, Fastweb.com, a site offering college scholarships, maintained a strong position in the category with 1.7 million visitors and growth of 35 percent versus the previous month. 

Growth in Online Classifieds Shows No Signs of Slowing

March was a strong month for online classifieds, as the entire category grew 13 percent over February.  More significant, however, was the year-over-year category gain of 35 percent versus March 2005, confirming the allure of online classifieds for advertisers.  Notably, CraigsList.org continued to be the category leader with 9.5 million visitors, up 12 percent since last month, and up an impressive 155 percent since March 2005. Additionally, Trader Publishing Company, publisher of Auto Trader Magazines, rose 10 percent over February to 8.3 million visitors, followed by Cars.com (up 28 percent to 4.2 million visitors) and Autotrader.com (up 9 percent to 5.2 million visitors). 

 

Movie Consumers Continue to Move Online

The Retail – Movies category also achieved gains in March, increasing 12 percent from the previous month to 25 million visitors.  The gains were driven largely by Blockbuster’s 49 percent growth (to 6.9 million visitors), second only to Netflix in the category (9.6 million visitors).  By launching an online rental service similar to Netflix, Blockbuster has become more competitive in this online arena.  Up-and-comer Peerflix, a network that enables peer-to-peer DVD trading, continued to build momentum as it crossed the one million visitor threshold for the month, marking a 69 percent jump over February.

 

Top 50 Properties

In March, Yahoo! Sites continued to hold the top ranking with 123.8 million visitors, while the Time Warner Network claimed the number two position for the first time since October by attracting 116.6 million visitors. Wikipedia Sites continued its ascent in March, moving up 10 spots to number 18.  CBS Corporation jumped nine spots, drawing more than 25 million visitors. Finally, Orbitz.com, NBC Universal, and USPS.com all entered the Top 50 at numbers 48, 49, and 50, respectively.

 

Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking

March’s Ad Focus Ranking saw the Advertising.com ad network retain its number one position for the 23^rd consecutive month. AOL re-entered the Top 10 by reaching 50 percent of all Americans online, while AdDynamix.com jumped 16 spots to number 20.  DrivePM had a strong debut in the Ad Focus Ranking, entering at number 14, reaching more than 48 million Americans online.

 

TABLE 1

 

Top Ten Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* March 2006 vs. February 2006 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix
Property	Feb-06 (000)	Mar-06 (000)	Percentage Change	Rank by  Unique Visitors
Total Internet Population	166,966	171,421	3%	N/A
AreaGuides Network	1,964	4,737	141%	182
SOURCETOOL.COM	2,127	3,370	58%	250
MLB.COM	5,017	7,932	58%	103
Pepsi Co.	3,121	4,793	54%	176
NASA.GOV	2,322	3,563	53%	236
Blockbuster Inc.	4,611	6,889	49%	131
SHUTTERFLY.COM	2,804	3,952	41%	210
Forbes	5,997	8,420	40%	96
Daimler Chrysler	3,412	4,788	40%	178
Shop.com Sites	5,505	7,720	40%	107

*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in March 2006.

TABLE 2

Top Ten Gaining Categories by Unique Visitors March 2006 vs. February 2006 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix
	Feb-06 (000)	Mar-06 (000)	Percentage Change
Total Internet Population	166,966	171,421	3%
Car Rental	5,556	6,799	22%
Genealogy	8,247	10,030	22%
Training and Education	7,928	9,640	22%
Ground/Cruise	8,326	9,775	17%
Religion	14,098	16,350	16%
Sports/Outdoor	19,056	21,731	14%
Classifieds	26,878	30,432	13%
Hotels/Resorts	29,024	32,861	13%
Resources (Automotive)	37,536	42,036	12%
Retail - Movies	22,431	25,021	12%

 

TABLE 3

Top 50 Properties March 2006  Total U.S. Home, Work and University Locations  Unique Visitors (000) Source: comScore Media Metrix
Rank	Property	Unique Visitors (000)		Rank	Property	Unique Visitors  (000)
	Total Internet Users	171,421
1	Yahoo! Sites	123,801		26	Bank of America	21,429
2	Time Warner Network	116,644		27	Target Corporation	21,372
3	MSN-Microsoft Sites	116,132		28	Vendare Media	21,367
4	Google Sites	103,494		29	CareerBuilder LLC	20,730
5	eBay	70,752		30	Gannett Sites	20,518
6	Ask Network	48,838		31	Shopzilla.com Sites	19,534
7	Amazon Sites	47,105		32	Comcast Corporation	19,216
8	MYSPACE.COM	41,889		33	Real.com Network	18,920
9	New York Times Digital	36,285		34	ESPN	18,713
10	Verizon Communications Corporation	34,848		35	News Corp. Online	17,953
11	Weather Channel, The	31,886		36	Trip Network Inc.	17,113
12	CNET Networks	28,869		37	E.W. Scripps	15,780
13	Expedia Inc	27,519		38	Cox Enterprises Inc.	15,096
14	United Online, Inc	27,074		39	Earthlink	15,038
15	Viacom Online	26,864		40	iVillage.com: The Womens Network	15,005
16	Monster Worldwide	26,833		41	Weatherbug Property	14,964
17	Apple Computer, Inc.	26,790		42	Citysearch	14,913
18	Wikipedia Sites	25,595		43	Ticketmaster	14,621
19	Adobe Sites	25,320		44	WebMD Health	14,565
20	CBS Corporation	25,082		45	Infospace Network	14,445
21	Lycos, Inc.	24,826		46	WhitePages	13,897
22	AT&T, Inc.	23,923		47	Dell	13,890
23	Gorilla Nation Media	22,891		48	ORBITZ.COM	13,860
24	Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG)	22,085		49	NBC Universal	13,758
25	Wal-Mart	21,719		50	USPS.COM	13,583

TABLE 4

 

Ad Focus Ranking March 2006  Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations  Unique Visitors (000)  Source: comScore Media Metrix
Rank	Property	Unique Visitors (000)	Reach %		Rank	Property	Unique Visitors (000)	Reach %
	Total Internet Users	171,421	100%
1	Advertising.com**	138,222	81%		26	MSNBC	27,178	16%
2	Yahoo!	121,102	71%		27	Business.com Network	26,771	16%
3	ValueClick**	116,614	68%		28	Lycos Network	24,722	14%
4	AOL Media Network	110,160	64%		29	CareerBuilder Network	21,721	13%
5	Google	101,244	59%		30	Vendare Media	21,367	12%
6	MSN	97,936	57%		31	CNN	21,247	12%
7	Casale Media Network**	91,399	53%		32	Disney Online	19,188	11%
8	Tribal Fusion**	89,647	52%		33	EXPEDIA.COM*	18,811	11%
9	Vendare Media - TrafficMarketplace**	88,923	52%		34	ESPN	18,713	11%
10	AOL	85,836	50%		35	WebMD Health Network	18,202	11%
11	YAHOO.COM Home Page	77,348	45%		36	IMDB.COM	17,770	10%
12	24/7 Real Media**	76,909	45%		37	SuperPages Network	17,738	10%
13	BURST! Media**	75,850	44%		38	Mamma Media Solutions**	16,203	9%
14	DrivePM**	63,601	37%		39	Travelocity All	16,135	9%
15	EBAY.COM	62,019	36%		40	FOX Sports on MSN	15,073	9%
16	Blue Lithium**	60,803	35%		41	iVillage.com: The Womens Network	15,005	9%
17	Gorilla Nation Media Network	56,728	33%		42	WeatherBug	14,787	9%
18	MSN.COM Home Page	54,424	32%		43	CITYSEARCH.COM*	14,769	9%
19	Ask Network	48,838	28%		44	BIZRATE.COM	13,869	8%
20	AdDynamix.com**	48,351	28%		45	ORBITZ.COM	13,860	8%
21	MYSPACE.COM	41,889	24%		46	WhitePages Network	13,852	8%
22	EBAY.COM Home Page	36,681	21%		47	TICKETMASTER.COM	13,845	8%
23	Vibrant Media**	35,238	21%		48	REAL.COM*	13,725	8%
24	ABOUT.COM	31,733	19%		49	CNET	13,446	8%
25	WEATHER.COM	29,357	17%		50	EA Online Syndicated Games	13,314	8%

Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in March.  For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 71 percent of the more than 171 million Internet users in March.  The notation “**” indicates that the entity is an advertising network.

 

About comScore Media Metrix

comScore Media Metrix, a division of comScore Networks, provides industry-leading Internet audience measurement services that report – with unmatched accuracy – 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 continues the tradition of quality and innovation established by its Media Metrix syndicated Internet ratings – long recognized as the currency in online media measurement among financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers – while drawing upon comScore's advanced technologies to address important new industry requirements. All comScore Media Metrix syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.

 

About comScore Networks

comScore Networks provides unparalleled insight into consumer behavior and attitudes. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given comScore explicit 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 consultants 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 global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Verizon, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Tribune Interactive, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestlé, MBNA, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Merck and Expedia.  For more information, please visit www.comscore.com.

 

 

 

 

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