Yahoo! Attracts More Than Half of All Searches Conducted in Japan in January 2009
TOKYO, March 10, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- January Marks Record Month for Search Volume in Japan with 6.8 Billion Searches, Up 9 Percent Versus Year Ago
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 January, 6.8 billion searches were conducted in Japan, representing a 9-percent increase versus year ago and the highest monthly search volume on record.
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"2008 was another year of very solid growth in the search market in Japan," said Maru Sato, managing director of comScore Japan. "Home to the third largest Internet population in the world, Japan represents a valuable market for search engines. It is also one of the more competitive search markets, with two large companies, Yahoo! and Google, each controlling a significant share of the market."
Yahoo! Sites Leads Search Market in Japan
Yahoo! Sites led the search ranking in Japan with 3.5 billion searches in January 2009, up 13 percent from the previous year, followed by Google Sites with 2.6 billion searches (up 5 percent) and Rakuten Inc. with 153 million searches (up 38 percent). Excite Japan had the strongest growth of any search property in the top ten, growing 362 percent versus year ago to 52 million searches.
Top Search Properties in Japan by Search Query Volume
January 2009 vs. January 2008
Total Japan Internet Audience*, Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations
Source: comScore qSearch
Searches (MM)***
Jan-08 Jan-09 % Change
Total Internet 6,219 6,795 9
Yahoo! Sites 3,096 3,489 13
Google Sites** 2,481 2,596 5
Rakuten Inc 111 153 38
Microsoft Sites 119 113 -5
NTT Group 93 103 11
Amazon Sites 80 69 -14
Excite Japan 11 52 362
NEC Corporation 58 44 -25
MIXI, Inc. 40 23 -42
Nifty Corporation 19 22 14
*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.
Yahoo! Sites Attracts More than Half of All Searches in Japan
In January, searchers in Japan conducted an average of 100 searches per searcher during the month. Yahoo! Sites captured 51 percent of all search queries, followed by Google Sites with 38 percent and Rakuten Inc. with 2 percent.
Yahoo! Sites had the highest frequency of searches per searcher at 62, followed by Google Sites at 55 searches per searcher. Other search properties in the top ten with relatively high search engagement included NEC Corporation (24 searches per searcher), Excite Japan (20 searches per searcher), and Nifty Corporation (13 searches per searcher).
Top Search Properties in Japan Based on Share of Search Queries
January 2009
Total Japan Internet Audience*, Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations
Source: comScore qSearch
Share of Searches Per
Searches Searcher
Total Internet 100.0 100.5
Yahoo! Sites 51.3 61.9
Google Sites** 38.2 55.4
Rakuten Inc 2.2 8.5
Microsoft Sites 1.7 9.3
NTT Group 1.5 12.0
Amazon Sites 1.0 6.4
Excite Japan 0.8 19.8
NEC Corporation 0.7 23.7
MIXI, Inc. 0.3 6.1
Nifty Corporation 0.3 13.3
*Excludes searches from public computers such as Internet cafes or access
from mobile phones or PDAs.
**Google Sites includes searches from YouTube.com
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 www.comscore.com/companyinfo.
SOURCE comScore, Inc.
http://www.comscore.com
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