RESTON, VA, November 29, 2005 - Consumers used the Internet to send "virtual" greetings and view other holiday fare during the October Halloween season, according to the latest monthly analysis from comScore Media Metrix for October 2005. Visitation to electronic greeting card sites was up 29 percent, making it the highest-gaining category during the month.

 

"The degree to which the Internet is woven into the daily fabric of consumers' lives continues to increase," said Peter Daboll, president and CEO of comScore Media Metrix.  "As the percentage of home broadband connections has risen, consumers are more likely to turn to the Web for a variety of holiday-related tasks - such as party planning and sending greetings.  This trend was clearly evident during the Halloween season and should serve as an indicator for the coming holiday season." 

 

In October, major gift and greetings properties enjoyed significant traffic gains, including AmericanGreetings Property (up 127 percent to 17.3 million unique visitors), Hallmark.com (up 29 percent to 6.1 million unique visitors), and Internet party-coordinating site Evite (up 20 percent to 5.3 million unique visitors).  At the category level, Hobbies & Lifestyles - Food (up 9 percent to 12.9 million unique visitors) and Entertainment - Humor (up 6 percent to 25.1 million unique visitors) were holiday-related winners during October 2005.  

 

AROUND THE WEB

Trick-or-Treaters and Party Goers Seek Halloween Garb Online - The Retail - Apparel category received the typical annual boost in October thanks to consumers searching for the perfect Halloween costume.  Traffic to BuyCostumes.com grew 85 percent from September to October to reach 6.3 million consumers.  This placed the site among the top ten gaining properties for October and helped push the Retail - Apparel category into the ranks of the top ten gaining categories.  Other apparel standouts include Gap Online, which saw its newly remodeled site gain 26 percent in visitation to reach 3.9 million unique visitors in October 2005. 

 

Major Powerball Jackpot Draws Web Traffic - The Games - Lotto/Sweepstakes category jumped 11 percent to 25.4 million unique visitors in October 2005, powered by heavy interest in the largest drawing in Powerball history - a $340 million jackpot - drawn on October 19.  In fact, Powerball.com was the Internet's second-highest gaining property in October 2005, rising 220 percent to 3.7 million unique visitors.

 

Thrifty Consumers Gain Online "Incentives" - Savvy consumers helped the Services - Incentives category grow nine percent to 19.4 million unique visitors in October.  CoolSavings.com, a Web site offering coupons and other money saving shopping options, jumped 12 percent to 10.7 million unique visitors to lead the category in October.  Meanwhile, Points.com, which enables consumers to trade and manage rewards points for everything from flights to hotels, soared 92 percent in October, reaching 1.2 million unique visitors.  Finally, as the school year hit full stride across the country, General Mills' Box Tops 4 Education site saw a 62-percent spike in traffic to 1.1 million unique visitors as consumers looked for "easy ways to earn cash for their schools." 

 

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

 

Coors Molson Brewing Company - This suds maker enjoyed extraordinary growth in October thanks to to their "IceSwipe" online game, which prompted users to draw objects in the "frost" covering a Coors Light logo, and ended in a scary surprise.  This drove Coors Molson to the top spot among October's highest-gaining Web properties as traffic increased more than ten-fold to 1.2 million unique visitors. 

 

BMG Columbia House, Inc. - This property was created after the consolidation of multi-media retailers BMG and Columbia House, resulting in 8.9 million unique visitors in October 2005.  Consumers were particularly drawn to Columbia House's '5 DVD's for 49 Cents' promotion.

 

Heavy.com - This highly publicized site has drawn interest by becoming one of the first sites to offer ad-supported video for PlayStation Portable devices.  The property saw its traffic rise 53 percent in October 2005 to 3.6 million unique visitors.  The site has recently announced plans to feature ad-supported video for Apple's new Video iPod. 

 

TABLE 1

 

Top Ten Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* October 2005 vs. September 2005 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix
Property	Sep-05 (000)	Oct-05 (000)	Percentage Change	Rank by  Unique Visitors
Total Internet Population	169,232	169,315	0%	N/A
Molson Coors Brewing Company	277	3,594	1,195%	223
Powerball.com	1,150	3,676	220%	216
AmericanGreetings Property	7,598	17,251	127%	32
Six Apart Sites	4,046	8,903	120%	90
BuyCostumes.com	3,389	6,281	85%	130
BMG Columbia House, Inc.	5,688	8,947	57%	89
Heavy.com	2,370	3,632	53%	219
Circuit City Stores, Inc.	7,061	10,636	51%	67
PCH.com (Publishers Clearinghouse)	3,027	4,298	42%	188
ING Group	2,399	3,334	39%	245

*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in October 2005

 

  TABLE 2

 

Top Ten Gaining Categories by Unique Visitors October 2005 vs. September 2005 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix
	Sep-05 (000)	Oct-05 (000)	Percentage Change
Total Internet Population	169,232	169,315	0%
Services - E-Cards	31,000	40,020	29%
Hobbies & Lifestyles - Genealogy	9,026	11,040	22%
Retail - Toys	19,413	22,213	14%
Games - Lotto/Sweepstakes	22,953	25,410	11%
Retail - Apparel	46,771	51,037	9%
Services - Incentives	17,767	19,360	9%
Hobbies & Lifestyles - Food	11,862	12,924	9%
Career Srv. & Dev. - Training & Education	8,695	9,430	8%
Retail - Health Care	18,657	20,020	7%
Business/Finance - Taxes	6,927	7,428	7%

 

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TABLE 3

 

Top 50 Properties
October 2005
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	169,315
1	Yahoo! Sites	124,429		26	Bank of America	19,362
2	Time Warner Network	117,018		27	Trip Network Inc.	19,267
3	MSN-Microsoft Sites	115,419		28	Real.com Network	19,039
4	Google Sites	89,807		29	Shopzilla.com Sites	18,536
5	eBay	69,649		30	ESPN	17,617
6	Amazon Sites	44,459		31	OVERSTOCK.COM	17,339
7	Ask Jeeves	43,705		32	AmericanGreetings Property	17,251
8	New York Times Digital	35,163		33	Weatherbug Property	16,587
9	Viacom Online	34,504		34	CareerBuilder LLC	16,234
10	Verizon Communications Corporation	31,427		35	Comcast Corporation	16,227
11	Vendare Media	30,055		36	Citysearch	16,125
12	Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG)	30,009		37	E.W. Scripps	15,814
13	Expedia Inc	28,932		38	Infospace Network	15,722
14	CNET Networks	28,790		39	iVillage.com: The Womens Network	15,649
15	United Online, Inc	28,745		40	Wikipedia Sites	15,618
16	Weather Channel, The	28,214		41	Earthlink	14,853
17	Lycos, Inc.	26,063		42	NFL Internet Group	14,734
18	Monster Worldwide	24,811		43	Cox Enterprises Inc.	14,039
19	MYSPACE.COM	24,259		44	Dell	13,853
20	Wal-Mart	23,688		45	WhitePages	13,717
21	Target Corporation	21,893		46	Sears Sites	13,578
22	Gannett Sites	20,910		47	Citigroup	13,542
23	Gorilla Nation Media	20,420		48	JPMorgan Chase Property	13,310
24	Apple Computer, Inc.	20,139		49	Capital One	13,255
25	AT&T Properties	19,631		50	Sony Online	13,189

 

TABLE 4

 

 

Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that views a particular entity at least once in Octobeer.  For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 72 percent of the over 169 million Internet users in October.  The notation "**" indicates that the entity is an advertising network.

 

 

style="font-family: Verdana;">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.

 

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