Consumers set up a blockbuster holiday season at the Box Office
Strategic Partnerships Contribute to Increase in IYP Searches
Yellow Book Network Sees Unique Visitors More than Double versus Year Ago
RESTON, VA, March 21, 2008 - Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released the results of a study into national Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) search activity, which revealed shifts among the top sites in 2007 -- due in part to new strategic partnerships. The IYP search market leader in Q4 2007 was Yellowpages.com Network, which forged multiple partnerships this year with sites including Areaguides.net and 411.com, helping them take the top position in total IYP searches.
“In the highly competitive IYP search market, partnerships played a significant role in determining the 2007 landscape,” said Serge Matta, senior vice president of Comscore. “Yellowpages Network was one of the key beneficiaries of this strategy, since partnerships helped it secure a leading position in the market.”
Yellowpages and Superpages Each Capture 20 Percent IYP Search Market Share
Yellowpages.com Network (20.2 percent share) edged out Superpages.com Network (20.0 percent share) in Q4 2007 to lead the IYP search market. Like Yellowpages, Superpages’ new partnerships provided a boost to its search activity, with the new Local.com relationship and the Infospace FindIt/Switchboard.com acquisition contributing to its gains. However, Superpages discontinued its affiliation with both 411.com and MSN Yellowpages, offsetting the positive impact of the new relationships. Although Superpages saw an increased number of total searches in 2007, it did not grow as fast as the market, and as a result its share fell slightly.
IYP Search Market ShareQ4 2007 vs. Q4 2006Total U.S. – Home/Work/University LocationsSource: Comscore
National IYP Networks
Share of IYP Searches
Q4 2006
Q4 2007
Point Change
Yellowpages.com Network
14.7%
20.2%
5.6
Superpages.com Network
20.9%
20.0%
-0.9
Yahoo! Sites
22.9%
17.9%
-5.0
Google Sites
13.0%
15.1%
2.1
Yellow Book Network
4.0%
8.6%
4.6
Time Warner Network
6.4%
6.1%
-0.3
Microsoft Sites
3.8%
4.8%
1.0
R.H.Donnelley*
3.9%
3.3%
-0.5
* R.H. Donnelley property is primarily a 14-state region provider.
Certain top IYP providers experienced growth in 2007 by capitalizing on changes in their partner and affiliate relationships. Yellow Book Network, which more than doubled its share from 4 percent to nearly 9 percent, benefitted in part from its new relationship with Addresses.com. Microsoft Sites experienced an increase in IYP searches after it began redirecting searches to Microsoft Maps beginning in December, subsequent to the dissolution of its partnership with Superpages.
R.H. Donnelley, the only truly regional local search provider among the top 8 U.S. IYP sites, had a relatively modest national IYP search market share of 3.3 percent. However, within their 14-state region, they actually led the market in Q4 2007 with a 22-percent market share.
Yellow Book and R.H. Donnelly More than Double Visitors versus Year Ago
Several providers of local business search listings experienced substantial growth in the number of unique visitors from December 2006 to December 2007. Yellow Book Network and R.H. Donnelley saw traffic more than double, driven by a combination of new relationships and organic visitor growth. Contributing to growth at Yellow Book Network were partnerships with Infospace and Addresses.com, while R.H. Donnelley’s growth can be largely attributed to its acquisition of Business.com.
Visitor Growth to Leading Local Business Search Listing ProvidersDecember 2007 vs. December 2006Total U.S. – Home/Work/University LocationsSource: Comscore MMX
Unique Visitors (000)
Dec-06
Dec-07
Percent Change
4,386
10,388
137%
R.H. Donnelley*
3,036
6,768
123%
16,168
24,453
51%
Superpages.com Network**
15,861
23,448
48%
*R.H. Donnelley data includes Dex Media
** Superpages.com Network data includes the Superpages media title
About ComscoreComscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/boilerplate
PressBill DaddiDaddi Brand Communications646-370-1341press@comscore.com