Consumers set up a blockbuster holiday season at the Box Office
Travel Sites Continue to See Strong Gains During Summer Months
Retail, Movie and Entertainment News Sites Keep Americans Entertained During July
RESTON, VA, August 15, 2008 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at the top online properties for July 2008 based on data from the Comscore MMX service. Continuing the summer trends in Web usage observed last month, leisure-oriented categories demonstrated gains in July, including travel, retail, tickets and entertainment news.
“The summer months tend to draw Americans to more leisure pursuits and that was certainly the case in July,” commented Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of Comscore MMX. “Ground travel and cruise sites gained once again, as many Americans sought more budget-friendly ways to enjoy their summer vacations amid economic and fuel price concerns. Summer blockbusters and big celebrity news also provided a boost to the entertainment categories.”
Traffic to Travel Sites Continues to Grow
Several travel categories gained in July as Americans left for summer vacations. The travel – ground/cruise category jumped 10 percent to 12.7 million visitors, making it the top-gaining category for the month, while the travel-information category grew 7 percent to 47.6 million visitors.
The hotels/resorts category gained 6 percent to more than 34 million visitors. Some of the top-gainers in the category included Hotels.com (up 6 percent to 5.2 million), Choice Hotels International (up 8 percent to 3.2 million) and HolidayInn.com (up 11 percent to 2.7 million).
Certain Retail Categories Gain Despite Weak Economy
Despite a sluggish retail economy in the U.S., a handful of retail categories achieved traffic increases in July, possibly due to consumers shopping online instead of using expensive gasoline to drive to the store. Retail - consumer goods sites rose 8 percent to 22.5 million visitors, including double-digit growth by Staples.com Sites (up 22 percent to 6.5 million visitors), Office Depot (up 12 percent to 4.8 million visitors), and DisneyShopping.com (up 32 percent to 1.6 million visitors).
Meanwhile, the retail - mall category increased 7 percent to 28 million visitors, led by AOL Shopping with 6.3 million visitors (up 19 percent), MSN Shopping with 5.8 million visitors and QVC Sites with 5 million visitors.
The Dark Knight and other Summer Movies Drive Traffic to Ticket Sites
With the release of several highly anticipated summer films, most prominently The Dark Knight, retail – ticket sites grew 5 percent to more than 44 million visitors as movie goers pre-purchased tickets to avoid long lines and sell outs at theaters. Moviefone led the category with 17.5 million visitors (up 12 percent), while Fandango posted a 29-percent gain to 9.3 million visitors and MovieTickets.com jumped 13 percent to 4.7 million visitors.
Hot Celebrity Gossip Stories Prompt Growth at Entertainment News Sites
July was packed with major celebrity stories including the birth of Angelina and Brad’s twins and Christie Brinkley’s public divorce, which helped boost the entertainment news category 5 percent to 52.7 million visitors. Gossip site omg! led the category with more than 16 million visitors, a 19-percent gain from June, followed by TMZ with 9.7 million visitors (up 9 percent) and People with 8.8 million visitors (up 4 percent).
Top 50 Properties
Google Sites maintained its #1 position in the Top Properties ranking, reaching 141.6 million Americans in July, while Yahoo! Sites captured the second spot with 140.3 million and Microsoft Sites ranked third with 120.2 million visitors. CBS Corporation jumped 27 spots to #10 due to its recent acquisition of CNET Networks, which resulted in an incremental gain of nearly 30 million visitors to the property. Ask Network moved up two positions in the top 10 to #7 with 58.6 million visitors.
Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking
Platform-A, which includes Advertising.com, Quigo and other ad networks, led the Ad Focus ranking in July, reaching 90 percent of the 189 million Americans online. Yahoo! Network (85 percent reach) ranked second, followed by Google Ad Network (81 percent reach), and Specific Media (81 percent reach).
TABLE 1
Comscore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.)July 2008 vs. June 2008Total U.S. - Home, Work and University LocationsSource: Comscore MMX
Total Unique Visitors (000)
Jun-08
Jul-08
% Change
Rank by Unique Visitors
Total Internet : Total Audience
189,873
189,134
0
N/A
CBS Corporation
20,867
48,191
131
10
The Mozilla Organization
9,634
18,323
90
42
Infospace Network
9,840
13,467
37
69
General Mills
4,230
5,779
185
Nordstrom, Inc.
3,810
5,201
205
ABCNEWS DIGITAL
5,911
8,058
36
127
GSN Games Network
4,627
6,308
173
Vlaze Media Networks, Inc.
6,190
8,386
35
120
GAMEVANCE.COM
4,158
5,588
34
194
EVERSAVE.COM
5,398
7,192
33
145
*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in July 2008
TABLE 2
Comscore Top 10 Gaining Categories by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.)July 2008 vs. June 2008Total U.S. - Home, Work and University LocationsSource: Comscore MMX
Travel - Ground/Cruise
11,484
12,663
Retail - Consumer Goods
20,795
22,455
8
Retail - Mall
26,123
28,068
7
Retail - Movies
25,251
26,985
Travel - Information
44,631
47,569
Travel - Hotels/Resorts
32,282
34,095
6
Online Gambling
12,038
12,648
5
Retail - Tickets
42,166
44,228
Entertainment - News
50,315
52,735
Career Services and Development
59,031
61,544
4
TABLE 3
Comscore Top 50 Properties (U.S.)July 2008Total U.S. - Home, Work and University LocationsUnique Visitors (000)Source: Comscore MMX
Rank
Property
Unique Visitors
(000)
1
Google Sites
141,579
26
Verizon Communications Corporation
28,508
2
Yahoo! Sites
140,302
27
Gorilla Nation
27,896
3
Microsoft Sites
120,173
28
Superpages.com Network
27,651
AOL LLC
111,396
29
Yellowpages.com Network
26,139
Fox Interactive Media
88,321
30
United Online, Inc
25,394
eBay
70,868
31
Expedia Inc
24,903
Ask Network
58,566
32
Photobucket.com LLC
24,721
Amazon Sites
58,462
Bank of America
23,933
9
Wikipedia Sites
53,129
CareerBuilder LLC
22,582
Real.com Network
21,877
11
Apple Inc.
46,080
Demand Media
21,604
12
New York Times Digital
43,853
Shopzilla.com Sites
21,446
13
Turner Network
43,570
38
WordPress
20,929
14
Glam Media
43,038
39
Monster Worldwide
20,496
15
Viacom Digital
42,547
Gannett Sites
19,484
16
FACEBOOK.COM
39,087
41
WhitePages
19,396
17
craigslist, inc.
34,157
18
Weather Channel, The
33,486
43
ESPN
18,101
19
Time Warner - Excluding AOL
31,989
44
Weatherbug Property
18,057
20
Wal-Mart
31,637
45
Travelport
17,748
21
Comcast Corporation
30,109
46
Experian Interactive
17,687
22
Disney Online
29,475
47
Cox Enterprises Inc.
17,650
23
Adobe Sites
29,403
48
iVillage.com: The Womens Network
17,412
24
AT&T, Inc.
29,306
49
Hearst Corporation
17,389
25
Target Corporation
28,542
50
WebMD Health
17,277
TABLE 4
Comscore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.)July 2008Total U.S. - Home, Work and University LocationsUnique Visitors (000)Source: Comscore MMX
Unique Visitors (000)
Reach %
100%
Platform-A**†
171,062
90%
Undertone Networks**
81,372
43%
Yahoo! Network**
160,355
85%
Centro
78,276
41%
Google Ad Network**
153,529
81%
MYSPACE.COM*
75,295
40%
Specific Media**
153,258
Vibrant Media**
73,978
39%
ValueClick Networks**
148,401
78%
Ybrant - Oridian - ADdynamix Network**
73,461
Tribal Fusion**
142,736
75%
YOUTUBE.COM
73,322
Yahoo!
138,309
73%
NNN Total Newspapers: U.S.
69,184
37%
YuMe Video Network - Media Partners ††
136,455
72%
Gorilla Nation Media
65,759
35%
Google
133,184
70%
31%
adconion media group**
130,155
69%
MSN.COM Home Page
57,585
30%
Casale Media Network**
129,944
EBAY.COM
57,007
Traffic Marketplace**
127,758
68%
IAC Ad Solutions – Media Partners
54,639
29%
DRIVEpm**
125,312
66%
TattoMedia**
53,854
28%
Revenue Science**
123,381
65%
Kontera**
53,328
interCLICK**
122,496
40
AMAZON.COM
48,336
26%
24/7 Real Media**
120,359
64%
MapQuest
47,441
25%
AOL Media Network
59%
Vizi Inc**
47,408
CPX Interactive**
110,918
NNN Top 25
47,178
MSN-Windows Live
105,967
56%
Real Cities Network
47,075
Tremor Media - Media Partners
104,687
55%
IB Local Network
47,029
ADSDAQ by ContextWeb**
103,431
PrecisionClick**
43,605
23%
Turn, Inc**
93,171
49%
AdOn Network**
42,655
Burst Media**
91,054
48%
Epic Advertising (Azoogle Network Only)**
40,435
21%
Collective Media**
89,560
47%
AdBrite**
81,520
EBAY.COM Home Page
38,732
20%
Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in July. For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 73 percent of the 189 million Internet users in July.
* Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated entities.
** Denotes an advertising network.
† The Platform A ad network is an aggregation of ad servers used by the following individual advertising network entities: Advertising.com, Tacoda, AOL, Quigo and Userplane.
†† Comscore has verified that a legitimate business relationship exists between YuMe and Microsoft through documentation provided. Therefore the YuMe Video Network – Media Partners entity meets all current rules for inclusion as a custom entity in the Ad Focus category.
About Comscore MMXComscore MMX provides industry-leading Internet audience measurement services that report 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 MMX reports are used by financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers. Comscore MMX syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.
About ComscoreComscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/boilerplate
Contact:Sarah RadwanickDirector, Regional Product MarketingComscore, Inc. +44 (0) 20 7099 1784worldpress@comscore.com