RESTON, VA, June 21, 2006 – Comscore Networks, a leader in digital media measurement, today released the results of an in-depth analysis of FIFA World Cup Internet traffic during the second week of the tournament. Monday, June 12 proved to be the strongest day yet for the official FIFA World Cup site, hosted by Yahoo! at fifaworldcup.yahoo.com. More than 226 million pages were viewed during the day by more than 5 million unique visitors.
The peak day for video streaming on the official site was Thursday, June 15, with more than 610,000 streams delivered. This compares to 425,000 video streams on June 12, and 400,000 video streams on the opening day of the tournament. On average during the second week, 169 million pages were viewed by 4.2 million worldwide visitors and 523,000 videos were streamed each day at the Yahoo! FIFA World Cup site.
“Compared to other global events, like the Live 8 concert held in July 2005, which generated only 90 million page views over the two days it ran, these figures demonstrate the tremendous appeal of the World Cup to a global audience,” said Bob Ivins, managing director of Comscore Europe. “This activity underscores the ability of the Web to create a global community focused on a shared interest.”
U.S. Internet users showed increased interest in the tournament during the second week, with 111 million pages served to the U.S. audience on Monday and an average of 66 million pages per day served during the course of the week, up from an average of only 32 million pages during the opening weekend. Not surprisingly, given the time zone differences between Germany where the tournament is being held and the U.S., activity from the U.S. workplace was significant, contributing more than 80 percent of the U.S. based page views between Monday and Friday. In the UK, where many of the games start in the evening, a lower 32 percent of the page views were generated from the workplace.
“The driver behind these impressive page view numbers appears to be increased activity at the site, with users having more and more content available to them as the tournament progresses,” Ivins said.
In fact, the average visitor viewed 40 pages per day during the second week compared to 31 pages per day during the opening weekend. Interestingly, Spanish-speaking visitors were the most active group with visitors to the Spanish language section of the site viewing 52 pages per day on average.
Usage around the WorldComscore recorded visitors to the official World Cup site from more than 35 countries around the world. Usage from individual countries tended to spike around their national team's games. U.S. activity peaked on Monday when the U.S. team played the Czech Republic; South Korean activity spiked on Tuesday when their team played Togo; Argentinean activity peaked on Friday when the their team played Serbia and Montenegro; and Japanese and Brazilian activity peaked on Sunday when both of their national teams were playing.
About Comscore NetworksComscore Networks is a global leader in measuring the digital age.. 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.
PressBill DaddiDaddi Brand Communications646-370-1341press@comscore.com