Friday, February 24, 2012

Spring Fever Drives Web Traffic As Americans Explore Travel, Educational Testing and Classifieds Sites.

comScore Media Metrix Releases March Top 50 Web Rankings and Analysis

RESTON, Va., April 17 /PRNewswire/ -- comScore Media Metrix today released its monthly analysis of consumer activity at top online properties and categories. Consistent with previous years, the majority of March's Web activity was seasonal, revealing spikes in the travel, genealogy, training/ education, religious, sports/ outdoor retail, classifieds, and auto categories.

"Spring was in the air and it showed online during the month of March," said Peter Daboll, CEO of comScore Media Metrix. "Spikes in these categories are a clear indication that consumers are preparing to enjoy warmer weather and beginning to plan for holiday, spring and summer vacations. Additionally, this month shows undeniable growth within the online classifieds category, which grew an impressive 35 percent from last year, and 13 percent versus last month. Notably, properties such as Craigslist.org have exploded since last year (up 155 percent since March 2005), an indication that online classifieds continue to draw attention from their print counterparts."

Consumers Log On For Destination Deals and Information

With three of the top ten gaining categories this month falling under the travel umbrella, it is clear that March continued to be a time for making last minute travel, holiday, spring break, and/or summer plans. Car rental properties saw the greatest growth this month -- up 22 percent over last month with more than 6.8 million visitors. Not far behind, the Ground Transportation/Cruise Category grew 17 percent over February with 9.8 million visitors, while visitation to Hotel and Resort sites increased 13 percent during the same period, with 32.9 million visitors. Of those, Hotels.com led the category in traffic (up 9 percent to 5.6 million visitors), followed by Marriott (up 11 percent to 4.7 million visitors).

Matriculation March: Students Prep for College Entrance Exams

With the SAT looming in early April, the popularity of online training and education sites soared during March. Overall, the Training and Education category rose 22 percent over February. Visits to the College Board Property, the official SAT Web property, rose 14 percent to 2.8 million visitors, while PrincetonReview.com saw traffic increase 39 percent to 693,000 visitors. Additionally, Fastweb.com, a site offering college scholarships, maintained a strong position in the category with 1.7 million visitors and growth of 35 percent versus the previous month.

Growth in Online Classifieds Shows No Signs of Slowing

March was a strong month for online classifieds, as the entire category grew 13 percent over February. More significant, however, was the year-over-year category gain of 35 percent versus March 2005, confirming the allure of online classifieds for advertisers. Notably, CraigsList.org continued to be the category leader with 9.5 million visitors, up 12 percent since last month, and up an impressive 155 percent since March 2005. Additionally, Trader Publishing Company, publisher of Auto Trader Magazines, rose 10 percent over February to 8.3 million visitors, followed by Cars.com (up 28 percent to 4.2 million visitors) and Autotrader.com (up 9 percent to 5.2 million visitors).

Movie Consumers Continue to Move Online

The Retail -- Movies category also achieved gains in March, increasing 12 percent from the previous month to 25 million visitors. The gains were driven largely by Blockbuster's 49 percent growth (to 6.9 million visitors), second only to Netflix in the category (9.6 million visitors). By launching an online rental service similar to Netflix, Blockbuster has become more competitive in this online arena. Up-and-comer Peerflix, a network that enables peer-to-peer DVD trading, continued to build momentum as it crossed the one million visitor threshold for the month, marking a 69 percent jump over February.

Top 50 Properties

In March, Yahoo! Sites continued to hold the top ranking with 123.8 million visitors, while the Time Warner Network claimed the number two position for the first time since October by attracting 116.6 million visitors. Wikipedia Sites continued its ascent in March, moving up 10 spots to number 18. CBS Corporation jumped nine spots, drawing more than 25 million visitors. Finally, Orbitz.com, NBC Universal, and USPS.com all entered the Top 50 at numbers 48, 49, and 50, respectively.

Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking

March's Ad Focus Ranking saw the Advertising.com ad network retain its number one position for the 23rd consecutive month. AOL re-entered the Top 10 by reaching 50 percent of all Americans online, while AdDynamix.com jumped 16 spots to number 20. DrivePM had a strong debut in the Ad Focus Ranking, entering at number 14, reaching more than 48 million Americans online.

   TABLE 1    Top Ten Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors*   March 2006 vs. February 2006   Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users   Source: comScore Media Metrix                                                                  Rank by   Property                Feb-06     Mar-06     Percentage       Unique                            (000)      (000)         Change     Visitors   Total Internet    Population           166,966    171,421              3%          N/A   AreaGuides Network      1,964      4,737            141%          182   SOURCETOOL.COM          2,127      3,370             58%          250   MLB.COM                 5,017      7,932             58%          103   Pepsi Co.               3,121      4,793             54%          176   NASA.GOV                2,322      3,563             53%          236   Blockbuster Inc.        4,611      6,889             49%          131   SHUTTERFLY.COM          2,804      3,952             41%          210   Forbes                  5,997      8,420             40%           96   Daimler Chrysler        3,412      4,788             40%          178   Shop.com Sites          5,505      7,720             40%          107    *Ranking based on the top 250 properties in March 2006.     TABLE 2    Top Ten Gaining Categories by Unique Visitors   March 2006 vs. February 2006   Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users   Source: comScore Media Metrix                                    Feb-06      Mar-06      Percentage                                    (000)       (000)          Change   Total Internet Population     166,966     171,421               3%   Car Rental                      5,556       6,799              22%   Genealogy                       8,247      10,030              22%   Training and Education          7,928       9,640              22%   Ground/Cruise                   8,326       9,775              17%   Religion                       14,098      16,350              16%   Sports/Outdoor                 19,056      21,731              14%   Classifieds                    26,878      30,432              13%   Hotels/Resorts                 29,024      32,861              13%   Resources (Automotive)         37,536      42,036              12%   Retail - Movies                22,431      25,021              12%     TABLE 3    Top 50 Properties   March 2006   Total U.S. Home, Work and University Locations   Unique Visitors (000)   Source: comScore Media Metrix                                     Unique                             Unique   Rank         Property          Visitors     Rank   Property       Visitors                                    (000)                              (000)          Total Internet Users     171,421   1      Yahoo! Sites             123,801      26  Bank of America    21,429   2      Time Warner Network      116,644      27  Target Corporation 21,372   3      MSN-Microsoft Sites      116,132      28  Vendare Media      21,367   4      Google Sites             103,494      29  CareerBuilder LLC  20,730   5      eBay                      70,752      30  Gannett Sites      20,518   6      Ask Network               48,838      31  Shopzilla.com                                                    Sites              19,534   7      Amazon Sites              47,105      32  Comcast                                                    Corporation        19,216   8      MYSPACE.COM               41,889      33  Real.com                                                    Network            18,920   9      New York Times Digital    36,285      34  ESPN               18,713   10     Verizon Communications          Corporation               34,848      35  News Corp. Online  17,953   11     Weather Channel, The      31,886      36  Trip Network Inc.  17,113   12     CNET Networks             28,869      37  E.W. Scripps       15,780   13     Expedia Inc               27,519      38  Cox Enterprises                                                    Inc.               15,096   14     United Online, Inc        27,074      39  Earthlink          15,038   15     Viacom Online             26,864      40  iVillage.com:                                                    The Women's                                                    Network            15,005   16     Monster Worldwide         26,833      41  Weatherbug                                                    Property           14,964   17     Apple Computer, Inc.      26,790      42  Citysearch         14,913   18     Wikipedia Sites           25,595      43  Ticketmaster       14,621   19     Adobe Sites               25,320      44  WebMD Health       14,565   20     CBS Corporation           25,082      45  Infospace                                                    Network            14,445   21     Lycos, Inc.               24,826      46  WhitePages         13,897   22     AT&T, Inc.                23,923      47  Dell               13,890   23     Gorilla Nation Media      22,891      48  ORBITZ.COM         13,860   24     Walt Disney Internet          Group (WDIG)              22,085      49  NBC Universal      13,758   25     Wal-Mart                  21,719      50  USPS.COM           13,583     TABLE 4    Ad Focus Ranking March 2006   Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations   Unique Visitors (000)   Source: comScore Media Metrix                            Unique                              Unique   Rank     Property      Visitors   Reach                    Visitors  Reach                            (000)      %    Rank  Property      (000)      %         Total Internet   1     Advertising.com** 138,222     81%   26   MSNBC         27,178   16%   2     Yahoo!            121,102     71%   27   Business.com                                                  Network       26,771   16%   3     ValueClick**      116,614     68%   28   Lycos Network 24,722   14%   4     AOL Media         Network           110,160     64%   29   CareerBuilder                                                  Network       21,721   13%   5     Google            101,244     59%   30   Vendare Media 21,367   12%   6     MSN                97,936     57%   31   CNN           21,247   12%   7     Casale Media         Network**          91,399     53%   32   Disney Online 19,188   11%   8     Tribal Fusion**    89,647     52%   33   EXPEDIA.COM*  18,811   11%   9     Vendare Media -         TrafficMarketplace         **                 88,923     52%   34   ESPN          18,713   11%   10    AOL                85,836     50%   35   WebMD Health                                                  Network       18,202   11%   11    YAHOO.COM         Home Page          77,348     45%   36   IMDB.COM      17,770   10%   12    24/7 Real Media**  76,909     45%   37   SuperPages                                                  Network       17,738   10%   13    BURST! Media**     75,850     44%   38   Mamma Media                                                  Solutions**   16,203    9%   14    DrivePM**          63,601     37%   39   Travelocity                                                  All           16,135    9%   15    EBAY.COM           62,019     36%   40   FOX Sports                                                  on MSN        15,073    9%   16    Blue Lithium**     60,803     35%   41   iVillage.com:                                                  The Women's                                                  Network       15,005    9%   17    Gorilla Nation         Media Network      56,728     33%   42   WeatherBug    14,787    9%   18    MSN.COM Home Page  54,424     32%   43   CITYSEARCH.COM                                                  *             14,769    9%   19    Ask Network        48,838     28%   44   BIZRATE.COM   13,869    8%   20    AdDynamix.com**    48,351     28%   45   ORBITZ.COM    13,860    8%   21    MYSPACE.COM        41,889     24%   46   WhitePages                                                  Network       13,852    8%   22    EBAY.COM Home Page 36,681     21%   47   TICKETMASTER.COM                                                                13,845    8%   23    Vibrant Media**    35,238     21%   48   REAL.COM*     13,725    8%   24    ABOUT.COM          31,733     19%   49   CNET          13,446    8%   25    WEATHER.COM        29,357     17%   50   EA Online                                                  Syndicated                                                  Games         13,314    8%   

Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in March. For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 71 percent of the more than 171 million Internet users in March. The notation "**" indicates that the entity is an advertising network.

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.

About comScore Networks

comScore Networks provides unparalleled insight into consumer behavior and attitudes. 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, Nestle, MBNA, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Merck and Expedia. For more information, please visit http://www.comscore.com/ .

CONTACT: Andrew Lipsman of comScore Networks, Inc., +1-312-775-6510, press@comscore.com

Web site: http://www.comscore.com/

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