Traffic to MySpace Video Doubles in July; Yahoo! Video Leads the Pack with
a 28-Percent Increase in Visitation Versus June
Sweepstakes From McDonalds, Pepsi, Oprah and Publishers Clearing House
Prove Successful in Attracting Visitors; Political Sites Surge as Primary
Season Approaches
RESTON, Va., Aug. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- comScore Media Metrix today
released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at top online
properties and categories for July. Of note were the marked increases to
political Web sites ahead of primary season, as well as the effectiveness
of summer sweepstakes from McDonalds, Pepsi, Oprah and Publishers Clearing
House that drove online traffic. Most noteworthy, however, was the
popularity of online video, which continued to gain steam in July, as
Youtube.com broke into the comScore Media Metrix Top 50 for the first time,
debuting at number 40 with 16 million visitors, a 20-percent increase
versus June. Video-mania also drove a two-fold increase in traffic to
MySpace Videos, which had 20 million visitors, trailing only Yahoo! Video
with 21.1 million visitors (up 28-percent from June).
"Consumers clearly view video as one of the most accessible,
interesting and entertaining sources of content on the Web," said Jack
Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. "The trends
we're witnessing indicate that online video is emerging from its infancy
and entering the mainstream. Many publishers and advertisers are responding
to this trend, which means advertising dollars will continue to migrate
online where consumers can be targeted with efficiency."
The Web Plays an Increasingly Important Role in Politics
The 25-percent increase in traffic to political Web sites, the
largest-gaining category in July, was particularly noteworthy given the
recent major upsets in political primaries in Connecticut, Georgia and
Michigan. CapitolAdvantage.com, a site dedicated to connecting
organizations to national and state elected officials, rated among the top
sites in the category with 927,000 visitors, a 4-percent increase from
June. Political news sites also drove category increases, including
independent news site Worldnetdaily.com, which increased 22 percent to
500,000 visitors; Voice of America News ( http://voanews.com ), which
jumped 50 percent to 368,000 visitors; and NationalReview.com, which rose
11 percent to 350,000 visitors.
"The Internet is becoming an important political forum in this country,
especially as video and blogging become more prevalent," said Flanagan.
"Politicians recognize the inherent ability of the Internet to connect
people and ideas, and it will be interesting to observe activity at
political sites as the November elections approach."
Americans Flock to Sweepstakes and Lotto in July
Lotto/Sweepstakes sites enjoyed a surge in traffic in July, rising 19
percent from June to 33.4 million visitors and ranking as the
second-fastest growing category for the month. Some of the more noteworthy
summer sweepstakes included:
-- Publishers Clearing House's PCH.com, which led the category with
10 million visitors, a 59-percent increase versus the previous month
-- Piratesatmcd.com, the Pirates of the Caribbean McDonald's sweepstakes
site, which saw 3.6 million visitors. Traffic to the promotional site
contributed to an 87-percent increase in traffic to the McDonald's Web
property overall, which drew a total of 5 million visitors
-- The Oprah Show Summer Sweepstakes, which gives viewers a chance to win
an all-expense paid trip to an Oprah taping and contributed to a
42-percent increase in traffic to Oprah.com (3.7 million visitors)
-- The Pepsi Street Motion sweepstakes, which resulted in a 434-percent
increase to 689,000 visitors to pepsistreetmotion.com
Additionally, the following state lottery sites saw traffic increases
in July: CALottery.com (up 18 percent to 1.4 million), FLALottery.com (up
24 percent to 1.4 million), Powerball.com (up 9 percent to 1.4 million),
TXLottery.com (up 11 percent to 827,000), OhioLottery.com (up 15 percent to
549,000), IllinoisLottery.com (up 12 percent to 360,000), MOLottery.com (up
18 percent to 360,000), MASSLottery.com (up 36 percent to 359,000) and
NC-EducationLottery.org (up 6 percent to 345,000).
Americans Take to the Streets in July
Consumers continued to plan summer vacations throughout the month of
July, driving traffic to Car Rental sites. Category visitation increased 9
percent to 7.1 million visitors, placing it among the top gaining
categories for the month. Enterprise led the category with 2.4 million
visitors, marking an 8-percent gain versus June, while traffic to
Budget.com rose 32 percent to 2.3 million visitors. Hertz and Avis also
experienced gains, up 9 percent to 1.9 million visitors and 1 percent to
1.7 million visitors, respectively.
As Americans prepared for these excursions, sites offering regional and
local information saw a 9-percent increase to 97.6 million visitors.
Leading the pack was the AOL Local Network, up 3 percent to 59.7 million
visitors, followed by the Yahoo! Local Network with 34.3 million visitors
(up 2 percent), and Real Cities Network with 28.6 million visitors (up 2
percent).
Real Estate and Moving Sites Attract Attention in July
Despite the sagging housing market, Americans continued to show an
interest in real estate, as evidenced by the 7-percent increase in traffic
to real estate and moving information sites. Move Network led the category
with 11.2 million visitors, up 5-percent from June. MSN and AOL Real Estate
each experienced impressive gains, with 5.1 million visitors (a 25-percent
increase) and 4.2 million visitors (a 43-percent increase), respectively.
Top 50 Properties
Within the Top 50 Properties ranking, Yahoo! Sites retained its number
one position, drawing more than 129 million unique visitors in July. Dell,
Facebook.com, JPMorgan Chase, and Overstock.com all re-entered the ranking,
each reaching more than 14 million unique visitors. Finally, ARTISTdirect
Network enjoyed an eight-spot increase to number 36, drawing nearly 17
million unique visitors in July.
Top 50 Ad Focus
Advertising.com remained atop the Ad Focus ranking, reaching more than
84 percent of the 173.2 million Americans online. Also within the top 10,
Tribal Fusion moved up one spot to number five, touching nearly 107 million
unique visitors. Precision Click enjoyed a strong debut in the ranking,
entering this month at number 15, while EA Online Games and CNET re-entered
the ranking at numbers 47 and 50, respectively.
TABLE 1
Top Ten Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors*
July 2006 vs. June 2006
Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Rank by
Jun-06 Jul-06 Percentage Unique
Property (000) (000) Change Visitors
Total Internet
Population 172,907 173,191 0% N/A
WildTangent Network 1,572 6,233 296% 144
McClatchy Corporation 2,772 7,012 153% 130
HI5.COM 2,102 4,030 92% 215
McDonald's 2,684 5,012 87% 185
IMAGESHACK.US 5,890 9,847 67% 87
PCH.COM 6,302 9,997 59% 85
THUMBPLAY.COM 3,516 5,325 51% 172
PartyGaming 4,582 6,712 46% 138
Yellow Book Network 2,883 4,188 45% 205
OPRAH.COM 2,585 3,658 42% 236
* Ranking based on the top 250 properties in July 2006.
TABLE 2
Top Ten Gaining Categories by Unique Visitors
July 2006 vs. June 2006
Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Jun-06 Jul-06 Percentage
(000) (000) Change
Total Internet : Total Audience 172,907 173,191 0%
Politics 6,478 8,101 25%
Lotto/Sweepstakes 28,028 33,366 19%
Education - Information 45,323 52,512 16%
Online Gambling 23,289 25,682 10%
Regional/Local 89,289 97,565 9%
Car Rental 6,507 7,110 9%
Coupons 18,806 20,316 8%
Real Estate 42,198 45,358 7%
Job Search 14,874 15,800 6%
Classifieds 35,255 37,423 6%
TABLE 3
Top 50 Properties
July 2006
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
Unique Visitors (000)
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Rank Property Unique Rank Property Unique
Visitors Visitors
(000) (000)
Total Internet
Users 173,191
1 Yahoo! Sites 129,439 26 Target Corporation 23,394
2 Time Warner Network 121,068 27 CBS Corporation 20,855
3 Microsoft Sites 117,791 28 Real.com Network 20,854
4 Google Sites 103,860 29 CareerBuilder LLC 20,802
5 eBay 75,814 30 Gannett Sites 19,661
6 MYSPACE.COM 54,522 31 Shopzilla.com Sites 18,602
7 Ask Network 52,061 32 Vendare Media 18,553
8 Amazon Sites 46,788 33 Comcast Corporation 17,644
9 New York Times Digital 38,133 34 ESPN 17,336
10 Verizon Communications
Corporation 36,605 35 Cox Enterprises Inc. 17,126
11 Weather Channel, The 35,021 36 ARTISTdirect Network 16,959
12 Apple Computer, Inc. 31,102 37 Trip Network Inc. 16,518
13 Viacom Digital 30,767 38 WhitePages 16,450
14 CNET Networks 30,468 39 E.W. Scripps 16,094
15 Adobe Sites 30,122 40 YOUTUBE.COM 16,080
16 Expedia Inc 29,724 41 Weatherbug Property 16,016
17 Monster Worldwide 28,409 42 ORBITZ.COM 15,802
18 Wikipedia Sites 28,121 43 EA Online 15,681
19 United Online, Inc 26,788 44 Photobucket.com LLC 15,551
20 Wal-Mart 26,550 45 iVillage.com: The Womens
21 Gorilla Nation Media 26,448 Network 15,227
22 Disney Online 25,879 46 Capital One 14,960
23 AT&T, Inc. 25,190 47 Dell 14,745
24 Lycos, Inc. 23,688 48 FACEBOOK.COM 14,365
25 Bank of America 23,500 49 JPMorgan Chase Property 14,361
50 OVERSTOCK.COM 14,335
TABLE 4
Ad Focus Ranking July 2006
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
Unique Visitors (000)
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Rank Property Unique
Visitors Reach %
(000)
Total Internet Users 173,191 100%
1 Advertising.com** 146,212 84%
2 Yahoo! 128,381 74%
3 ValueClick** 127,694 74%
4 AOL Media Network 112,709 65%
5 Tribal Fusion** 106,957 62%
6 Casale Media Network** 105,771 61%
7 MSN-Windows Live 99,912 58%
8 Google 99,526 57%
9 Vendare Media - TrafficMarketplace** 96,428 56%
10 AOL 87,936 51%
11 24/7 Real Media** 85,940 50%
12 YAHOO.COM Home Page 85,680 49%
13 Burst Media** 83,634 48%
14 Tremor Network 71,001 41%
15 PrecisionClick** 69,029 40%
16 DRIVEpm** 68,172 39%
17 EBAY.COM 67,413 39%
18 AdBrite** 62,144 36%
19 Gorilla Nation Media Network 61,818 36%
20 Blue Lithium** 61,113 35%
21 MSN.COM Home Page 54,869 32%
22 MYSPACE.COM 54,522 31%
23 Ask Network 52,061 30%
24 AdDynamix.com** 43,721 25%
25 Vibrant Media** 39,072 23%
26 EBAY.COM Home Page 37,992 22%
27 ABOUT.COM 32,736 19%
28 Business.com Network 27,871 16%
29 Disney Online 25,879 15%
30 WEATHER.COM 24,064 14%
31 Lycos Network 23,550 14%
32 CareerBuilder Network 21,590 12%
33 CNN 20,648 12%
34 EXPEDIA.COM* 20,225 12%
35 GameDaily Custom Network 19,214 11%
36 IMDB.COM 18,712 11%
37 Vendare Media 18,553 11%
38 SuperPages 17,905 10%
39 The WebMD Health Network 17,699 10%
40 ESPN 17,336 10%
41 ARTISTdirect Network 16,959 10%
42 WhitePages Network 16,388 9%
43 Travelocity All 15,981 9%
44 WeatherBug 15,854 9%
45 ORBITZ.COM 15,802 9%
46 EA Online Syndicated Games 15,724 9%
47 EA Online Games 15,572 9%
48 iVillage.com: The Womens Network 15,227 9%
49 WHITEPAGES.COM 15,194 9%
50 CNET 14,726 9%
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 74 percent of the more than 173 million Internet users in July.
* Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated
entities.
** Denotes 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 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 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 .
SOURCE comScore Networks, Inc.
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CONTACT:
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