• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Holiday-Related Content Drove December Web Activity, According to comScore Media Metrix Top 50 Online Property Ranking

Posted on: Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 15:00 CST

RESTON, Va., Jan. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- comScore Media Metrix today released its monthly analysis of consumer activity at top online properties and categories. As anticipated, holiday-related sites garnered strong traffic in December, with the strongest gains realized by shipping sites, jewelry/luxury goods providers and retail - music outlets. December also saw a rise in visitation to multi-media content.

"Consumers once again turned to the Internet in December to aid them in all aspects of their holiday celebrations," said Peter Daboll, president and CEO of comScore Media Metrix. "From purchasing and shipping gifts, to sending holiday greetings and finding recipes for holiday meals, Americans utilized the Web to aid in their holiday planning and preparations."

AROUND THE WEB

Shipping -- Traffic to shipping sites grew 31 percent over a year ago showing the largest growth of any category in December. UPS Sites led the category with 18.6 million visitors (up 42 percent), followed by USPS.com with 15.2 million visitors (up 45 percent), and FedEx.com with 11.4 million visitors (up 35 percent). Stamps.com, a site that allows consumers to print their own stamps from a home printer, also generated a 35 percent increase in December, thanks in part to a feature that allows customers to personalize stamps by uploading their favorite photos.

Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories -- After a strong November, the Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories category demonstrated continued momentum, showing a 22 percent gain in unique visitors during December. RedEnvelope.com also achieved significant growth in December, drawing 2.4 million unique visitors, up 62 percent versus the prior month. Consumers' increased comfort in purchasing high-ticket items online this year also drove significant growth for online high-end retailers including Tiffany & Co. (2 million visitors, up 47 percent), Kay Jewelers (1 million visitors, up 63 percent), and BurberryUSAOnline.com (313,000 visitors, up 128 percent).

Retail Music -- Online music retail concluded a strong 2005 with a 22 percent increase in December, compared to the previous month. Barnes & Noble led the category with 9.5 million visitors, up 33 percent from November. Ranking a close second in the category, iTunes drew 9.3 million visitors (also up 33 percent), as iTunes gift certificates proved to be a popular gift this holiday season. Some retailers even found success piggybacking on the iPod/iTunes phenomenon. Soundsgood.com, an audiobook retailer, almost certainly benefited from the combined popularity of portable digital media players and the tradition of holiday book-gifting, as it drew 1 million visitors in December (up 144 percent).

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

Spreading goodwill over the Internet during the holidays had a decidedly viral effect, as evidenced by the tremendous December growth in several sites devoted to multimedia content. Sites normally garnering very modest traffic saw visitation explode virtually overnight as friends and family members alike forwarded greetings, spoofs and humorous short videos.

-- Powerpres.com -- Animated holiday greetings on Powerpres.com, featuring colorful characters like a car-driving elephant and a drum-playing penguin, drove 6.4 million visitors to the site. The viral nature of these greetings fueled an astounding increase over the 31,000 unique visitors that frequented the site in November. -- ToonedIn.com -- Multimedia site ToonedIn.com attracted 6.6 million visitors in December, driven by humorous "shorts" and trailers including seasonal offerings. -- JacquieLawson.com -- Jacquie Lawson's animated e-cards were a holiday hit once again as her site drew 6.4 million visitors in December (up 202 percent). A seasonal favorite for years, Jacquie debuted several new e-cards this December, including ones entitled "The 12 Days of Christmas,""The Christmas Fishbowl," and "White Winter." -- MLB.com -- Rumors of trades involving big-name players during Major League Baseball's annual "Winter Meetings," where front office executive meet to discuss trades and other personnel decisions, drew 6.8 million visitors to MLB.com, marking a 51 percent increase over the previous month. TABLE 1 Top Ten Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* December 2005 vs. November 2005 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix Rank by Nov-05 Dec-05 Percentage Unique Property (000) (000) Change Visitors Total Internet Population 169,747 170,285 0 N/A Powerpres.com 31 6,404 20,409 135 Blastcomm.com 20 3,710 18,243 225 Toonedin.com 169 6,601 3,817 131 Jacquielawson.com 2,115 6,388 202 136 Registrydefender.com 1,167 3,324 185 244 Nestle 3,380 6,638 96 130 Forbes Property 5,391 10,552 96 74 Adobe Sites 12,171 22,600 86 26 Roxio, Inc 2,824 4,388 55 189 MLB.com 4,511 6,822 51 127 *Ranking based on the top 250 properties in December 2005. TABLE 2 Top Ten Gaining Categories by Unique Visitors December 2005 vs. November 2005 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix Nov-05 Dec-05 Percentage (000) (000) Change Total Internet Population 169,747 170,285 0 Shipping 27,246 35,617 31 Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories 16,426 20,076 22 Retail - Music 28,584 34,751 22 Multimedia 63,734 77,118 21 Taxes 6,152 7,385 20 Gay/Lesbian 1,526 1,778 17 Sports/Outdoor 24,474 28,072 15 Mall 35,551 40,751 15 Consumer Electronics 54,967 62,049 13 Books 58,197 65,672 13 TABLE 3 Top 50 Properties December 2005 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 170,285 1 Yahoo! Sites 127,132 26 Adobe Sites 22,600 2 MSN-Microsoft Sites 116,665 27 Expedia Inc 22,316 3 Time Warner Network 116,381 28 Gorilla Nation Media 22,232 4 Google Sites 93,124 29 Sears Sites 21,386 5 eBay 74,814 30 Real.com Network 21,233 6 Amazon Sites 57,604 31 Bank of America 20,546 7 Ask Jeeves 42,440 32 Gannett Sites 18,871 8 Wal-Mart 38,069 33 UPS Sites 18,687 9 Viacom Online 36,728 34 Circuit City Stores, Inc. 17,648 10 New York Times Digital 34,335 35 JCPenney Sites 17,610 11 Myspace.com 32,209 36 Trip Network Inc. 17,563 12 Verizon Communications 37 Wikipedia Sites 17,296 Corp. 32,063 13 CNET Networks 31,407 38 Comcast Corporation 16,908 14 Target Corporation 31,178 39 E.W. Scripps 16,686 15 Weather Channel, The 30,512 40 Weatherbug Property 16,490 16 Walt Disney Internet 41 Dell 16,403 Group (WDIG) 29,939 17 Apple Computer, Inc. 27,906 42 Citysearch 15,924 18 United Online, Inc 27,906 43 ESPN 15,871 19 AT&T, Inc. 26,109 44 USPS.com 15,222 20 Vendare Media 24,706 45 WhitePages 15,002 21 Lycos, Inc. 24,672 46 Infospace Network 14,671 22 Monster Worldwide 24,443 47 NFL Internet Group 14,526 23 Best Buy Sites 23,976 48 Earthlink 14,482 24 Shopzilla.com Sites 23,172 49 Hewlett Packard 13,784 25 Overstock.com 22,917 50 AmericanGreetings Property 13,620 TABLE 4 Ad Focus Ranking December 2005 Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations Unique Visitors (000) Source: comScore Media Metrix Unique Unique Visitors Reach Visitors Reach Rank Property (000) % Rank Property (000) % Total Internet Users 170,285 100% 1 Advertising.com** 134,139 79% 26 Weather.com 28,164 17% 2 Yahoo! 124,597 73% 27 Vendare Media 24,706 15% 3 AOL Media Network 108,946 64% 28 Lycos Network 24,571 14% 4 Fastclick** 106,741 63% 29 MSNBC 24,391 14% 5 MSN 101,622 60% 30 Expedia Inc 22,316 13% 6 AOL 86,775 51% 31 CNN 19,472 11% 7 Google 86,461 51% 32 Disney Online 18,318 11% 8 Tribal Fusion** 81,383 48% 33 Bizrate.com 16,413 10% 9 Casale Media Network** 81,114 48% 34 WeatherBug 16,114 9% 10 Vendare Media - 35 ESPN 15,871 9% TrafficMarketplace** 80,125 47% 11 Yahoo.com Home Page 78,500 46% 36 CNET 15,836 9% 12 Blue Lithium** 72,605 43% 37 Classmates.com 15,816 9% 13 ValueClick Media** 65,296 38% 38 Citysearch.com 15,815 9% 14 Ebay.com 64,869 38% 39 IMDB.com 15,742 9% 15 24/7 Real Media** 64,716 38% 40 Mamma Media Solutions** 15,106 9% 16 BURST! Media** 62,539 37% 41 WhitePages Network 14,962 9% 17 Gorilla Nation Media 42 Real.com 14,840 9% Network 62,065 36% 18 MSN.com Home Page 53,857 32% 43 SuperPages Network 14,806 9% 19 Ask Jeeves 42,440 25% 44 Coolsavings.com Total Activity 14,314 8% 20 Ebay.com Home Page 40,530 24% 45 FOX Sports on MSN 14,234 8% 21 AdDynamix.com** 40,352 24% 46 MaxOnline** 14,198 8% 22 Vibrant Media** 34,764 20% 47 Cheaptickets. com 14,155 8% 23 Myspace.com 32,209 19% 48 Whitepages.com 13,988 8% 24 Business.com Network 30,488 18% 49 CareerBuilder Network 13,436 8% 25 About.com 29,942 18% 50 iVillage.com: The Womens Network 13,082 8% Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in December. For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 73 percent of the more than 170 million Internet users in December. 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, Yahoo!, Verizon, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Tribune Interactive, ESPN, Nestle, MBNA, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Merck and Orbitz. For more information, please visit http://www.comscore.com/ .

First Call Analyst: FCMN Contact:

comScore Networks

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

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

Source: PRNewswire

More News in this Category