comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 U.S. Web Properties for January 2012
RESTON, Va., Feb. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly analysis of U.S. web activity at the top online properties for January 2012 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. Tax sites rapidly grew in January as millions of Americans looked to begin preparing to file. Many Americans also booked travel to escape the winter doldrums, while others resolved to begin the new year by researching new careers and education programs.
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"In January, the average U.S. Internet user spent a record 36 hours online, reflecting the growing importance of digital media to Americans' daily lives," said Jeff Hackett, executive vice president of comScore. "Among the biggest category gainers in this heavy month of Internet usage were Travel and Career sites, which posted double-digit gains, and of course Tax sites as the non-procrastinators among us decided to get an early jump on getting their refunds."
Winter Blues Melt at Travel Sites
Several Travel subcategories were among the top-gainers in January, including Transaction sites which grew 28 percent to 3.7 million visitors. TravelPN.com led the category with 798,000 visitors (up 11 percent), followed by Viator.com with 642,000 (up 9 percent), WWTE.com with 442,000 (up 86 percent) and OneTime.com with 278,000 (up 48 percent).
Car Rental sites jumped 22 percent to 6.2 million visitors during the month, led by Enterprise Rent-A-Car Company with 3.2 million visitors (up 14 percent). Avis Budget Group ranked second with nearly 2 million visitors (up 19 percent), followed by Hertz with 1.3 million (up 21 percent), CarRentals.com with 793,000 (up 30 percent) and Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. with 790,000 (up 27 percent).
A trip wouldn't be complete without lodging, so it is not a surprise that Hotels/Resorts also ranked among the fastest-growing Travel sites. The category attracted 33.2 million visitors in January, representing an 18-percent increase. Marriott secured the #1 position in the category with 5.1 million visitors (up 30 percent), followed by Disney Parks & Travel with 4.8 million (up 36 percent), Hilton Hotels with 4.6 million (up 25 percent) and Expedia Hotels with 3.3 million.
Career-Minded Americans Research Options Online
As the new year began, Americans turned their focus to career services and education. Traffic to Job Search sites grew 27 percent in January to 24.2 million visitors. Indeed.com Job Search ranked as the category leader with 13.7 million visitors (up 33 percent), followed by CareerBuilder.com Job Search with 9.8 million (up 27 percent), Monster.com Job Search with 5 million (up 28 percent) and SimplyHired.com with 3.5 million (up 42 percent).
Training and Education sites also gained traction, with a sizeable increase of 23 percent to 14.7 million visitors. LiveCareer.com topped the list with 1.2 million visitors (up 58 percent), followed by AesopOnline.com with 940,000 (up 44 percent), FastWeb.com with 736,000 (up 30 percent) and Learn4Good.com with 599,000.
Tax Sites Spike as Season Begins
Visitation to Tax sites swelled in January as millions decided to get a jump on filing and hopefully getting a refund check from Uncle Sam. More than 30.7 million Americans visited a Tax site in January, up 359 percent to rank as the fastest growing category.
Top 50 Properties
Google Sites ranked as the #1 property in January with 187.4 million visitors, followed by Microsoft Sites with 179.2 million and Yahoo! Sites with 177.2 million. LinkedIn.com jumped 8 positions to rank #29 with 36.8 million visitors, while Everyday Health, which helped many fulfill their New Year's resolutions to be healthier, leapt 10 positions to #38.
Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking
Google Ad Network led the January Ad Focus ranking with a reach of 92.9 percent of Americans online, followed by AOL Advertising (85 percent), Yahoo! Network Plus (84.8 percent), ShareThis (82.4 percent) and AT&T AdWorks (82.3 percent).
Table 1
comScore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.)
January 2012 vs. December 2011
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix
-----------------------------
Total Unique Visitors (000)
--------------------------
Dec-11 Jan-12 % Change Rank by
Unique
Visitors
--- -------- --------
Total Internet : Total Audience 220,439 220,154 0 N/A
------------------------------- ------- ------- --- ---
IRS.GOV 5,044 16,259 222 107
------- ----- ------ --- ---
ED.GOV 5,201 9,160 76 185
------ ----- ----- --- ---
Pinterest.com 7,516 11,716 56 148
------------- ----- ------ --- ---
Travelocity 4,869 6,957 43 241
----------- ----- ----- --- ---
Kayak.com Network 5,851 8,087 38 210
----------------- ----- ----- --- ---
ChaCha.com 9,151 12,279 34 138
---------- ----- ------ --- ---
Orbitz Worldwide 8,965 11,868 32 141
---------------- ----- ------ --- ---
Info.com 5,883 7,740 32 219
-------- ----- ----- --- ---
Dominion Enterprises 9,622 12,650 31 131
-------------------- ----- ------ --- ---
Indeed 12,928 16,985 31 103
------ ------ ------ --- ---
*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in January 2012. Excludes entities whose growth was primarily due to tagging through unified digital audience measurement.
Table 2
comScore Top 10 Gaining Site Categories by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.)
January 2012 vs. December 2011
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix
-----------------------------
Total Unique Visitors (000)
--------------------------
Dec-11 Jan-12 % Change
------ ------ --------
Total Internet : Total Audience 220,439 220,154 0
------------------------------- ------- ------- ---
Business/Finance - Taxes 6,685 30,715 359
------------------------ ----- ------ ---
Retail - Computer Software 41,616 54,081 30
-------------------------- ------ ------ ---
Travel - Transactions 2,913 3,730 28
--------------------- ----- ----- ---
Career Services & Development - Job Search 19,098 24,209 27
------------------------------------------ ------ ------ ---
Career Services & Development - Training and
Education 11,979 14,679 23
-------------------------------------------- ------ ------ ---
Travel - Car Rental 5,079 6,197 22
------------------- ----- ----- ---
Travel - Hotels/Resorts 28,035 33,213 18
----------------------- ------ ------ ---
Career Services & Development - Career
Resources 46,145 54,398 18
-------------------------------------- ------ ------ ---
Entertainment - News 100,121 116,229 16
-------------------- ------- ------- ---
Travel - Ground/Cruise 12,164 14,097 16
---------------------- ------ ------ ---
Table 3
comScore Top 50 Properties (U.S.)
January 2012
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix
-----------------------------
Rank Property Unique Rank Property Unique
Visitors Visitors
(000) (000)
--- --- --- -----
Total Internet : Total Audience 220,154
------------------------------- -------
1 Google Sites 187,368 26 Twitter.com 38,410
--- ------------ ------- --- ----------- ------
2 Microsoft Sites 179,220 27 ESPN 38,296
--- --------------- ------- --- ---- ------
3 Yahoo! Sites 177,249 28 Technorati Media 38,227
--- ------------ ------- --- ---------------- ------
4 Facebook.com 163,505 29 LinkedIn.com 36,848
--- ------------ ------- --- ------------ ------
5 Amazon Sites 109,997 30 NetShelter Technology Media 34,954
--- ------------ ------- --- --------------------------- ------
6 AOL, Inc. 107,085 31 Tribune Interactive 34,517
--- --------- ------- --- ------------------- ------
7 Ask Network 93,954 32 AT&T Interactive Network 33,780
--- ----------- ------ --- ------------------------ ------
8 Glam Media 90,895 33 Disney Online 32,708
--- ---------- ------ --- ------------- ------
9 Wikimedia Foundation Sites 88,527 34 iVillage.com: The Womens Network 31,942
--- -------------------------- ------ --- -------------------------------- ------
10 Turner Digital 84,041 35 Alloy Digital Network 30,782
--- -------------- ------ --- --------------------- ------
11 CBS Interactive 81,631 36 Yelp.com 30,668
--- --------------- ------ --- -------- ------
12 Apple Inc. 81,536 37 Fox News Digital Network 30,283
--- ---------- ------ --- ------------------------ ------
13 New York Times Digital 80,161 38 Everyday Health 30,208
--- ---------------------- ------ --- --------------- ------
14 Viacom Digital 76,254 39 Netflix.com 29,777
--- -------------- ------ --- ----------- ------
15 eBay 71,554 40 Superpages.com Network 28,971
--- ---- ------ --- ---------------------- ------
16 Federated Media Publishing 70,260 41 Break Media 28,252
--- -------------------------- ------ --- ----------- ------
17 Demand Media 61,344 42 The Washington Post Company 27,602
--- ------------ ------ --- --------------------------- ------
18 VEVO 59,000 43 Scripps Networks Interactive Inc. 27,580
--- ---- ------ --- --------------------------------- ------
19 Weather Channel, The 58,643 44 Verizon Communications Corporation 26,763
--- -------------------- ------ --- ---------------------------------- ------
20 craigslist, inc. 53,431 45 NBC Universal 26,546
--- ---------------- ------ --- ------------- ------
21 Comcast Corporation 52,890 46 Target Corporation 26,142
--- ------------------- ------ --- ------------------ ------
22 Gannett Sites 46,620 47 Cox Enterprises Inc. 25,529
--- ------------- ------ --- -------------------- ------
23 Answers.com Sites 44,377 48 Discovery Digital Media Sites 25,265
--- ----------------- ------ --- ----------------------------- ------
24 Wal-Mart 41,462 49 Internet Brands, Inc. 25,263
--- -------- ------ --- --------------------- ------
25 Adobe Sites 41,451 50 Myspace 25,124
--- ----------- ------ --- ------- ------
Table 4
comScore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.)
January 2011
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix
-----------------------------
Rank Property Unique % Reach Rank Property Unique % Reach
Visitors (000) Visitors (000)
--- --- --- ---
Total Internet : Total Audience 220,154 100.0
------------------------------- ------- -----
1 Google Ad Network** 204,468 92.9 26 CPX Interactive** 124,089 56.4
--- ------------------ ------- ---- --- ---------------- ------- ----
2 AOL Advertising** 187,109 85.0 27 Adconion Media Group** 120,144 54.6
--- ---------------- ------- ---- --- --------------------- ------- ----
3 Yahoo! Network Plus** 186,587 84.8 28 Undertone** 118,198 53.7
--- -------------------- ------- ---- --- ---------- ------- ----
4 ShareThis 181,372 82.4 29 Traffic Marketplace** 116,903 53.1
--- --------- ------- ---- --- -------------------- ------- ----
5 AT&T AdWorks** 181,247 82.3 30 AOL, Inc. 107,085 48.6
--- ------------- ------- ---- --- --------- ------- ----
6 Google 179,685 81.6 31 Meebo 98,130 44.6
--- ------ ------- ---- --- ----- ------ ----
7 Yahoo! Sites 177,249 80.5 32 Technorati Media** 97,287 44.2
--- ------------ ------- ---- --- ----------------- ------ ----
8 ValueClick Networks** 176,229 80.0 33 Bing 95,661 43.5
--- -------------------- ------- ---- --- ---- ------ ----
9 24/7 Real Media Global Web Alliance** 176,227 80.0 34 Smowtion Ad Network** 95,226 43.3
--- ------------------------------------- ------- ---- --- -------------------- ------ ----
10 Microsoft Media Network US** 174,276 79.2 35 Ask Network 93,954 42.7
--- --------------------------- ------- ---- --- ----------- ------ ----
11 Tribal Fusion** 170,715 77.5 36 Glam Media 90,895 41.3
--- -------------- ------- ---- --- ---------- ------ ----
12 Facebook.com 163,505 74.3 37 Amazon.com* 90,774 41.2
--- ------------ ------- ---- --- ---------- ------ ----
13 Casale Media - MediaNet** 162,269 73.7 38 Rocket Fuel** 89,373 40.6
--- ------------------------ ------- ---- --- ------------ ------ ----
14 AdBrite** 162,088 73.6 39 Wikipedia.org 88,224 40.1
--- -------- ------- ---- --- ------------- ------ ----
15 PulsePoint** 154,100 70.0 40 Kontera** 86,005 39.1
--- ----------- ------- ---- --- -------- ------ ----
16 Specific Media** 153,336 69.6 41 Monster Career Ad Network (CAN)** 78,243 35.5
--- --------------- ------- ---- --- -------------------------------- ------ ----
17 Collective Display** 151,427 68.8 42 Windows Live 74,579 33.9
--- ------------------- ------- ---- --- ------------ ------ ----
18 AudienceScience** 149,336 67.8 43 Federated Media Publishing 70,260 31.9
--- ---------------- ------- ---- --- -------------------------- ------ ----
19 Cox Digital Solutions - Network** 146,632 66.6 44 Dedicated Media** 67,243 30.5
--- -------------------------------- ------- ---- --- ---------------- ------ ----
20 Vibrant Media** 143,793 65.3 45 About 62,480 28.4
--- -------------- ------- ---- --- ----- ------ ----
21 interclick** 139,508 63.4 46 Demand Media 61,344 27.9
--- ----------- ------- ---- --- ------------ ------ ----
22 Burst Media** 133,900 60.8 47 Weather Channel, The 58,643 26.6
--- ------------ ------- ---- --- -------------------- ------ ----
23 YouTube.com* 126,279 57.4 48 MTV Networks Music 53,932 24.5
--- ----------- ------- ---- --- ------------------ ------ ----
24 MSN 125,561 57.0 49 Redux Media Network** 52,684 23.9
--- --- ------- ---- --- -------------------- ------ ----
25 AdBlade Network** 125,421 57.0 50 Apple.com 49,689 22.6
--- ---------------- ------- ---- --- --------- ------ ----
Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in January. For instance, Yahoo! Sites was seen by 80.1 percent of the 220 million Internet users in January.
* Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated entities.
** Denotes an advertising network.
About comScore Media Metrix
comScore Media Metrix 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 Media Metrix reports are used by financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers. comScore Media Metrix syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.
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