COMSCORE, INC. 
By RESTON, Va., Jan. 24, 2011 /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 December 2010 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. With the holiday season in full swing, December saw increased traffic within several content categories including E-cards, Shipping, Retail and even Travel sites. As the fiscal year came to an end, many consumers and businesses turned to Tax and Financial Information/Advice sites to close their books for the year and prepare for the upcoming tax season.
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"The Internet now plays a vital role for Americans during the holiday season, allowing them to do everything from finding online deals and researching future in-store purchases to tracking shipments, booking travel and sending e-cards, gifts and greetings," said Jeff Hackett, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. "Each year we see more Americans using the Internet as a tool during the holidays, with more than 85 percent of Americans online visiting a retail site in December, up from 80 percent last year."
E-cards and Greetings Spread Holiday Cheer
E-card sites, allowing friends and family to send digital seasonal greetings, ranked as the second top gaining category for December growing 32 percent to 27.4 million visitors. MyFunCards.com ranked as the #1 e-card site with 7.1 million unique visitors (up 77 percent), followed by AG Interactive with 5.9 million visitors, a 47-percent increase. Evite.com came in third with 5.4 million, while 123Greetings.com saw 3.3 million visitors (up 35 percent).
The Flowers/Gifts/Greetings site category saw a spike in activity during the month as 36.5 million visitors browsed gift ideas and made easy purchases. AmericanGreetings Property ranked as the category leader with 10.6 million unique visitors in December (up 28 percent). Gifts.com took the #2 spot with 7.7 million visitors, (up 36 percent), followed by Hallmark with 3.8 million (up 10 percent) and 1-800-Flowers.com, Inc. with 2.4 million (up 40 percent). ProFlowers.com more than doubled its audience in December, attracting 2.1 million visitors.
Shipping Sites on the Move
Shipping sites stayed busy throughout the month as they helped deliver gifts in time for the holidays. More than 33.6 million Americans visited a shipping site in December, up 29 percent from the prior month. UPS Sites came in at the top with 17.5 million visitors (up 37 percent), followed by USPS.com with 14.9 million (up 41 percent) and FedEx with 11.7 million (up 36 percent).
Jewelry Sites Shine in December
Many Americans returned to making purchases of luxury goods this holiday season, sending an all-time high of 26.2 million unique visitors to Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories sites during the month. BradfordExchange.com took the top stop in the category with 2.8 million unique visitors in December (up 15 percent), followed by Zale Corporation with 2.3 million visitors (up 26 percent), Coach.com with 2.1 million (up 14 percent) and Swarovski.com with 2.0 million (up 13 percent).
Financial Sites Soar as Q4 Winds Down
Business/Finance sites saw significant growth during the month as businesses turned to focus on closing their books for the year. Financial Information/Advice sites in particular reached a record level of 50.4 million visitors. Tax sites also jumped in December, increasing 40 percent to more than 6 million unique visitors.
Top 50 Properties
Yahoo! Sites ranked as the #1 property in December with 181.2 million visitors, followed by Google Sites with 179.3 million and Microsoft Sites with 177.0 million. Amazon Sites, which saw its highest month of traffic on record from the holiday shopping surge, climbed 3 positions to rank as the #7 property overall with more than 91 million visitors. The Weather Channel and WeatherBug property both moved up the rankings in December - jumping 6 positions and 8 positions, respectively - as the combination of winter blizzards and holiday travel had consumers urgently checking for weather updates.
Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking
Google Ad Network led the December Ad Focus ranking with a reach of 93.3 percent of Americans online, followed by Yahoo! Network Plus with an 86.6-percent reach, Yahoo! Sites with 85.5 percent and AOL Advertising with 85.0 percent. Amazon.com climbed 5 positions to capture the #37 spot with a 36.0-percent reach.
A Note about comScore's Ad Focus Ranking: Since the release of October 2010 data, the Ad Focus Ranking now excludes custom entities reportable by comScore.
Table 1
comScore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique
Visitors* (U.S.)
December 2010 vs. November 2010
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Total Unique Visitors (000)
Rank by
Unique
Nov-10 Dec-10 % Change Visitors
Total Internet : Total
Audience 212,296 211,860 0 N/A
McAfee.com Sites 3,838 9,735 154 173
JibJab Media 4,534 10,601 134 153
KeywordBlocks.com 3,114 6,487 108 233
SurfCanyon.com 4,651 8,218 77 198
FunnyorDie 4,453 7,245 63 221
Blinkx 4,292 6,440 50 235
Weather Underground 9,768 14,072 44 115
Wizard101.com 5,374 7,675 43 212
USPS.COM 10,569 14,856 41 106
UPS Sites 12,751 17,454 37 90
*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in December 2010. Excludes
entities whose growth was primarily due to
implementation of Media Metrix 360 unified digital audience
measurement.
Table 2
comScore Top 10 Gaining Site Categories by Percentage Change in
Unique Visitors (U.S.)
December 2010 vs. November 2010
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Total Unique Visitors (000)
---------------------------
Nov-10 Dec-10 % Change
------ ------ --------
Total Internet : Total Audience 212,296 211,860 0
------------------------------- ------- ------- ---
Business/Finance - Taxes 4,291 6,016 40
------------------------ ----- ----- ---
Services - e-cards 20,665 27,376 32
------------------ ------ ------ ---
Directories/Resources - Shipping 26,186 33,671 29
-------------------------------- ------ ------ ---
Retail - Flowers/Gifts/Greetings 30,233 36,505 21
-------------------------------- ------ ------ ---
Retail - Jewelry/Luxury Goods/
Accessories 22,181 26,188 18
------------------------------ ------ ------ ---
Business/Finance - Financial
Information/Advice 43,156 50,375 17
---------------------------- ------ ------ ---
Retail - Sports/Outdoor 32,731 37,811 16
----------------------- ------ ------ ---
Retail - Movies 27,891 32,104 15
--------------- ------ ------ ---
Retail - Toys 27,040 30,812 14
------------- ------ ------ ---
Travel - Airlines 25,768 29,038 13
----------------- ------ ------ ---
Table 3
comScore Top 50 Properties (U.S.)
December 2010
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Unique Unique
Rank Property Visitors Rank Property Visitors
---- -------- -------- ---- -------- --------
(000) (000)
---- ----
Total Internet : Total
Audience 211,860
----------------------- -------
1 Yahoo! Sites 181,219 26 ESPN 40,158
--- ------------ ------- --- ---- ------
Federated Media
2 Google Sites 179,252 27 Publishing 39,089
--- ------------ ------- --- ---------------- ------
3 Microsoft Sites 176,963 28 YellowBook Network 38,199
--- --------------- ------- --- ------------------ ------
4 FACEBOOK.COM 153,886 29 Gannett Sites 37,935
--- ------------ ------- --- ------------- ------
5 AOL, Inc. 111,938 30 Target Corporation 37,289
--- --------- ------- --- ------------------ ------
6 Ask Network 94,353 31 Break Media Network 36,597
--- ----------- ------ --- ------------------- ------
Superpages.com
7 Amazon Sites 91,120 32 Network 35,232
--- ------------ ------ --- --------------- ------
Alloy Digital
8 Glam Media 87,751 33 Network 34,323
--- ---------- ------ --- -------------- ------
9 Turner Digital 87,721 34 Adobe Sites 33,532
--- -------------- ------ --- ----------- ------
10 CBS Interactive 86,013 35 WeatherBug Property 32,594
--- --------------- ------ --- ------------------- ------
AT&T Interactive
11 Viacom Digital 84,456 36 Network 30,964
--- -------------- ------ --- ----------------- ------
Wikimedia Foundation iVillage.com: The
12 Sites 77,753 37 Womens Network 30,835
--- --------------------- ------ --- ------------------ ------
13 Apple Inc. 75,090 38 Disney Online 30,740
--- ---------- ------ --- ------------- ------
Scripps Networks
14 eBay 70,436 39 Interactive Inc. 29,337
--- ---- ------ --- ----------------- ------
15 New York Times Digital 69,657 40 Best Buy Sites 29,327
--- ---------------------- ------ --- -------------- ------
16 Demand Media 67,274 41 Tribune Interactive 29,091
--- ------------ ------ --- ------------------- ------
17 Fox Interactive Media 65,491 42 Sears Sites 28,706
--- --------------------- ------ --- ----------- ------
18 VEVO 60,293 43 WordPress 27,987
--- ---- ------ --- --------- ------
19 Comcast Corporation 57,243 44 SAY: Media Sites 27,882
--- ------------------- ------ --- ---------------- ------
Verizon
Communications
20 Answers.com Sites 52,345 45 Corporation 27,066
--- ----------------- ------ --- --------------- ------
21 Wal-Mart 51,375 46 Everyday Health 26,790
--- -------- ------ --- --------------- ------
22 craigslist, inc. 51,017 47 LINKEDIN.COM 26,577
--- ---------------- ------ --- ------------ ------
NetShelter Technology
23 Media 44,959 48 NBC Universal 26,444
--- ---------------------- ------ --- ------------- ------
24 Weather Channel, The 44,208 49 Conde Nast Digital 26,300
--- -------------------- ------ --- ------------------ ------
Reader's Digest
25 Technorati Media 43,120 50 Digital Network 26,280
--- ---------------- ------ --- ---------------- ------
Table 4
comScore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.)
December 2010
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Unique Unique
Visitors % Visitors
Rank Property (000) Reach Rank Property (000) % Reach
Total Internet
: Total
Audience 211,860 100.0
Google Ad
1 Network** 197,723 93.3 26 YOUTUBE.COM* 117,717 55.6
Yahoo! Network
2 Plus** 183,462 86.6 27 Adify** 115,099 54.3
3 Yahoo! Sites 181,219 85.5 28 AOL, Inc. 111,938 52.8
AOL CPX
4 Advertising** 180,010 85.0 29 Interactive** 102,242 48.3
5 Google 171,281 80.8 30 Kontera** 99,240 46.8
Turn Media
6 Platform** 168,796 79.7 31 Ask Network 94,353 44.5
ValueClick AdBlade
7 Networks** 167,774 79.2 32 Network** 89,626 42.3
24/7 Real
8 Media** 165,228 78.0 33 Glam Media 87,751 41.4
Collective
9 Display** 159,393 75.2 34 Bing 87,304 41.2
10 AdBrite** 155,504 73.4 35 Windows Live 78,077 36.9
11 FACEBOOK.COM 153,886 72.6 36 Meebo 76,561 36.1
Specific
12 Media** 151,360 71.4 37 AMAZON.COM 76,297 36.0
Microsoft Media
13 Network US** 147,502 69.6 38 ShareThis 75,663 35.7
Technorati
14 Vibrant Media** 145,955 68.9 39 Media** 74,919 35.4
Traffic
15 Marketplace** 143,430 67.7 40 Demand Media 67,274 31.8
16 Tribal Fusion** 143,144 67.6 41 MediaWhiz** 65,492 30.9
FOX Audience Lotame
17 Network** 142,015 67.0 42 Solutions** 63,403 29.9
Monster Career
Ad Network
18 AudienceScience** 141,787 66.9 43 (CAN)** 61,801 29.2
Dedicated
19 interclick** 140,206 66.2 44 Media** 60,747 28.7
MTV Networks
20 Burst Media** 138,965 65.6 45 Music 59,667 28.2
Ybrant -
Oridian -
Adconion Media ADdynamix
21 Group** 133,424 63.0 46 Network** 57,555 27.2
Casale Media -
22 MediaNet** 128,426 60.6 47 WALMART.COM 48,043 22.7
NetShelter
Technology
23 MSN 127,939 60.4 48 Media 44,959 21.2
Technorati
24 Undertone** 119,367 56.3 49 Media 43,120 20.4
25 ContextWeb** 118,486 55.9 50 About 42,285 20.0
Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that
viewed a particular entity at least once in November. For instance,
Yahoo! Sites was seen by 85.5 percent of the 212 million Internet
users in December.
* 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.
About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital business analytics. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.
SOURCE comScore, Inc.
