RESTON, Va., Nov. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- comScore, Inc. , a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at the top online properties for October 2008 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. The U.S. presidential election, Halloween and the approaching holiday season were significant drivers of Internet traffic for the month.
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"The historic presidential race had millions of Americans glued to their computers for the latest news during the final stretch of the campaign," commented Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. "Prospective voters were able to get up-to-the minute information on candidates, important issues and the latest poll results as they prepared to check off the box in the voting booth on November 4."
Politics Category Tops Fastest-Growing List in October
October saw a significant surge in traffic to the politics category, as Americans tuned in closely to the presidential and local congressional races. The category grew 40 percent to 28 million visitors in October, making it the fastest growing category for the month.
BarackObama.com was the most visited site in the category with 8.5 million visitors, up 59 percent versus the previous month, followed by JohnMcCain.com with 3.8 million visitors (up 29 percent). October marked the largest audiences of the season for both of the candidates. Other sites generating substantially higher traffic in the month included: CatholicVote.com (up 410 percent to 1.5 million visitors), GOP.com (up 111 percent to 1.2 million visitors), and Factcheck.org (up 96 percent to 1 million visitors). Voting advocacy sites VoteforChange (up 62 percent to 2.4 million visitors) and RocktheVote.com (up 46 percent to 1.1 million visitors) also saw strong gains.
Saturday Night Live's election comedy sketches, including Tina Fey's popular impersonation of Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, helped NBC Universal rank as one of the top 10 gaining properties for the month. NBC Universal's online channel for Saturday Night Live (SNL) content surged 85 percent to 4.4 million visitors in October.
Approaching Holidays and Halloween Cause Traffic Boost at Retail Categories
The combination of Halloween and the looming holiday shopping season resulted in strong traffic increases to several retail categories in October.
Retail -- apparel sites grew 13 percent to more than 67 million visitors as people searched for Halloween costumes, early holiday deals and the latest seasonal apparel in October. The category was led by BuyCostumes.com, which witnessed a 107-percent increase to 9.5 million visitors. Several other costume-related sites also experienced gains in October, including CostumeSuperCenter.com (up 110 percent to 2.6 million visitors) and Costumzee.com (up 161 percent to 2.1 million visitors).
In addition to costume retailers, several other apparel retailers experienced strong traffic growth during the month, including Zappos.com (up 18 percent to 5.1 million visitors), Gap Online (up 24 percent to 4.2 million visitors) and AE.com (up 18 percent to 3.3 million visitors).
With the holidays quickly approaching, traffic to the retail -- toys category surged 17 percent to more than 25 million visitors as Americans searched early for this year's top toys. Toysrus sites led the category with 9.3 million visitors, a gain of 28 percent, followed by Barbie with 3.4 million visitors (up 10 percent) and The LEGO Group with 2.7 million visitors (up 22 percent). Several other popular toy brands also experienced double-digit growth in October, including AmericanGirl.com (up 51 percent), Fisher Price (up 43 percent) and LeapFrog.com (up 90 percent).
Top 50 Properties
Google Sites continued to lead as the most visited property in October with 147 million visitors, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 144.9 million visitors and Microsoft Sites with 123.5 million visitors. All of the top ten properties maintained their positions from September. New arrivals to the ranking this month included NBC Universal, which entered at position #33 with nearly 25 million visitors and JPMorgan Chase Property, which rose to position #41 with the addition of Washington Mutual, bringing the property's combined audience to more than 23 million visitors.
Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking
Platform-A led the October Ad Focus ranking reaching 91 percent of the 190.6 million Americans online. Yahoo! Network followed reaching 86 percent and Google Ad Network captured the third position reaching 83 percent of Americans online. ValueClick Networks moved up one position to #4 reaching 82 percent of online users and Traffic Marketplace rose one position to #8 reaching 74 percent.
TABLE 1 comScore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.) October 2008 vs. September 2008 Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix Total Unique Visitors (000) Sep-08 Oct-08 % Change Rank by Unique Visitors Total Internet : Total Audience 189,468 190,616 1 N/A TheStreet.com Sites 4,135 10,550 155 101 Spencer Gifts, LLC. 2,077 5,058 144 231 HULU.COM 2,850 5,342 87 214 Healthgrades 2,894 5,034 74 234 Everyday Health 14,930 25,781 73 31 BARACKOBAMA.COM 5,350 8,515 59 131 Cablevision 6,049 9,571 58 112 NBC Universal 16,034 24,896 55 33 Kayak.com Network 5,141 7,860 53 144 JPMorgan Chase Property 15,506 23,142 49 41 *Ranking based on the top 250 properties in October 2008 TABLE 2 comScore Top 10 Gaining Categories by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.) October 2008 vs. September 2008 Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix Total Unique Visitors (000) Sep-08 Oct-08 % Change Total Internet : Total Audience 189,468 190,616 1 Politics 20,081 28,016 40 Retail - Flowers/Gifts/Greetings 33,659 40,358 20 Retail - Toys 21,461 25,195 17 e-cards 28,537 33,377 17 Entertainment - Humor 25,486 29,797 17 Retail - Mall 26,509 30,742 16 Gay/Lesbian 2,771 3,189 15 Retail - Apparel 59,354 67,144 13 Teens 28,765 32,505 13 Auto - Manufacturer 22,154 25,015 13 TABLE 3 comScore Top 50 Properties (U.S.) October 2008 Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations Unique Visitors (000) Source: comScore Media Metrix Unique Unique Visitors Visitors Rank Property (000) Rank Property (000) Total Internet : Total Audience 190,616 1 Google Sites 147,035 26 Superpages.com Network 29,387 2 Yahoo! Sites 144,903 27 Verizon Communications Corporation 28,094 3 Microsoft Sites 123,483 28 Gorilla Nation 27,218 4 AOL LLC 111,259 29 Bank of America 26,414 5 Fox Interactive Media 90,636 30 United Online, Inc 26,280 6 eBay 70,737 31 Everyday Health 25,781 7 Ask Network 70,449 32 WordPress 25,392 8 Wikimedia Foundation 33 NBC Universal 24,896 Sites 63,275 9 Amazon Sites 60,099 34 Answers.com Sites 24,865 10 Glam Media 56,640 35 Shopzilla.com Sites 24,350 11 CBS Corporation 52,680 36 Demand Media 23,657 12 New York Times Digital 49,324 37 Weatherbug Property 23,531 13 Turner Network 49,186 38 Monster Worldwide 23,363 14 Apple Inc. 48,673 39 CareerBuilder LLC 23,309 15 FACEBOOK.COM 45,954 40 Photobucket.com LLC 23,271 16 Viacom Digital 45,884 41 JPMorgan Chase Property 23,142 17 AT&T Interactive Network 37,036 42 Real.com Network 23,024 18 craigslist, inc. 36,732 43 Gannett Sites 22,651 19 Adobe Sites 36,004 44 AT&T, Inc. 22,248 20 Weather Channel, The 34,717 45 ESPN 21,941 21 Time Warner - Excluding 46 iVillage.com: The AOL 33,415 Womens Network 21,124 22 Wal-Mart 33,038 47 WebMD Health 19,623 23 Comcast Corporation 31,250 48 WhitePages 19,267 24 Target Corporation 30,950 49 WorldNow - ABC Owned Sites 19,017 25 Disney Online 30,209 50 Expedia Inc 18,402 TABLE 4 comScore Ad Focus Ranking (U.S.) October 2008 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 : Total Audience 190,616 100% 1 Platform-A** 173,713 91% 26 YOUTUBE.COM 80,877 42% 2 Yahoo! Network** 164,080 86% 27 Centro - Potential Reach 80,225 42% 3 Google Ad 28 MYSPACE.COM* 76,257 40% Network** 158,928 83% 4 ValueClick 29 Vibrant Media** 76,000 40% Networks** 155,356 82% 5 Specific Media** 150,176 79% 30 NNN Total Newspapers: U.S. 74,797 39% 6 Tribal Fusion** 144,354 76% 31 Undertone Networks** 74,641 39% 7 Yahoo! 143,089 75% 32 Ask Network 70,449 37% 8 Traffic 33 Gorilla Nation Marketplace** 140,302 74% Media - Potential Reach 68,483 36% 9 Google 138,767 73% 34 Kontera** 64,468 34% 10 24/7 Real Media** 135,528 71% 35 IAC Ad Solutions - Potential Reach 64,422 34% 11 Tremor Media - 36 Pulse 360** 60,430 32% Potential Reach 135,222 71% 12 Casale Media - 37 MSN.COM Home Page 57,617 30% MediaNet** 135,054 71% 13 Adconion Media 38 Ybrant - Oridian - Group** 130,650 69% ADdynamix Network** 56,291 30% 14 YuMe Video Network - 39 EBAY.COM 55,436 29% Potential Reach 130,247 68% 15 interCLICK** 129,477 68% 40 IB Local Network 54,747 29% 16 Revenue Science** 127,186 67% 41 NNN Top 25 52,482 28% 17 DRIVEpm** 123,594 65% 42 TattoMedia** 51,659 27% 18 Turn, Inc** 117,016 61% 43 ITN Digital Networks - Potential Reach 51,633 27% 19 CPX Interactive** 116,817 61% 44 AMAZON.COM 49,102 26% 20 Collective 45 Business.com Media** 113,336 59% Network 47,322 25% 21 ADSDAQ by 46 Intergi - ContextWeb** 113,320 59% Potential Reach 46,861 25% 22 AOL Media Network 111,259 58% 47 QuadrantONE - Potential Reach 46,233 24% 23 MSN-Windows Live 110,615 58% 48 MapQuest 46,049 24% 24 Burst Media** 105,962 56% 49 FACEBOOK.COM 45,954 24% 25 AdBrite** 90,165 47% 50 AdOn Network** 44,095 23%
Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in October. For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 75 percent of the 190 million Internet users in October.
* 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. is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit http://www.comscore.com/boilerplate
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