Comscore Releases Overview of European Internet Usage for May 2011

Spotlight on France Reveals Seasonal Growth in Tax, Car Rental, and Flowers Web Properties

London, UK, July 6, 2011 - Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an overview of Internet usage in Europe, showing 366.9 million unique visitors went online in May 2011 for an average of 26.8 hours per person. This study draws its data from Comscore’s research panel, which measures Internet usage in 49 European markets aggregated under the European region and provides individual reporting on 18 markets. Among the reportable markets, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and Turkey showed the highest average engagement with users from these markets spending an average of more than 30 hours online in the past month.

Overview of European Internet Usage by Country Ranked by Total Unique Visitors (000)
May 2011
Total Europe Audience, Age 15+, Home and Work Locations
Source: Comscore MMX

Location

Total Unique Visitors (000)

Average Hours per Visitor

Average Pages per Visitor

World-Wide

1,373,976

23.9

2,161

Europe

366,862

26.8

2,752

Germany

49,993

24.1

2,638

Russian Federation

48,294

24.0

2,618

France

42,335

27.8

2,682

United Kingdom

36,660

33.9

3,079

Italy

23,210

18.3

1,762

Turkey

22,900

31.8

3,448

Spain

21,450

26.8

2,449

Poland

18,193

26.9

3,061

Netherlands

11,963

35.2

3,467

Sweden

6,161

25.0

2,423

Belgium

5,944

20.5

2,085

Austria

4,676

14.1

1,485

Switzerland

4,666

19.6

1,923

Portugal

4,146

21.5

2,034

Denmark

3,649

21.7

2,256

Finland

3,349

26.0

2,396

Norway

3,227

26.5

2,156

Ireland

2,079

21.5

1,953

Top Web Properties in Europe
Google Sites ranked as the top European web property in May with 333.4 million unique visitors (up 9 percent from a year ago), reaching 90.9 percent of the total European Internet audience. Microsoft Sites continued to rank second with 270.9 million visitors (73.8 percent reach), followed by Facebook.com in third place with 240.0 million visitors (65.4 percent reach). Among the top properties for May, the biggest gains versus April came from The Mozilla Organization (up 52 percent), WordPress (up 13 percent), and VKontakte (up 12 percent).

Europeans continued to spend significant time on social networking sites, with Russian social network VKontakte exhibiting the highest average engagement among the top 30 properties at 496.7 minutes (8.3 hours) on the site. Facebook.com overtook Russian web property Mail.ru Group in May with an average of 326.0 minutes (5.4 hours) spent by visitors on the property, up 15 percent from the prior month. Mail.ru Group visitors spent an average of 315.1 minutes (5.3 hours), up 7 percent. Facebook.com also continued to account for the highest number of page views at 139.8 billion in May (up 21 percent), representing 13.8 percent of all pages viewed in Europe during the month.

Top 30 Properties in Europe by Total Unique Visitors (000)
May 2011
Total Europe Audience, Age 15+, Home and Work Locations
Source: Comscore MMX

Properties

Total Unique Visitors (000)

Total Pages Viewed (MM)

Average Minutes per Visitor

Total Internet : Total Audience

366,862

1,009,540

1,605.2

Google Sites

333,436

99,147

188.6

Microsoft Sites

270,859

27,218

193.0

Facebook.com

240,010

139,769

326.0

Wikimedia Foundation Sites

161,311

2,449

13.0

Yahoo! Sites

141,054

9,682

73.9

eBay

107,689

14,324

59.5

Amazon Sites

91,475

2,658

15.9

The Mozilla Organization

78,079

493

7.3

VEVO

77,670

774

11.8

Apple Inc.

69,872

514

4.8

Mail.ru Group

69,005

31,990

315.1

AOL, Inc.

64,278

1,664

28.5

Glam Media

63,892

937

11.5

Viacom Digital

56,952

537

10.4

Ask Network

56,945

526

4.1

Yandex Sites

55,720

7,817

64.7

Dailymotion.com

53,936

755

14.3

WordPress

52,269

430

5.3

VKontakte

52,123

38,151

496.7

CBS Interactive

51,950

538

8.9

Adobe Sites

48,473

229

3.3

Axel Springer AG

48,162

1,851

17.3

Orange Sites

41,138

4,609

62.0

NetShelter Technology Media

40,712

407

6.1

Deutsche Telekom

40,290

2,501

34.1

Technorati Media

39,621

206

3.1

Twitter.com

36,877

656

14.6

BBC Sites

34,962

1,440

34.0

Schibsted (Anuntis-Infojobs-20minutos)

34,259

5,068

77.2

Skype

33,817

139

51.0

Spotlight: Travel, Taxes, and Flowers Draw Visitation in France
In May 2011, a total of 47.4 million users in France (age 6+) went online, up 3 percent from the previous year. Users in France stayed an average of 1,571.8 minutes or 26.2 hours online in May. Google Sites ranked as the most visited property with 44.5 million unique visitors, followed by Microsoft Sites (40.8 million visitors), and Facebook.com (32.5 million visitors). Luxury retailer Groupe PPR, which attracted 18.2 million visitors, was the fastest gaining property with a 17-percent increase from a month ago.

Top Properties in France
Ranked by Total Unique Visitors (000)
May 2011
Total France, Age 6+, Home and Work Locations
Source: Comscore MMX

Properties

Total Unique Visitors (000)

% Reach

Average Minutes per Visitor

Total Internet : Total Audience

47,374

100.0%

1,571.8

Google Sites

44,530

94.0%

175.9

Microsoft Sites

40,823

86.2%

245.9

Facebook.com

32,480

68.6%

308.8

Orange Sites

23,310

49.2%

99.8

Yahoo! Sites

22,070

46.6%

60.6

CCM-Benchmark

20,844

44.0%

10.5

Wikimedia Foundation Sites

20,656

43.6%

14.2

Iliad - Free.fr Sites

20,520

43.3%

22.0

Groupe Pages Jaunes

19,889

42.0%

13.9

Groupe PPR

18,181

38.4%

12.2

As there were a string of bank holidays in France in May, the fastest growing web category was Car Rental (up 69 percent from the previous month), driven by the growth in monthly visitation to Paris-based European rental car company property Europcar, Hertz.fr, and Priceline subsidiary eLocationdeVoitures.fr. In preparation for an annual income tax filing deadline at the end of May, properties in the Taxes category also saw an increase in visitation of 50 percent. Finally, as Mother’s Day approached for France, properties purveying flowers, presents, and e-cards in the Flowers/Gifts/Greetings category saw an increase of 43 percent.

Fastest Growing Categories in France*
Ranked by Percent Change in Total Unique Visitors (000) from April 2011
May 2011
Total France, Age 6+, Home and Work Locations
Source: Comscore MMX

Categories

Total Unique Visitors (000)

% Reach

% Growth from April 2011

Total Internet : Total Audience

47,374

100.0%

0.1%

Car Rental

2,620

5.5%

68.8%

Taxes

633

1.3%

49.6%

Flowers/Gifts/Greetings

5,540

11.7%

43.2%

Humor

7,395

15.6%

38.4%

Health Care

2,426

5.1%

38.0%

Beauty/Fashion/Style

13,480

28.5%

36.6%

Lotto/Sweepstakes

8,498

17.9%

34.3%

Government

19,081

40.3%

33.2%

Information

6,545

13.8%

29.8%

Airlines

7,529

15.9%

28.7%

*Excludes Platform and ISP categories.

About Comscore
Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

Ayaan Mohamud
Comscore, Inc.
+ 44 (0) 203-111-1758
worldpress@comscore.com