Britons’ Significant Interest in Travel Reflected in January U.K. Web Activity, According to Comscore Networks

New Years Resolutions Drive Traffic to Career, Property, and Health Sites

London, U.K., February 27, 2007 – Comscore Networks, a leader in measuring the digital age, today revealed the top U.K. Internet properties for January, based on data collected through its Comscore World Metrix audience ratings service. Notably, the Travel category saw significant increases in January versus December, with half of the top 20 gaining sites belonging to the Travel category. Among the top gainers, Expedia grew 60 percent to 6.6 million U.K. visitors, boosting the site into the top 20 U.K. properties.

“After returning from the Christmas holidays, with months of winter weather still ahead, Brits flocked to travel Web sites to plan their next holiday,” said Bob Ivins, managing director of Comscore Europe. “January has historically been the time to plan travel, and this seasonal trend is now being borne out online, with many Travel sites seeing their traffic more than double.”

Other top gaining Travel sites included MyTravel Group plc, up 169 percent to 3.3 million visitors; Thomas Cook AG, up 153 percent to 3.1 million visitors; First Choice Holidays PLC, up 145 percent to 3 million visitors; TUI Group, up 109 percent to 5.5 million visitors; Cheapflights Sites, up 103 percent to 2.5 million visitors; Priceline.com Incorporated, up 73 percent to 2.4 million visitors; EasyGroup, owners of easyJet, up 60 percent to 3.8 million visitors; British Airways, up 50 percent to 3.4 million visitors; and Lastminute.com Sites, up 49 percent to 4.2 million visitors. In addition, Travelsupermarket.com, which is owned by top gainer Moneysupermarket.com Financial Group, rose 145 percent to 1.9 million visitors in January.

New Year’s Resolutions Drive British Web Traffic in January

Britons also took the turn of the New Year as an opportunity to look for new jobs, new property, health information, and to re-connect with old friends. Visitation to government Web site Jobcentreplus.gov.uk increased 82 percent to 2.7 million visitors; and the DMGT property rose 37 percent, driven largely by the careers sections of its Web sites. In addition, traffic to Property site Rightmove.co.uk rose 61 percent to 3.4 million U.K. visitors. Those looking for health information drove a 41-percent increase in visitors to NHS.UK to 3.7 million visitors and traffic to iVillage.com: The Womens Network increased 47 percent to 2.6 million visitors. Brits looking to re-connect with old friends drove a 39-percent increase in visitors to Happygroup Sites, which includes friendsreunited.co.uk .

Media Sites See Increases in January

Traffic to many Media sites also rose in January. New York Times Digital entered the top 20 U.K. Web properties with 6.9 million U.K. visitors (up 16 percent). Other top gaining Media sites included: Guardian Media Group (up 49 percent to 4.3 million visitors), Reed Elsevier Group (up 47 percent to 2.7 million visitors), Wikipedia Sites (up 18 percent to 10.7 million visitors), and CNET Networks (up 10 percent to 8.8 million visitors).

Finally, the “Celebrity Big Brother” program was the primary driver behind the 100-percent increase to the Channel 4 television network, which reached 5.8 million U.K. visitors in January.

* Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

*Ranking based on the top 100 U.K. properties in January 2007.
** Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

About Comscore World Metrix

Comscore World Metrix is one of the first service to continuously measure and report online behaviour on a world-wide basis, providing visitation metrics and demographic characteristics for Web site audiences around the world. With active representation of countries that comprise the vast majority of the global Internet population, World Metrix provides its clients with worldwide Internet population estimates and harmonized online performance metrics based on a consistent methodology across all countries. More than 100 clients subscribe to Comscore’s World Metrix service, including 8 of the top 10 interactive advertising agencies.

About Comscore Networks
Comscore Networks is a global leader in measuring the digital age. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given Comscore permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behaviour, including online and offline purchasing. Comscore panellists 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 behaviour 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, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Verizon, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Tribune Interactive, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestlé, MBNA, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Merck and Expedia. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com.

Press
Bill Daddi
Daddi Brand Communications
646-370-1341
press@comscore.com