Back to School Season Boosts Traffic to Wikipedia By 15 Percent
Retail and career sites also show seasonal growth
LONDON, UK, OCTOBER 30,2007 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its report on the top ranking and fastest growing Internet properties in the U.K. for September, based on data from the Comscore World Metrix audience measurement service.
Top 10 Properties for September
Google was the most visited property in September, with 28.6 million unique visitors age 15 or older, reaching 89 percent of the total U.K. Internet audience. It was followed by Microsoft Sites, which attracted 26.9 million unique visitors, an 83 percent reach.
Wikipedia, a site whose growth had leveled off over the summer, was the fastest growing property in the top ten in September, increasing by 15 percent to attract its highest ever U.K. audience of 13.3 million unique visitors. The online encyclopedia site showed a similar increase a year ago, when it grew by 18 percent to 8.2 million unique visitors between August and September 2006.
Students’ return to school also gave a boost to Amazon Sites, which grew 3 percent over the previous month to attract 13.6 million unique visitors in September – reaching 42 percent of the total U.K. Internet audience.
Top 10 U.K. Online PropertiesRanked by U.K. Unique VisitorsSeptember 2007 vs. August 2007Total U.K., Age 15+ – Home and Work Locations*Source: Comscore World Metrix
Property
Total Unique Visitors (000)
% Reach
Aug 2007
Sept 2007
% Change
Total U.K. Internet Audience
31,918
32,179
1%
100%
Google Sites
28,345
28,578
89%
Microsoft Sites
26,759
26,852
0%
83%
eBay
21,559
21,438
-1%
67%
Yahoo! Sites
21,039
20,843
65%
BBC Sites
18,578
18,688
58%
Ask Network
14,815
15,001
47%
Time Warner Network
14,322
14,310
44%
Amazon Sites
13,261
13,596
3%
42%
Wikipedia Sites
11,534
13,293
15%
41%
Fox Interactive Media
13,032
12,542
-4%
39%
* Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.
Top Gaining Properties for September
Fish4 Sites was the fastest growing property in the U.K. in September, increasing 34 percent to 2.9 million unique visitors. This growth can be attributed to the popularity of the property’s career resources site, Fish4jobs. Traffic to the site nearly doubled in September, making Fish4jobs.com the most visited career site in the UK for the month. September is typically a month that sees increased traffic to career sites following a slower summer period.
Two multi-channel retailers appear in the fastest growing list. Popular high-street entertainment retail chain HMV saw traffic to their site increase by 25 percent to 3.4 million unique visitors. Arcadia Group, the company responsible for leading high street stores such as Topshop.co.uk and Burton.co.uk saw total online traffic to their sites increase 17 percent in September to 2.7 million unique visitors.
Bob Ivins, EVP of International Markets at Comscore, observed: “To see traffic mirror what is happening in the general population is another example of how pervasive and engrained the Internet is in people’s everyday lives. The start of the school year drove traffic to online retail sites, encyclopedia sites, and career sites.”
Two popular European blogging sites WordPress and Six Apart Sites also enjoyed traffic growth. WordPress, which provides downloadable software for Internet bloggers, increased 25 percent to 3.8 million unique visitors, whilst Six Apart Sites grew 23 percent to reach 3.5 million unique visitors.
Top 10 U.K. Gaining PropertiesRanked by U.K. Unique VisitorsSeptember 2007 vs. August 2007Total U.K., Age 15+ – Home and Work Locations*Source: Comscore World Metrix
% change
Fish4 Sites
2,167
2,897
34%
British Airways
2,898
3,792
31%
Answers.com Sites
2,603
3,327
28%
HMV
2,745
3,435
25%
WordPress
3,030
3,780
Six Apart Sites
2,875
3,529
23%
ITV Sites
4,127
4,968
20%
Sun-Times Media Group, Inc.
2,346
2,760
18%
Arcadia Group Limited
2,313
2,709
17%
About Comscore
Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world. 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 behavior, including online and offline purchasing. Comscore panelists 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 behavior and attitudes. Comscore analysts 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 more than 700 clients, including global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, BBC, Carat, Cyworld, Deutsche Bank, France Telecom, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Financial Times, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestlé, Starcom, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Verizon, ViaMichelin, Merck and Expedia. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com
Ayaan MohamudComscore, Inc.+ 44 (0) 207-099-1775worldpress@comscore.com