Summer Vacation Planning Drives Traffic to Travel Sites; Online Gaming Sites See Gains as School Year Ends
RESTON, VA – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, released its monthly analysis of U.S. Web activity at the top online properties for June 2009 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. Online visitation to travel sites gained as Americans began planning and preparing for their summer vacations. The end of another school year resulted in an increase of interest at gaming sites. Career services and development sites saw strong growth due to the influx of recent college graduates entering the job market, in addition to a rising unemployment rate.
“Travel sites typically see an increase in activity around this time of year as Americans look to get away,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. “Summer vacation also means more leisure time for those out of school, leading to a seasonal increase in leisure categories including online gaming and entertainment.”
Online Vacation Planning Jumps in June
June heated up the Travel category as Americans sought seasonal getaways. The Airlines category ranked as the top gaining category for June, growing 22 percent to 33.2 million visitors. Also among the top gaining categories were Travel Transactions, Online Travel Agents, and Travel Information. Southwest Airlines, the top ranked site in the Airlines category, achieved particularly strong gains growing 64 percent to 16.4 million visitors and grabbing the #2 position among the top gaining properties.
Online travel agent sites also experienced growth in June, increasing 9 percent to 42.8 million visitors. Expedia led the category with 27 million visitors (up 12 percent), followed by Orbitz with 12.5 million visitors (up 10 percent), Priceline with 11.3 million (up 7 percent), and Travelocity with nearly 9.8 million visitors (up 8 percent).
Americans Say “Game On” in June
Online gaming sites saw a surge in activity in June, as the beginning of summer vacation provided students with more leisure time for such pursuits. The Gaming Information category attracted 50 million Americans in June, up 6 percent vs. the previous month. With school out for the summer, students found ways to spend their free time on sites such as GiantRealm and GameStop, with both sites ranking among the top 10 gaining properties in June. GiantRealm jumped 25 percent to more than 7 million visitors while GameStop grew 19 percent to nearly 5.8 million visitors.
Job-Seekers Make an Effort Online
Rising unemployment during the past year has led to an increasing number of Americans seeking jobs and career opportunities online. Both the Career Resources and Career Training & Education categories ranked among the top ten gaining categories for June as the unemployed, underemployed and recent grads scoured the Web for opportunities. The Career Resources category grew 6 percent to 46.8 million visitors, while Career Training & Education grew 13 percent to 6.7 million visitors.
Top 50 Properties
Google Sites continued to lead as the most visited property in June with nearly 157 million visitors, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 154 million visitors and Microsoft Sites with 127.4 million visitors. Facebook.com moved up two positions to #6 marking its highest-ever ranking. Career Builder ascended 6 spots to #39 with 21.7 million visitors, a reflection of the Career Services & Development category gain. The Mozilla Organization jumped 13 spots to #28 with nearly 27 million visitors, due to the release of Firefox 3.5 which includes numerous new and improved features. June also represented Twitter.com’s debut in the ranking of the top 50 properties, coming in at #46 with 20.1 million visitors.
“It’s hard to believe that Twitter.com had fewer than a million visitors in June 2008, and now attracts more than 20 million visitors a month and ranks among the top 50 U.S. properties,” Flanagan commented. “Twitter has clearly been able to generate wide interest and cultivate a substantial following in a very short period of time. If this momentum persists, then we will continue to see Twitter climb higher and higher in this ranking in the coming months.”
Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking
Platform-A led the June Ad Focus ranking, reaching 91 percent of all Americans online. Yahoo! Network ranked second, reaching 88 percent of the population, while ValueClick Networks ranked third with an 84-percent reach. Fox Audience Network and 24/7 Real Media each climbed one spot grabbing the #7 and #8 positions, respectively.
_________________________________________________________________________
Table 1
comScore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.)
June 2009 vs. May 2009
Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Total Unique Visitors (000)
May-09 Jun-09 % Change Rank by Unique Visitors
Total Internet : Total Audience 193,825 193,896 0 N/A
NameMedia 2,336 5,975 156 195
Southwest Airlines Co. 10,021 16,471 64 59
Systemax Inc. 2,912 4,625 59 250
TAGGED.COM 6,248 8,373 34 129
The Mozilla Organization 20,610 26,964 31 28
Xacti Corporation 7,810 9,812 26 105
GiantRealm 5,618 7,011 25 157
Disney Online 25,966 31,362 21 24
Sheknows 8,599 10,285 20 100
GameStop 4,874 5,791 19 201
*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in June 2009.
_________________________________________________________________________
Table 2
comScore Top 10 Gaining Site Categories* by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.)
June 2009 vs. May 2009
Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Total Unique Visitors (000)
May-09 Jun-09 % Change
Total Internet : Total Audience 193,825 193,896 0
Travel – Airlines 27,323 33,290 22
Career Services & Development – 5,954 6,729 13
Training & Education
News/Information – Politics 11,642 12,977 11
Travel – Transactions 3,980 4,386 10
Travel – Online Travel Agents 39,232 42,863 9
Games – Gaming Information 47,053 49,950 6
Career Services & Development – 44,204 46,803 6
Career Resources
Entertainment – News 54,946 57,955 5
Financial Information/Advice 37,688 39,557 5
Travel – Information 40,509 42,461 5
______________________________________________________________________
Please visit the following link to view the Top 50 Properties and the Ad Focus Ranking for June 2009: http://comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2009/7/comScore_Media_Metrix_Ranks_Top_50_U.S._Web_Properties_for_June_2009
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 marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.
