Americans Head to Travel Sites for Vacation Planning; Summer Recreation Drives Millions to Gaming and Teens Sites
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 2010 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. Travel sites saw a surge in activity in June as travelers browsed hot summer deals and booked vacation getaways. Americans also turned to online gaming and teen sites to occupy themselves with online leisure pursuits as the school year ended.
“Travel and recreation were significant contributors to the prevailing online trends in June,” said Jeff Hackett, senior vice president of comScore Media Metrix. “Summer vacation typically brings an increase in online travel planning, while those who stick around home during the summer spend more of their time doing fun things online, particularly gaming.”
Americans Click It to Book It
Travel site categories experienced a gain in activity in June as Americans entered the heat of travel season. More than 100 million Americans visited the category during the month, affecting the following travel sub-categories: Transactions, Hotels/Resorts, Ground/Cruise, and Airplanes.
Travel – Transactions sites ranked as the top gaining category for the month of June, growing 32 percent to 5.2 million visitors. Viator.com ranked #1 in the category with 1.1 million visitors, followed closely by TravelPN.com with 1.1 million. OneTime.com grew to 853 million unique visitors, while WWTE.com attracted 457 million visitors.
Hotels/Resorts sites also saw strong growth during the month with 36.6 million Americans turning to these sites for lodging options. Marriott ranked as the top property, growing 16 percent to 6.5 million visitors. Hilton Hotels attracted 6.0 million visitors (up 13 percent), followed by InterContinental Hotels Group with 5.1 million (up 14 percent), Wyndham Worldwide with 4.0 million (up 9 percent), and Disney Travel with 3.6 million (up 5 percent).
Teens Sites Popular during Summer Vacation
Activity flourished at Teen sites as students on summer vacation looked for ways to spend their free time. The category attracted more than 40 million Americans in June, representing a 21-percent increase. Alloy Digital Network took the top spot with 16.9 million unique visitors, followed by IMVU with 6.0 million (up 18 percent), MyYearbook.com with 4.4 million, GN Teens (Gorilla Nation) with 4.3 million, and Zwinky with 3.7 million (up 15 percent).
Online Gaming Picks Up During Summer
Americans looked to online gaming for entertainment in June, attracting nearly 103 million visitors during the month. WildTangent Network took the top spot with 17.3 million visitors, up 6 percent versus May. GSN Games Network And CPMStar came next with 16.9 million, followed by Nickelodeon Casual games with 15.3 million (up 14 percent), EA Online with 15.1 million (up 2 percent), and Disney Games with 14.9 million (up 15 percent).
Top 50 Properties
Google Sites ranked as the #1 property in June with 179 million visitors, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 170 million visitors and Microsoft Sites with 161 million visitors. Adobe Sites jumped 10 positions in the ranking with 37.5 million visitors, while ESPN climbed 12 spots to 30.6 million visitors as the World Cup attracted heavy interest.
Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking
BrightRoll Video Network led the June Ad Focus ranking with a potential reach of 94 percent of Americans online. SpotXchange Video Ad Network ranked second (92 percent reach), followed by BBE (88 percent reach).
Table 1
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comScore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.)
June 2010 vs. May 2010
Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix .
Total Unique Visitors (000)
May-10 Jun-10 % Change Rank by Unique
Visitors
Total Internet : Total Audience 215,691 215,061 0 N/A
FIFA.COM 1,393 8,180 487 177
OPRAH.COM 4,039 6,427 59 227
CSMONITOR.COM 4,254 6,711 58 215
The Mozilla Organization 18,770 29,576 58 39
HEAVY.COM 7,020 10,290 47 145
Wenner Media 5,864 7,540 29 193
Univision Communications Inc 5,008 6,317 26 232
American Express 7,177 8,934 24 166
Adidas-Salomon 5,325 6,513 22 225
ESPN 25,359 30,585 21 37
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*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in June 2010. Excludes entities whose growth was
primarily due to implementation of Media Metrix 360 unified digital audience measurement.
Table 2
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comScore Top 10 Gaining Site Categories by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors (U.S.)
June 2010 vs. May 2010
Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix . .
Total Unique Visitors (000)
May-10 Jun-10 % Change
Total Internet : Total Audience 215,691 215,061 0
Travel – Transactions 3,900 5,153 32
Community – Teens 33,602 40,579 21
Travel – Hotels/Resorts 33,613 36,575 9
Online Gaming 95,880 102,809 7
Travel – Ground/Cruise 13,015 13,895 7
Travel – Airlines 28,104 29,909 6
Community – Pets 24,982 26,507 6
Travel – Car Rental 6,571 6,937 6
Travel – Online Travel Agents 42,940 45,113 5
Technology 141,480 148,163 5
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Please follow this link to view tables 3 and 4: http://comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2010/7/comScore_Media_Metrix_Ranks_Top_50_U.S._Web_Properties_for_June_2010
comScore has resumed reporting of the Top 50 Properties and Top 50 Ad-Focus rankings due to the conclusion of the unified digital measurement transition period.
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.
