Online Poker Tournaments Drive Traffic to Gambling Sites; Education Sites Spike as School Year Kicks Off
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 September 2010 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. Online Gambling sites were popular in September as the competition heated up at several online poker tournaments. Classes resumed for schools and universities nationwide prompting teachers and students alike to visit Education sites.
“Education may begin in the classroom, but the Internet is becoming an increasingly important resource for students and an extension of the classroom environment,” said Jeff Hackett, senior vice president of comScore Media Metrix. “The digital world enables the easy exchange of notes, lectures, examples, extra practice and other resources that help facilitate learning outside of the classroom.”
Americans Try Their Luck at Gambling Sites
Online poker tournaments, such as FullTiltPoker’s Doubles Poker Championship and PokerStars’ WCOOP Main Event, drove significant traffic to gambling sites in September. Nearly 15 million people visited a gambling site during the month, a 20-percent increase versus August, making it the highest growing site category for the month. FullTiltPoker captured the top spot with 4.2 million visitors (up 46 percent), followed by PokerStars with 2.7 million visitors (up 7 percent), Kingolotto with 1.4 million visitors and Absolute Poker with 1.3 million visitors. BetUs.com experienced significant growth during the month, surging 274 percent to 1.3 million visitors, along with Winner.com which grew to over a million visitors in September, up from 31,000 visitors in August.
Education Sites Back in Session
As classes resumed, teachers and students looked to Education Information sites to start the year off right. The category attracted 78.7 million visitors in September, up 6 percent versus August. Pearson Education led the category with 17.8 million unique visitors during the month, up 25 percent to rank among the top gaining properties for the month. HotChalk came in second with 13.0 million visitors, also among the top gaining properties with a 42-percent increase. About.com Education followed with 8.2 million visitors (up 44 percent), while ClassesUSA.com drew 7.9 million visitors.
The Career Training and Education category also saw growth prompted by back-to-school, reaching an all-time high of 13.4 million visitors. FastWeb.com ranked #1 in the category with 900,000 visitors during the month, followed by AesopOnline with 688,000 (up 82 percent), FindAccountingPrograms.com with 577,000 and Learn4Good.com with 494,000. CareerSchoolMatch.com saw strong growth with 421,000 visitors (up 66 percent), while CourseKey.com surged 411 percent to 279,000 visitors.
Health Matters as Season Changes
Health sites saw considerable pickup in September with seasonal allergies peaking and people beginning to look into flu shots to prepare for the upcoming flu season. The health category grew 5 percent to more than 126 million visitors during the month, with Everyday Health leading the category with 26.5 million visitors, a 3-percent increase from the prior month. WebMD Health ranked second with 24.2 million visitors (up 4 percent), followed by Livestrong – eHow Health with 11.9 million visitors. Yahoo! Health followed closely in the #4 spot with 11.7 million visitors, while HealthGrades attracted 10.4 million visitors.
Top 50 Properties
Google Sites ranked as the #1 property in September with 180.0 million visitors, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 178.0 million and Microsoft Sites with 165.1 million. YellowBook Network climbed 8 positions in the ranking to #31 with 30.6 million visitors, while NBC Universal jumped 15 positions to #33 with 29.1 million visitors.
Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking
BrightRoll Video Network led the September Ad Focus ranking with a potential reach of 99.5 percent of Americans online, followed by TubeMogul Video Ad Platform with a 97.5-percent potential reach. SpotXchange Video Ad Network ranked third with a 96.9-percent potential reach, while Firefly Video came in fourth with a potential reach of 94.5 percent. ScanScout Network climbed 5 positions to capture the #8 spot with 86.7 percent potential reach.
Table 1
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comScore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* (U.S.)
September 2010 vs. August 2010
Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix .
Total Unique Visitors (000)
Aug-10 Sep-10 % Change Rank by
Unique
Visitors
Total Internet : Total Audience 212,616 212,874 0 N/A
AccuWeather Sites 6,278 9,825 57 151
HotChalk 9,135 13,007 42 112
ABC Television 5,576 7,399 33 195
Babelgum 4,589 6,014 31 231
FunnyorDie 4,863 6,358 31 220
Liberty Media Holding Corporation 8,626 11,205 30 134
Pearson Education 14,220 17,760 25 73
ConstantContact.com 4,885 5,864 20 238
Research In Motion Limited 4,919 5,851 19 240
NBC Universal 24,583 29,129 18 33
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*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in September 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.)
September 2010 vs. August 2010
Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix .
Total Unique Visitors (000)
Aug-10 Sep-10 % Change
Total Internet : Total Audience 212,616 212,874 0
Gambling – Online Gambling 12,468 14,957 20
Business/Finance 155,246 167,768 8
Education – Information 74,040 78,658 6
Career Services and Development –
Training and Education 12,601 13,356 6
Services – Web Hosting 41,917 44,312 6
Community – Religion/Spirituality 26,928 28,457 6
Health 120,100 126,018 5
Retail – Flowers/Gifts/Greetings 26,481 27,720 5
Retail – Computer Software 34,444 35,800 4
Community – Food 67,889 69,906 3
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Please follow this link to view tables 3 and 4: http://comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2010/10/comScore_Media_Metrix_Ranks_Top_50_U.S._Web_Properties_for_September_2010
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.
