Spotlight on France Reveals Seasonal Growth in Tax, Car Rental, and Flowers Web Properties
London, UK – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, released an overview of Internet usage in Europe, showing 366.9 million unique visitors went online in May 2011 for an average of 26.8 hours per person. This study draws its data from comScore’s research panel, which measures Internet usage in 49 European markets aggregated under the European region and provides individual reporting on 18 markets. Among the reportable markets, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and Turkey showed the highest average engagement with users from these markets spending an average of more than 30 hours online in the past month.
| Overview of European Internet Usage by Country Ranked by Total Unique Visitors (000) May 2011 Total Europe Audience, Age 15+, Home and Work Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix |
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| Location | Total Unique Visitors (000) | Average Hours per Visitor | Average Pages per Visitor |
| World-Wide | 1,373,976 | 23.9 | 2,161 |
| Europe | 366,862 | 26.8 | 2,752 |
| Germany | 49,993 | 24.1 | 2,638 |
| Russian Federation | 48,294 | 24.0 | 2,618 |
| France | 42,335 | 27.8 | 2,682 |
| United Kingdom | 36,660 | 33.9 | 3,079 |
| Italy | 23,210 | 18.3 | 1,762 |
| Turkey | 22,900 | 31.8 | 3,448 |
| Spain | 21,450 | 26.8 | 2,449 |
| Poland | 18,193 | 26.9 | 3,061 |
| Netherlands | 11,963 | 35.2 | 3,467 |
| Sweden | 6,161 | 25.0 | 2,423 |
| Belgium | 5,944 | 20.5 | 2,085 |
| Austria | 4,676 | 14.1 | 1,485 |
| Switzerland | 4,666 | 19.6 | 1,923 |
| Portugal | 4,146 | 21.5 | 2,034 |
| Denmark | 3,649 | 21.7 | 2,256 |
| Finland | 3,349 | 26.0 | 2,396 |
| Norway | 3,227 | 26.5 | 2,156 |
| Ireland | 2,079 | 21.5 | 1,953 |
Top Web Properties in Europe
Google Sites ranked as the top European web property in May with 333.4 million unique visitors (up 9 percent from a year ago), reaching 90.9 percent of the total European Internet audience. Microsoft Sites continued to rank second with 270.9 million visitors (73.8 percent reach), followed by Facebook.com in third place with 240.0 million visitors (65.4 percent reach). Among the top properties for May, the biggest gains versus April came from The Mozilla Organization (up 52 percent), WordPress (up 13 percent), and VKontakte (up 12 percent).
Europeans continued to spend significant time on social networking sites, with Russian social network VKontakte exhibiting the highest average engagement among the top 30 properties at 496.7 minutes (8.3 hours) on the site. Facebook.com overtook Russian web property Mail.ru Group in May with an average of 326.0 minutes (5.4 hours) spent by visitors on the property, up 15 percent from the prior month. Mail.ru Group visitors spent an average of 315.1 minutes (5.3 hours), up 7 percent. Facebook.com also continued to account for the highest number of page views at 139.8 billion in May (up 21 percent), representing 13.8 percent of all pages viewed in Europe during the month.
| Top 30 Properties in Europe by Total Unique Visitors (000) May 2011 Total Europe Audience, Age 15+, Home and Work Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix |
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| Properties | Total Unique Visitors (000) | Total Pages Viewed (MM) | Average Minutes per Visitor |
| Total Internet : Total Audience | 366,862 | 1,009,540 | 1,605.2 |
| Google Sites | 333,436 | 99,147 | 188.6 |
| Microsoft Sites | 270,859 | 27,218 | 193.0 |
| Facebook.com | 240,010 | 139,769 | 326.0 |
| Wikimedia Foundation Sites | 161,311 | 2,449 | 13.0 |
| Yahoo! Sites | 141,054 | 9,682 | 73.9 |
| eBay | 107,689 | 14,324 | 59.5 |
| Amazon Sites | 91,475 | 2,658 | 15.9 |
| The Mozilla Organization | 78,079 | 493 | 7.3 |
| VEVO | 77,670 | 774 | 11.8 |
| Apple Inc. | 69,872 | 514 | 4.8 |
| Mail.ru Group | 69,005 | 31,990 | 315.1 |
| AOL, Inc. | 64,278 | 1,664 | 28.5 |
| Glam Media | 63,892 | 937 | 11.5 |
| Viacom Digital | 56,952 | 537 | 10.4 |
| Ask Network | 56,945 | 526 | 4.1 |
| Yandex Sites | 55,720 | 7,817 | 64.7 |
| Dailymotion.com | 53,936 | 755 | 14.3 |
| WordPress | 52,269 | 430 | 5.3 |
| VKontakte | 52,123 | 38,151 | 496.7 |
| CBS Interactive | 51,950 | 538 | 8.9 |
| Adobe Sites | 48,473 | 229 | 3.3 |
| Axel Springer AG | 48,162 | 1,851 | 17.3 |
| Orange Sites | 41,138 | 4,609 | 62.0 |
| NetShelter Technology Media | 40,712 | 407 | 6.1 |
| Deutsche Telekom | 40,290 | 2,501 | 34.1 |
| Technorati Media | 39,621 | 206 | 3.1 |
| Twitter.com | 36,877 | 656 | 14.6 |
| BBC Sites | 34,962 | 1,440 | 34.0 |
| Schibsted (Anuntis-Infojobs-20minutos) | 34,259 | 5,068 | 77.2 |
| Skype | 33,817 | 139 | 51.0 |
Spotlight: Travel, Taxes, and Flowers Draw Visitation in France
In May 2011, a total of 47.4 million users in France (age 6+) went online, up 3 percent from the previous year. Users in France stayed an average of 1,571.8 minutes or 26.2 hours online in May. Google Sites ranked as the most visited property with 44.5 million unique visitors, followed by Microsoft Sites (40.8 million visitors), and Facebook.com (32.5 million visitors). Luxury retailer Groupe PPR, which attracted 18.2 million visitors, was the fastest gaining property with a 17-percent increase from a month ago.
| Top Properties in France Ranked by Total Unique Visitors (000) May 2011 Total France, Age 6+, Home and Work Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix |
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| Properties | Total Unique Visitors (000) | % Reach | Average Minutes per Visitor |
| Total Internet : Total Audience | 47,374 | 100.0% | 1,571.8 |
| Google Sites | 44,530 | 94.0% | 175.9 |
| Microsoft Sites | 40,823 | 86.2% | 245.9 |
| Facebook.com | 32,480 | 68.6% | 308.8 |
| Orange Sites | 23,310 | 49.2% | 99.8 |
| Yahoo! Sites | 22,070 | 46.6% | 60.6 |
| CCM-Benchmark | 20,844 | 44.0% | 10.5 |
| Wikimedia Foundation Sites | 20,656 | 43.6% | 14.2 |
| Iliad – Free.fr Sites | 20,520 | 43.3% | 22.0 |
| Groupe Pages Jaunes | 19,889 | 42.0% | 13.9 |
| Groupe PPR | 18,181 | 38.4% | 12.2 |
As there were a string of bank holidays in France in May, the fastest growing web category was Car Rental (up 69 percent from the previous month), driven by the growth in monthly visitation to Paris-based European rental car company property Europcar, Hertz.fr, and Priceline subsidiary eLocationdeVoitures.fr. In preparation for an annual income tax filing deadline at the end of May, properties in the Taxes category also saw an increase in visitation of 50 percent. Finally, as Mother’s Day approached for France, properties purveying flowers, presents, and e-cards in the Flowers/Gifts/Greetings category saw an increase of 43 percent.
| Fastest Growing Categories in France* Ranked by Percent Change in Total Unique Visitors (000) from April 2011 May 2011 Total France, Age 6+, Home and Work Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix |
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| Categories | Total Unique Visitors (000) | % Reach | % Growth from April 2011 |
| Total Internet : Total Audience | 47,374 | 100.0% | 0.1% |
| Car Rental | 2,620 | 5.5% | 68.8% |
| Taxes | 633 | 1.3% | 49.6% |
| Flowers/Gifts/Greetings | 5,540 | 11.7% | 43.2% |
| Humor | 7,395 | 15.6% | 38.4% |
| Health Care | 2,426 | 5.1% | 38.0% |
| Beauty/Fashion/Style | 13,480 | 28.5% | 36.6% |
| Lotto/Sweepstakes | 8,498 | 17.9% | 34.3% |
| Government | 19,081 | 40.3% | 33.2% |
| Information | 6,545 | 13.8% | 29.8% |
| Airlines | 7,529 | 15.9% | 28.7% |
*Excludes Platform and ISP categories.
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.
