Nearly 50 Percent of Internet Users in Europe Visit Newspaper Sites

comScore Releases Overview of European Internet Usage for November 2011

LONDON, UK – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an overview of Internet usage in Europe, showing that 379.4 million Europeans went online in November 2011 for an average of 27.8 hours per person. This release highlights Internet usage in 49 European markets aggregated into the European region and provides individual reporting on 18 markets. Amongst its findings, the study also showed that 47.8 percent of Europeans visit Newspaper sites, with a notable percentage of visits to the top 5 Newspaper sites preceded by a visit to Facebook.

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Nearly 1 in 2 Europeans Visit Newspaper Sites
In November 2011, 181.5 million unique people in Europe visited Newspaper sites, an increase of 9 percent from the previous year. The Daily Mail continued to attract the largest audience at 20.1 million unique visitors, followed by the Guardian at 15.7 million unique visitors. Turkish newspapers HĂĽrriyet and Milliyet and German newspaper Bild rounded out the top five Newspaper properties, with each attracting approximately 10 million unique visitors.

Top Newspaper Sites in Europe by Total Unique Visitors (000)
November 2011
Total European Audience, Age 15+, Home and Work Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Total Unique Visitors (000)
Total Internet : Total Audience 379,402
News/Information – Newspapers 181,529
Mail Online 20,068
Guardian.co.uk 15,705
Hurriyet.com.tr 10,429
Bild.de 9,663
Milliyet.com.tr 9,628
ElPais.com 8,472
Elmundo.es Sites 7,849
KP.ru (Komsomolskaya Pravda) 7,233
Telegraph Media Group 6,877
RIA.ru (RIA Novosti) 6,182

An analysis of the sites visited by Europeans prior to visiting the top 5 Newspaper sites shows that Google Sites preceded at least 12 percent of visits to the top 5 Newspaper sites, with a significantly higher percentage seen for the Daily Mail and the Guardian (more than 23 percent of inbound site traffic). At least 10 percent of visits are preceded by a visit to Facebook, second only to Google Sites. (This data includes both direct referrals from Facebook links and visits initiated by direct user navigation following a visit to Facebook.)

Interestingly, the percentage of traffic to these sites preceded by a visit to Facebook has significantly increased in each case, highlighting both Facebook’s growing prominence in the European web landscape and its increasing ability to drive referral traffic. The percentage of inbound site traffic preceded by a Facebook visit was highest at Turkish site Milliyet, where it accounted for nearly a fifth of traffic (18.9 percent). Facebook visitation also preceded a significant percentage of inbound traffic to the Daily Mail and the Guardian, with both sites at approximately 13 percent, while German newspaper site Bild.de saw an even higher share (14.8 percent). Milliyet, the fifth largest European Newspaper site, demonstrated the highest point change in such traffic (9-percentage point increase), followed closely by the Guardian (8-percentage point increase).

Traffic to Top 5 Newspaper Sites in Europe Preceded by Facebook.com
November 2011 vs. November 2010
Total European Audience, Age 15+, Home and Work Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Site Percentage of Incoming Traffic Preceded by A Visit to Facebook.com
Nov-10 Nov-11 Point Change
Mail Online 8.5% 13.1% 4.6
Guardian.co.uk 4.6% 12.8% 8.2
Hurriyet.com.tr 6.5% 10.0% 3.5
Bild.de 8.4% 14.8% 6.4
Milliyet.com.tr 9.9% 18.9% 9.0

Google Sites continued to rank as the top European web property in November with 347.3 million unique visitors, reaching 91.5 percent of the total European Internet audience. Meanwhile, Russian social network VKontakte continued to display the highest average engagement amongst the top properties, with European visitors spending 438.9 minutes (7.3 hours) on the site. Amongst the fastest growing properties in Europe from October to November were the home improvement retailer Kingfisher (up 21 percent), followed by French film property AlloCiné Sites (up 19 percent). Social networking site LinkedIn.com and daily deals site Groupon also ranked amongst the fastest growing properties, exhibiting a 6-percent month-on-month increase and a 4-percent increase, respectively.

Top 15 Fastest Growing Properties* in Europe by Total Unique Visitors (000)
November 2011 vs. October 2011
Total Europe Audience, Age 15+, Home and Work Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Properties Total Unique Visitors (000)
Oct-11 Nov-11 Percent Change
Total Internet Audience: Age 15+ 372,066 373,433 1%
Kingfisher 14,850 18,028 21%
AlloCine Sites 12,743 15,147 19%
Search-Results.com 13,103 15,039 15%
Demand Media 15,320 17,434 14%
The Mozilla Organization 41,625 46,179 11%
LeGuide.com Sites 13,810 15,252 10%
VideoBB.com 14,443 15,748 9%
Sony Online 14,920 16,221 9%
Groupe PPR 24,930 27,003 8%
Babylon.com 17,984 19,061 6%
LinkedIn.com 27,725 29,366 6%
Wikia Sites 16,398 17,305 6%
New York Times Digital 23,818 25,070 5%
Rambler Media 22,565 23,596 5%
Groupon 23,487 24,508 4%


* Amongst the Top 100 online properties

European Internet Usage by Country
Below is a snapshot of European internet usage in the 18 reportable markets for which comScore provides individual reporting. The Russian Internet audience continued to grow and surpass Germany as the largest online market in Europe. The UK continued to show the highest engagement, with users spending an average of 38.2 hours online during the month.

Overview of European Internet Usage by Country
Ranked by Total Unique Visitors (000)
November 2011
Total Europe Audience, Age 15+, Home and Work Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Total Unique Visitors (000) Average Hours per Visitor Average Pages per Visitor
World-Wide 1,438,877 24.4 2,353
Europe 379,402 27.8 2,982
Russian Federation 52,486 24.5 2,730
Germany 50,856 25.8 2,977
France 42,939 28.6 2,903
United Kingdom 37,477 38.2 3,450
Italy 24,225 18.8 2,027
Turkey 23,302 32.2 3,845
Spain 21,612 27.4 2,401
Poland 18,194 27.4 3,208
Netherlands 11,992 34.3 3,398
Sweden 6,231 25.9 2,697
Belgium 6,068 20.8 2,286
Switzerland 4,790 19.0 2,027
Austria 4,745 15.1 1,648
Portugal 4,286 21.2 2,186
Denmark 3,682 23.3 2,411
Finland 3,387 26.0 2,591
Norway 3,272 28.9 2,627
Ireland 2,355 21.3 2,071

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.