comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 U.S. Web Properties for December 2010

RESTON, Va., Jan. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly analysis of U.S. web activity at the top online properties for December 2010 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. With the holiday season in full swing, December saw increased traffic within several content categories including E-cards, Shipping, Retail and even Travel sites. As the fiscal year came to an end, many consumers and businesses turned to Tax and Financial Information/Advice sites to close their books for the year and prepare for the upcoming tax season.  

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080115/COMSCORELOGO)

"The Internet now plays a vital role for Americans during the holiday season, allowing them to do everything from finding online deals and researching future in-store purchases to tracking shipments, booking travel and sending e-cards, gifts and greetings," said Jeff Hackett, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. "Each year we see more Americans using the Internet as a tool during the holidays, with more than 85 percent of Americans online visiting a retail site in December, up from 80 percent last year."

E-cards and Greetings Spread Holiday Cheer

E-card sites, allowing friends and family to send digital seasonal greetings, ranked as the second top gaining category for December growing 32 percent to 27.4 million visitors. MyFunCards.com ranked as the #1 e-card site with 7.1 million unique visitors (up 77 percent), followed by AG Interactive with 5.9 million visitors, a 47-percent increase. Evite.com came in third with 5.4 million, while 123Greetings.com saw 3.3 million visitors (up 35 percent).

The Flowers/Gifts/Greetings site category saw a spike in activity during the month as 36.5 million visitors browsed gift ideas and made easy purchases. AmericanGreetings Property ranked as the category leader with 10.6 million unique visitors in December (up 28 percent). Gifts.com took the #2 spot with 7.7 million visitors, (up 36 percent), followed by Hallmark with 3.8 million (up 10 percent) and 1-800-Flowers.com, Inc. with 2.4 million (up 40 percent). ProFlowers.com more than doubled its audience in December, attracting 2.1 million visitors.

Shipping Sites on the Move

Shipping sites stayed busy throughout the month as they helped deliver gifts in time for the holidays. More than 33.6 million Americans visited a shipping site in December, up 29 percent from the prior month. UPS Sites came in at the top with 17.5 million visitors (up 37 percent), followed by USPS.com with 14.9 million (up 41 percent) and FedEx with 11.7 million (up 36 percent).

Jewelry Sites Shine in December

Many Americans returned to making purchases of luxury goods this holiday season, sending an all-time high of 26.2 million unique visitors to Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories sites during the month. BradfordExchange.com took the top stop in the category with 2.8 million unique visitors in December (up 15 percent), followed by Zale Corporation with 2.3 million visitors (up 26 percent), Coach.com with 2.1 million (up 14 percent) and Swarovski.com with 2.0 million (up 13 percent).

Financial Sites Soar as Q4 Winds Down

Business/Finance sites saw significant growth during the month as businesses turned to focus on closing their books for the year. Financial Information/Advice sites in particular reached a record level of 50.4 million visitors. Tax sites also jumped in December, increasing 40 percent to more than 6 million unique visitors.

Top 50 Properties

Yahoo! Sites ranked as the #1 property in December with 181.2 million visitors, followed by Google Sites with 179.3 million and Microsoft Sites with 177.0 million. Amazon Sites, which saw its highest month of traffic on record from the holiday shopping surge, climbed 3 positions to rank as the #7 property overall with more than 91 million visitors. The Weather Channel and WeatherBug property both moved up the rankings in December – jumping 6 positions and 8 positions, respectively – as the combination of winter blizzards and holiday travel had consumers urgently checking for weather updates.

Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking

Google Ad Network led the December Ad Focus ranking with a reach of 93.3 percent of Americans online, followed by Yahoo! Network Plus with an 86.6-percent reach, Yahoo! Sites with 85.5 percent and AOL Advertising with 85.0 percent. Amazon.com climbed 5 positions to capture the #37 spot with a 36.0-percent reach.

A Note about comScore's Ad Focus Ranking: Since the release of October 2010 data, the Ad Focus Ranking now excludes custom entities reportable by comScore.

Table 1

Table 2

Table 3

Table 4

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 business analytics. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

SOURCE comScore, Inc.