Jupiter Media Metrix' Top 50

  • by June 13, 2001
Jupiter Media Metrix today released the Media Metrix U.S. Top 50 Web and Digital Media property ratings for May 2001.

Women in the U.S. reached a major milestone one year ago when they surpassed the number of men online, but their adoption of the Internet didn't stop there. Today, women over the age of 18 comprise 40.9% of all online users, up from 40.3% in May 2000 and 39.3% in May 1999. In contrast, men 18 and up now compose 39.8% of all online users, down from 40.1% in May 2000 and 45.7% in May 1999.

"Women continue to tip the scale when it comes to their representation online," said Doug McFarland, president of Media Metrix, the online ratings division of Jupiter Media Metrix. "It's been a year since women have leveled the field, but the ratings show that they're not through yet. Marketers and online advertisers must not lose site of this important demographic as it continues to shift the online landscape."

The largest shift in gender composition over the past two years occurred among people over the age of 35. The number of females age 35 to 54 increased from 19.0% in May 1999 to 20.1% in May 2001, while males in that age bracket dropped from 20.7% to 15.6% over the same period.

Moreover, the composition of females 55 and over increased from 2.6% in May 1999 to 4.7% in May 2001, while the composition of males in that age bracket increased less drastically from 4.4% in May 1999 to 5.3% in May 2001.

Media Metrix rankings show that X10.com has moved up from number 14 in April 2001 to number five in May 2001, driven by a "pop-up" and "pop-under" ad strategy that accounted for 95% of the site's traffic. Unique visitors to X10.com increased 87%, from 15.3 million in April 2001 to 28.6 million in May 2001.

Napster Digital, which includes usage of the service's websites and controversial music file-swapping applications, continues to fall in the ratings -- from number 19 in April 2001 to number 23 in May 2001. The property had 10.9 million unique visitors in May 2001, down from 12.3 million the previous month.

This month's notable top newcomers -- sites that appeared in the ratings for the first time and had a minimum of 500,000 unique visitors -- include: Softcoin.com and Qode.com, marketing services companies that use barcodes to link products to websites, with 2.2 million and 1.2 million unique visitors, respectively; Fritolaycash.com, a sweepstakes site for Frito-Lay and Tropicana, with 2.0 million unique visitors; Vegasvilla.com, an online casino, with 1.1 million unique visitors; Bmwfilms.com, which features short films directed by award-winning movie directors, with 787,000 unique visitors.

Sites to break into the May 2001 Top 50 include: Monster.com Sites, the online job listings site, at number 41 with 7.1 million unique visitors; UGO Networks, the entertainment network, at number 44 with 6.8 million unique visitors; Bizrate.com, the e-commerce ratings service, at number 48 with 6.2 million unique visitors; and Internetfuel.com, an online marketing service, at number 50 with 6.1 million unique visitors.

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