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Reduced Travel Bumps Online Shopping And Advance Movie Tickets
by Jack Loechner, Thursday, August 28, 2008 8:45 AM
Reduced Travel Bumps Online Shopping And Advance Movie Tickets According to a recent comScore monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at the top online properties for July
2008, the travel ground/cruise category jumped 10 percent to 12.7 million visitors, making it the top-gaining category for the month, while the travel-information category grew 7 percent to 47.6
million visitors. The hotels/resorts category gained 6 percent to more than 34 million visitors. Some of the top-gainers in the category included:
- Hotels.com (up 6 percent to
5.2 million)
- Choice Hotels International (up 8 percent to 3.2 million)
- HolidayInn.com (up 11 percent to 2.7 million) ??
Jack Flanagan, executive vice
president of comScore Media Metrix, commented "... Ground travel and cruise sites gained... as Americans sought more budget-friendly ways to enjoy their summer vacations amid economic and fuel
price concerns... " A handful of retail categories achieved traffic increases in July, possibly due to consumers shopping online instead of using expensive gasoline to drive to the store,
says the report. Retail - consumer goods sites rose 8 percent to 22.5 million visitors, including double-digit growth by:
- Staples.com Sites (up 22 percent to 6.5 million
visitors)
- Office Depot (up 12 percent to 4.8 million visitors)
- DisneyShopping.com (up 32 percent to 1.6 million visitors)
The retail mall category
increased 7 percent to 28 million visitors, led by:
- AOL Shopping with 6.3 million visitors (up 19 percent)
- MSN Shopping with 5.8 million visitors
- QVC
Sites with 5 million visitors ?
With the release of highly anticipated summer films, ticket sites grew 5 percent to more than 44 million visitors as movie goers pre-purchased tickets to
avoid long lines and sell outs at theaters:
- Moviefone led the category with 17.5 million visitors (up 12 percent)
- Fandango posted a 29-percent gain to 9.3 million
visitors
- MovieTickets.com jumped 13 percent to 4.7 million visitors
Google Sites maintained its #1 position in the Top Properties ranking, reaching 141.6 million Americans
in July, while Yahoo! Sites captured the second spot with 140.3 million and Microsoft Sites ranked third with 120.2 million visitors. CBS Corporation jumped 27 spots to #10 and Ask Network moved
up two positions in the top 10 to #7 with 58.6 million visitors.
Top 10 U.S.
Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors*(Total Home, Work and University Locations) Total Unique Visitors (000)
Jun-08Jul-08% ChangeRank byUnique Visitors Total Internet:Total Audience 189,873 189,134 0 N/A CBS Corporation 20,867 48,191 131 10 The Mozilla
Organization 9,634 18,323 90 42 Infospace Network 9,840 13,467 37 69 General Mills
4,230 5,779 37 185 Nordstrom, Inc. 3,810 5,201 37 205 ABC News Digital
5,911 8,058 36 127 GSN Games Network 4,627 6,308 36 173 Vlaze Media Networks,
Inc 6,190 8,386 35 120 Gamevance.Com 4,158 5,588 34 194
Eversave.Com 5,398 7,192 33
145
Source: comScore Media Metrix *Ranking based on the top 250 properties in July
2008 Top 10 Gaining Categories
July 2008 vs. June 2008(Total U.S. Home, Work and University Locations) Total Unique Visitors (000)
Jun-08Jul-08 % Change
Total Internet: Total Audience 189,873 189,134
0 Travel - Ground/Cruise 11,484 12,663 10 Retail - Consumer Goods
20,795 22,455 8 Retail - Mall
26,123 28,068 7 Retail - Movies 25,251 26,985 7 Travel - Information 44,631 47,569 7 Travel - Hotels/Resorts 32,282 34,095 6 Online
Gambling 12,038 12,648 5
Retail - Tickets 42,166 44,228 5 Entertainment - News 50,315 52,735 5 Career Services and Development 59,031 61,544 4
Source: comScore Media Metrix Platform-A led the Ad Focus ranking in July, reaching 90 percent of the 189 million Americans online. Yahoo! Network
(85 percent reach) ranked second, followed by Google Ad Network (81 percent reach), and Specific Media (81 percent reach). Please visit here to see the complete release and
additional charts and tables.