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Boom in Antivirus and Back-To-School Sites
August saw a slight increase in the number of active Internet users, but a slight decrease in the number of hours spent online, according to the latest figures from comScore. Seasonal and one-off events influenced the composition of the top 50 US Internet properties, lifting antivirus and school clothing sites up the table, along with computer hardware and sports sites.
ComScore estimates that there were 148.8 million unique active Internet users in August, slightly more than July, while the total time spent online decreased by c. 7% to 26.5 hours per visitor - the latter reflects both summer vacations and the Northeast blackout.
The rapid spread of the SoBig virus and Blaster worm drove tens of millions of Internet users to anti-virus sites, according to Peter Daboll, president of comScore Media Metrix, taking Symantec from a ranking of 112 in July to become a top ten Internet property in August, with 29m unique visitors. Rival provider McAfee also broke into the top 50 sites with 11m visitors.
Other factors were more predictable. 'With the academic year beginning in late August,' says Daboll, 'we saw parents and students turn to the Web in droves to shop for apparel, computer hardware and dorm room furniture'. Meanwhile NFL Internet Group saw its ranking rise from 114 in July to 49 in August with the start of the NFL season. Other sites breaking into the top 50 include Hewlett Packard, New York Times Digital and Buy.com Sites, making a total of 6 new entrants.
Gainers from the start of the school year included leading clothes retailers Kohls, Foot Locker, Otto Gruppe (which owns Spiegel and Eddie Bauer), Gap and JCPenney, which saw major increases in traffic.
Computer Hardware and Consumer Electronics sites also did well, including big box retailers such as Best Buy and Circuit City and direct marketers Gateway and Hewlett Packard, no doubt in part due to seasonal student demand; and families shopping for furniture and housewares at Sears, Ikea, Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel helped drive the Home Furnishings category up 28 percent versus July.
The traffic spikes driven by SoBig and Blaster were strong enough to be felt even at the category level in both the Computer Software and Technology - News categories, which grew faster than all other categories in August (see bottom table).
Depressingly perhaps, an event which happens not annually like starting school or monthly (it would seem) like virus outbreaks, but once in 60,000 years, caused relatively little movement in viewers - the close proximity of the red planet in late August was probably, at least, part responsible for a steep rise in visits to National Geographic, and maybe also to Mars, Inc (sic).
Top 50 Properties - Unique Visitors (000), August 2003
Total US - Home, Work and University Locations
| Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) | | 1 | AOL Time Warner Network - Prop. & WWW | 111,117 | | 2 | MSN-Microsoft Sites | 110,673 | | 3 | Yahoo! Sites | 108,240 | | 4 | EBay | 63,608 | | 5 | Google Sites | 54,709 | | 6 | Terra Lycos | 51,880 | | 7 | About/Primedia | 42,680 | | 8 | Amazon Sites | 35,494 | | 9 | Gator Network | 34,263 | | 10 | Symantec | 28,524 | | 11 | Excite Network | 28,002 | | 12 | Viacom Online | 27,299 | | 13 | InfoSpace Network | 26,979 | | 14 | Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) | 25,131 | | 15 | CNET Networks | 25,014 | | 16 | Real.com Network | 22,541 | | 17 | Classmates.com Sites | 21,254 | | 18 | Weather Channel, The | 20,480 | | 19 | Overture | 19,071 | | 20 | eUniverse Network | 18,646 | | 21 | Vivendi-Universal Sites | 17,828 | | 22 | Verizon Communications Corporation | 17,631 | | 23 | EA Online | 16,330 | | 24 | Expedia Travel | 16,257 | | 25 | SBC Communications | 16,058 | | 26 | AT&T Properties | 15,983 | | 27 | Sony Online | 15,713 | | 28 | Monster Property | 15,239 | | 29 | iVillage.com: The Womens Network | 15,232 | | 30 | Ask Jeeves | 14,792 | | 31 | Weatherbug.com Property | 14,630 | | 32 | Dealtime | 13,818 | | 33 | Cox Enterprises Inc. | 13,483 | | 34 | Wal-Mart | 13,352 | | 35 | United Online, Inc | 12,527 | | 36 | News Corp. Online | 12,309 | | 37 | Travelocity | 11,930 | | 38 | Gannett Sites | 11,857 | | 39 | Dell | 11,735 | | 40 | AmericanGreetings Property | 11,627 | | 41 | Earthlink | 11,486 | | 42 | Hewlett Packard | 11,372 | | 43 | New York Times Digital | 11,214 | | 44 | ORBITZ.COM | 11,111 | | 45 | McAfee.com Sites | 11,063 | | 46 | Adobe Sites | 10,835 | | 47 | Trip Network Inc. | 10,833 | | 48 | Buy.com Sites | 10,444 | | 49 | NFL Internet Group | 10,378 | | 50 | Comcast Corporation | 10,063 |
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Top Gaining Sites Among the Top 250 Properties - Unique Visitors (000), August 2003
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
| Property | Jul-03
Unique Visitors
(000) | Aug-03
Unique Visitors
(000) | % Change | Rank by
Unique Visitors | | (000) | (000) | | | | | Total Internet Users | 147,455 | 148,811 | 1% | N/A | | Symantec | 5,780 | 28,524 | 394% | 10 | | GREATSCHOOLS.NET | 588 | 2,821 | 380% | 237 | | NFL Internet Group | 5,728 | 10,378 | 81% | 49 | | LASTMINUTETRAVEL.COM | 2,039 | 3,386 | 66% | 194 | | McAfee.com Sites | 6,700 | 11,063 | 65% | 45 | | NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM | 2,136 | 3,498 | 64% | 190 | | IFILM Network | 4,928 | 7,078 | 44% | 77 | | Student Advantage | 3,005 | 4,025 | 34% | 169 | | Mars, Inc. | 2,727 | 3,629 | 33% | 180 | | GETFOUND.COM | 3,755 | 4,971 | 32% | 129 | | INPHONIC.COM | 2,383 | 3,117 | 31% | 212 | | KOHLS.COM | 2,166 | 2,821 | 30% | 236 | | Foot Locker Sites | 2,327 | 2,994 | 29% | 223 | | Buy.com Sites | 8,714 | 10,444 | 19% | 48 | | Otto Gruppe | 4,260 | 5,066 | 19% | 124 | | Gap, Inc. | 5,561 | 6,569 | 18% | 89 | | GATEWAY.COM | 3,380 | 3,976 | 18% | 171 | | Hewlett Packard | 9,802 | 11,372 | 16% | 42 | | CIRCUITCITY.COM | 3,970 | 4,604 | 16% | 144 | | CLICKSPRING.NET | 2,406 | 2,763 | 15% | 242 | | New York Times Digital | 9,774 | 11,214 | 15% | 43 | | Best Buy Sites | 8,010 | 9,177 | 15% | 60 | | REFERENCE.COM | 3,868 | 4,424 | 14% | 151 | | JCPenney Sites | 5,049 | 5,746 | 14% | 110 | | Deutsche Telekom | 2,807 | 3,176 | 13% | 206 |
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Top 10 Gaining Categories/Sub-Categories - Unique Visitors (000), August 2003
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
| Property | Jul-03
Unique Visitors
(000) | Aug-03
Unique Visitors
(000) | % Change | | Total Internet Users | 147,455 | 148,811 | 1% | | Retail-Computer Software | 41,140 | 57,673 | 40% | | Technology-News | 44,234 | 60,373 | 37% | | Retail-Home Furnishings | 13,772 | 17,607 | 28% | | Technology | 70,178 | 82,374 | 17% | | Services-Discussion/Chat | 52,246 | 60,436 | 16% | | Retail-Fragrances/Cosmetics | 8,056 | 8,970 | 11% | | Education | 65,276 | 71,794 | 10% | | Community-Religion | 8,217 | 8,958 | 9% | | Entertainment-Movies | 16,254 | 17,706 | 9% | | Retail-Computer Hardware | 40,933 | 43,287 | 6% |
Source: comScore Media Metrix
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