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Students, Storms, Sports Contribute to Internet Milestone
comScore Media Metrix has announced the top 50 US Internet properties for the month of September 2003, together with the news that the total number of US Internet users passed the 150m mark for the first time.
Americans spent more time on the 'Net in 30-day September than in 31-day August - 3% more in fact. ComScore suggest that this increase was driven almost entirely by the university population returning to campus and their computers. Sites such as Reference.com, Encyclopaedia Britannica and Family Education Network surged with the start of the school year.
There were three new entrants to the Top 50 Properties ranking - Verisign rocketed from 135th to 11th place after launching SiteFinder, which redirects mistyped URLs to its site, while NFL Internet Group rose 15 places to 34.
The Retail-Food category grew strongly - up 17% on August with its top three properties, Cooking.com, OmahaSteaks.com and Schwans.com, all increasing promotional activity.
Internet users tracking the progress of Hurricane Isabel pushed the weather category up 10%, while the beginning of the National Football League season and Major League Baseball pennant races sent 4.5m more fans to the Sports category - a gain of 9 percent versus August. ESPN, the largest site in the Sports category, grew 14% to 17.6m unique visitors.
The Entertainment-Music category also saw a 5% increase in audience volume, driven almost entirely by AOL.com Music, which featured content related to the AOL-sponsored Dave Matthews Band benefit concert in New York's Central Park on September 24. Top 50 Properties September 2003 - Unique Visitors ('000)
Total US - Home, Work and University Locations | Rank | Property | Unique Visitors | | | | (000) |
Total Internet Users
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150,045
| | 1 | MSN-Microsoft Sites | 110,167 | | 2 | AOL Time Warner - Proprietary & WWW | 109,335 | | 3 | Yahoo! Sites | 108,096 | | 4 | Ebay | 62,577 | | 5 | Google Sites | 56,270 | | 6 | Terra Lycos | 51,605 | | 7 | About/Primedia | 43,656 | | 8 | Amazon Sites | 36,295 | | 9 | Gator Network | 34,158 | | 10 | Excite Network | 32,750 | | 11 | Verisign Sites | 30,787 | | 12 | Viacom Online | 25,846 | | 13 | Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) | 25,037 | | 14 | CNET Networks | 24,593 | | 15 | Symantec | 24,459 | | 16 | Weather Channel, The | 23,577 | | 17 | Real.com Network | 22,934 | | 18 | Verizon Communications Corporation | 19,424 | | 19 | Overture | 18,786 | | 20 | InfoSpace Network | 18,725 | | 21 | eUniverse Network | 17,767 | | 22 | Classmates.com Sites | 17,673 | | 23 | SBC Communications | 16,955 | | 24 | Monster Property | 16,720 | | 25 | Ask Jeeves | 16,501 | | 26 | EA Online | 16,196 | | 27 | Expedia Travel | 16,076 | | 28 | AT&T Properties | 16,054 | | 29 | Sony Online | 15,754 | | 30 | Weatherbug.com Property | 15,453 | | 31 | Vivendi-Universal Sites | 15,387 | | 32 | iVillage.com: The Womens Network | 14,158 | | 33 | Shopping.com Sites | 13,919 | | 34 | NFL Internet Group | 13,914 | | 35 | Gannett Sites | 12,775 | | 36 | United Online, Inc | 12,683 | | 37 | Cox Enterprises Inc. | 11,865 | | 38 | Wal-Mart | 11,580 | | 39 | AmericanGreetings Property | 11,507 | | 40 | Adobe Sites | 11,493 | | 41 | News Corp. Online | 11,481 | | 42 | Travelocity | 11,414 | | 43 | Earthlink | 11,360 | | 44 | ORBITZ.COM | 11,333 | | 45 | Dell | 11,302 | | 46 | Comcast Corporation | 10,647 | | 47 | New York Times Digital | 10,627 | | 48 | Hewlett Packard | 10,389 | | 49 | EMODE.COM | 10,166 | | 50 | Columbia House Sites | 10,004 |
Top 10 Gaining Categories/Sub-Categories, September 2003 - Unique Visitors (000)
Total US - Home, Work and University Locations | Property | Aug-03 | Sep-03 | % Change | | | Unique Visitors (000) | Unique Visitors (000) | | | Total Internet Users | 148,811 | 150,045 | 0.8% | | Retail-Food | 8,324 | 9,732 | 16.9% | | Weather | 38,100 | 41,757 | 9.6% | | Sports | 48,169 | 52,633 | 9.3% | | Flowers/Gifts/Greetings | 23,576 | 25,373 | 7.6% | | Entertainment-TV | 44,085 | 47,154 | 7.0% | | Hobbies-Lifestyles-Food | 22,959 | 24,322 | 5.9% | | Hobbies/Lifestyles-Home | 26,384 | 27,909 | 5.8% | | Online Trading | 10,739 | 11,256 | 4.8% | | Entertainment-Music | 62,210 | 65,116 | 4.7% | | | | | |
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