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High-Street U.K. Retailers Enjoyed December Increase in Online Traffic
LONDON, January 27 /PRNewswire/ -- - Facebook Moves Up to #4 in Top U.K. Property Ranking - Online Dating Picks-up Amidst Christmas Festivities comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its December rankings of the largest and fastest-growing Internet properties and site categories in the U.K. based on data from the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080115/COMSCORELOGO) The onset of the Christmas shopping season brought increased traffic to online retail sites, with the jewelry/luxury goods/accessories category experiencing the strongest growth, followed by the mall, music, and flowers/gifts/greetings categories. High-street retailers were particularly influenced by the seasonal uptick, with retailers such as HMV, the John Lewis Partnership and the Dixons Stores Group all enjoying strong visitor growth. The e-Cards and Shipping categories also achieved gains, while the Royal Mail Group property grew 31 percent to more than 4 million visitors. Interestingly, visitation to online dating sites also grew significantly in December, as lonely hearts reached out to one another during the Christmas season. Meanwhile, Facebook.com continued its ascension towards the top of the online rankings -- having captured the fifth spot in the ranking in September, the social networking property moved up yet again in December to rank as the fourth most popular property. Top Gaining Site Categories for December 2008 Top 10 Gaining Site Categories by Number of U.K. Unique Visitors December 2008 vs. November 2008 Total U.K., Age 15+ - Home and Work Locations* Source: comScore World Metrix Total Unique Visitors (000) Site Category Nov-2008 Dec-2008 % Change Total Internet: Total Audience 36,568 36,664 0% e-cards 3,108 4,553 46% Retail - Jewelry/Luxury Goods /Accessories 3,245 4,094 26% Shipping 4,225 5,259 24% Retail - Music 10,140 11,805 16% Retail - Mall 11,768 13,689 16% Retail - Flowers/Gifts/Greetings 4,775 5,522 16% Retail - Department Stores 9,701 11,087 14% Online Dating 3,821 4,354 14% Retail - Computer Hardware 16,203 18,425 14% Retail - Consumer Goods 6,148 6,917 12% * Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs. Top Gaining Properties for December 2008 Top 10 Gaining Properties by Number of U.K. Unique Visitors* December 2008 vs. November 2008 Total U.K., Age 15+ - Home and Work Locations** Source: comScore World Metrix Total Unique Visitors (000) Property Nov-2008 Dec-2008 % Change Total Internet : Total Audience 36,568 36,664 0% HMV 3,108 4,232 36% Royal Mail Group 3,181 4,163 31% John Lewis Partnership 2,748 3,524 28% Dixons Stores Group 5,609 7,097 27% Arcadia Group Limited 2,614 3,274 25% NEXT Group 3,225 4,036 25% Metacafe 2,072 2,553 23% Home Retail Group 9,134 11,169 22% Debenhams 2,196 2,684 22% ValueClick Sites 2,164 2,578 19% * Ranking based on the top 100 U.K. properties in December 2008. ** Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs. Top 25 Properties for December 2008 Top 25 Properties by Number of U.K. Unique Visitors* December 2008 vs. November 2008 Total U.K., Age 15+ - Home and Work Locations** Source: comScore World Metrix Total Unique Dec-08 Nov-08 Visitors (000) Rank Rank Property Dec-08 N/A N/A Total Internet : Total Audience 36,664 1 1 Google Sites 32,907 2 2 Microsoft Sites 29,548 3 3 Yahoo! Sites 22,431 4 5 Facebook.com 21,165 5 4 eBay 20,520 6 6 BBC Sites 18,379 7 7 AOL LLC 16,519 8 10 Amazon Sites 15,465 9 8 Ask Network 14,082 10 9 Wikimedia Foundation Sites 13,750 11 11 Apple Inc. 12,088 12 14 Home Retail Group 11,169 13 12 Fox Interactive Media 9,938 14 13 Lycos Europe Sites 9,720 15 15 CBS Corporation 9,377 16 17 Glam Media 8,189 17 19 Tesco Stores 7,838 18 16 Sky Sites 7,408 19 21 Play.com Sites 7,391 20 25 Dixons Stores Group 7,097 21 18 DMGT 7,048 22 20 Adobe Sites 6,225 23 23 Yellow Book Network 6,029 24 22 News International 5,811 25 28 Shop Direct Group 5,779 * Ranking based on the top 100 U.K. properties in December 2008. ** Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs. About comScore comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/boilerplate
