comScore Media Metrix Announces The July 2002 U.S. Top 50 Internet Property Rankings And Online Sales Highlights

Heated competition drives sales and traffic gains in Computer Hardware and Travel categories

Reston, Va., August 19, 2002 – comScore Networks, Inc., the standard in Internet behavioral measurement, today released the comScore Media Metrix U.S. Top 50 Internet properties for July 2002.  Amid ongoing and heated competition in the computer hardware and travel markets, both categories posted gains in online sales and major players in each sector posted significant traffic increases.

Online consumer sales (excluding auctions) of Computer Hardware grew to $927 million in July 2002, an increase of 30 percent versus the same month last year.  As Dell Computer continued its aggressive pursuit to gain market share, traffic to Dell.com increased 34 percent between June and July, moving it into the top 50 ranking.  The site ranked number 49 with 9.2 million unique visitors in the latest month.

Sales of Travel Services, the largest e-commerce category, grew 32 percent in July 2002 versus the same month last year, reaching a level of $2.9 billion.  Traffic to Orbitz.com benefited from consumer interest in the category, and the site entered the top 50 ranking at number 40 with 10.3 million visitors, up 19 percent versus June 2002.

Total online consumer sales (excluding auctions) in July 2002 were $6.0 billion, up 26 percent versus the same month last year.  Non-travel sales grew 20 percent, to $3.1 billion.
“Although consumer spending has been variously impacted by market uncertainty, we’re seeing encouraging results in key e-commerce categories,” said Peter Daboll, comScore Media Metrix division president.  “comScore analysts are closely watching these and other leading indicators in our databases, which provide a highly sensitive barometer of consumer sentiment.”

comScore Media Metrix – Top Growth Categories

With company scandals and economic uncertainty continuing to dominate headlines, Financial Information and Advice was the fastest growing Web site category, increasing 19 percent to 23.2 million unique visitors in July 2002.  And with mortgage interest rates hitting a 36-year low, the Real Estate category raised the roof on traffic, which increased 15 percent to 23.0 million visitors, an impressive gain which made this the second fastest growing sector.  Among the 25 real-estate sites with 200,000 or more visitors, only three decreased in traffic while the rest increased between five and 158 percent.

Some notable financial-advice and mortgage sites include: Bankrate.com Sites with 3.1 million visitors, up 40 percent versus the prior month; Atlascreditgroup.com with 523,000 visitors, up 49 percent; Mortgageexpo.com with 1.2 million visitors, up 23 percent; and Lendingtree.com with 1.2 million visitors, up 11 percent.  Key real-estate sites include: Remax.com with 750,000 visitors, up 83 percent versus the prior month; Apartment Guide Network with 883,000 visitors, up 57 percent; and House-hunting.com with 428,000 visitors, up 87 percent.

comScore Media Metrix – July Top Newcomers

The summer may be a slower season on the Web, but the July 2002 Internet ratings still managed to introduce 39 Top Newcomers – defined as any site that entered the ratings for the first time with 500,000 or more visitors.  Notable Newcomers: Billing itself the “Antidote to the Liberal News Media,” Ourchristiannation.org entered the ratings with 567,000 unique visitors.  Billporter.com, a tribute site to the inspirational door-to-door salesman that achieved success despite suffering from cerebral palsy, lured 624,000 visitors.  His story was made into a television movie by TNT, which premiered in July.  In a light-natured demonstration of the continuing opportunities for marketers to bridge the Web with other media, restaurant chain Chick-fil-A rounded up 611,000 visitors at eatmorchikin.com through its ad campaign in which cows encourage humans to eat more chicken.

Definitions for comScore Media Metrix Internet Ratings

* Represents an aggregation of commonly owned and/or branded domain names.

Digital Media includes users of the World Wide Web, proprietary online services, and/or other ad-supported digital applications such as e-mail services and CD ROM.

Digital Media & Web Properties include the largest single brands as well as consolidations of multiple domains that fall under one brand or common ownership.

Top 50 Digital Media & Web Properties: The Top 50 Digital Media & Web properties are based on unduplicated audience reach, also known as unique visitors.

Unique Visitors: The actual number of total users who visited the reported Web site or online property at least once in the given month. All Unique Visitors are unduplicated (only counted once) and are in thousands.