Daily Research News Online no. 4761 - Online Data Shows (Some) Charitable Impulse

Online Data Shows (Some) Charitable Impulse

October 31 2005

Many Americans turned to the Internet to help hurricane victims last month, according to new data from comScore. However, not all new surfing was altruistic: online share trading and TV web sites also experienced significant growth, and the latest analysis from NetRatings finds that online shopping continues to thrive.

According to comScore Media Metrix figures, drawn from the browsing behaviour of a panel of Internet users, the American Red Cross site saw 9.6m visitors in September 2005 - more than five times August's figure. The second-highest gaining property was the Federal Emergency Management Agency site, which saw a 369% rise to 4.9m visitors. Also linked to the disasters, the highest-growing web site category was Religion, which climbed 10% to 14.9 million unique visitors.

Peter Daboll, President and CEO of comScore Media Metrix, says the figures show that 'the Internet is truly a community of communities, bringing together people and services to play critical roles in the process of recovery and rejuvenation'.

Other notable increases include:

The Entertainment - Television category grew 8% to 69.3m unique visitors, as consumers took an interest in the new season's TV schedules.
Traffic to the Online Trading category grew by 7% to 11.7m unique visitors - an increase that comScore puts down to increased concern about finances amid declining consumer confidence.
Online pharmacy sites received 15.8m unique visitors, up 6% from August, continuing a growth trend sparked by increased marketing and expanded product offerings.

Fellow online audience measurement specialist Nielsen//NetRatings anticipates a strong online shopping season this Christmas, based on its analysis of last month's online shopping data.

According to NetRatings data, Shopzilla.com was the number one price comparison site in September, attracting 15m unique visitors. Shopping.com network came a close second, with 14.8m. Yahoo! Shopping, NexTag, and Froogle complete the top five, with 11.1m, 9.6m, and 6.4m unique visitors respectively.

The top three online retail categories in September, ranked by purchases, were Toys, Games & Hobbies with 8.9m purchases (15.6% of all online purchases for the month), Apparel & Accessories (8.2m purchases, 14.4%), and Home & Garden (7.6m purchases, 13.3%).

The companies are online at www.comscore.com and www.netratings.com.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.