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

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

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