Reston, VA, April 18, 2006--comScore Media Metrix has released its monthly analysis of consumer activity at top online properties and categories.
Consistent with previous years, the majority of March’s Web activity was seasonal, revealing spikes in the travel, genealogy, training/ education, religious, sports/ outdoor retail, classifieds, and auto categories.
“Spring was in the air and it showed online during the month of March,” said Peter Daboll, CEO of comScore Media Metrix. “Spikes in these categories are a clear indication that consumers are preparing to enjoy warmer weather and beginning to plan for holiday, spring and summer vacations. Additionally, this month shows undeniable growth within the online classifieds category, which grew an impressive 35 percent from last year, and 13 percent versus last month. Notably, properties such as Craigslist.org have exploded since last year (up 155 percent since March 2005), an indication that online classifieds continue to draw attention from their print counterparts.”
With three of the top ten gaining categories this month falling under the travel umbrella, it is clear that March continued to be a time for making last minute travel, holiday, spring break, and/or summer plans. Car rental properties saw the greatest growth this month--up 22 percent over last month with more than 6.8 million visitors. Not far behind, the Ground Transportation/Cruise Category grew 17 percent over February with 9.8 million visitors, while visitation to Hotel and Resort sites increased 13 percent during the same period, with 32.9 million visitors. Of those, Hotels.com led the category in traffic (up 9 percent to 5.6 million visitors), followed by Marriott (up 11 percent to 4.7 million visitors).
With the SAT looming in early April, the popularity of online training and education sites soared during March. Overall, the Training and Education category rose 22 percent over February. Visits to the College Board Property, the official SAT Web property, rose 14 percent to 2.8 million visitors, while PrincetonReview.com saw traffic increase 39 percent to 693,000 visitors. Additionally, Fastweb.com, a site offering college scholarships, maintained a strong position in the category with 1.7 million visitors and growth of 35 percent versus the previous month.
March was a strong month for online classifieds, as the entire category grew 13 percent over February. More significant, however, was the year-over-year category gain of 35 percent versus March 2005, confirming the allure of online classifieds for advertisers. Notably, CraigsList.org continued to be the category leader with 9.5 million visitors, up 12 percent since last month, and up an impressive 155 percent since March 2005. Additionally, Trader Publishing Company, publisher of Auto Trader Magazines, rose 10 percent over February to 8.3 million visitors, followed by Cars.com (up 28 percent to 4.2 million visitors) and Autotrader.com (up 9 percent to 5.2 million visitors).
The Retail/Movies category also achieved gains in March, increasing 12 percent from the previous month to 25 million visitors. The gains were driven largely by Blockbuster’s 49 percent growth (to 6.9 million visitors), second only to Netflix in the category (9.6 million visitors). By launching an online rental service similar to Netflix, Blockbuster has become more competitive in this online arena. Up-and-comer Peerflix, a network that enables peer-to-peer DVD trading, continued to build momentum as it crossed the one million visitor threshold for the month, marking a 69 percent jump over February.
In March, Yahoo! Sites continued to hold the top ranking with 123.8 million visitors, while the Time Warner Network claimed the number two position for the first time since October by attracting 116.6 million visitors. Wikipedia Sites continued its ascent in March, moving up 10 spots to number 18.
