• meltdowns

    It's New York Times official: e-commerce has shrunk

    Brad Stone blogged the bad news: "During the first 23 days of November, according to a report to be released later on Tuesday by the research firm comScore, consumers spent $8.19 billion online, a 4 percent drop from the same period last year. That marks the first annual decline since e-commerce took off." You can read the rest of the tragic stats in ComScore's press release.
    11/25/08
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    Comment by Migrant Blogger: E-commerce is shrinking in a shrinking economy. I do need to know how this is news. Seriously. 1 Responses | Other threads

  • stats

    October e-commerce up a humiliating 1 percent

    The accompanying chart from TechFlash says it all: Online sales just aren't growing anymore. October's 1 percent growth over October 2007 is the worst performance measured by ComScore since they began tracking stats in 2001. TechFlash quotes Gian Fulgoni, chairman of the research firm: "We can only hope that the recent sharp drop in oil prices will cause a continued easing of inflation and a strengthening in consumer spending as [we] enter the critical holiday shopping season." We can only hope? Dude, we can get down on our knees and pray.
    11/18/08
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    Comment by loslosbaby: We're in the e-commerce business as a store provider and its looking good for our stores now. It all... more » | Other threads

  • dumbphones

    iPhone's image being tarnished by poor people

    The Jesusphone is no longer just for privileged white folks. "The strongest growth in users is coming from those earning less than the median household income, particularly since the launch of the iPhone 3G." So says a report from ComScore, which concludes that "lower-income mobile subscribers are increasingly turning to their mobile devices to access the Internet, email and their music collections." Awesome. Now I can buy an iPhone 3G without feeling I'm being extravagant. But I can't shake the feeling this study was secretly paid for by RIM. (Photo by r.f.m II)
    10/30/08
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    Comment by Trick: It is really sad how tarnished the Mac image has become. Now anyone with $200 left on their credit card think... 9 Responses | Other threads

  • online video

    Porn and ads account for two in five videos watched online

    That's what the addition by subtraction equals when you compare comScore's 10.8 billion unique video streams counted in June to Nielsen's 7.5 billion — because of the two Web usage statistic compilers, Nielsen refuses to count "pornography" and "advertising" in the company's total. At first I though, "There's a difference between porn and ads?" And then I remembered: I generally like porn and I usually hate ads. No wonder it's so hard to chose between loving and hating American Apparel. [Silicon Alley Insider]
    09/08/08
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  • online advertising

    ComScore ruins ad networks' favorite scam

    Web metrics firm ComScore says it going to begin tracking ad networks' "potential reach" and "actual reach" for online-ad buyers and sellers. A translation: Ad networks, in theory, can place ads on all of a Web publisher's pages, and those are the numbers they trot out when luring ad dollars. Operations like Glam Media compound the confusion by portraying some of the sites they represent as if they were websites they owned. In practice, publishers of a respectable size use networks only to fill a small percentage of their least valuable inventory. The net effect: industrywide, advertising inventories look much larger than they actually are, leading ad buyers to drive harder bargains. If ComScore can expose this part of the ad-network scam, publishers may benefit from higher rates. Ad buyers? They won't complain: As soon as they've spent their clients' online budgets, it's time for a two-martini lunch. More »
    08/14/08
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    Comment by Advertising-News: I think that the ad industry is moving to a more publisher-centric model as this article explains [www.adweek.com] I believe... more » | Other threads

  • the chart

    Google loses search market share to Yahoo, Microsoft

    Reversing a long trend, one research firm says Yahoo and Microsoft have posted gains in search market share — at the expense of industry leader Google. ComScore reports that 61.5 percent of all U.S. searches went through Google in June 2008, 0.3 percent less than in May 2008. Yahoo saw 20.9 percent of the searches in June, up from 20.6 percent in May. Microsoft went from 8.5 percent to 9.2 percent. Does this argue for a Microsoft-Yahoo merger? Not especially, since those small, hard-won gains would likely evaporate while the combined entity fumbles for years in post-deal internal politicking.
    07/21/08
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    Comment by ThaiKitchen: Well, Google shouldn't worry... that .3% they gave to Yahoo, they are the ones offering ads, so the money hasn't... more » | Other threads

  • stocks

    Google's Ad Planner announcement like a rusty shiv to ComScore's kidney

    ComScore's stock dropped 23% on Tuesday when news broke about Google's Ad Planner — because now you can get demographic info from the same shop you can buy Web ads from. However, that's exactly the reason ad agencies and marketers might be wary to take Google's information at face value. [Silicon Alley Insider]
    06/25/08
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  • the chart

    While Microsoft and Yahoo talk, Google takes more search market

    Why is Microsoft so desperate to acquire Yahoo's search business? According to ComScore, Google's video-sharing site YouTube and Google's other subsidiaries alone attracted more search queries than all of Microsoft's properties combined in April. Comparing total searches for each company is similarly lopsided; Google controls 61 percent of the search market to Microsoft's 9.1 percent, which is a decline from 9.4 percent in March. Problem is, buying Yahoo might not help. Yahoo lost search market share last month, too, dropping from 21.3 percent to 20.4 in just one month.
    05/22/08
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  • rumormonger

    Revolution Health lays off an entire business unit

    Revolution Health, the company founded by former AOL Time Warner chairman Steve Case, has laid off its entire business-to-business unit, according to a tipster. In the rest of Revolution Health, there's little sign of its original mission — helping consumers lower healthcare costs. Instead, it's operating a series of vaguely health-related websites, and selling banner ads against them, a push for traffic for traffic's sake which began last year. But most recently, another source tells us, Revolution's pageview games have started to look desperate: More »
    05/22/08
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    Comment by jwoodywild: Revolution can position themselves as a media company or not. It doesnt matter. They have nothing unique that cant be... more » | Other threads

  • stats

    ComScore plays Google whipping boy, but Web statistics firm actually saved search giant's bacon

    In February, ComScore reported underwhelming growth in clicks on Google ads in the U.S. Google shares sank below a 52-week low for the first time in the company's history. Then, yesterday, Google reported 42 percent year-over-year revenue growth, surpassing expectations. Burned, Wall Street traders reacted harshly toward ComScore, dropping the company's shares by 8.4 percent after hours. Today, ComScore wants to remind the world that it never said Google's revenues would sink and that it only measures clicks on Google ads in the U.S., not internationally But really, Google investors owe ComScore a large debt. More »
    04/18/08
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  • great moments in pr

    Brooke Hammerling, online-video PR rep, weighs in on online-video audience debate

    BrewPR's snacky flack Brooke Hammerling penned a guest column for Silicon Alley Insider, arguing that the Web video industry needs to come up with a strict viewership metric. Though she doesn't mention it in the piece, New York-based online-video startup NextNewNetworks is a Brew client. (It's disclosed, in tiny type, at the end.) We could ask why Henry Blodget is giving a self-interested company rep a soapbox, or why they couldn't fix the red eye in Hammerling's photo. But the real question is why Hammerling suddenly cares about online video analytics. More »
    04/15/08
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    Comment by WillClark: I think it's time for another Snacky or Flacky contest. more » | Other threads

  • facebook

    ComScore reports MySpace hit 109.3 million worldwide unique visitors in January. Facebook had 100.7 million, only 8 percent less. Last year, MySpace's lead was four times as large. [SAI]
    03/18/08
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  • stats

    ComScore backtracks on numbers that tanked Google's shares

    Bear Stearns analyst Bob Peck laid waste to stock portfolios everywhere on Tuesday with ComScore metrics that said Google users clicked on only as many paid links in January 2008 as they clicked on in January 2007. On the news, Google's share price dropped 8 percent. ComScore's Magid Abraham and James Lamberti are sorry. To say so, they wrote a 1,152-word post. Here's a Friday-friendly version: More »
    02/29/08
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    Comment by Magister: @cowsandmilk: ...but Google gets paid by the click and two 20ยข clicks are worth more than one for $0.30. more » | Other threads

  • online advertising

    Buyer of $200 million a year in search ads says clicks are up

    SearchIgnite, which spends about $200 million each year on search advertising, says that clicks on Google ads aren't down or even flat as ComScore recently claimed. They're up 40.1 percent year-over-year. On all major search engines, paid clicks are up 45.7 percent year-over-year — up 65 percent for retailers and non-mortage-related financial services. So WTF, ComScore? The most likely answer: ComScore has surveys; SearchIgnite has invoices. (Photo by bitzcelt)
    02/29/08
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    Comment by Robert Synnott: Google went on a campaign against so-called arbitrage, where someone buys AdWords to direct people to more expensive AdSense, last... more » | Other threads

  • stats

    ComScore says social networks' growth is slowing

    Creative Capital got ahold of the December 2007 ComScore numbers for the top social networks in the U.S. — and they are, on the whole, not good. Engagement — average minutes spent on the site per visitor — is down for MySpace and Microsoft's Live Spaces, but up for almost all the other sites. Unique visitor growth is ominously low for MySpace and, in the last three months, LinkedIn. Hit the jump to see the numbers for yourself. More »
    01/30/08
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    Comment by BobDope: Facebook gonna crumble too, just a matter of time. Buy the racehorse while you can, kids. more » | Other threads

  • your privacy is an illusion

    Sears covertly spying for ComScore?

    Sears, the department-store operator, is inviting visitors to its website to join an online "community." In the process, visitors may be unwittingly installing spyware from ComScore which monitors all of their online behavior "including ... filling a shopping basket, completing an application form, or checking your ... personal financial or health information." Sears defends this installation process as clearly and appropriately disclosed. Computer Associates, a Harvard Business School professor, and possibly the government disagree. More »
    01/03/08
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    Comment by sharonheights: I've looked into this and I think it's a storm in a tea cup. Sears makes three separate disclosures that... more » | Other threads

  • stats

    Why Facebook, ComScore disagree on users' ages

    Sound the alarm bells: CPM Advisors has uncovered a drastic disparity between the demographics Facebook offers advertisers and the metrics ComScore independently reports. ComScore reports that 13.6 million U.S. people ages 35 or older use Facebook. Facebook, however, puts that number at only 1.26 million. What gives? More »
    11/26/07
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    Comment by sample032: @quistrl: Depends on the state. more » | Other threads

  • e-commerce

    Holiday retail just fine after all

    Just when ComScore had you worried that the subprime mortgage crisis would slow down e-commerce, they come back today with good news. According to the she-loves-me-she-loves-me-not online-metrics firm, this holiday season's first 18 days saw more than $7 billion in spending, a 17-percent gain versus the corresponding days last year. Here's the chart. More »
    11/21/07
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    Comment by sample032: Impressive, though some bears remind us the the CPI is lower than real inflation, and real inflation is around 8%. more » | Other threads

  • stats

    Radiohead on ComScore numbers: Bollocks!

    ComScore, the online traffic tracker, told us that 62 percent of the 1.2 million fans who downloaded Radiohead's latest album "In Rainbows" weren't willing to pay for it. Now the band's management wants to kibosh those reports. More »
    11/09/07
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    Comment by mblevin: Not to mention that if you were using a variety of non-standard browsers, the price inputs wouldn't take single zeroes... more » | Other threads

  • confirmed

    ComScore says Facebook traffic dropped in September. We didn't think that was accurate. It turns out that traffic was only "down" because ComScore's measurement panel (along with Nielsen and others) only measures traffic from home. As students return to school, they are removed from the panel and traffic "drops." Facebook says that active monthly users is still rising at 3 percent a week, as it has since January 2007. [GigaOm]
    10/11/07
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    Comment by redaction: Compete's metrics also show Facebook traffic decreasing by 7.7% in September; some of this might be attributed to kids leaving... more » | Other threads

  • followup

    Compete data confirms Facebook traffic drop

    Earlier, we scoffed at the idea that Facebook's traffic could have dropped in September. Compete.com — the poor man's ComScore, which makes its traffic data publicly available — just released September data that shows a similar drop. Maybe Facebook has peaked. More likely: since the kids returned to college, the free time they had to screw around on Facebook this summer has disappeared in favor of schoolwork and frat parties. MySpace, Orkut and Bebo were all down in September too. Amid the hysteria about Facebook's traffic dropping, everyone seems to have forgotten that Facebook traffic was down last September as well.
    10/11/07
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    Comment by PaulSutter: These audience measurement panels are composed of home users. When kids go back to school in September, they disappear from... more » | Other threads

  • stats

    Either Facebook or ComScore jumps the shark

    Facebook traffic dropped nearly 10 percent in September, according to a sneak peak at ComScore's latest stats given to GigaOm. That's a significant drop to a chart that's been climbing steadily all year, and especially odd during the start of a new school year when traffic traditionally soars for student sites. My Valleywag coworkers say that can't be right — it's a huge failure of ComScore's measurement methods that the company will have trouble explaining. Then again, I'm reminded of the anecdotal tale of the scientists who decided there must be a bug in their software because it showed — ha ha! — a gaping hole in the ozone layer.
    10/11/07
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    Comment by Duncan: If you want to explore Comscores data look at how they gather it. I can't think users of "internet accelerators"... more » | Other threads

  • stats

    British Internet users spend 11 minutes a day on social networks. Want something more interesting than that? Nielsen/NetRatings thinks Facebook is the top social net in the U.K. ComScore says they're No. 3 behind MySpace and Bebo. Either way, we're glad they didn't poll the Valley — based on an informal survey of our peers, we probably waste three hours a day on Facebook. [Times Online]
    10/10/07
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  • online advertising

    The great blog rollup

    At times, there's nothing more amusing than watching a blogger in the middle of a meltdown. Barry Ritholz, the CEO of stock-research firm Fusion IQ, has apparently been seized by panic over an interesting, but unthreatening, development: Big media companies getting into the business of selling ads for blogs. They've already built up an expensive ad sales force, and often find it difficult to grow traffic on their websites faster than their salespeople can sell it. A natural solution: Approach blogs covering similar topics and offer to sell ads on their sites, sharing the revenue. The Washington Post was one of the first to do so, and now, apparently, Reuters is getting into the game. The part that has Ritholz alarmed, though, is a requirement that the blogs "assign" their traffic to the larger company for purposes of getting counted by Nielsen/NetRatings and ComScore Media Metrix, the two largest Web-traffic research firms. Why does Ritholz find this so alarming — and why is he utterly wrong? More »
    Feature Feature
    10/08/07
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  • explainer

    Nielsen dumped pageviews for "time spent." Is this a big deal?

    Nielsen/NetRatings (motto: "Awkward name, slightly-less-sketchy results") is reportedly dropping pageviews as their top metric, replacing this standard measure of web traffic with "total time spent" on a site. The upshot? Google.com and YouTube.com could swap places on the list of most popular sites. This is actually a big deal and a good move, for several simple reasons. More »
    07/10/07
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    Comment by rexworld: If I leave a Web page loaded in my browser and then step away for a meeting or to go... more » | Other threads

  • yelp

    Loose Wires: $10 million? Yelp!

    • "Google Determined To Reintroduce Goatee To NYC." Incontrovertible photo evidence inside. [PSFK]
    • Audioblogger, the blog-by-phone service from Odeo, stopped returning my calls. Was it something I said? [Odeo via Kingsley Jegan Joseph]
    • ComScore reports that over half of MySpace's users are over 35— [ComScore]
    • —which one ad exec immediately refutes. [John DeMayo]
    • "Does anyone know anything about social networking?" asks a blogger at paidContent. Yes, he says, if we try modeling it after the oil industry. Gee, that's promising. [paidContent]
    • Naughty bloggers find instances of coders gone mad by using Google Code Search to find instances of "WTF" and "pray it works." [Supr.c.ilio.us]
    • Yelp is great and all, but why did it take another $10 million in funding? Where did the other $6 mil go, was it all stuffed down the g-strings of the girls getting wild at the startup's crazy parties? [VentureBeat]
    10/05/06
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    Comment by Blackjack: Oh Noes!! Not teh old people on MySpace! Wait, that's just the musicians, right? more » | Other threads

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