According to comScore, taxes, shipping and various retail activities drove traffic to those website categories in December. Meanwhile, Google Sites remained the king of U.S. Web properties.
The holiday shopping season held its momentum in December, according to comScore, “propelling Retail and Shipping sites to annual highs.”
Business/Finance – Taxes was the top gaining site category in December, with its audience of unique visitors growing 29 percent from November. Directories/Resources – Shipping followed with a 22 percent month-over-month growth.
Retail – Movies was the third fastest growing site category with a month-over-month growth of 21 percent, followed by Retail – Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories with19 percent growth, Retail – Flowers/Gifts/Greetings with 19 percent growth, Community – Gay/Lesbian with 15 percent growth, Retail – Sports/Outdoor with 13 percent growth, Services – e-cards with 13 percent growth, Entertainment – Humor with 10 percent growth and Retail – Books with 10 percent growth.
The top gaining Web property in December was JibJab Media, with a month-over-month increase in the number of unique visitors of 207 percent. Pinterest followed with growth of 55 percent, while AVG Technologies saw its audience grow 38 percent.
Barnes & Noble saw the number of its unique visitors grow 35 percent, USPS saw its audience grow 33 percent, UPS Sites saw its audience grow 31 percent, Netflix.com saw its audience grow 31 percent, Instagr.am saw its audience grow 30 percent, CollegeHumor Media saw its audience grow 26 percent and Zazzle saw its audience grow 25 percent.
Google Sites claimed 187.1 million unique U.S. visitors in December, followed by Microsoft Sites followed with 177.3 million visitors and Yahoo Sites with 176.5 million visitors.
iVillage.com finished at No. 29, up 10 spots from November’s ranking. Meanwhile, Netflix ranked at No. 33 overall.
According to comScore’s Ad Focus ranking showed that Google Ad Network had a reach of 92.9 percent of the total Internet audience in December, followed by Yahoo Network Plus with a reach of 84.9 percent and AOL Advertising with a reach of 84.1 percent.
Source:
http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2012/1/comScore_Media_Metrix_Ranks_Top_50_U.S._Web_Properties_for_December_2011
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