Nielsen//NetRatings, a global leader in Internet media and market research, today announced the fastest growing Web sites among the top 10 Web brands for November 2005. Apple ranked No. 1 according to year-over-year growth in November 2005, climbing 57 percent over November last year, driven by traffic to the increasingly popular iTunes. Google and Amazon also saw significant year-over-year increases, growing 29 percent and 16 percent, respectively. Longtime leader Yahoo! attracted the largest unique audience, garnering nearly 104 million unique visitors during the month, and growing ten percent year-over-year.
“Among the top Web brands, fierce competition for share of online visitors continues to be a catalyst for the launch of new products and features,” said Gerry Davidson, senior media analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings in a statement. “These additions appear to be spearheading much of the top Web brand growth, because they keep visitors interested and engaged,” he continued.
Top 10 Online Web Brands for November 2005 Ranked by Fastest Growth (U.S., Home and Work)
Brand Nov-04 UA (000) Nov-05 UA (000) Y-O-Y Percent Growth
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Apple 19,615 30,845 57%
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Google 66,403 85,526 29%
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Amazon 36,663 42,496 16%
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MapQuest 31,178 35,076 13%
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Real 30,568 34,355 12%
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eBay 51,067 56,332 10%
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Yahoo! 94,449 103,882 10%
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Microsoft 89,083 96,130 8%
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AOL 71,456 74,321 4%
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MSN 89,522 91,348 2%
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Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, December 2005
Nielsen//NetRatings also released the fastest growing Web brands for November 2005, out of the more than 2,000 sites that met minimum reporting levels. Visitors age 12-24 are more likely than the average Web user to visit these fastest growing sites, which show approximately 50 to 90 percent more young visitors than the average Web site’s audience.
Image hosting site PhotoBucket led the group, growing an astounding 1,492 percent, from 983,000 unique visitors in November 2004 to 15.6 million in November 2005. Social networking sites MySpace, Facebook and Memegen.net also saw impressive year-over-year growth, increasing 752 percent, 530 percent and 446 percent, respectively. Slate, a current events site ranked No. 5, growing 390 percent year-over-year.
“Sites that strongly appeal to generation Y are those at which they can control the content,” said Davidson. “They provide a desirable service in an entertaining format. Thus it is not surprising that many of the fastest growing sites fall into the social networking, blogging, and online member community genres,” he continued.
Top 10 Fastest Growing Web Brands* for November 2005 (U.S., Home and Work)
Brand Nov-04 UA (000) Nov-05 UA (000) Y-O-Y Percent Growth
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PhotoBucket 983 15,646 1,492%
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MySpace 2,874 24,495 752%
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Facebook 932 5,869 530%
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Memegen.net 359 1,961 446%
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Slate 704 3,449 390%
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M&M's 656 3,044 364%
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LimeWire 1,717 7,649 345%
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Heavy.com 609 2,444 301%
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Wikipedia 4,509 17,642 291%
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Mate1.com 598 2,180 265%
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Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, December 2005
* Fastest growing Web brands had a minimum of one million unique visitors for November 2005.
Nielsen//NetRatings Top 10 Web Sites by Parent Company and Top 10 Web Sites By Brand, November 2005
Table 1. Top 10 Parent Companies, Table 2. Top 10 Brands,
Combined Home & Work Combined Home & Work
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Unique Time Per Unique Time Per
Audience Person Audience Person
Parent (000) (hh:mm:ss) Brand (000) (hh:mm:ss)
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1. Microsoft 111,524 2:04:48 1. Yahoo! 103,882 3:21:39
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2. Yahoo! 104,148 3:21:54 2. Microsoft 96,130 0:43:30
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3. Time Warner 101,614 5:00:16 3. MSN 91,348 1:46:22
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4. Google 87,492 0:55:40 4. Google 85,526 0:55:04
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5. eBay 63,288 1:55:47 5. AOL 74,321 6:13:39
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6. InterActiveCorp 55,413 0:27:37 6. eBay 56,332 1:59:48
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7. Amazon 47,908 0:29:23 7. Amazon 42,496 0:27:17
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8. Walt Disney 8. MapQuest 35,076 0:13:03
Internet Group 38,264 0:39:43 --------------------------------
-------------------------------------- 9. Real 34,355 0:40:07
9. Viacom --------------------------------
International 37,074 0:50:32 10. Apple 30,845 0:47:20
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10. New York Times
Company 35,921 0:17:11
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Example: The data indicates that 35.9 million home and work Internet users visited at least one of the New York Times Company-owned sites or launched a New York Times Company-owned application during the month, and each person spent, on average, a total of 17 minutes and 11 seconds at one or more of their sites or applications.
A parent company is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs owned by a single entity. A brand is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs that has a consistent collection of branded content. Reach is a measure of the unduplicated audience that visits a property. The data is expressed as the percentage of the total universe of Internet users who logged onto the Internet at least once during the reporting period.
Top 10 Advertisers by Estimated Spending
Total
Estimated Impressions
Advertiser Spending (000)
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1. Vonage Holdings Corp $31,044,300 12,486,122
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2. LowerMyBills.com, Inc. $11,692,000 2,877,204
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3. BellSouth Corporation $10,619,100 2,880,768
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4. General Mills, Inc. $9,679,500 1,119,630
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5. Dell Computer Corporation $8,394,000 2,230,594
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6. Scottrade, Inc. $8,258,300 1,644,455
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7. QuinStreet $8,164,800 1,749,830
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8. Verizon Communications, Inc. $7,581,500 1,963,643
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9. General Motors Corporation $7,532,000 1,302,936
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10. Netflix, Inc. $7,318,400 1,896,305
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Estimated spending reflects CPM-based advertising only, and excludes search-based advertising, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns, sponsorships, barters, partnership advertising, advertorials, promotions, email and direct response. Impressions reported exclude house ads, which are ads that run on an advertiser’s own Web property. Example: An estimated 1.9 billion Netflix, Inc. ads were rendered for viewing at the cost of approximately $7.3 million during the surfing period.
NetRatings, Inc. delivers leading Internet media and market research solutions, marketed globally under the Nielsen//NetRatings brand. With high quality, technology-driven products and services, Nielsen//NetRatings is the global standard for Internet audience measurement and premier source for online advertising intelligence, enabling clients to make informed business decisions regarding their Internet and digital strategies. The Nielsen//NetRatings portfolio includes panel-based and site-centric Internet audience measurement services, online advertising intelligence, user lifestyle and demographic data, e-commerce and transaction metrics, and custom data, research and analysis.
For more information, please visit: http://www.nielsen-netratings.com
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Funny thing is that the only reason M$ gets so many hits is from people hunting for hot fixes to security holes and other bugs.
My sentiments exactly RC.
It occurs to me that perhaps one of the reasons individuals spend so much time on the Microsoft site isn’t because they WANT to, but perhaps becaused they’re forced to by way of product failures and bad site design. I’ve tried finding stuff at MS and I consider it to be a nightmare. I like Apple’s easy-to-navigate design, compelling content (OK, maybe I’m a *tad* biased) and up-to-date information and support pages.
Just my 2 cents!
How is it that Real gets more traffic than Apple; I mean, come on…REAL??!?!?!
And yet the web site hasn’t had any real hiccups for a loooong while.
Damn, those Dell servers are good.
“How is it that Real gets more traffic than Apple; I mean, come on…REAL??!?!?!
” – Kim Jong-II
Some radio stations only broadcast on the internet via Windows Media Player and Real. That probably contributes to at least some of the traffic.
Still, Apple has WAY FEWER total visitors than any other website listed.
How is it that Real gets more traffic than Apple; I mean, come on…REAL??!?
Because they advertise on other media (TV in particular)?
I’m sure 96% of page hits to microsoft.com were in its ‘support’ section.
“How is it that Real gets more traffic than Apple; I mean, come on…REAL??!?!?!”
Probably because they force you to re-download the free player every so often. Real sucks. Their days are numbered. Their Microsoft funded life support isn’t going to last forever.
Simply put: Apples site is like their products, simple and user friendly. So many other sites are cluttered with junk and useless photography (microsoft has happy people in alot of places – in order to hide all the angry people behind the website trying to find out how to fix their computer).
Apple’s site isn’t laced with useless information, and the interface doesnt change from page to page (some sections change, but they are consistent interfaces for their level of navigation).
I love their website for that reason, simplicity.
If you add together Microsoft and MSN you get the largest for a single business I would have said – BUT Microsoft would like not to have had 70% of its hits because they were searching to solve virus, malware and other problems, not to buy anything!
Memo to self: Must read thread before posting.. ooops!
How can AOL be so compelling that people spent an average of over 6 hours there?!
Macaday:
Because AOL is also a portal for all those suckers who think the only way onto the internet is through a ‘gateway’ such as theirs.
I have a switcher friend – I converted a few months back – she has an iMac G5 and when I set up her internet access, the first thing she asked me was, “so how do I get on AOL?”
Therein lies part of your answer.
AOL has a browser and chat client through their web portal for members. Once they log in, they are credited as being ‘at AOL’ even while they are just chatting or browsing elsewhere.
Where does macdailynews rank? Are you a fast growing site?