Comscore World Metrix

Comscore launched their worldwide audience measurement service last week.  It didn’t get a ton of attention but I’ve been looking at the data and there are some really interesting numbers in there. Until now, we’ve had to rely on Alexa for worldwide numbers. Now we’ve got numbers with some real work and QA behind them.

Here are some highlights:

The total worldwide Internet audience is 694 million people.

Here are the top 15 contries in terms of unique visitors to the web each month:

Top 15 Worldwide Online Populations by Country, Among Visitors Age 15+

 

Unique Visitors (000)

Worldwide Total

694,260

United States

152,046

China

74,727

Japan

52,100

Germany

31,813

United Kingdom

30,190

South Korea

24,645

France

23,884

Canada

18,996

Italy

16,834

India

16,713

Brazil

13,186

Spain

12,452

Netherlands

10,969

Russia

10,833

Australia

9,735

Source: comScore World Metrix, March 2006

Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafe and, access
from  mobile phones or PDAs.

And while the US is king in terms of total Internet audience, it is not even in the top 15 in terms of hours spent online each month.  That goes to Israel with almost 60 hours per month.

Average Monthly Hours Online per Unique Visitor in Top 15 Countries
(Visitors Age 15+)

 

Avg. Hours per Visitor March 2006

Worldwide

31.3

Israel

57.5

Finland

49.3

South Korea

47.2

Netherlands

43.5

Taiwan, Province of China

43.2

Sweden

41.4

Brazil

41.2

Hong Kong

41.2

Portugal

39.8

Canada

38.4

Germany

37.2

Denmark

36.8

France

36.8

Norway

35.4

Venezuela

35.3

Source: comScore World Metrix, March 2006

Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafe and, access
from  mobile phones or PDAs.

And surely to be the most controversial is the list of the most visited web properties. I was struck how US dominated this list is.  The names I expected to see on this list that are not on it include Baidu, Yahoo Japan, Sina, QQ, and Sohu. I am sure there will be much discussion of the international destinations and their rankings now that these numbers are out. One thing is for sure, if they aren’t on the list yet, these big asian sites will be there soon.

Top 15 Online Properties Worldwide (Visitors Age 15+ March
2006
)

 

Unique Visitors (000)

Worldwide Total

694,260

MSN-Microsoft Sites

538,578

Google Sites

495,788

Yahoo! Sites

480,228

eBay

269,690

Time Warner Network

241,525

Amazon Sites

154,640

Wikipedia Sites

131,949

Ask Network

127,377

Adobe Sites

115,774

Lycos, Inc.

109,394

CNET Networks

107,589

Apple Computer, Inc.

98,622

Real.com Network

78,104

Monster Worldwide

74,152

Wanadoo Sites

73,446

Source: comScore World Metrix, March 2006

Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafe and, access
from  mobile phones or PDAs.

Peter Daboll, President of Media Metrix highlighted the position of Wikipedia in the worldwide numbers and I second that. Wikipedia is a force to be reckoned with. Power to the people.

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