Hulu, Tax Sites Gain in February
According to the most recent figures released by comScore Media Metrix, Hulu saw its online U.S. audience surge in February, thanks to its well-received Super Bowl advertisement. Meanwhile, tax season lifted traffic to tax-related Web sites.
The Mozilla Organization was the top gaining property in February, finishing the month with nearly 22.9 million visitors, up 61 percent from 14.2 million in January.
Hulu.com saw its audience rise to 7.8 million in February, reflecting a 55 percent increase from its audience of 5.0 million in the previous month.
comScore attributes the online video Web site’s boost mostly to the ad it aired during the Super Bowl, “which ignited the site’s popularity and highlighted the growing mainstream appeal of online video,” according to Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix, in a press release.
Wells Fargo’s Internet audience also grew 55 percent, reaching 18.1 million in February, while IRS.gov saw an increase of 51 percent in its online audience, reaching 22.1 million.
TaxACT’s audience grew 32 percent to 7.8 million in February, while Hallmark’s audience grew 27 percent to 4.9 million, thanks to Valentine’s Day, and News International’s audience grew 21 percent to 4.9 million.
Intuit’s audience was 19.6 million, reflecting a 21 percent increase from January, as H&R Block’s audience was 7.3 million, an increase of 20 percent, and Betawave Partners (partial list) saw its audience grow 19 percent to 4.3 million in February.
The Business/Finance – Taxes category gained the most in February, as its U.S. audience grew 22 percent during the month to 30.1 million. Retail – Flowers/Gifts/Greetings grew 15 percent to 35.6 million in February, while Services – e-cards grew 5 percent to 21.3 million.
The Real Estate category’s audience grew 3 percent to 42.4 million in February, while the Retail – Computer Software category’s audience grew 3 percent to 38.8 million. The Auto – Manufacturer’s audience grew 2 percent to 20.3 million.
Travel – Information and Travel – Hotels/Resorts both saw increases of 1 percent in their respective audiences. comScore attributed these modest increases to spring travel planning, with Expedia leading the way with 23 million visitors, followed by Orbitz Worldwide with 14 million visitors and Priceline.com with 9.7 million visitors.
Google finished the month as the top Internet property with 148.9 million unique visitors in February, down 1.4 percent from its audience of 151.0 million in January.
Yahoo! remained in second place with 144.3 million visitors, down from 146.1 million in the previous month, while Microsoft was third with 121.1 million visitors in February, reflecting a decline from its 125.6 million visitors in January.
AOL LLC was fourth with 105.0 million visitors, down from 108.4 million visitors in the previous month, while Fox Interactive Media finished February with 84.6 million visitors, down from 90.5 million in January.
Ask Network was sixth in February with 71.3 million visitors, down from 74.7 million in January, while eBay was seventh with 67.5 million visitors, down from 72.2 million in the previous month.
The Wikimedia Foundation was eighth with 60.9 million visitors in February, while Amazon was ninth with 59.9 million visitors and Facebook rounded out the top 10 with 57.4 million visitors.
Facebook was the only one of the top 10 properties to gain in February, though its audience only grew 0.25 percent.
The total Internet audience in February was 192.2 million, according to comScore, a small increase from 191.9 million in January.
Platform-A retained its top spot among ad networks, finishing the month with 172.6 million unique visitors, giving it a reach of 90 percent. This was down from 174.6 million visitors in January, and a 91 percent reach in January.
The Yahoo! Network remained in the second spot with a reach of 163.4 million visitors, or 85 percent, ValueClick Networks remained in third place with a reach of 157.8 million visitors, or 82 percent, and the Google Ad Network retained its fourth spot with a reach of 156.5 million visitors, or 81 percent.
Yahoo! Sites climbed to the fifth spot with a reach of 144.3 million visitors in February, or 75 percent, after finishing in the sixth spot in January.
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