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.

Comments

[Ian Wilson]

There is a key distorting factor in these figures, that they exclude traffic from mobile phones. They are only addressing a portion of the internet, accessed from home or office by PC.

Asia in particular and to a lesser extent Europe access sites "on the go" as well as at home/office locations for not just surfing but updating blogs etc.

Taken at face value these statistics could lead you to miss opportunities.

[James]

Fred - I would tread lightly over listing Taiwan as a "Province of China"...I know some people that would go to war over those words...

[Akshay Navle]

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

Hmm, part of the reason why asian properties and countries like India are lower down on the list are because of that statement above.

India in particular has a large number of internet cafe's that still serve as the primary vehicle for getting online for a large percentage of the population.

So by excluding those people and the sites they visit I feel the numbers are intrinsically skewed to the concept of a 'personal computer' being the only vehicle to getting online.

This doesn't even include the number of people that get online from their mobile phones etc.

Is there a reason that traffic (phones, internet cafes etc) was excluded? Just wondering.