Worldwide Internet Audience Grows 10% Percent--Direct Marketing, Mail Order, E-commerce News

Direct Marketing, Mail Order, and E-commerce News from the National Mail Order Association

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WORLDWIDE INTERNET AUDIENCE HAS GROWN 10 PERCENT IN LAST YEAR, ACCORDING TO COMSCORE NETWORKS

India, China and Russia Experience Highest Audience Growth Rates Year-over-Year; Canada, Israel, and Korea Log the Most Time Online

London, U.K., March 6, 2007 – comScore Networks, a leader in measuring the digital age, today announced that 747 million people, age 15+, used the Internet worldwide in January 2007, a 10-percent increase versus January 2006. Among the top 15 countries (ranked by penetration), Internet audiences in India, the Russian Federation and China increased the most in 2006, growing 33, 21 and 20 percent, respectively. China now represents the second-largest Internet population in the world, with 86.8 million users, after the U.S., which rose 2 percent year-over-year to 153.4 million users age 15 or older in January 2007.

“The importance of the worldwide Internet population continues to grow,” said Bob Ivins, managing director, comScore Europe. “Internet users outside the U.S. now account for 80 percent of the world’s online population, with rapidly developing countries experiencing double-digit growth rates year-over-year.”

Canada, Israel, and South Korea Lead the World in Online Engagement
As a measure of engagement, comScore also analyzed the top 10 countries ranked by average hours online per visitor for January 2007. Canada led the list, with the average user spending 39.6 hours ( and 41.3 hours/ month among broadband users) online during the month. Rounding out the top 5 were Israel, South Korea, the U.S. and the U.K. – all countries with high broadband penetration. In fact, in each of the top 10 countries, the time spent online by users with a broadband connection was substantially greater than the time spent by users with a narrowband connection.

“We have all believed that ‘always-on’ broadband connections stimulate usage – this study empirically confirms that conclusion,” Ivins commented.
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Top 15 Countries by Internet Penetration
Unique Visitors Age 15+*
January 2007 vs. January 2006
Total Worldwide -- All Locations
Jan-06 Jan-07 Percentage

(000) (000) Change

------- ------- ----------

Worldwide 676,878 746,934 10%

United States 150,897 153,447 2%

China 72,408 86,757 20%

Japan 51,450 53,670 4%

Germany 31,209 32,192 3%

United Kingdom 29,773 30,072 1%

South Korea 24,297 26,350 8%

France 23,712 24,560 4%

India 15,867 21,107 33%

Canada 18,332 20,392 11%

Italy 15,987 18,106 13%

Brazil 12,845 14,964 16%

Spain 12,206 12,710 4%

Russian Federation 10,471 12,707 21%

Netherlands 10,772 11,077 3%

Mexico 8,624 10,149 18%

* Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes

and access from mobile phones or PDAs

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Top 10 Countries by Average Monthly Hours Online per Unique Visitor

Broadband vs. Narrowband

Among Visitors Age 15+*

January 2007

Total Worldwide -- All Locations

Source: comScore World Metrix

Average Monthly Hours Online

----------------------------

Unique Visitor Among All Among Broadband Among Narrowband

Rank Users Users Users

-------------- -------- --------------- ----------------

Canada 9 39.6 41.3 14.2

Israel 28 37.4 38.8 10.9

South Korea 6 34.0 36.1 N/A**

United States 1 31.6 37.2 13.5

United Kingdom 5 31.2 35.6 7.5

Chile 20 30.9 38.6 12.6

Brazil 11 30.2 38.5 17.0

Finland 30 28.7 34.2 N/A**

Spain 12 27.9 33.4 9.1

Sweden 21 27.5 31.4 9.7

* Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes

and access from mobile phones or PDAs

** Level of narrowband penetration extremely low, therefore an accurate

reportable estimate is not available. ___________________________________________________________

Top Global Properties
comScore also reported the top worldwide Web properties for January, ranked by unique visitors. Microsoft Sites topped the list with 510.3 million worldwide visitors, followed by Google Sites with 502.5 million worldwide visitors, and Yahoo! Sites with 467.8 million worldwide visitors.
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Top 15 Online Properties Worldwide, Among Visitors Age 15+*

January 2007

Total Worldwide -- All Locations

Source: comScore World Metrix

Unique Visitors

(000)

---------------

Worldwide Total 746,934

Microsoft Sites 510,320

Google Sites 502,464

Yahoo! Sites 467,832

Time Warner Network 262,413

eBay 248,854

Wikipedia Sites 189,003

Amazon Sites 149,817

Fox Interactive Media 139,821

CNET Networks 118,717

Apple Computer, Inc. 116,520

Ask Network 108,870

Adobe Sites 101,810

Lycos, Inc. 90,208

Viacom Digital 76,389

New York Times Digital 72,180

* Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes

and access from mobile phones or PDAs ___________________________________________________________

Companies interested in obtaining information about comScore World Metrix services should call +44 (0) 207 099 1761.

About comScore World Metrix
comScore World Metrix is the first service to continuously measure and report online behaviour on a world-wide basis, providing visitation metrics and demographic characteristics for Web site audiences around the world. With active representation of countries that comprise the vast majority of the global Internet population, World Metrix provides its clients with worldwide Internet population estimates and harmonized online performance metrics based on a consistent methodology across all countries. More than 100 clients subscribe to comScore’s World Metrix service, including 8 of the top 10 interactive advertising agencies.

About comScore Networks
comScore Networks is a global leader in measuring the digital age. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given comScore permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behaviour, including online and offline purchasing. comScore panellists also participate in survey research that captures and integrates their attitudes and intentions. Through its proprietary technology, comScore measures what matters across a broad spectrum of behaviour and attitudes. comScore consultants apply this deep knowledge of customers and competitors to help clients design powerful marketing strategies and tactics that deliver superior ROI. comScore services are used by global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Verizon, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Tribune Interactive, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestlé, MBNA, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Merck and Expedia. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com .

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