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comScore Debuts Worldwide Search Market Report, Asian Engines Hot

Some 61 billion online searches were conducted worldwide in August, Google was the top global search property and more than 750 million people age 15 and older - 95% of the world’s internet audience - conducted 61 billion searches (an average of more than 80 searches per searcher), according to comScore.

comScore’s qSearch 2.0 service reported on the top 50 worldwide internet properties where search activity is observed - the first comprehensive study of worldwide search activity issued by comScore.

The regional breakdown, according to the report:

• The Asia-Pacific region, which includes large markets such as China, Japan and India, accounted for 258 million unique searchers, who conducted 20.3 billion searches in August.
• Europe accounted for the second-largest number of searchers (210 million) and searches (18 billion), followed by North America, with 206 million searchers and 16 billion searches.
• The Latin American region demonstrated the heaviest search activity per person, with more than 95 searches per searcher in August.
• The search market in the Middle East-Africa region is the most underdeveloped, with the fewest searchers (30 million), searches (2 billion), and searches per searcher (70).

“With the tremendous volume of search activity occurring around the world, search continues to present an abundance of marketing opportunities to companies on both a global and local scale,” said Bob Ivins, executive vice-president of international markets at comScore.

Top worldwide search properties, according to qSearch:

• Google Sites were the top worldwide search property in August with 37.1 billion searches conducted:
  • 31 billion of those searches occurred at the Google search engine.
  • 5 billion occurred at YouTube.com.
• Yahoo Sites ranked second with 8.5 billion searches.
• Baidu.com, a Chinese search engine, followed in third place with more than 3.2 billion searches.
• Microsoft Sites were in fourth place worldwide with nearly 2.2 billion.
• Korea’s NHN Corporation, which owns Naver.com, ranked fifth with 2.0 billion searches.

“Seeing Asian search engines like China’s Baidu.com and Korea’s NHN ranked alongside Google and Yahoo underscores the fact that search has become a truly global phenomenon, said Ivins. “The continued development of search in international markets will undoubtedly present compelling opportunities for savvy marketers on a global scale.”