Is Yahoo’s Digital Audience Now Bigger Than Google’s?

August 22, 2013

This article is included in these additional categories:

Digital | Mobile Phone

comScore-Top-10-US-Web-Properties-Jul-v-Jun2013-Aug2013A couple of months ago, comScore’s Media Metrix data showed Yahoo closing the gap with Google as the US’ top web property, a development noted here. Now the latest Media Metrix data is out, and it appears that Yahoo! Sites has overtaken Google! Sites as the top web property, with 196.6 million unique visitors in July for the former, compared to 192.3 million for the latter. It must be noted, though, that these numbers do not take into account mobile-only visitors.

The mobile-only unique visitor count has not been released yet, and probably will not be until early next week, according to a representative from comScore. (This article will be updated when those numbers are released. Update: new comScore figures indicate that Google Sites had far greater reach among smartphone owners than Yahoo! Sites in July.) But earlier mobile-only figures from comScore suggest that it will be a close race when taking into account that audience.

Back in February, for example, comScore’s figures showed that including mobile-only figures boosted Google’s total digital audience by 16%. The same percentage for Yahoo! was 13%. Last month, though, data provided to MarketingCharts by comScore showed that Yahoo! Sites’ incremental mobile-only audience was actually larger than Google’s (13% and 12%, respectively).

Given that the July data shows Yahoo! Sites’ audience to be just 2% larger than Google’s, those fluctuations will likely determine which property actually had the largest digital audience.

But even if Google does come out on top with the mobile-only count included, there’s another factor to take into account: comScore is still not counting TUMBLR’s 38.4 million unique visitors into the Yahoo! Sites total audience figure. As a result, Yahoo’s rise cannot be attributed to that acquisition. (And with it included, there’s almost no doubt that Yahoo’s audience is bigger.)

(According to a report on MarketingLand, comScore believes the ranking change could likely be the result of “normal seasonal/month-to-month fluctuations,” given how close the properties have been in recent months. MarketingLand also reports that the last time Yahoo took the top spot (mobile-only count excluded) was in May 2011.)

Other Findings:

  • Three site categories enjoyed a 16% month-over-month increase in unique visitors in July: services – coupons (to 56.2 million); lifestyles – beauty/fashion/style (to 68.1 million); and reatil – jewelry/luxury goods/accessories (to 19.4 million).
  • Yahoo! Sites (87.2%) edged ShareThis (87.1%) as the top syndicated ad focus entity in July. Outbrain was third, reaching 85.6% of online Americans.
  • Google Ad Network was the top ad or buy-side network, with 93.8% reach, followed by AT&T AdWorks (85.5%) and AOL Advertising (85.4%).
  • Among DSP/SSP/ad exchange entities, Rubicon Project REVV Platform was again on top, with 94.8% reach.
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