Everyone knows which Web properties attract the most visitors, but if you're trying to target online buyers, the spenders may not be hiding where you think. Research by Diameter and comScore Networks examines why Juno may be a smarter online buy than AOL.
Everyone knows which Web properties attract the most visitors, but if you’re trying to target online buyers, the spenders may not be hiding where you think. Using data from their netScore Buying Power Index (BPI) report for May, DoubleClick’s Diameter and comScore Networks show that the Internet’s most popular sites aren’t always the most valuable in terms of attracting online spenders.
The BPI measures the total dollars spent by the average member of a site’s audience, indexed to the total online dollars spent by the average Internet user. For example, a BPI of 100 represents the baseline index, so a BPI of 200 would mean the average visitor to that site spends twice as much online as the average Internet user.
The May data revealed some surprises among the most popular content areas of the Web. In the News & Information category, the Wall Street Journal’s wsj.com scored a BPI of 353. The Washington Post scored a 272, followed by a 268 for cbsnews.com. But leading the category was The Detroit News Web site detnews.com, which had a 367.
Among portals, household names Yahoo and AOL scored BPIs of 125 and 140, respectively. But they were outdone by altavista.com (BPI of 160), excite.com (142) and juno.com (142).
| netScore BPI Report, May 2001 | Rank | Site | BPI | Unique Visitors (000) |
|---|---|---|---|
| News & Information | |||
| 1. | detnews.com | 367 | 1,090 |
| 2. | wsj.com | 353 | 1,275 |
| 3. | dallasnews.com | 286 | 1,077 |
| 4. | washingtonpost.com | 272 | 3,542 |
| 5. | foxnews.com | 271 | 1,433 |
| 6. | cbsnews.com | 268 | 1,181 |
| 7. | latimes.com | 249 | 2,493 |
| 8. | pcworld.com | 227 | 1,315 |
| 9. | cnbc.com | 225 | 1,194 |
| 10. | intellicast.com | 224 | 1,373 |
| Portals | |||
| 1. | altavista.com | 143 | 15,115 |
| 2. | excite.com | 142 | 20,106 |
| 3. | juno.com | 142 | 5,132 |
| 4. | netscape.com | 140 | 33,063 |
| 5. | nbci.com | 140 | 19,566 |
| 6. | aol.com | 140 | 61,607 |
| 7. | go2net.com | 139 | 8,458 |
| 8. | lycos.com | 133 | 29,717 |
| 9. | yahoo.com | 125 | 90,438 |
| 10. | msn.com | 123 | 85,944 |
| Shopping | |||
| 1. | staples.com | 770 | 1,834 |
| 2. | bizrate.com | 748 | 5,882 |
| 3. | newport-news.com | 660 | 1,075 |
| 4. | officedepot.com | 579 | 2,341 |
| 5. | dell.com | 557 | 4,304 |
| 6. | egghead.com | 531 | 1,470 |
| 7. | urbanq.com | 508 | 1,108 |
| 8. | buy.com | 467 | 2,452 |
| 9. | compusa.com | 466 | 984 |
| 10. | necxdirect.com | 460 | 1,115 |
| Travel | |||
| 1. | hertz.com | 874 | 1,138 |
| 2. | basshotels.com | 686 | 1,059 |
| 3. | delta.com | 668 | 2,555 |
| 4. | hilton.com | 649 | 930 |
| 5. | budget.com | 635 | 949 |
| 6. | southwest.com | 598 | 3,978 |
| 7. | nwa.com | 577 | 1,257 |
| 8. | travelweb.com | 568 | 1,127 |
| 9. | united.com | 558 | 1,694 |
| 10. | aa.com | 542 | 2,613 |
| Reference & Directories | |||
| 1. | yellowpages.com | 420 | 1,519 |
| 2. | worldpages.com | 349 | 1,236 |
| 3. | 4anything.com | 279 | 1,404 |
| 4. | switchboard.com | 269 | 4,115 |
| 5. | areaguides.net | 264 | 1,255 |
| 6. | zip2.com | 256 | 1,293 |
| 7. | mapsonus.com | 246 | 2,486 |
| 8. | 555-1212.com | 233 | 1,266 |
| 9. | findarticles.com | 222 | 2,707 |
| 10. | maps.com | 221 | 1,850 |
| Society & Community | |||
| 1. | psychicrealm.com | 286 | 947 |
| 2. | genealogy.com | 257 | 1,515 |
| 3. | thirdage.com | 232 | 1,192 |
| 4. | epinions.com | 201 | 3,166 |
| 5. | rootsweb.com | 193 | 2,279 |
| 6. | esquire.com | 182 | 971 |
| 7. | crosswalk.com | 177 | 1,016 |
| 8. | ivillage.com | 172 | 6,657 |
| 9. | oxygen.com | 165 | 5,022 |
| 10. | highschoolalumni.com | 164 | 1,114 |
| Finance & Investing | |||
| 1. | firstusa.com | 426 | 2,414 |
| 2. | discovercard.com | 424 | 1,671 |
| 3. | citibank.com | 366 | 2,763 |
| 4. | novusnet.com | 362 | 2,262 |
| 5. | americanexpress.com | 319 | 5,145 |
| 6. | schwab.com | 316 | 1,312 |
| 7. | eloan.com | 309 | 1,063 |
| 8. | providian.com | 302 | 1,389 |
| 9. | bankrate.com | 298 | 1,690 |
| 10. | providianservices.ccom | 298 | 1,615 |
| Source: Diameter/comScore | |||
