One in Four Americans, or 68 Million Web Surfers, Used Online Travel Sites in November 2004, Up 13 Percent Year-Over-Year, According to Nielsen//NetRatings

One in Four Americans, or 68 Million Web Surfers, Used Online Travel Sites in November 2004, Up 13 Percent Year-Over-Year, According to Nielsen//NetRatings

Online Consumers Spent $919 Million on Travel in November 2004; Up 11 Percent From November 2003

NEW YORK, Dec. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nielsen//NetRatings, the global standard for Internet audience measurement and analysis, announced today that 23 percent of Americans, or 68 million unique visitors, flocked to online travel destinations during November 2004, making up 46 percent of all active Web surfers. In comparison, there were 60 million Web users who visited online travel sites in November 2003, growing 13 percent year-over-year. The volume of traffic and annual growth underscore the Internet's role in helping consumers make travel preparations for the holiday season.

Online consumers spent $919 million on travel during November 2004, jumping 11 percent from the $828 million spent in November 2003, according to the Holiday eSpending Report by Goldman Sachs, Harris Interactive and Nielsen//NetRatings.

In November, MapQuest ranked number one in online travel destinations with 31 million unique visitors, while Expedia followed with 14 million visitors (see Table 1). Travelocity drew 11 million online surfers, while Orbitz.com and Southwest Airlines rounded out the top five online travel destinations with 11 million and seven million unique visitors, respectively.

"While retailers are in the spotlight during the holiday months, the revenue and traffic generated from online travel destinations should not be overlooked," said Heather Dougherty, senior Retail analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings. "During this November, much of the online travel spending stemmed from lower to upper middle class households."

Table 1: Most Popular Online Travel Destinations, November 2004 (US, Home & Work)

Brand Nov. 2004 Unique Audience (000)
________________________________________________________
MapQuest 31,178
--------------------------------------------------------
Expedia 14,169
--------------------------------------------------------
Travelocity 11,160
--------------------------------------------------------
Orbitz.com 10,879
--------------------------------------------------------
Southwest Airlines 7,149
--------------------------------------------------------

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, December 2004

Household Incomes Vary for Web Surfers Visiting Online Travel Destinations


Those with household incomes of $50,000-$74,999 comprised 28 percent, or the largest group of online travel visitors, during November 2004, while those with household incomes of $25,000-$49,999 made up 20 percent of online travel visitors (see Table 2). Following closely in third place, online surfers with household incomes of $75,000-$99,999 comprised 19 percent of those visiting online travel destinations.

"Our research shows that those living in household incomes of $75,000 or more tend to favor brand-specific travel Websites over any other category of travel sites, while those earning $75,000 or less tend to visit multi-category travel sites such as Expedia and Travelocity where one can comparison shop," said Dougherty. "Clearly, those with higher household incomes extend their loyalty online to their frequent travel programs."

Table 2: Household Incomes and Travel Destinations, November 2004 (US, Home & Work)

Household Incomes Nov. 2004 Unique Audience Composition %
________________________________________________________________
$0-24,999 4.4
----------------------------------------------------------------
$25,000-49,999 20.0
----------------------------------------------------------------
$50,000-74,999 27.8
----------------------------------------------------------------
$75,000-99,999 19.3
----------------------------------------------------------------
$100,000-149,999 16.4
----------------------------------------------------------------
$150,000+ 10.2
----------------------------------------------------------------

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, December 2004



Note: Unique audience composition percentage means the number of unique persons falling into a demographic target expressed as a percentage of the total number of persons visiting a Web site or using an application.

*********************************************************

Nielsen//NetRatings reports November 2004 data for the Top Sites by Parent Company and Top Brands. In addition, Nielsen//NetRatings reveals the Top Advertisers by Company for November 2004.

Nielsen//NetRatings Top 10 Web Sites by Parent Company and Top 10 Web Sites By Brand

Month of November 2004

Table 1. Top 10 Parent Companies, Table 2. Top 10 Brands,
Combined Home & Work Combined Home & Work

Unique Time Per Unique Time Per
Parent Audience Person Brand Audience Person
(000) (hh:mm:ss) (000) (hh:mm:ss)
_____________________________________________________________________

Microsoft 106,155 1:56:42 Yahoo! 94,449 2:49:00
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Time Warner 99,556 5:17:44 MSN 89,522 1:36:58
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Yahoo! 96,232 2:46:32 Microsoft 89,083 0:41:33
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Google 67,613 0:32:25 AOL 71,456 6:37:44
---------------------------------------------------------------------
eBay 52,513 1:48:37 Google 66,403 0:32:01
---------------------------------------------------------------------
United States
Government 47,707 0:24:11 eBay 51,067 1:45:06
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Amazon 40,137 0:23:33 Amazon 36,663 0:22:05
---------------------------------------------------------------------
InterActive-
Corp 34,852 0:17:53 MapQuest 31,178 0:11:01
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Walt Disney
Internet Group 33,648 0:38:28 Real 30,568 0:38:18
---------------------------------------------------------------------
RealNetworks 31,395 0:39:00 CNN 26,587 0:42:17
---------------------------------------------------------------------



Example: The data indicates that 31.4 million home and work Internet users visited at least one of the RealNetworks-owned sites or launched a RealNetworks-owned application during the month, and each person spent, on average, a total of 39 minutes at one or more of their sites or applications.

A parent company is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs owned by a single entity. A brand is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs that has a consistent collection of branded content. Reach is a measure of the unduplicated audience that visits a property. The data is expressed as the percentage of the total universe of Internet users who logged onto the Internet at least once during the reporting period.

Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance Top 10 Advertisers
Month of November 2004



Top advertisers, ranked by impressions, are based on data from AdRelevance, Nielsen//NetRatings' advertising research service. An impression is counted as the number of times an ad is rendered for viewing.

Top 10 Advertisers by Company

Advertiser* Impressions (000)
____________________________________________________
Netflix, Inc. 2,188,890
----------------------------------------------------
LowerMyBills.com, Inc. 2,074,115
----------------------------------------------------
Dell Computer Corporation 1,865,072
----------------------------------------------------
SBC Communications, Inc. 1,827,846
----------------------------------------------------
AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. 1,784,337
----------------------------------------------------
InterActiveCorp 1,531,821
----------------------------------------------------
Verizon Communications, Inc. 1,134,617
----------------------------------------------------
Orbitz 1,020,835
----------------------------------------------------
Ford Motor Company 1,017,948
----------------------------------------------------
Scottrade, Inc. 997,676
----------------------------------------------------



*Impressions reported exclude house ads, which are ads that run on an advertiser's own Web property.

Example: An estimated 997.7 million Scottrade, Inc. ads were rendered for viewing during the surfing period.

About NetRatings

NetRatings (NASDAQ:NTRT) is the global standard for Internet audience measurement and analysis and is the industry's premier source for online advertising intelligence with its NetView, AdRelevance, @Plan, WebRF, LemonAd, MegaPanel and SiteCensus services. Covering 70 percent of the world's Internet usage, the Nielsen//NetRatings services offer syndicated Internet and digital media research reports and custom-tailored data to help companies gain valuable insight into their business. For more information, please visit www.nielsen-netratings.com.

CONTACT: Marla Dierkes, +1-408-941-2931, or Tracy Yen, +1-408-941-2932, both of NetRatings, Inc.


Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

CONTACT: Marla Dierkes, +1-408-941-2931, or Tracy Yen, +1-408-941-2932,
both of NetRatings, Inc.

Web site: http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/

Web site: http://www.netratings.com/

NOTE TO EDITORS: Please source all audience and advertising data to Nielsen//NetRatings. Please source Holiday eSpending Report data to Goldman Sachs, Harris Interactive and Nielsen//NetRatings

-------
Profile: intent