comscore

After a strong first week of December, e-commerce sales have slowed down but are still on pace with last year's spending rate at this point of the holiday season, according to a report issued Sunday by ComScore.

For anyone accustomed to the drumbeat of sour economic news, that tidbit must come as a pleasant surprise. In fact, ComScore reports that December 9 logged $887 million in online spending, thus setting a record for the heaviest cyber spending day on record. They're not exactly shopping until they're dropping but online sales are keeping pace with last year--no small … Read more

A high school teacher finds it inconceivable that any software could be free. I wonder if she uses Internet Explorer? We also talk about the failure of not one but two big Internet filters, and get the scoop from Caroline McCarthy on why YouTube isn't in decline.

Google to take Chrome out of beta http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/10/google-takes-chrome-out-of-beta/ http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10120049-92.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Australian plan to censor Internet in shreds http://www.theage.com.au/news/home/technology/labor-plan-to-censor-internet-in-shreds/2008/12/09/1228584820006.html… Read more

Online video is really taking off, according to stats firm ComScore. Not that we should be particularly surprised by that assertion. But the leader in the space, Google's YouTube, during October pulled in 100 million viewers in the U.S. for a market share of almost 40 percent.

That market share is about the same as it was this spring. But lower in the ranks, there's some change afoot. Video content hub Hulu, a joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp., has edged its way into sixth place behind YouTube, Fox Interactive Media (which owns MySpace and … Read more

It wasn't a blockbuster, but Black Friday wasn't a bust, either.

ComScore on Sunday reported that online, nontravel retail sales on the Friday after Thanksgiving, traditionally a big day for consumer spending, reached $534 million. That's up from the same day a year ago, but just barely--online retail sales rose just 1 percent, from $531 million.

On Saturday, comparison-shopping site PriceGrabber.com said that Web shopping traffic on Black Friday was up 11 percent. The Nintendo Wii was the most popular item, according to both PriceGrabber and eBay.

Sales on Thanksgiving Day itself rose 6 percent to $… Read more

Update at 10:30 a.m. PST, with information from IDC holiday spending report.

The Grinch has made off with Christmas.

In yet another sign that e-commerce is taking a hit over the holidays, online sales growth projections for the critical November-December holiday shopping season were cut by more than half Tuesday in a survey released by digital marketing and media research firm eMarketer.

Online sales are expected to grow a mere 4 percent year over year to $30.3 billion during the two-month period, versus eMarketer's previous projection in May of 10.1 percent growth, or $32.1 … Read more

The growing economic slump doesn't appear to have fully struck Web advertising.

Internet advertising revenues for the third quarter were nearly $5.9 billion, representing an 11 percent increase over the same period last year, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

The bad news is online advertising appears to be slowing down. The third quarter in 2008 was up only two percent from the second quarter. For the first three quarters of the year, however, ad revenues totaled $17.3 billion, up from $15.2 billion for the first three quarters of 2007. The IAB said the $5.9 … Read more

Consumer spending on e-commerce sites grew just 1 percent during October compared with the same month a year ago, according to ComScore.

In fact, last month was the worst growth month for online retail spending since ComScore began keeping track in 2001.

Rising prices and unemployment rates, and the psychological impact of the chaos of the financial markets are to blame, according to ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni.

But the dip in spending can't be too much of a shock to those who watch ComScore's monthly reports carefully. The preceding six months featured declining growth rates--April saw 15 percent … Read more

With the dour economy playing grinch this holiday season, e-commerce retailers may want to focus on offers of free shipping and online coupons, according to a recent survey by comScore.

In a survey of more than 1,000 consumers taken in mid-October, comScore found 73 percent of respondents planned to save money this holiday season by buying fewer gifts and 69 percent by buying less expensive presents, while 37 percent planned to use coupons.

comScore also found that in the third quarter, 25 million Americans visited coupon sites, up 26 percent from the previous quarter. And it's not just … Read more

Apple and AT&T's decision to subsidize the price of the iPhone 3G is paying off with an increase in sales to lower-income folks.

Comscore released data earlier this week indicating that while most iPhone users are in the $100,000-a-year income bracket, those earning between $25,000 a year and $75,000 a year are the fastest-growing segment of new iPhone customers. iPhone adoption among those making $25,000 to $50,000 a year has grown 48 percent since June, according to the report.

"Fastest-growing" is always one of my favorite research terms because it … Read more