Microsoft Takes Up a Lot of Time

In September, Microsoft Sites took up almost 15 percent of the time spent online around the globe, according to comScore’s World Metrix service.

Nearly 27 billion hours were spent online worldwide in September by a record 1.2 billion Internet users ages 15 and older. This reflected a 24 percent increase from the 21.7 billion hours spent online in September 2008.

More than 3.9 billion hours, or 14.5 percent of the total, were spent on Microsoft Sites in September, a 43 percent increase from the 2.7 billion spent in the same month last year. The company’s Live Messenger accounted for almost 70 percent of the time spent on its online property.

Google Sites ranked second with 2.5 billion hours spent worldwide in September, up 48 percent from 1.7 billion hours in September of last year. YouTube accounted for nearly half of this time spent, or 1.2 billion hours, on the company’s Internet property.

Yahoo! Sites was third with 1.7 billion hours spent on its online property in September, reflecting a 14 percent drop from 2.0 billion hours spent in September 2008.

Facebook was fourth with 1.4 billion total hours spent on its site globally, up 193 percent from 474 million hours spent on its property last year.

Tencent, a China-based Internet company, was fifth with 893 million hours spent on its Internet property in September, up 52 percent from 589 million hours spent in the same month last year.

AOL LLC followed behind with 513 million hours spent, down 12 percent from 584 million spent in September of last year.

eBay was seventh with 239 million hours spent on its property, up 3 percent, followed by Fox Interactive Media with 204 million hours spent, down 44 percent.

Baidu.com, the leading search engine in China, was ninth with 163 million hours, down 7 percent, while Lycos Sites rounded out the top 10 list with 107 million hours, up 81 percent from last year.

comScore also notes how the top five global properties based on total minutes spent have different shares of time spent in each region.

For instance, Microsoft Sites has the largest percentage share in Latin America (35.9 percent) and Middle East – Africa (33.1 percent). Google Sites has its biggest shares in Latin America (19.4 percent), Middle East – Africa (9.7 percent) and Europe (9.6 percent).

Yahoo! Sites claimed its largest shares in North America (11.2 percent) and Asia Pacific (7.9 percent), while Facebook notched its biggest shares in Middle East – Africa (8.0 percent), Europe (6.6 percent) and North America (6.0 percent).

Tencent, unsurprisingly, had its biggest share in Asia Pacific (10.7 percent).

Source:

http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2009/11/Microsoft_Sites_Captures_Largest_Share_of_Time_Spent_Online_Worldwide