Google Still Outgrowing Yahoo, According to comScore Stats (GOOG, YHOO)

comScore released its August 2005 Media Metrix results on September 12th. Here are the four take-aways from the data according to American Technology Research analyst Dave Edwards:

Media Metrix August 2005 Internet Traffic

1. Yahoo! has returned to the top of the reach rankings with a 72% reach in August. Time Warner returns to the #2 spot and MSN remains #3.
2. Traffic to Google's portfolio of sites continues to grow faster than the other major portals. We tend to think that at least part of this strong growth is due to the big boost in brand awareness that resulted from the publicity surrounding the company's August 2004 IPO.
3. In terms of total page views, Yahoo! still has a clear lead over the other major portals which puts it in a in a great position to capitalize on the growth in online advertising.
4. Specialty sites in categories like games (EAOnline) and community (MySpace and FaceBook) are proving to be very sticky for focused audiences with high average minutes per user and pages per user.

Question: "We tend to think that at least part of this strong growth is due to the big boost in brand awareness that resulted from the publicity surrounding the company's August 2004 IPO." Do you agree?

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Comments

[vcbeantown:]

INut Valuations "Off the Chart"
(Banerjee is a refreshing change from Bambi pumper)

Baidu.com sinks on valuation call
Piper Jaffray analyst calls valuation "off the chart"
By Scott Banerjee, MarketWatch
Last Update: 10:54 AM ET Sep 14, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Shares of Baidu.com Inc. plunged more than 20% Wednesday morning as analysts at Goldman Sachs and Piper Jaffray began coverage of the Chinese search firm with "underperform" ratings due to concerns about its valuation.

Elsewhere, Internet stocks were largely mixed a day ahead of Google Inc.'s expected $4 billion secondary stock offering.
U.S-listed shares of Baidu (BIDU) fell 23% to $91.03 in early morning dealings. The stock had gained more than 35% during the previous three trading days after analysts at J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley offered optimistic outlooks on Chinese Internet stocks. "Baidu's current stock price has far exceeded even the most aggressive valuations and is distinctly 'off the chart' in our view," wrote Piper Jaffray analyst Safa Rashtchy in a note to clients. The analyst set a $45 price target on the stock.

Goldman Sachs analyst (shill) Anthony Noto values the stock at around $27, with the broker's most optimistic assessment of an implied value for the company of about $45. See full story. Goldman, along with Credit Suisse First Boston, lead-managed Baidu's IPO earlier this month, while Piper Jaffray was a co-manager for the offering.

Among other Chinese Internet stocks, Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd. (SNDA) shares lost 4.8% to $29.11 while 51Job Inc. (JOBS) shares also lost 1.5% to $14.21.
In morning trades, the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index ($COMPQ) was down 7 points to 2,164.51.

Google (GOOG), which saw its shares rise fractionally to $312.11 in morning trades, will offer about 14.159 million shares in the secondary offering Thursday morning. Despite the increased supply of Google stock expected by the offering, shares of the Internet firm have been trading up in recent days.

Ebay Inc. (EBAY) shares slid 1.5% to $37.71 a day after CIBC analyst downgraded its shares following its planned acquisition of Skype Technologies SA.

Shares of Cnet Networks Inc. (CNET) and RealNetworks Inc. (RNWK) rose fractionally in early morning trades.

Scott Banerjee is a reporter for MarketWatch in San Francisco.

2005 Sep 14 01:34 PM

[vcbeantown:]

Hedgies say Goldman aggressively short GOOG,BIDU
Just FYI - Tony Noto is a IBanking puppet and has zero credibility with CapRe, Fido or any hedge fund run by an investor who can fog a mirror

2005 Sep 14 01:54 PM

[macaonghus:]

Going back to the topic ... you would need more detail to answer your question. Does the Google portfolio include searches from its partners like AOL (presumably). At one level, Yahoo will grow more slowly because it is already ahead, and the bigger you are, the slower you tend to grow (eg comapre Yahoo Shopping with Froogle, or Yahoo Mail with Gmail). Jeff Weiner did say at SEO World in New Orleans that search.yahoo.com has not competed on a par with Google because Yahoo has not got round to promoting it yet, hence the slower growth.

2005 Sep 14 02:51 PM

[mattcoffin:]

in my opinion the growth is due to both the size of the base growing from vs others specifically and yahoo and the possibly never before seen brand awareness, word of mouth that google continues to have. their constant, rapid product innovation also continues to help the cause

2005 Sep 15 03:14 AM