comScore's October Traffic Data: #1 Yahoo up 9% Y/Y, Lycos & Monster Declining (YHOO, TWX, MSFT, GOOG, MNST)

comScore Media Metrix released its October 2005 U.S. Internet traffic data yesterday. Total U.S. Internet users reached a record high of 169MM, up 7.1 %Y/Y. Here are the key take-aways from the traffic data, according to Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney:

Among the top-20 properties, the companies with the highest organic growth rates were Google (32%) and Amazon (19%).

Key Points:

1. Yahoo! was the #1 site in October in terms of monthly visitors and reached a record high 124MM visitors, up 9% Y/Y and up 1% M/M. Records are a positive Dpoint.

2. TimeWarner Network was the #2 site and reached 117MM visitors, up 4% Y/Y and down 2% M/M. Neither a positive nor a negative Dpoint.

3. MSN-Microsoft was the #3 site and reached a record high 115MM visitors, up 3% Y/Y and up only modestly M/M. Records are a positive but...the growth rate was the third lowest among the Top 20; only Lycos and Monster had a lower (in fact, negative) growth rates. So we’ll call this a negative Dpoint.

4. Google was the #4 site and reached a record high 90MM visitors, up 32% Y/Y (highest organic growth among top-20). We reiterate our believe that while Google doesn’t have the visitor base of the top three properties, with its materially higher growth rate, it seems likely to reach the Big Three levels in about a year. There’s a lot of momentum here...a positive Dpoint.

Related:

• Traffic Growth Rates of Top 20 US Sites
• All Internet Stock Blog articles on Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, Time Warner and Monster.
• The complete list of companies (and links to articles about them) covered by The Internet Stock Blog.

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