Top 5 U.S. Web Properties Attract More Visitors from Outside U.S. than from Within

comScore released a new internet usage study this week (9 Nov), the results of which show that more than half of the U.S.’s top 25 web properties generate more traffic from outside the U.S. than from within.

by Helen Leggatt

The report shows that over 75% of traffic to Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft comes from outside the U.S. About 70% of users on eBay and just over half of those visiting Time Warner are not based in the U.S.

“As Internet usage outside the U.S. has grown rapidly from a small base, the U.S. share of the world’s online population has fallen from 65 percent to less than 25 percent in the last 10 years,” said Bob Ivins, managing director of comScore Europe.

Although international traffic was higher, the number of pages viewed by U.S. visitors was slightly higher. This shows that U.S. visitors are more engaged with the sites.

“The high proportion of visitors and page views from outside the U.S. represents a solid growth opportunity for U.S.-based ad-supported properties, which currently derive most of their revenues from domestic online advertising,” Ivins added.

Not all U.S. sites attract large amount of overseas attention. U.S.-centric companies such as CBS, Walmart and Target have far lower numbers of non-U.S. visitors attracting 22%, 21% and 10% respectively.