RSSIf Microsoft sites lead time online, pigs can fly
By Joe Wilcox | Published November 9, 2009, 3:05 PM
On Friday, ComScore reported that in September, worldwide, Internet users spent more time at Microsoft sites than at Google, Yahoo or even Facebook. It's an amazing statistic that has questionable street cred. ComScore has presented the data in a favorable way to Microsoft but which doesn't accurately represent exactly how Internet users really spend time on popular Websites.
Time-spent-online data is hugely important to Microsoft and other popular destinations, such as Facebook, Google or Yahoo. While bloggers and news organizations obsess over every pageview, time spent online is a much more important metric. People coming and staying for hours is potentially more valuable to online advertisers than Internet users who click in and click out, which too often is the only measurable value of pageviews.
How people spend their time online is important, too. There -- when read between the lines -- ComScore's data has some value for Microsoft. Are site visitors reading blog posts or news stories? Banner advertising and contextual search keywords could be effective. Are they playing interactive games with other Internet users? Contextually relevant ads within games could be better. Are they chatting with friends via IM or social status updates? Banner ads and interactive surveys might be more effective.
Time after Time
ComScore claims that worldwide during September, Microsoft sites accounted for 14.5 percent of the time spent online, followed by Google at 9.3 percent. What a strange perspective. After so many months -- years -- of Microsoft trailing Google by huge amounts, roles are decidedly reversed. But in the United States, Google and Yahoo led Microsoft, which overwhelming dominated online time in Europe,Latin America and Middle East (see first chart), ComScore claims.
The ComScore report is big on "What?" or "How much?" but offers scant reasons on "Why?" that makes the data relevant. The reasons are hugely important for understanding how consumer Microsoft marketing and new product releases could be paying off. Additionally, the phenomenon could show where Microsoft could leverage against Google and how Yahoo might be fumbling. I couch with "could" and "might" because of the caveats coming in the next two paragraphs.
The ComScore data, while important for Microsoft, is incomplete. ComScore excludes Internet cafes, public computers and smaller mobile devices, such as cell phones, PDAs and smartphones. Internet cafes could be good for Microsoft because of some emerging markets, where the MSN and even Windows Live brands are strong; ditto for Yahoo. Public computers, if these count education institutions, could be good for Google. Cell phones and smartphones are a grabbag.
The data also is unspecific in a crucial area: How much actual time did individuals spend online. ComScore findings are in aggregate. For perspective, back in February, AOL and Yahoo led with most time online per Internet user, according to Nielsen. Per individual: 3:58:22 (hours, minutes, seconds) for AOL but only 2:16:54 for Microsoft. Caveat: Nielsen's data only measures United States, while ComScore offers worldwide view. That said, U.S. data is inconsistent between the online analysis firms, too (see both charts).
Nielsen's most recent data, also for September, shows Microsoft sites as No. 5 not No. 3 in the United States (see chart 2). Nielsen's data is inconsitent with ComScore's findings. AOL, which ComScore ranks No. 3 in the United States doesn't show up at all in ComScore's US rankings. Most startling, ComScore puts Facebook at No. 4 for time spent online among US Internet users, while Nielsen ranks Facebook as No. 1.
Facebook's placement is hugely significant. In February, the social networking site didn't even make Nielsen's US top five. Now Facebook is tops, with time-spent-online per individual a whopping 5:24:38. Right, almost five-and-a-half hours per Internet user. Something else: Nielsen shows time online at Microsoft sites going down by about 8 minutes between February and September. By comparison, time online at Google sites rose about 40 minutes, nudging ahead of Microsoft.
Means to a Measure
Metrics and measurement mean everything for online data such as this. But to companies like Facebook, Google or Microsoft, marketing matters more. Microsoft will gain immeasurable PR value from ComScore's study. But Nielsen's consistency tracking time online -- and measurement per individual -- is more credible. Then there is the "Why?" ComScore does give, which makes sense of its approach to measuring time spent online at various Websites. Quoting the ComScore press release -- a rarity for me:
Mearly 27 billion hours were spent on the Internet globally by a record online population of 1.2 billion Internet users age 15 and older. Microsoft Sites accounted for 14.5 percent of total minutes spent online in September, making it the most engaging global property, with Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger representing nearly 70 percent of time spent on the property during the month.
Whoa. Seventy-percent came from Windows Live Messenger? Exactly how does usage of Microsoft's desktop IM client count as time spent on the company's sites? Surely only a fraction of Live Messenger users come through the the Web-based version, based on Microsoft data about client downloads. I ask again: How does time spent in Live Messenger count as time at Microsoft sites? Windows Live log-ins perhaps?
Maybe Safeway or Trader Joes should tally everyone using one of their shopping bags in monthly store customer counts. Perhaps Visa should count everyone using its cards to buy products as visitors to its Website. How about beauty product companies like Clinque, Mac or Sephora count every free product sample as customer purchase.
Something about ComScore's data -- at least as presented -- doesn't make sense.
Still, behind the measure, Microsoft can gain valuable insight. Windows Live Messenger is an arguably hot on-desktop/online property. It's real estate Microsoft could connect to other properties, particularly broader Windows Live services or Windows 7.
To reiterate, ComScore's data is questionably valid as presented (other than for Microsoft marketing purposes) because:
- ComScore ignores public PCs, Internet cafes, PDAs and smartphones
- The measurement is aggregated rather than for individual time spent online
- Windows Live Messenger accounts for 70 percent of the time spent at Microsoft sites
- Nielsen data, which does track individual time spent online, is more consistent over many months and contradicts some ComScore's findings.
So, Betanews readers, I have to ask: Where do you spend most of your time online? Gulp, I would hope it would be Betanews. Comments are open for your answer.
Doesn't Comscore do "panels"? Do they just count the time people leave Windows Messenger up as time at a Microsoft property? That's hocus pocus. Nice job peering past the covers, Mister Wilcox.
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|Hm, Windows Update.
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|Man people still use that bloated POS WLM?
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|It might not be very popular in the US but Windows Live Messenger is the leading messenger worldwide. It is so common in some European countries that the old name of the product, MSN, is a verb and to MSN means to chat online.
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|I live in Europe and I've never heard a single person say MSN -- not even once.
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|WLM shows web ads - that's how it counts into web statistics...
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|And that's how long it takes to find out how to fix a problem on Microsoft's support website...
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|The data may appear to an outside person as questionable; however, it isn't off the mark as much as Joe might like to believe.
I worked as a consultant within the MSN data center, and people would be amazed at how much traffic and unique views many of the Microsoft 'partner' sites actually get.
If you take MSNBC content and their sub partners alone, their numbers are just flat out shocking, sub hosting several of the top 10 sites in the world.
The MSN.com homepage is also default on a lot of computers as well, and this does catch a lot of people clicking through to 'news' and sub sites that showcase their content, even if it is not 'consistent' for a daily user to always click through A,B,C from MSN.com
There are also a lot of 'partner' sites that are hosted in Microsoft domains/data center but people know them by other URLs and often don't realize or remember they are Microsoft products or in contract with Microsoft.
So the numbers are probably a few % off here and there, but the point holds that Microsoft pretty much dominates a lot of where people spend time when it comes to the Internet.
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|Right :)
LOL
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|Well Wilcox apparently pigs can fly because just on my network of friends on messenger they all do the same things they do on facebook. The all post new pictures, update status and comment on others profiles. I find it really intersting on how often i see people updating their msn messenger status and if Microsoft is noticing that they i think they have a golden ace up their sleeves in terms of social network. But we'll see... but if it's by this alone then pigs already fly...
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|I think they've already noticed as now every messenger status update is permanently viewable on your space...
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|Hi Joe, Thanks as always for your insights in this and the previous article. Why is it that no one else can report and interpret statistics in the correct context?
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|because we live in a corporate dominated world controlled by the vices of capitalism
which is why socialism rocks, btw :D
lol
but in any case, the above statement really holds true.... too many companies paying off research sites to give out results in their favor. Not to say that Microsoft did so, though
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|I spent a lot of time waiting for Microsoft Update to give me the bad news. ;)
I suppose they not only count WLM, but any IMer that logs in as a Microsoft Messenger client and most of Asia and Canada seem to be stuck on WLM or the equivalent.
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|Doesn't matter what Microsoft does they can't get a fair shake on this site.
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|When you resort to constant distortion and outright falsehoods to promote your company, you don't deserve one.
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|@ KSzostek
What's this article got to do with Microsoft?
It's about ComScore.
_You_ might think it's about'um 'cause they
are mentioned, but no. It's about ComScore.
(redacted because I don't think I'm saying
it well enough)
-IMO, the reports of how much time a person
spends at a website are either total nonsense
or an extreme invasion of privacy, and:
BTW, you did not know that a few months after
I noticed that The Drudge Report
( http://www.drudgereport.com/ ) was auto-
refreshing the page every ten minutes they
bragged about how viewership was way up
(which is kind of a paraphrase of my comment
about hulu).
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|If it includes Windows Update, then my computer spends a lot of time there.
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|Hulu
Sometimes I'll leave a program paused at
halfway thru for _days_. ;)
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|Yeah, facebook and school win, unfortunately.
Betanews is daily thou ;)
Edit:
Oh, if you count messenger, Microsoft wins by a landslide.
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|Can we get some clarification: is this Microsoft entertainment sites or all Microsoft sites? I can see that engineers and IT staff need to spend a lot of time on the Microsoft business sites - reading knowledge base articles, finding code samples, etc. That would skew the results.
If this only involves the entertainment sites, then this is very interesting.
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|@gglockner It's all Microsoft sites. The whole shebang.
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|I probably spend most of my time on my school websites...the online homework can take a while
Facebook, I spend less time, but more in one session - I might be on my school websites for 30 minutes a day, while I spend at least 1 hour on Facebook when I go on. But, I don't visit Facebook that often, maybe 3-4 times a week
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|Facebook. OMG do I waste a ton of time there. However, it's the first "real" social network that has ever existed. By "real", I mean "valuable" as in, "holy crap! EVERYBODY is on this thing."
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