The problem with services that report the analytics and visits for many websites is that they don’t have direct access to server logs.  Whenever Comscore or Nielsen reports the numbers for a website, it is usually an underestimated number.  Earlier this month, it was reported that YouTube streamed about 6.5 billion video views.  Based on this number, it comes out to be about 200-225 million video views per day.

However a source at Google reported to TechCrunch that the actual figure is about 1.2 billion views per day across the world. Unlike many other video content websites, Google has not really reported the numbers before.  In the past Comscore has admitted that they can only estimate based on available data.

Given the bandwidth and storage that is required to run YouTube, the cost of keeping the site online is pegged to be around $2 million per day.  If there are really 1.2 billion video views and about 30,000 hours of footage being uploaded per day, I wouldn’t be surprised if it costs more than that.

According to Comscore, online sales have started to slow. Second quarter growth for online sales was 13%. Third quarter growth fell to 6%. Total online spending minus travel sites was $30 billion in the third quarter.

The slow growth will most certainly affect online holiday shopping revenue. A majority of online retailers make a large amount of their annual income during the holiday season.

Source: Biz Journal

Taylor Nelson Sofres, a London, England based market research company has paid $75 million to have Compete.com integrated into their company.  Compete could receive an additional $75 million in earn-outs through 2010 as well [Source: Techcrunch].

Compete.com mines data from 2 million Compete Toolbar users to monitor online behavior.  TNS will use this data for the purpose of providing extra services to their own clients.

Compete.com will remain operating as a stand-alone company.  Compete raised $43 million in capital since 2000 from various venture capital firms including Charles River Ventures, Commonwealth Capital, Chicago Growth Partners, and Split Rock Partners.

Competitors include Alexa, comScore, and Quantcast.  The power of analytics reporting has on Wall Street was recently demonstrated when comScore revealed a slip in Google Ads clicks.  GOOG stock dropped heavily shortly after comScore’s announcement.

comScore Inc.[1] has officially filed for an IPO today. The company shares will trade through NASDAQ under the stock symbol, “SCOR.” The company will be offering 5 million shares at roughly $14-$16/share.

comScore expects to raise roughly $67 million from the IPO. comScore data is gathered by 2 million Internet users and earned $2.5 million in sales last year. After the offering, comScore expects to have 27.4 million outstanding shares. The company is based in Reston, Virginia.

Credit Suisse Securities is the lead underwriter for the IPO. Other financial firms participating in the offering include Deutsche Bank Securities, William Blair & Co., Friedman Billings Ramsey, and Jefferies & Company.

Previous coverage of the comScore IPO is available at: http://pulse2.com/2007/04/02/comscore-filing-for-an-ipo/[2].

[1] comScore.com
[2] Pulse 2.0: comScore Filing for an IPO

“We have taken traditional consumer research to the next level. For the first time ever marketers can understand all aspects of consumer activity, including critical links between online and offline behavior,” stated Gian Fulgoni, Co-Founder of comScore.  comScore is an Internet information provider that monitors consumer behaviors and trends online.  comScore has a plethora of lucrative clients such as Verizon, T-Mobile, Viacom, AOL, iVillage, CareerBuilder, Microsoft, and Yahoo!.  All of these clients benefit from the human-computer interactions monitored by comScore.  It will be comScore, Inc. will be listed under NASDAQ: SCOR.

comScore was created in 1999 and had acquired assets from NetRatings during the dot-com bust.  About 12% of comScore’s 2006 $66 million in sales came from Microsoft.  The company is often times cited in the press for its statistical information.  In a recent Bloomberg article, comScore statistics were used for reporting how many more visitors were attracted to YouTube this year compared to last.  YouTube had 133.5 million visitors this past January and 9.5 million the January before that.  comScore also reported that 94.8 million visitors visited the website this past January and 38.9 million the year before.

A number of financial companies have stake in comScore.  Investors include JPMorgan Partners, Accel Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, Lehman Brothers, Adams Street Partners, Topspin Partners, Flatiron Partners, vSpring Capital, Devine InterVentures, and Rembrandt Venture Partners.  The number of shares expected to release during the IPO is not yet known.