ComScore
Encyclopedia
comScore (stylized as comSCORE.) is a Internet marketing research
company providing marketing data and services to many of the Internet's largest businesses. comScore tracks all internet data on its surveyed computers in order to study online behavior.
. The company was co-founded by Gian Fulgoni, who was for many years the CEO of market research company Information Resources, Inc.
(IRI) and Magid Abraham
, who was also an ex-IRI employee and had served as President of IRI in the mid-1990s.
Magid and Gian came up with the idea while working with one of the original investors in the company, Mike Santer, who thought up the concept of creating a very large consumer panel online to track online commerce. The problem was that the traditional methods in which companies were tracking online behavior would not work in tracking commerce, because of the lower incidence of buying online. Normal panels in tracking visitation would be around 20-30K and, with less than 2-3% of the population buying online, the panel size needed to be at least 1-2MM. They decided to build a very large panel using more aggressive recruiting methodology and managing for the error by using advanced statistical methods and controls. Years and tens of millions of dollars went into finding the best ways to measure online buying and other behaviors, plus the level of accuracy required for Fortune 1000
companies to buy.
In 2000, comScore bought certain assets and the customer agreements of PCData of Reston, Virginia. PCData was among the earliest Web measurement firms, but increasing competitive challenges (including a threat of a patent infringement lawsuit by industry pioneer Media Metrix) put PCData's future in doubt. The acquisition of PCData's large customer base helped accelerate the growth of comScore's syndicated measurement service, which was widely considered to be more accurate than the service which PCData technology previously delivered.
By 2001, Media Metrix had built a market share lead but had been unable to create a sustainable financial structure. NetRatings, its closest competitor, was armed with strong capital reserves and announced its intention to acquire and integrate Media Metrix. However, after several months, the FTC announced its intention to block the acquisition and accordingly, NetRatings canceled the transaction. comScore was subsequently able to acquire Media Metrix in a deal announced in June 2002.
Media Metrix originated as PC Meter, a business unit of market research company NPD Group
and began publishing statistics in January 1996. In July 1997, it changed its name to Media Metrix, citing the desire to track a wider variety of interactive traffic. In October 1998, Media Metrix merged with its nearest rival, Relevant Knowledge. The company went public
as NASDAQ:MMXI in May 1999, reaching a market cap of $135 million on its first day of trading. In June 2000, the company acquired Jupiter Communications for $414 million in stock and changed its name to Jupiter Media Metrix. In the aftermath of the dot-com bubble
collapse and associated downturn in internet marketing spending, Jupiter sold the Media Metrix service to rival comScore for $1.5 million in June 2002.
On March 30, 2007, comScore announced its intent to sell shares in an initial public offering and be traded on the Nasdaq using the symbol "SCOR".
In May 2008, comScore announced its acquisition of M:Metrics, a company measuring mobile content consumption. The transaction involved a cash payment of $44.3 million and the issue of approximately 50,000 options to purchase shares of comScore common stock to certain M:Metrics unvested option holders.
comScore announced in October 2009 the acquisition of Certifica, a provider of real-time web measurement and digital marketing technology solutions in Latin America. Based in Santiago, Chile
, Certifica has offices throughout Latin America, including Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Peru. The acquisition enhanced comScore’s presence in the rapidly-developing Latin American market.
In February 2010, comScore announced it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire the ARSgroup in an all-cash acquisition. Headquartered in Evansville, Indiana
, ARSgroup’s areas of expertise include: brand strategy, all stages of creative development, campaign evaluation across all marketing and media channels, media planning and strategy, return-on-investment, and forecasting.
On July 1, 2010, comScore announced that it has acquired the products division of Nexius, Inc.
comScore then acquired web analytics and video measurement solution
s provider Nedstat for approximately $36.7 million. Announced on September 1, 2010, the acquisition helps comScore accelerate its global expansion strategy, particularly in European markets.
comScore is up-front about collecting user data and the software's ability to track all of a user's internet traffic, including normally secure (https://
) connections used to communicate banking and other confidential information.
comScore estimates that two million users are part of the monitoring program. However, self-selected populations, no matter how large, may not be representative of the population as a whole. To obtain the most accurate data, comScore adjusts the statistics using weights
to make sure that each population segment is adequately represented. To calculate these weights, comScore regularly recruits panelists using random digit dialing
and other offline recruiting methods to accurately determine how many users are online, aggregated by geography, income and age. Correcting the comScore data requires having accurate demographics about the larger pool of users. However, some comScore users are recruited without being asked to give demographic information and, in other cases, users may not be truthful about their demographics. To ensure the accuracy of the data, comScore verifies its users' demographics during the course of measuring statistical data.
The corrected data is used to generate reports on topics ranging from web traffic
to video streaming activity and consumer buying power.
but said that no contract was ever signed, and that once it realized DollarRevenue was distributing comScore's software, months later, it took steps to prevent the DollarRevenue-distributed software from sending data to comScore. Stanford IT notes that the monitoring software has been bundled with file sharing program iMesh
without users being aware of it, although comScore's relationship with iMesh was short-lived and occurred several years ago.
In the past, the software forwarded users' internet traffic through comScore proxy server
s, provoking criticism about speed performance. As a result, several universities and banks took steps to block the proxy servers. In response to these concerns, comScore no longer uses this technology.
In June 2010, a warning about Mac Spyware being launched from free applications like screensavers, from security company Intego
was reported in the media and implicated VoiceFive, Inc. as the source of certain alleged spyware software.
comScore was selected as a winner of the 2009 Chicago Innovation Awards
for its creative development of AdEffx in October 2009.
In June 2009 comScore and the GSM Association
won the M.E.F. Award for Business Intelligence in Mobile Media.
comScore was rated as the preferred audience measurement service by 50.4 percent of respondents to the William Blair & Company
6th semiannual survey of the members of the Chicago Interactive Marketing Association (CIMA).
comScore was ranked as the 15th largest U.S. market research firm based on 2008 domestic revenues, growing faster than each of the largest 25 research firms, according to the 2008 Honomichl Top 50
report.
comScore was selected by World Economic Forum
as one of 47 innovative companies in 2007.
Magid Abraham, Ph.D, co–founder and CEO of comScore, Inc. was honored with the Eighth Annual Buck Weaver Award for Marketing. The award recognizes individuals who have made important contributions to the advancement of theory and practice in marketing science.
, which provides resources to developing countries to improve rural livelihoods through the introduction of environmentally sustainable land management.
In 2008, comScore pledged an initial donation, which allowed for the planting of one million trees in developing communities throughout the world. Under this initiative, comScore has also pledged to continue to make donations when new panelists join and remain active in the comScore panel of global Internet users.
, Alexa, Nielsen Online
, Hitwise
, Quantcast
, Gemius, and Compete
, a TNS Media company.
Marketing research
Marketing research is "the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information — information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve...
company providing marketing data and services to many of the Internet's largest businesses. comScore tracks all internet data on its surveyed computers in order to study online behavior.
History
comScore Networks was founded in August 1999 in Reston, VirginiaReston, Virginia
Reston is a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, within the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The population was 58,404, at the 2010 Census and 56,407 at the 2000 census...
. The company was co-founded by Gian Fulgoni, who was for many years the CEO of market research company Information Resources, Inc.
Information Resources, Inc.
SymphonyIRI Group is a market research company which provides clients withconsumer, shopper, and retail market intelligence and analysis focused on the consumer packaged goods industry....
(IRI) and Magid Abraham
Magid Abraham
Magid M. Abraham, is an entrepreneur and expert on market research, consumer modeling, and information solutions. He has held several executive leadership positions throughout his career, two of which were within companies he founded....
, who was also an ex-IRI employee and had served as President of IRI in the mid-1990s.
Magid and Gian came up with the idea while working with one of the original investors in the company, Mike Santer, who thought up the concept of creating a very large consumer panel online to track online commerce. The problem was that the traditional methods in which companies were tracking online behavior would not work in tracking commerce, because of the lower incidence of buying online. Normal panels in tracking visitation would be around 20-30K and, with less than 2-3% of the population buying online, the panel size needed to be at least 1-2MM. They decided to build a very large panel using more aggressive recruiting methodology and managing for the error by using advanced statistical methods and controls. Years and tens of millions of dollars went into finding the best ways to measure online buying and other behaviors, plus the level of accuracy required for Fortune 1000
Fortune 1000
Fortune 1000 is a reference to a list maintained by the American business magazine Fortune. The list is of the 1000 largest American companies, ranked on revenues alone...
companies to buy.
In 2000, comScore bought certain assets and the customer agreements of PCData of Reston, Virginia. PCData was among the earliest Web measurement firms, but increasing competitive challenges (including a threat of a patent infringement lawsuit by industry pioneer Media Metrix) put PCData's future in doubt. The acquisition of PCData's large customer base helped accelerate the growth of comScore's syndicated measurement service, which was widely considered to be more accurate than the service which PCData technology previously delivered.
By 2001, Media Metrix had built a market share lead but had been unable to create a sustainable financial structure. NetRatings, its closest competitor, was armed with strong capital reserves and announced its intention to acquire and integrate Media Metrix. However, after several months, the FTC announced its intention to block the acquisition and accordingly, NetRatings canceled the transaction. comScore was subsequently able to acquire Media Metrix in a deal announced in June 2002.
Media Metrix originated as PC Meter, a business unit of market research company NPD Group
NPD Group
The NPD Group, Inc. is a leading North American market research company. The NPD Group consistently ranks among the top 25 market research companies in the independent Honomichl Top 50 report, which the media and the research industry acknowledge as a credible source of information on the market...
and began publishing statistics in January 1996. In July 1997, it changed its name to Media Metrix, citing the desire to track a wider variety of interactive traffic. In October 1998, Media Metrix merged with its nearest rival, Relevant Knowledge. The company went public
Initial public offering
An initial public offering or stock market launch, is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. It can be used by either small or large companies to raise expansion capital and become publicly traded enterprises...
as NASDAQ:MMXI in May 1999, reaching a market cap of $135 million on its first day of trading. In June 2000, the company acquired Jupiter Communications for $414 million in stock and changed its name to Jupiter Media Metrix. In the aftermath of the dot-com bubble
Dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2000 during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the more...
collapse and associated downturn in internet marketing spending, Jupiter sold the Media Metrix service to rival comScore for $1.5 million in June 2002.
On March 30, 2007, comScore announced its intent to sell shares in an initial public offering and be traded on the Nasdaq using the symbol "SCOR".
In May 2008, comScore announced its acquisition of M:Metrics, a company measuring mobile content consumption. The transaction involved a cash payment of $44.3 million and the issue of approximately 50,000 options to purchase shares of comScore common stock to certain M:Metrics unvested option holders.
comScore announced in October 2009 the acquisition of Certifica, a provider of real-time web measurement and digital marketing technology solutions in Latin America. Based in Santiago, Chile
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
, Certifica has offices throughout Latin America, including Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Peru. The acquisition enhanced comScore’s presence in the rapidly-developing Latin American market.
In February 2010, comScore announced it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire the ARSgroup in an all-cash acquisition. Headquartered in Evansville, Indiana
Evansville, Indiana
Evansville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Indiana and the largest city in Southern Indiana. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 117,429. It is the county seat of Vanderburgh County and the regional hub for both Southwestern Indiana and the...
, ARSgroup’s areas of expertise include: brand strategy, all stages of creative development, campaign evaluation across all marketing and media channels, media planning and strategy, return-on-investment, and forecasting.
On July 1, 2010, comScore announced that it has acquired the products division of Nexius, Inc.
comScore then acquired web analytics and video measurement solution
Solution
In chemistry, a solution is a homogeneous mixture composed of only one phase. In such a mixture, a solute is dissolved in another substance, known as a solvent. The solvent does the dissolving.- Types of solutions :...
s provider Nedstat for approximately $36.7 million. Announced on September 1, 2010, the acquisition helps comScore accelerate its global expansion strategy, particularly in European markets.
Data collection and reporting
comScore maintains a group of users who have monitoring software (with brands including PermissionResearch, OpinionSquare and VoiceFive Networks) installed on their computers. In exchange for joining the comScore research panels, users are presented with various benefits, including computer security software, Internet data storage, virus scanning and chances to win cash or prizes.comScore is up-front about collecting user data and the software's ability to track all of a user's internet traffic, including normally secure (https://
Https
Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure is a combination of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol with SSL/TLS protocol to provide encrypted communication and secure identification of a network web server...
) connections used to communicate banking and other confidential information.
comScore estimates that two million users are part of the monitoring program. However, self-selected populations, no matter how large, may not be representative of the population as a whole. To obtain the most accurate data, comScore adjusts the statistics using weights
Coefficient
In mathematics, a coefficient is a multiplicative factor in some term of an expression ; it is usually a number, but in any case does not involve any variables of the expression...
to make sure that each population segment is adequately represented. To calculate these weights, comScore regularly recruits panelists using random digit dialing
Random digit dialing
Random digit dialing is a method for selecting people for involvement in telephone statistical surveys by generating telephone numbers at random. Random digit dialing has the advantage that it includes unlisted numbers that would be missed if the numbers were selected from a phone book...
and other offline recruiting methods to accurately determine how many users are online, aggregated by geography, income and age. Correcting the comScore data requires having accurate demographics about the larger pool of users. However, some comScore users are recruited without being asked to give demographic information and, in other cases, users may not be truthful about their demographics. To ensure the accuracy of the data, comScore verifies its users' demographics during the course of measuring statistical data.
The corrected data is used to generate reports on topics ranging from web traffic
Web traffic
Web traffic is the amount of data sent and received by visitors to a web site. It is a large portion of Internet traffic. This is determined by the number of visitors and the number of pages they visit...
to video streaming activity and consumer buying power.
Unified Digital Measurement
With the introduction of Unified Digital Measurement (UDM) in May 2009, comScore implemented a solution to digital audience measurement that organically blended both panel and census-based measurement approaches into a single unified methodology. comScore has developed this proprietary methodology to calculate audience reach in a manner not affected by variables such as cookie deletion and cookie blocking/rejection to help reconcile longstanding differences between the two measurement approaches.Criticism
In 2006, Ben Edelman, a Harvard researcher, alleged that there were cases where comScore software had been installed on users' computers without their knowledge. comScore admitted that it was in discussion with spyware firm DollarRevenueDollarRevenue
DollarRevenue is an adware program made by the company of the same name. It displays advertisements on the infected PC and installs the UCMore Toolbar to track internet searches...
but said that no contract was ever signed, and that once it realized DollarRevenue was distributing comScore's software, months later, it took steps to prevent the DollarRevenue-distributed software from sending data to comScore. Stanford IT notes that the monitoring software has been bundled with file sharing program iMesh
IMesh
iMesh is a media and file sharing client that's available in 9 languages. It uses a proprietary, centralized, P2P network operating on ports 80, 443 and 1863. iMesh is owned by an American company iMesh, Inc. and maintains a development center in Israel...
without users being aware of it, although comScore's relationship with iMesh was short-lived and occurred several years ago.
In the past, the software forwarded users' internet traffic through comScore proxy server
Proxy server
In computer networks, a proxy server is a server that acts as an intermediary for requests from clients seeking resources from other servers. A client connects to the proxy server, requesting some service, such as a file, connection, web page, or other resource available from a different server...
s, provoking criticism about speed performance. As a result, several universities and banks took steps to block the proxy servers. In response to these concerns, comScore no longer uses this technology.
In June 2010, a warning about Mac Spyware being launched from free applications like screensavers, from security company Intego
Intego
Intego is a software company founded in 1997. They create backup, antivirus, anti-spam, firewall and data protection software for Mac OS X. The company's slogan is "we protect your world." In September 2007, Intego launched The Mac Security Blog, which provides articles about Mac security issues,...
was reported in the media and implicated VoiceFive, Inc. as the source of certain alleged spyware software.
Awards
Magid Abraham, President, CEO, and Co-Founder, comScore, Inc. received the 2009 Charles Coolidge Parlin Marketing Research Award at the 2009 AMA Marketing Research Conference.comScore was selected as a winner of the 2009 Chicago Innovation Awards
Chicago Innovation Awards
The Chicago Innovation Awards was created by the Chicago Sun-Times and Kuczmarski & Associates in 2002. Each year the Awards recognize 10 Chicago area businesses, nonprofits, and government organizations that develop the year’s most innovative new products and services.-2010:The 2010 Chicago...
for its creative development of AdEffx in October 2009.
In June 2009 comScore and the GSM Association
GSM Association
The GSM Association is an association of mobile operators and related companies devoted to supporting the standardizing, deployment and promotion of the GSM mobile telephone system...
won the M.E.F. Award for Business Intelligence in Mobile Media.
comScore was rated as the preferred audience measurement service by 50.4 percent of respondents to the William Blair & Company
William Blair & Company
William Blair & Company is privately held employee-owned financial services firm that provides investment banking, equity research, brokerage, asset management and private capital services.William Blair & Company, L.L.C. was founded in 1935...
6th semiannual survey of the members of the Chicago Interactive Marketing Association (CIMA).
comScore was ranked as the 15th largest U.S. market research firm based on 2008 domestic revenues, growing faster than each of the largest 25 research firms, according to the 2008 Honomichl Top 50
Honomichl Top 50
The Honomichl Top 50 is an annual compilation of the top 50 revenue-generating marketing research firms operating in the United States. The Honomichl Top 50 is published by the American Marketing Association magazine, Marketing News...
report.
comScore was selected by World Economic Forum
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....
as one of 47 innovative companies in 2007.
Magid Abraham, Ph.D, co–founder and CEO of comScore, Inc. was honored with the Eighth Annual Buck Weaver Award for Marketing. The award recognizes individuals who have made important contributions to the advancement of theory and practice in marketing science.
Trees for Knowledge
comScore Trees for Knowledge is a partnership with the non-profit organization, Trees for the FutureTrees for the Future
Trees for the Future is a Maryland-based nonprofit organization founded in 1989 that helps communities around the world plant trees. Through seed distribution, agroforestry training, and in-country technical assistance, it has empowered rural groups to restore tree cover to their lands, protect...
, which provides resources to developing countries to improve rural livelihoods through the introduction of environmentally sustainable land management.
In 2008, comScore pledged an initial donation, which allowed for the planting of one million trees in developing communities throughout the world. Under this initiative, comScore has also pledged to continue to make donations when new panelists join and remain active in the comScore panel of global Internet users.
See also
Competitors in internet market research include AdGoorooAdgooroo
AdGooroo is a market research company for search engine advertisers. AdGooroo monitors Google, Yahoo, MSN, Baidu, AOL, Ask, Nevar , and Seznam for paid search, natural rankings, and potential trademark infringement activity. AdGooroo also monitors Yahoo, Microsoft, Google AdSense, Go, and other...
, Alexa, Nielsen Online
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
, Hitwise
Hitwise
Experian Hitwise is a global online competitive intelligence service which collects data directly from ISP networks to aid website managers in analysing trends in visitor behavior and to measure website market share. The Hitwise product is a commercial platform whereby customers pay Hitwise a...
, Quantcast
Quantcast
Quantcast is a California based company that provides publishers and marketers with the ability to understand, deliver and reach their best audiences at a massive scale...
, Gemius, and Compete
Compete.com
Compete.com is a web traffic analysis service of Compete, Inc. which operates in the United States and publishes the approximate number of global visitors to the top 1,000,000 web sites in the world...
, a TNS Media company.
External links
- OpinionSquare and PermissionResearch (often classified as spyware), distribution sites for comScore's data-collection software
- Sears.com: Join the Community – Get Spyware CA Security Advisor Research Blog entry about Sears and comScore