Today, comScore released its ranking of the top Internet and top-gaining properties in Japan based on data collected through its comScore World Metrix audience ratings service. In August, nearly 54 million people in Japan age 15 or older went online from either home or work locations, averaging 19 hours online during the month.

Top 10 Properties for August

Yahoo! Sites remained the top-ranked property in Japan with more than 41 million visitors, drawing almost the same number of visitors as July. Google Sites ranked second with 30.8 million visitors, while Microsoft Sites ranked third with 29.7 million visitors.

“Since our first official ranking in June, we have seen Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft Sites remain unchanged as the top three properties in Japan,” said Maru Sato, Managing Director of comScore Japan. “Among the top ten properties, only Wikipedia Sites experienced growth of any significance in August, which tends to be a less active month online due to summer holidays.” 

Top 10 Properties by Japanese Unique Visitors, Age 15+* August 2007 vs. July 2007 Total Japan – Home and Work Locations** Source: comScore World Metrix
Property	Total Unique Visitors (000)
	Jul-2007	Aug-2007	% Change
Total Japanese Internet Audience, age 15+	53,731	53,746	0%
Yahoo! Sites	41,263	41,075	0%
Google Sites	31,240	30,842	-1%
Microsoft Sites	31,013	29,700	-4%
Rakuten Inc	29,488	28,730	-3%
NTT Group	26,536	25,319	-5%
FC2 inc.	24,994	25,093	0%
Nifty Corporation	22,799	21,889	-4%
Livedoor***	N/A	20,013	N/A
Wikipedia Sites	19,061	19,586	3%
Amazon Sites	18,664	17,906	-4%

*Ranking based on the top 100 Japanese properties in August 2007.

** Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

*** Livedoor experienced a definitional change in August that does not make it trendable with July’s data.

Top-Gaining Properties for August

Several sports-related sites experienced substantial growth in August. Sponichi.co.JP, a professional sports news site, was the top-gaining property for the month, rising 31 percent to 2.8 million visitors, while Spanspo.com jumped 16 percent to nearly 2.3 million visitors, and Nikkansports.com climbed 9 percent to more than 3.2 million visitors.

Mizuho Financial Group, which has continued to see increases over the past several months, was the second fastest growing site with a 30-percent increase to 2.3 million visitors, followed by OKWave.JP, which rose 28 percent to 2.5 million visitors.

“Both baseball and soccer are reaching key points in their seasons, and along with the interest in the Yokozuna scandal in Sumo Wrestling, it is not surprising that sports news sites had such a presence in this month’s rankings,” continued Mr. Sato. “The Internet gives people the ability to easily follow their favorite teams and players, both here and abroad.”

Top 10 Gaining Properties by Japanese Unique Visitors, Age 15+* August 2007 vs. July 2007 Total Japan – Home and Work Locations** Source: comScore World Metrix
Property	Total Unique Visitors (000)
	Jul-2007	Aug-2007	% Change
Total Japanese Internet Audience, age 15+	53,731	53,746	0%
SPONICHI.CO.JP	2,106	2,766	31%
Mizuho Financial Group	1,792	2,330	30%
OKWAVE.JP	1,950	2,501	28%
SANSPO.COM	1,944	2,251	16%
MAPFAN.COM	2,203	2,548	16%
PIA.CO.JP	2,551	2,902	14%
NIKKANSPORTS.COM	2,957	3,220	9%
Disney Online	1,986	2,163	9%
ALLABOUT.CO.JP	7,763	8,308	7%
HOTPEPPER.JP	3,237	3,452	7%

*Ranking based on the top 100 Japanese properties in August 2007.

** Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.