Google, Microsoft and Facebook sites have dominated the French market in May, with cars, taxes and flowers proving the fastest growing categories, according to new research.
According to comScore, a total of 47.4 million users in France (age 6+) went online in May 2011, up 3 percent from the previous year.
Users in France stayed an average of 1,571.8 minutes or 26.2 hours online in May, 2 hours more than the European average for the month and up 12 percent from May 2010.
Google Sites ranked as the most visited property with 44.5 million unique visitors, followed by Microsoft Sites (40.8 million visitors), and Facebook.com (32.5 million visitors).
Luxury retailer Groupe PPR, which attracted 18.2 million visitors, was the fastest gaining property with a 17-percent increase from a year ago.
As there were a string of bank holidays in France in May, the fastest growing web category was Car Rental (up 69 percent from the previous month), driven by the growth in monthly visitation to Paris-based European rental car company property Europcar, Hertz.fr, and Priceline subsidiary eLocationdeVoitures.fr.
In preparation for an annual income tax filing deadline at the end of May, properties in the Taxes category also saw an increase in visitation of 50 percent. Finally, as Mother’s Day approached for France, properties purveying flowers, presents, and e-cards in the Flowers/Gifts/Greetings category saw an increase of 43 percent.
*Excludes Platform and ISP categories.
www.comscore.com/companyinfo.
