Web measurement firm comScore is going mobile. The company is buying M:Metrics for $44.3 million plus 50,000 options of comScore stock. M:Metrics measures mobile Web usage, and will give comScore the ability to track mobile visitors, pageviews, and ads clicked. Its three major products are (from the press release):
MobiLensTM, a syndicated monthly online survey that captures overall mobile phone usage, including device information, data usage, media consumption and demographic characteristics of a representative sample of more than 40,000 mobile device users. MobiLens is available in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Spain, and Italy.
MeterDirectTM, the industry’s first on-device meter that passively measures the mobile Internet behavior and media consumption of more than 4,000 existing Smartphone panelists. The M:Metrics metering technology is compatible with more than 280 device models. MeterDirect is currently available in the U.S. and U.K.
M:AdTM, the first competitive tracking service for mobile advertising that continuously monitors clickable display advertising from a broad representative set of mobile Web destinations to reveal leading advertisers across a variety of market segments. M:Ad is currently available in the U.S. and U.K.
ComScore is a publicly traded company with $87 million in revenues last year. It expects the M:Metrics business to be profitable by the end of 2008 on an EBITDA basis. M:Metrics reveneus are forecasted to reach $11 to $12 million this year, and are expected to contribute $6.5 million to $7 million towards comScore’s revenues for the full year. Founders Will Hodgman and Seamus McAtee will join comScore.
M:Metrics, which is based in Seattle, was founded in 2004. It has raised $18 million from Prism Venture Partners, i-Hatch Ventures, and WPP.
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how exactly does COMSCORE measure the world wide Internet traffic?
I am not familiar with their methods and I was curios
Thanks
“comScore maintains a group of users who have monitoring software (with brands including PermissionResearch and OpinionSquare) 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://) 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 get 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,[18] and consumer buying power.”
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While M:Metrics provides a high level overview of the industry, it does not provide detailed information about the visitors to specific mobile web sites.
They appear to be the “Neilson” rating company of the mobile world.
Mobilytics (http://www.mobilytics.net) and a handful other vendors have built applications that provide mobile webmasters with the same information they receive from their wired web sites.
It’s great to see such a serious interest in mobile from real players.
Congrats to M:Metrics!
The problem with the mobile world is that it’s so fragmented, that not even the phone companies have a good sense of their OWN users and what they’re doing…so I don’t beleive any one company can properly measure anything in such a fragmented landscape.