Media

Google Sites Remain Leaders in Traffic as Facebook Gains

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: March 31, 2017 6:20 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 1:26 pm

Google led all U.S. sites in traffic during February. The search engine site and others owned by Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) were visited by 238 million unique users over the course of the month. Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) was second with 202 million unique visitors, which put it ahead of perennial traffic leaders, some of which have dominated the web for decades.

The results were released by comScore and measure both desktop and mobile traffic, from home and from work locations. The information is based on data gathered by its Media Metrix Multi-Platform survey.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) sites, which had their starts during the dial-up internet age in 1994, had 197 million unique visitors. It will soon be owned by Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ). Yahoo is more than a decade older than Google and Facebook. Microsoft Corp. (NYSE: MSFT) sites, including MSN, took fourth place with 178 million unique visitors. MSN is one of the three remaining internet portals, along with Yahoo and AOL, another Verizon property.

E-commerce leader Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) held fifth place with 177 million unique visitors. In a sign of Amazon’s dominance, the next retail web property on the list is Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) in 25th place with 83 million unique visitors.

Comcast NBCUniversal sites took sixth place with 164 million unique visitors in February. Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) sites include those for NBC, NBC Sports, Universal Pictures, and cable properties such as USA Network.

CBS Interactive from CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) was in seventh place with 159 million unique visitors It was followed by the the last of the three traditional portals, AOL, in eighth place with 156 million unique visitors. As mentioned, AOL is owned by Verizon. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was in ninth place with 143 million unique visitors. The Time Inc. (NYSE: TIME) network, which includes the Time, Sports Illustrated and People websites, was 10th with 132 million visitors.

Other notable sites include Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR), in 17th place with 99 million unique visitors. Snap Inc.’s (NYSE: SNAP) Snapchat had 93 million, which put it in 19th place. Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) was 36th with 71 million.