I started working with the comScore
team in 1999 when my prior firm, Flatiron Partners, provided first
round capital to the founders. I served on the board for nine years and
dropped off last summer with a lot of mixed emotions.
I’ve always
been fascinated by the Internet measurement business and comScore is
the recognized leader in that business. With agencies, marketers, wall
street, and a host of other important constituencies, comScore is the
“gold standard.”
But I’ve also been very frustrated that
comScore’s panel centric approach (2mm Internet users worldwide)
doesn’t measure small early stage web services very well. It’s only
once a service gets a significant audience that a panel based approach
can really work.
I’ve also spent countless hours explaining why
panel-based numbers don’t match server logs. Many people think server
logs can’t be wrong. But they can because one person can access a web
service from their home computer, work computer, mobile phone, and
friend’s laptop in one single day and be counted as four unique
visitors. Server side numbers are also impacted by cookie deletion,
which is common among the most sophisticated (and most active) web
users.
So the panel based approach has issues and so does the
server based approach. The simplistic way I’ve always looked at it is
panel undercounts and server-side overcounts. I’ve always advocated a
“triangulation” approach to get to the right number.
So it’s very
big news that comScore has spent the past year building an entirely new
approach to Internet audience measurement that combines its “gold
standard” panel with server-side numbers reported by web services who
install comScore’s beacon. The comScore press release that explains how
Media Metrix 360 works is here.
If
you have a smallish web service but still need comScore numbers to sell
advertising or raise capital or for some other reason, you can now put
the comScore beacon on your pages and get reported right along with
everyone else. This is also hugely important for “apps” that run on top
of web platforms like Facebook. Our portfolio company Zynga,
for example, has a huge number of montly unique visitors but the
Internet audience measurement services have not been able to see most
of them. If Zynga puts the comScore beacon on their pages, they would
be reported alongside all of the web-based gaming services.
The other big innovation with Media Metrix 360 is the “universe” report which does the following:
report” will provide visibility into the entire universe of Internet
usage, including access from mobile devices and computers outside of
home and work (i.e. Internet cafes, schools, libraries, and other non-private
locations). Usage from these locations accounts for a significant percentage
of total traffic, ranging from 10 percent to more than 50 percent, depending
on the market. The “universe report” will supplement the traditional
home and work universe measured by the existing Media Metrix service
with server side data to account for a site’s complete addressable
audience.
think this is a very big deal, for comScore, its customers, and web
services of all shapes and sizes that want to be counted correctly. I’m
thrilled to see this happen.
(Image source: Techshout.com)
