Entertainment Sites Hot in Summer

Internet usage in the U.S. tends to drop in the summer (all those beach parties and barbecues, presumably). This summer appears to be no exception, according to a new netScore Internet Traffic Report. However, the report, a product of New York-based Diameter, a division of Doubleclick, and comScore, an Internet research company based in Reston, Va., maintains that entertainment sites remain inoculated from the summer doldrums.

In the United States, total Internet unique visitor traffic in July was down by 1.9 percent from June, a drop that followed a decline of 3 percent from May to June. Global traffic was essentially stable in July: 296.4 million versus 296.5 million in June.

But 74 percent of U.S. Web users visited an entertainment site in July, making this the most visited Net category during the month.

DATA POINTS:
–Jurassicpark.com was the most trafficked U.S. movie site in July, with 1.4 million visitors, while real.com was the most popular entertainment site, with over 19 million visitors.

–For all Napster’s woes, it still showed a heavy dose of brand power in July, as it had the third highest number of U.S. unique visitors for entertainment sites, with 11.2 million users.