We knew that the iPhone helped make Pandora the success it has become. However not until comScore released its
new multiplatform rankings yesterday did we know the full extent of Pandora’s mobile success. The internet radio provider has more than 2X the users in mobile that it has on the PC.
Another revelation (or perhaps confirmation) of sorts is how much traffic Twitter has from mobile devices. Its mobile traffic is almost equal to its PC traffic.
The new multiplatform view combines PC, mobile and video traffic into a ranking hierarchy that employs both panel-based measurement and behavioral data from the publishers themselves. Eventually this will extend to search and offer more segmentation detail. It will also be extended to other markets beyond the US.
I asked comScore if the mobile data included both apps and mobile web (smartphones and tablets). It does.
The list above reflects the top 30 US sites. To the extent that the PC and mobile traffic exceed total digital population, there’s some audience overlap and duplication that has been removed from the total reach number.
In most cases the rankings aren’t very different than the Media Metrix PC-only traffic figures. But in exceptional cases, such as Pandora, there’s much greater overall reach when mobile is factored in. Indeed, the new combined rankings benefit a few sites (i.e., Yahoo, ESPN, The Weather Channel, Yelp, Disney) by boosting their overall rankings. Others lose position (i.e., Microsoft, Vevo, Wal-Mart, Craigslist, LinkedIn).
This new multiplatform ranking is the future of audience measurement as marketers and publishers seek a more complete view of their users. I would predict that in the near future this will entirely replace the traditional PC only comScore top 50 rankings.
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