San Francisco — Despite all the benefits reaped by other companies, this will surely come as a surprise to some. Industry tracker comScore, Inc., last week released a study showing that, in terms of time spent on sites, the Redmond-based Microsoft sites ranked as the most engaging global property in September, followed by Google, Yahoo, and Facebook.
According to the study, Microsoft websites seized nearly 15 percent of time spent online worldwide in September, and almost 70 percent of the time spent on its sites was through Windows Live Messenger.
People are passing more time on the Internet — searching more, shopping more and possibly even working more online. A record high population of 1.2 billion Internet users aged 15 or older spent a total of nearly 27 billion hours online in September, according to the study.
“The Internet continues to be ever-changing and growing environment around the world with the global online population climbing more than 20 percent in the last year,” said comScore Media Metrix executive vice president Jack Flanagan.
Meanwhile, Google ranked at No. 2, with 9.3 percent of the minutes (2.5 billion hours). Besides, Google barely recorded more growth than Microsoft (48 percent versus 44 percent). But things seemed even more gloomier for Yahoo, as the chart below shows. Yahoo reported to be third with 6.3 percent of the minutes, or 1.7 billion hours, but dropped by 14 percent from its September 2008 share of almost 2 billion hours.
The real surprise, though, relates to Facebook, the social network that does not “do” much of anything compared to three companies that offer search engines, email, maps, and all other sorts of stuff. Facebook.com, which continues to see significant growth on a worldwide basis, was the fourth most engaging destination with visitors spending 1.4 billion hours on the site in September, up 193 percent from the previous year.
Moreover, online video-sharing star YouTube accounted for almost half of the 2.5 billion hours people spent at Google websites, according to the study.
“Understanding the global Internet picture is the first step towards executing effective marketing strategies in these growing markets,” said Flanagan. “With the U.S. economy only now emerging from a recession, many multinational corporations have shifted the focus of their growth strategies towards developing markets.”
Overall, nearly 27 billion hours were spent online globally by a record online population of 1.2 billion Web users age 15 and older. “The Internet continues to be a dynamic and growing environment around the world with the global online population climbing more than 20 percent in the last year,” Flanagan said.
Readers can see comScore’s charts, including metrics for time spent on the top global properties by continental region, here.