Disney.com Breaks Its All-Time Traffic and Site Registration Records in January 2008 - LaughingPlace.com: Disney World, Disneyland and More

Disney.com Breaks Its All-Time Traffic and Site Registration Records in January 2008

Disney.com Breaks Its All-Time Traffic and Site Registration Records in January 2008
Parks, Virtual Worlds and Community Strategies Contribute to Strong Growth

(February 14, 2008) Disney.com, the longstanding No. 1 destination on the Internet for families and kids, broke its all-time traffic and registration records in January 2008. According to recently released comScore Media Metrix data, the Disney Online network of sites last month received 27.5 million unique visitors beating all previous traffic records. The traffic high represents an increase of more than 10 percent compared to the same period last year, and led to a record number of registrations to the site.

Strong performance in virtual worlds, particularly the recently launched Pirates of the Caribbean Online (www.PiratesOnline.com), and other community-driven areas of Disney.com as well as Disney Parks were major contributors to the achievement. Disney.com�s peak performance in January was underscored by a record all-time high of site registrations which represented more than twice the registrations for the same time last year, and more than five times the registrations logged in January 2006 according to internal resources that track registrations. Pirates of the Caribbean Online, which launched a full-scale marketing campaign in January, was a major factor.

Disney Travel also experienced seasonal traffic increases during the month which is historically a peak time for travel planning. Additionally, comparisons to prior periods benefit from the inclusion of Club Penguin to Disney Online numbers which began in November 2007. Co-promotions and synergies have boosted performance and cross-visitation across both Disney.com and Club Penguin destinations.

�We couldn�t be more thrilled with this new Disney.com traffic record. Over the past year our team has worked hard to innovate and push the boundaries of visitor engagement with Disney�s franchises,� said Paul Yanover, executive vice president of the Walt Disney Internet Group and head of Disney Online. �Key to our approach is a focus on virtual worlds and community-driven programs. As an example, we�re particularly excited with the response we�re seeing to Pirates Online.�

Guest enthusiasm continues to build for community-based, interactive portions of the site. To date, more than 40 million avatars, virtual representations of a guest in the online world, have been created across the Disney Online network. Other examples include:

  • Disney.com XD, which as of today has more than 1.3 million personal XD channels created since the feature was first promoted in May 2007
  • Disney Fairies, which has seen more than 4.5 million custom fairies created since the functionality became available last year.

Disney Online in January also set a new all-time high traffic record according to Nielsen//Netratings representing a 14 percent increase compared to the year prior.

Over the past several months, Disney.com has also executed aggressively against its plans for geographical and platform expansion as evidenced by the debut of localized versions of the new Disney.com in Japan and the U.K., as well as the launch of a new Disney-themed mobile Web destination.

-- Posted February 14, 2008