Healthy Skepticism Library item: 14310

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Online Health Information Category Grows At Rate Four Times Faster Than Total Internet
PharmaLive 2008 Sep 9
http://pharmalive.com/news/index.cfm?articleID=570360&categoryid=43

Full text:

Category Up 21 Percent in Past Year

WebMD Health Ranks as Top Publisher of Display Ads

RESTON, VA, September 9, 2008 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released results of a study showing that the health information site category has grown 21 percent during the past year – more than four times the growth rate of the total U.S. Internet population.

While WebMD Health continues to lead the category with 17.3 million visitors in July (up 3 percent versus year ago), three other health networks boosted the overall growth of the category, each attracting more than ten million visitors: Everyday Health with 14.7 million (up 63 percent), Revolution Health Network with 11.3 million visitors (up 182 percent), and AOL Health with 11.1 million (up 88 percent). While Everyday Health and Revolution Health Network both achieved significant organic growth on their core Web sites, their recent partnerships with several smaller health sites, as well as some strategic acquisitions, have also contributed to their respective gains.

*Due to the transition of AOL Body to AOL Health in June 2008, the July 2007 AOL figures reported in the above chart are for AOL Body while the July 2008 figures are for AOL Health.

“Improved site functionality, increased content personalization, and overall consumer acceptance of the Internet as a source for health information have helped to breathe new life into the health information category,” said John Mangano, senior director, comScore Pharmaceutical Marketing Solutions. “Most sites have become vibrant online communities rooted in sharing experiences and advice, rather than simply being one-way information resources for the consumer. As Google and Microsoft ramp up efforts with their respective health sites, Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault, it will be interesting to see how the category continues to evolve.”

WebMD Health Ranks as Top Display Ad Publisher

In June, more than 1.5 billion display ad views were seen by nearly 54 million people via sites in the health information category. WebMD Health topped the list of display ad publishers, delivering 290 million display ad views and reaching nearly 15 million people at an average frequency of 19.3 times per visitor during the month. Revolution Health Network and AOL Health ranked second and third, with 201 million display ad views and 186 million display ad views, respectively. While the number of unique visitors exposed to advertising at both Revolution Health Network and AOL Health were significantly lower than for WebMD Health, they were reached with a higher frequency.

Also noteworthy is that despite Weight Watchers International delivering ads to just 2 million unique visitors, each ad-exposed visitor saw an average of 31 display ads during the month, the highest frequency among the top ten publisher sites in the category.

• Excludes house ads and very small ads.