comScore is an internet marketing research company that provides marketing data and services to many of the Internet's largest businesses. comScore tracks all internet data on its surveyed computers in order to study online behavior.

Company history

comScore Networks was founded in August 1999 in Reston, Virginia. The company was founded by Gian Fulgoni, who was for many years the CEO of Information Resources, one of the world's largest market research companies. The other founder of comScore was Magid Abraham, who was also an ex-IRI employee and had served as President of IRI in the mid-90s.

Magid and Gian came up with the idea while working with one of the original investors in the company, Mike Santer, who thought of the concept of creating a very large consumer panel online to track online commerce. The problem was the traditional methods in which companies were tracking online behavior would not work in tracking commerce. The reason for this was because of the lower incidence of buying online. Normal panels in tracking visitation would be around 20-30K, and with less than 2-3% of the population buying online, the panel size needed to be at least 1-2MM. They decided to build a very large panel using more aggressive recruiting methodology and managing for the error by using advanced statistical methods and controls. Years and tens of millions of dollars went into the best ways to measure online buying and other behaviors to the level of accuracy that would be required for Fortune 1000 companies to buy.

In 2000 comScore bought certain assets and the customer agreements of PCData of Reston, Virginia. PCData was among the earliest Web measurement firms, but increasing competitive challenges (including threat of a patent infringement lawsuit by industry pioneer Media Metrix) put PCData's future in doubt. The acquisition of PCData's large customer base helped accelerate the growth of comScore's syndicated measurement service, which was widely considered to be more accurate than the service that PCData technology previously delivered.

By 2001, Media Metrix had built a market share lead but had been unable to create a sustainable financial structure. NetRatings, its closest competitor, was armed with strong capital reserves and announced its intention to acquire and integrate Media Metrix. However, after several months the FTC announced its intention to block the acquisition and accordingly NetRatings canceled the transaction. comScore was subsequently able to acquire Media Metrix in a deal announced in June 2002.

Media Metrix originated as PC Meter, a business unit of market research company NPD, and began publishing statistics in January 1996. In July 1997, it changed its name to Media Metrix, citing the desire to track a wider variety of interactive traffic. In October 1998, Media Metrix merged with its nearest rival, Relevant Knowledge. The company went public as NASDAQ:MMXI in May 1999, reaching a market cap of $135 million on the first day of trading. In June 2000, the company acquired Jupiter Communications for $414 million in stock, and changed its name to Jupiter Media Metrix. In the aftermath of the dot-com bubble collapse and associated downturn in internet marketing spending, Jupiter sold the Media Metrix service to rival comScore for $1.5 million in June 2002.