comScore sunsets its Compete PRO service and recommends SimilarWeb to its clients

In April, media measurement firm comScore bought the Digital Intelligence unit of market research firm Millward Brown, which had built the unit around its previous purchase of web traffic analysis firm Compete.

comScore launched a PRO web traffic service, based on what Compete — a competitor to comScore — had provided.

On the same day in April that Millward Brown said it was “transitioning” its Digital Intelligence unit to comScore, the two companies — plus market intelligence firm SimilarWeb — announced a partnership “to collaborate on digital data and product integrations.”

This week, comScore said it is “sunsetting” its Compete-powered PRO platform by the end of this year. It also announced a partnership with SimilarWeb, where it recommends that PRO customers sign up for a traffic analysis service SimilarWeb offers — which, as it turns out, is also called PRO.

Carla Bourque, chief commercial officer at SimilarWeb, told me that comScore will still offer Compete’s business insights and custom solution services that it acquired from Millward Brown.

While both the comScore/Compete PRO and SimilarWeb PRO services provide web traffic analysis, she said that Compete focused on monthly reports about US traffic, while the London-based SimilarWeb offers more globally focused daily reports that also include mobile app traffic.

comScore customers, she said, will receive an unspecified discount for “a short time” if they sign up with SimilarWeb, but otherwise there aren’t any advantages for comScore customers. The SimilarWeb service will remain separate, and there will be no integration between the dashboards or data feeds.

Bourque declined to provide a reason why comScore dropped its recently acquired Compete PRO service. Compete, Inc. had been purchased in 2008 by market info firm Taylor Nelson Sofres, which itself was bought later that year by British PR firm WPP, owner of Millward Brown.

When I asked comScore why they were closing down the PRO service after only a few months, they provided this statement:

“This partnership [between comScore and SimilarWeb] allows comScore and SimilarWeb to focus their efforts on their core business expertise. This allows each of us to provide the best solution that delivers maximum impact to meet the data intelligence needs of our clients.”

About The Author

Barry Levine

Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.