InterActiveCorp (IACI), a multi-billion-dollar company that manages online brands including Ask.com, Evite and LendingTree, scored its strongest traffic growth this summer from a site that helps people manage their timeshare vacations.
The company reported earnings today. Profit for the quarter that ended Sept. 30 fell to $71.8 million, or 24 cents per share, from $74.9 million, or 24 cents, last year. The 4.2 percent drop was attributed to troubles in the company’s home shopping network business. Revenue grew 7.4 percent to $1.52 billion.
According to data released Tuesday by Nielsen Online, traffic to IAC’s timeshare site, Interval International, grew 78 percent over the same period a year before to reach nearly 900,000 unique visitors.
Growth at IAC’s Evite and Ticketmaster businesses also is encouraging, though the percentages weren’t as high as the vacation business. Evite, the most trafficked website for invitations, saw traffic rise 28 percent to 7.9 million unique visitors. Ticketmaster, the top website for events, grew 9 percent to 12.9 million. Nielsen said purchases grew 24 percent year-over-year, to 1.5 million transactions. IAC’s online properties compete with Internet titans like eBay (EBAY), Yahoo (YHOO) and Amazon (AMZN).
The numbers:
IAC Fastest Growing Web Brands* (U.S., Home and Work) +------------------------+----
------+----------+--------------+
| InterActiveCorp Brands | Q3 2006 | Q3 2007 | Q3-Q3 Growth |
| | UA (000) | UA (000) | |
+------------------------+----------+----------+--------------+
| Interval International | 498 | 888 | 78% |
| Gifts.com | 685 | 929 | 36% |
| Evite.com | 6,148 | 7,898 | 28% |
| Ticketmaster | 11,796 | 12,859 | 9% |
| ServiceMagic | 2,681 | 2,804 | 5% |
+------------------------+----------+----------+--------------+
Source: Nielsen Online, NetView
*Based on three-month average monthly unique audience.