Amazon sites had the largest global audience among major retail and auction sites, says comScore, Inc, a source of digital marketing intelligence.

Amazon had more than 282 million visitors, representing 20.4 percent of the worldwide audience age 15 and older accessing the Internet from a home or work location. eBay was not far behind with 223.5 million visitors (16.2 percent reach), followed by China's Alibaba.com Corporation, which includes sites such as Taobao, Alibaba.com and Alipay, with 156.8 million visitors (11.3 percent reach). Apple.com Worldwide Sites saw its global audience eclipse 134 million visitors, representing nearly 10 percent of all Internet users, while Japan's RakutenInc. reached nearly 57.8 million visitors in June (4.2 percent reach).

Analysis of the geographic composition of visitors to these select retail and auction sites revealed a mix of both globally distributed audiences and more regionally concentrated audiences.

Amazon Sites and Apple.com Worldwide Sites showed more globally distributed audiences compared to most other brands in the study. Amazon Sites attracted 35.4 percent of its audience from North America, while Europe contributed 31.8 percent of visitors and Asia Pacific accounted for 24.1 percent.

Similarly, Apple.com Worldwide Sites attracted 32.0 percent of its visitors from North America, while Europe contributed 29.6 percent of visitors and Asia Pacific accounted for 24.9 percent. On the other hand, China's Alibaba.com Corporation (85.7 percent) and Japan's Rakuten, Inc. (72.7 percent) reach sourced the vast majority of their traffic from the Asia Pacific region.