CNNMoney.com posts record traffic for December and 2008

Internet users turned to CNNMoney.com in record numbers. The site registered 25.5 billion total minutes in 2008, a 39 percent growth rfrom 2007, according to Omniture.

Unique visitors were also at an all-time high, with an average of over 29.8 million unique users a month, a 33 percent increase over 2007. Yearlypage views topped 5.2 billion, a 28 percent increase from 2007.

After launching its online video platform in January 2008, streaming video exploded on the site. According to Nielsen Video Census, CNNMoney.com streamed the most videos in the financial news & information group in 2008, hitting 186.6 million, with popular series such as “The Business of Green� and anchor Poppy Harlow’s market updates.

The site bested its closest competitor, MSN Money, by more than 200 percent. In December alone, CNNMoney.com’s 21.2 million video streams were more than the site’s top 10 competitors’ numbers combined.

The site showed impressive gains all year and had a banner month as Lehman Brothers collapsed in September and users sought reliable, up-to-the-minute information about the unprecedented financial meltdown. Page views were up 62 percent from 2007 to 2008, according to Omniture, and unique visitors increased 79 percent year-over-year that same month.