comScore released a study of global visitation to Beijing2008.cn, the official Web site of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

The site offers Olympic content in five languages: Mandarin, English, French, Spanish and Arabic. The study, which examined the global breakdown of visitors to the site during the first ten days of competition (August 8-17, 2008), revealed a tight race between China and the United States, with China taking the gold.

Beijing2008.cn attracted 16.5 million visitors during the first ten days of the Olympics, with China accounting for 4.3 million visitors (25.7 percent), slightly edging out the United States with 4.1 million visitors (24.8 percent). Canada ranked third with 937,000 visitors (5.7 percent), followed by the United Kingdom with 853,000 (5.2 percent) and Australia with 463,000 (2.8 percent). Interestingly, English-speaking countries represented four out of the top five countries and approximately 40 percent of total visitors to the site.

“It’s exciting to see that the official Chinese Olympics site was built in a variety of languages so as to attract visitors from across the globe,” said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni. “Once again the Internet, like the Olympic Games itself, shows that we are truly becoming a world without borders.”

Of all global regions, the Asia-Pacific region accounted for the most visitors to the site with 7.5 million (45.4 percent), followed by North America with 5 million (30.5 percent) and Europe with 2.7 million (16.3 percent).