Top Social Networks: Facebook grows while MySpace slows
Written by Max Freiert (contact - e-mail) -- May 14th, 2007 | Share - Save - E-mailWith the introduction of news feeds, non-college registrations, and a mobile service, Facebook has been through significant changes over the past 6 months. Though some initially enraged the site’s core audience of college students, these changes have ultimately widened Facebook’s appeal. A 23% traffic increase in April highlights the peak in a period of rapid growth since September. But who is actually driving this growth?
The chart below illustrates the number of Facebook visits by state, for the month of April where a dot in the map represents 2500 visits.
- The North East loves Facebook! Users in MA, NY, RI, and CT, NJ are the heaviest users of the site.
- Facebook believes in manifest destiny: usage becomes much less dense farther from the east coast (and water in general).
- While much of this usage is a function of population density, states with an abundance of post-secondary schools typically have above average Facebook usage, indicating that, despite an open registration system, Facebook users are still mostly college students.
How does Facebook’s growth fit into the overall social networking scene? The chart below shows the top 20 social networks, ranked by attention* , for the month of April. Looking at this measure of how much time users spend on a site, compared to the number of total people who use the site, gives a clear indication of successful engagement.
- Surprise! MySpace still dominates the pure social networking genre. However, its growth has been slowing dramatically for several months, with a meager 1% M-0-M change in attention in April.
- While classmates.com yields over two-thirds the visitors of Facebook.com, it captures less than 5% of the attention of Facebook.
- The top 20 pure social networking sites have grown a slight 3% in attention April.
With the ability to comment, create profiles, and communicate with other members becoming a staple of any new web property, the big players in the social networking category need to evolve or lose audience. While it may occasionally stumble along the way, Facebook’s offering is doing just that; and they have the attention to prove it.
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May 15th, 2007 at 2:14 am
On: “While much of this usage is a function of population density, states with an abundance of post-secondary schools typically have above average Facebook usage, indicating that, despite an open registration system, Facebook users are still mostly college students.”
It should be noted that Facebook first focused on Ivy League schools, most of which are in the East Coast. This would explain that pattern; and you’re right, the relatively lighter density of post-secondary schools on the Western side ain’t helpin’ either.
Two Questions:
1. Where does AdultFriendFinder fit into all of this? From what I hear, its unbelievable profitable compared to Bebo and others.
2. Can we find the overlap? How many people visit Facebook and MySpace? MySpace and Bebo? I typically log into Facebook +5 a day and MySpace ~1 a day.
May 15th, 2007 at 9:17 am
Daniel,
To answer your questions,
1. We don’t consider AdultFriendFinder to be a social network. You could argue that it falls into the catagory of online personal sites (which we also report on), but because it’s pornographic and relies on advertising for a large portion of it’s traffic, it has yet to make a good candidate for inclusion in this analysis. In any event, you can see domain level traffic for Adultfriendfinder at snapshot.compete.com
2. That’s an interesting analysis! Something like this will probably make it into the blog at a later date. One thing to consider is how people use the two major sites. On Facebook, you have to be logged in to even use the site, while you can navigate almost the entire Myspace domain without logging in, so its not entirely comparable.
May 15th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
Anybody else notice Kansas? You have two large universities, but other than that you have a bunch of farmers. Why the high concentration of Facebook users?
October 26th, 2007 at 9:45 am
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January 15th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
By now Facebook Is Taking Over. Myspace is going way downhill, My profile got hacked the other day and I was displayed commenting about some worthless site on all my friends walls. Facebook is private, and actually ran well and doesn’t rely on google for traffic and usage therefore they can keep spam and hacking out. On top of that, everyone i know is on it and uses it regularly. Facebook is here to stay.
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:19 pm
You guys are such myspace haters its not even funny. You know you can talk about facebook’s growth but at the end of the day its still second in popularity and 10th in total hits while myspace is number 1 on both quite easily hands down. As of December 07 myspace has grown to 230 million, while facebook has 60 million.
Facebook has improved and when you do updates people will go to and see, but after awhile facebook like myspace will take a hit after awhile when they dont update. if facebook were to get to say the same market that myspace gets of 230 million then myspace will do updates and people will flock more to see. The reason why myspace hasent updated is because they havent been fully challenged, u really dont need to when your at the top. Give myspace a reason to and they will update.
I think u can use both myspace and facebook. I do, I like them for different things. Facebook for privacy and not dealing with hackers, and myspace for layouts, limitless options and music. facebook is cool but it will never be myspace in terms layout design, pics and etc. So because they are so different and with the myspace link you can add to facebook you can go back and forth on both without ever logging out when your on. Its really the best of both worlds. I dont see either site going away at all. They will both be around like google and yahoo, so get use to it, especially you myspace haters
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:33 am
I agree with Micah…I have both and both are two different social circles…Myspace is cooler for editing. It is very artist and music based, more a fan based site where Faceook is more personal and closer to home. Of 299 friends on Myspace…I probably only know about 20 personally.
What I do worry about is the info a marketer can get from Facebook….it shares your love life, family life, social circles, daily events and updates….have to think that marketers would be very interested in this info.
I am also currently seeing some of my favorite music artists on Myspace starting to flock towards Facebook recently…can see a merge of sorts on the way…we’ll see.
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