MySpace vs. Facebook: The Party Starter Showdown
Written by Max Freiert (contact - e-mail) -- June 12th, 2007 | Share - Save - E-mailWith the introduction of applications to Facebook, the social networking site has gotten considerable attention from the media, and has driven increasing comparisons to its behemoth competitor MySpace. But no matter how many hours Redbull’s Roshambull Facebook App can waste at Compete’s office, in terms of traffic, Facebook is where MySpace was a good two years ago.
Both Facebook and MySpace experienced significant growth trends soon after launch – though Facebook initially grew faster. Because these sites are social by nature, growth was primarily viral. As a result, early adopters of both Facebook and MySpace could be defined as the ultimate socialites –the ones that got the party started. But where are these two groups now? Are they still loyal to the services they essentially jumpstarted? Looking at the groups of early power users at Facebook and Myspace* the amazing “stickiness” of social networking is crystal clear.
The chart below shows how early power users* of each site are currently interacting with both Facebook and MySpace.
In May of 2007, nearly 2/3rds of early MySpace power users were still using the site, and using it heavily; this group was visiting MySpace almost 30 times a month, despite having joined the site over 2 years ago. Early Facebook Power users were still on Facebook as well; over 71% using Facebook in May 2007, and visiting the site an average of 27 times in a given month. At first glance, Facebook seems like a “stickier” site, since a higher percentage of early adopters are still active members. However, MySpace’s period of initial growth was much earlier, so it would naturally have less early users.
- A large percentage of early Facebook adopters belong to both Facebook and MySpace. This group (51% of early Facebook power users) also uses both sites heavily, visiting MySpace an average of 23 times in May.
- 6% of early Facebook adopters have abandoned Facebook in favor of MySpace but this group is much less active, visiting MySpace an average of 12 times a month.
- Early MySpace users are much more loyal to MySpace than Facebook; only 18% use both MySpace and Facebook. This subsection also represents lighter Facebook users, visiting the site only 16 times a month (compared to 30 at MySpace).
- 34% of Early MySpace users have abandoned MySpace all together, but only 1% have simply converted to Facebook Users.
Recent changes at Facebook have made the site a serious competitor to MySpace. But if early adopters are any indication, users are entrenched with MySpace and simply tack on another social network membership rather than leave the service they initially joined. This brings about the next question; where are social networking newcomers joining now? Stay tuned.
*For this analysis, early power users were defined as those visitors visiting Facebook or MySpace at least 60 times over the course of 3 consecutive months during the period of time period that each site grew from 1 million to 10 million visitors. For MySpace, this time period was May 2004-March 2005. For Facebook, this time period was June 2005 – December 2005.
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June 12th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
this is great! anyway to track the migration from myspace to facebook?
June 12th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
great post, altho i’d like to see more stats comparing depth / frequency of usage over time, particularly minutes per day or other active use metric.
while i agree people don’t leave their earlier social networks, it’s pretty common for them to change the focus of their time & attention from one to another. my guess is that a significant % of MySpace users may be starting to spend more time on Facebook if they’ve gone to college, and perhaps now even if they haven’t.
would be great to see whether time-on-site or frequency of visits data backs this up or not.
- dave mcclure
June 13th, 2007 at 11:14 am
I’m surprised facebook hasn’t been spiking more; judging by the number of FB requests I’ve gotten in my inbox over the last few months, its starting to hit its mainstream stride.
I wonder too how the F8 platform will change things. You have to imagine that each F8-based app that an FB member uses is another “hook” that makes it harder to migrate away.
June 14th, 2007 at 10:44 am
Narnia – This is something we may come back to in future blogs. Stay tuned.
Dave- Great points! I expected to see a shift in intensity of Myspace/Facebook usage as well. It actually looks like early Myspace users are just more involved in Social Networking than other users. This group still visits Myspace at a higher rate than the average Myspace user (average of 29 times a month), they also spend considerably more time on the site (nearly 30 minutes per visit).
Interestingly, the segment of Myspace early adopters who use both MySpace and Facebook (18%) use both sites more intensely than the average current Myspace or Facebook user in May of 2007 – visiting Facebook 16 times a month and staying for more than 17 minutes. At least among this group, its difficult to quantify a significant migration away from Myspace.
Rod – The Facebook platform is something we’re watching closely. It would be surprising if these apps don’t encourage loyal users, as well as longer stays on the site in general.
June 29th, 2007 at 5:56 am
The main finding of this research is that MySpace is stickier, and that more of Facebooks’ users have also started using MySpace than vice versa. Very interesting. Even more interesting, all three comments imply or suggest that Facebook should killing MySpace. It seems us techheads want it to be true because we like Facebbok, but the research suggests otherwise. That’s why we do research isn’t it? To give us the facts.
September 27th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
I think Myspace has it’s own economy and currency now….As long as there are people who can’t make a simple layout people like me will be here making them and earning a piece of the pie.
October 4th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
Compete.com has interesting analyses of Facebook and MySpace
I just discovered a bunch of interesting posts on Compete.com analyzing Facebook and MySpace. Compete.com has a proprietary collection of Internet traffic data, so much of their analysis is quite unique. Links and notes of the posts I’ve read:
1…
October 20th, 2007 at 4:35 am
I would like to see a more qualitative definition of “user”. Eg., MySpace allows multiple/fake identities, and from my experience, many users are just viral marketers in one form or another (often teenagers) hunting for hits and expansion of their networks. Facebook is qualitatively different – it is real people connecting to their real life friends, using applications to keep in touch and organise real parties in their neighbourhood. So a direct comparison of the numbers is like comparing apples with pears, regardless there is an overlap.
January 25th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Some very interesting statistics. MySpace has to much ’spammy’ content, bloated pages… Facebook has a more mature look and I think the users are also of better ‘quality’.
February 18th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
one day yahoo will buy facebook and google buy myspace then google buy yahoo and google buy sexychill :D
March 8th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
i a firm believer facebook will prevail. with all the new intergration tools they keep coming up with its getting more useful, and also all the mobile companys making phones to be compatible with facebook – its must be a keeper
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