YouTube vs MySpace Growth: No Contest!

Written by Jay Meattle (contact - e-mail) -- October 18th, 2006 | Recommend This

When I was writing my Google Video vs. YouTube analysis (maybe someone at Google read the analysis and acted on it ;-), YouTube’s growth trajectory simply astounded me, which in turn compelled me to compare it against - MySpace.com - another viral phenomenon.

Here is what I discovered:

In the chart above, YouTube when compared to MySpace doesn’t look too impressive. In August, YouTube was less than half the size of MySpace.

Now take a look at the chart below. In this chart, YouTube is IMPRESSIVE! YouTube’s growth has vastly outpaced that of MySpace in its early days. Makes me wonder how much YouTube is going to grow in the next 12, 6, or even 3 months. In August, YouTube was the 18th most popular website in the United States.

Bottom-line:

Will YouTube break the Top 10 within 12 months (~50 million visitors)? I think it is more likely that YouTube will hit that milestone than not. We’ll just have to wait and watch.

Jay loves creating, technology and innovation. If you want to find out more, visit his personal blog.

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  1. Johnny Drama

    Great analysis… If YouTube can avoid copyright disasters it will be at 50M in no time. Fact is, YouTube = Good Content… MySpace = Shotgun blast of junk. How long will it take for MySpace featured artists to move to YouTube to compliment their songs with video and band interviews???

  2. BattelleMedia.com

    YouTube - Fastest Growing Website Ever?

    It took YouTube 16 months to reach 20 million users, while it took MySpace 25 months. That is a nine month advantage for YouTube. Makes you wonder how much YouTube is going to grow in the next 12, 6, or even 3 months! See blog post for additional data…

  3. biz.yahoo.com

    YouTube vs. MySpace Growth: No Contest

    Jay Meattle of the web statistics firm compete has done an interesting analysis of the growth rates of MySpace vs YouTube. He concludes that YouTube’s rate of growth exceeds that of MySpace - i.e. essentially it is more viral!…

  4. seekingalpha.com

    YouTube vs. MySpace Growth: No Contest

    Jay Meattle of the web statistics firm compete has done an interesting analysis of the growth rates of MySpace vs YouTube….

  5. Peter

    Rate of growth is the same

    If you move the YouTube graph back intime and overlay it on top of the MySpace graph then the rate of grwoth is near identical. So the difference is the reduction in initial interia to get going. So if the next YouTube comes along, will it also get teh same take up?

  6. utubeblog.wordpress.com

    YouTube, faster growing than MySpace?

    News: ZDNet reports an interesting study by Jay Meattle comparing the growth of MySpace and YouTube in their first 16 months (the companies started at different times)….

  7. Webpronews.com

    YouTube On Pace To Outgrow MySpace

    This must have been one of the selling points for Google when deciding to buy out YouTube. According to Compete.com’s Jay Meattle, YouTube is beating MySpace in terms of month-by-month growth….

  8. blogs.zdnet.com

    YouTube may be the fastest growing website ever!

    Jay Meattle of the web statistics firm compete has done an interesting analysis of the growth rates of MySpace vs YouTube. He concludes that YouTube’s rate of growth exceeds that of MySpace - i.e. essentially it is more viral!….

  9. Simon Ferguson

    How long did it take web 1.0 companies like e-Bay and amazon to reach the 20 million mark?

  10. Myspace Layouts

    Simon, that is the question that really needs to be answered. How long did it take Google to reach it’s 20 million mark?

  11. steven e. streight aka vaspers the grate

    If YouTube can segregate the junk from the quality, it will be a monster killer app. But with size comes dilution of value, as seen in MySpace and the blogosphere in general.

    It still comes down to high value, relevant content.

    As for the schmuck corporations who sue YouTube, that’s marketing suicide. If teens are lip synching to your RIAA songs, or uploading music videos off MTV, that’s GOOD, not bad. That’s called free word of mouth advertising, free promotions, teens doing what Sony, Warner, etc. should be doing: uploading free videos of artists, to generate buzz.

    Clash of cultures. We shall win. Ha ha ha.

  12. Emily

    i like this blog

  13. Scott

    You guys sound like a smart crowd. Please shine some light onto why YouTube is doing so well compared to MySpace. I know so much about YouTube markets and so little about MySpace can`t figure out the exact reason, because I don`t quite feel that content alone would generate this sort of traffic rate(could be wrong). MySpace isn`t as popular outside US like YouTube? People just like the brand, or popular around the world(SNS mainly) exclusively as a video playlist construct/embed tool or what!?

    Spent like 8 years trying to launch something like YouTube, for the past week I`ve been on MySpace and having the time of my life(don`t laugh..).
    Is it just the times? Why

  14. InvestorTrip

    Blog Buzz - 11/16/06…

    News and Stories from around the blogosphere:

    SeekingAlpha coversReuters $7 million investment in Pluck, the creators of BlogBurst.
    FreeMoneyFinance highlights Fidelity as the best place to manage your retirement income. Note: My Roth IRA account is u…

  15. Samantha

    R there any demo stats on YouTube? What are the segments? The youths?

  16. Myspace music video

    Jay M of the web statistics firm compete has done an interesting analysis of the growth rates of MySpace & YouTube….

  17. VideoExpert

    Proves the power of video! And first mover advantage! Came across an Atlanta based venture backed firm called realviewtv.com that focuses on selling an online streaming video platform to help smbs obtain the same first mover advantage in regional markets.


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