According to the latest data from Hitwise, Facebook, which is kicking off its developer conference today, grew 40% over the last year, while its biggest competitor, MySpace, saw a 6% drop in visits since June 2007. The numbers for average time spent on these two sites almost directly mirror the numbers for visits, with MySpace being down 4% and Facebook up 41%.
Even though Facebook is slowly catching up to MySpace, the gap between the two is still large, with Facebook having a 17% market share and MySpace 72%.
While Facebook users are starting to spend a lot more time on the site, the average MySpace users still spends about 10 more minutes there than the average Facebook user (21 min).
MyYearbook, interestingly, saw the largest gain of all social networks, a trend we have observed for quite a while now. It grew by almost 320%, though it only has a market share of 1.5%. Its users are also among the most loyal and spend about 30 minutes on the site. MyYearbook, as the name implies, mainly targets the high school market.
The data for the UK social networking market is quite different. There, Facebook already has a 45% market share, up an astonishing 172%, while every other major social network there lost between 20% (Bebo) and close to 50% (Friends Reunited and Myspace).
While Facebook is the fastest growing network and MySpace is bleeding users at a slow by steady clip, Facebook still has a long way to go before it will catch up to MySpace. Even though MySpace has a bad reputation in the blogosphere (though, thanks to some recent initiatives like Data Availability and OpenID integration, this tide might be slowly turning) and Facebook gets a lot of the hype, if advertisers and developers want to reach the largest number of potential users, MySpace is still the place to go for the foreseeable future.
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It won't be long before facebook surpasses myspace. As social network sites continue to grow in popularity with adults, I think we will see the shift take place. Myspace is filled with spammers and mostly directed toward teenagers. As long as facebook can get the applications under control, they should continue to see growth.
Posted by: Scott | July 23, 2008 11:57 AM
i can't believe these stats. about 30% of the people I know are on Facebook, and close to 100% of the people I know under the age of 25.
I know 2 people that have a MySpace page.
Posted by: habeeb | July 24, 2008 1:55 AM
well in iran my space is blocked! and we only can use facebook.but the facebook in the persian blogospher have good trackback! and i think nearly 60% good bloggers use it!
Posted by: reza | July 24, 2008 4:19 AM
the social networking market will always be changing and sooner or later people are going to want a site that can get rid of all of the fake identities and spam that plague these sites. sites like humanbook.com promise to get rid of all of this and say that their 'online living address book' is a solution to cyberbullying and spam but i don't think that they will ever get as big as myspace & facebook.
Posted by: Francis | July 24, 2008 9:14 AM
I've had both a MySpace and FaceBook account set up for a while but it's the FaceBook account that I use most of the time.
I think the big reason FaceBook will eventually overtake MySpace is the Groups. People are able to network with this feature so whether you are a teen or an adult, you can find like minded members to engage. It's a great thing!
I personally use FaceBook to soft market my safety and security products that I know can save lives. For me to interact with the actual people whose safety I care about is a priceless dynamic.
Posted by: Debbie Morgan | July 24, 2008 10:00 PM
Finally... someone said it:
Even though MySpace has a bad reputation in the blogosphere (though, thanks to some recent initiatives like Data Availability and OpenID integration, this tide might be slowly turning) and Facebook gets a lot of the hype, if advertisers and developers want to reach the largest number of potential users, MySpace is still the place to go for the foreseeable future.
Facebookers are so snobby... it's absurd... they equate Facebook with the Second Coming! You rarely hear a MySpace user slam Facebook, but Facebookers based call MySpace users the scum of the earth.
This has never made sense to me... you have the artists, the free thinkers, the creative types, the activists, the people of color on MySpace... on Facebook, snobbly middle-classed brats... the site came out of the Ivy League!
I use both... for completely different reasons. Facebook to chat with people I know... MySpace to market and list to music.
Facebookers need to chill the *uck out about Myspace... it's like Bush's us or them mentality...
Posted by: Heather Mansfield | August 3, 2008 6:18 AM