Social Networking Dominates the Internet

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RISMEDIA, Jan. 19, 2008-Hitwise, an online competitive intelligence service, announced that MySpace.com averaged 76.35% of all U.S. visits in 2007 among a custom category of 53 leading social networking Web sites. Facebook.com, Bebo.com and BlackPlanet.com received the next largest number of visits, as each received 12.57, 1.24 and .87%, respectively. The remaining 49 social networking Web sites in the custom category accounted for 8.97% of U.S. visits.

For December 2007, MySpace.com received 72% of U.S. visits among the social networking category. Facebook.com received 12.57% of visits and Bebo.com received 1.09% of visits. U.S. traffic to all the social networking Web sites increased four percent year-over-year. MyYearbook experienced the largest gain in market share in December 2007, increasing 407% compared to December of the previous year. Facebook and Club Penguin followed, increasing 51 and 48%, respectively.

“MySpace and Facebook remain the market leaders among social networking Web sites, retaining a loyal base of users,” said Heather Dougherty, director of research, Hitwise. “The continued popularity of social networking activities online will drive the interest of marketers seeking to target influential users to approve and advocate their products and services.”

In December 2007, MySpace received 95% of its share of traffic from returning visitors. Among the top five social networking Web sites by market share, Facebook and BlackPlanet.com followed with 93 and 89%, respectively, of traffic returning from the previous month.

In December 2007, the average time spent on Bebo led among the top five social networking Web sites with users spending an average of 30 minutes and 24 seconds on the Web site. Facebook experienced the largest growth in average time spent, increasing 100% in December 2007 to 19 minutes and 51 seconds from just under 10 minutes as compared to the same month in 2006.

For more information, visit www.hitwise.com.

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