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BackMySpace Received 74 Percent of U.S Social Networking Visits for April 2008
Average time spent increased 73 percent year-over-year
NEW YORK, NY - May 6, 2008 - Hitwise, the leading online competitive intelligence service, today announced that MySpace.com received 73.82 percent of the market share of U.S. visits in April 2008 among a custom category of 57 of the leading social networking websites. The market share of U.S. visits to the social networking custom category increased 3 percent in April 2008 compared to March 2008, but has decreased 16 percent year-over-year.
| Top 5 Social Networking Websites Ranked by Market Share of U.S. Internet Visits |
Note - data is based on a custom category of 57 of the leading social networking websites ranked by market share of U.S. visits, which is the percentage of online traffic to the domain or category, from the Hitwise sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users. Hitwise measures more than 1 million unique websites on a daily basis, including sub-domains of larger websites. Hitwise categorizes websites into industries on the basis of subject matter and content, as well as market orientation and competitive context. |
Among the top 10 social networking websites, Facebook ranked second by the market share of visits with 14.80 percent, followed by MyYearbook, which received 1.33 percent. MyYearbook experienced the largest gain in market share in April 2008, increasing 475 percent compared to April 2007. Facebook and BlackPlanet followed, increasing 32 and 15 percent, respectively.
'Social networking websites continue to attract loyal visitors who return regularly to communicate with their friends, particularly for MySpace and Facebook, the market leaders' said Heather Dougherty, research director at Hitwise. 'The growing number of applications and amount of content available for social networks are driving higher average visit times for the category, providing marketers with additional opportunities to reach these active users.'
| Market Share of U.S. Traffic from New and Returning Visitors for April 2008 - Ranked by Returning Visitors |
Note - a returning visitor is defined as a user that has visited the site in the past 30 days from the Hitwise sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users. Hitwise measures more than 1 million unique websites on a daily basis, including sub-domains of larger websites. Hitwise categorizes websites into industries on the basis of subject matter and content, as well as market orientation and competitive context. |
In April 2008, MySpace received 95 percent of its visits from returning visitors. Among the top five social networking websites by market share, Facebook and MyYearbook.com followed with 93 and 90 percent, respectively, of traffic returning from within the previous 30 days.
In April 2008, the average time spent among all social networking websites increased 73 percent compared to April 2007. Among the top five most visited websites, MyYearbook led with users spending an average of 32 minutes and 54 seconds on the website. Facebook experienced the largest growth in average time spent, increasing 57 percent in April 2008 to 20 minutes and 52 seconds from 13 and 19 seconds in April 2007.
| Average U.S. Time Spent for April 2008 (in minutes & seconds) |
Note - data is based on the average U.S. time spent from the Hitwise sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users. Hitwise measures more than 1 million unique websites on a daily basis, including sub-domains of larger websites. Hitwise categorizes websites into industries on the basis of subject matter and content, as well as market orientation and competitive context. |
Hitwise Social Networking Report:
To find out which industries are most affected by social networks and understand the changes in audience profile of social networking websites over the last year please download a copy of our Social Networking report: The Impact of Social Networking in the U.S.
About Hitwise
Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Only Hitwise provides its 1,400 clients around the world with daily insights on how their customers interact with a broad range of competitive websites, and how their competitors use different tactics to attract online customers.
Since 1997, Hitwise has pioneered a unique, network-based approach to Internet measurement. Through relationships with ISPs around the world, Hitwise's patented methodology anonymously captures the online usage, search and conversion behavior of 25 million Internet users. This unprecedented volume of Internet usage data is seamlessly integrated into an easy to use, web-based service, designed to help marketers better plan, implement and report on a range of online marketing programs.
Hitwise, a subsidiary of Experian (FTS: EXPN) operates in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. More information about Hitwise is available at Hitwise.
For up to date analysis of online trends, please visit the Hitwise Intelligence-Analyst Weblogs and the Hitwise Data Center.
