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Social networking websites offer their users an online community to share and explore common interests and activities. They typically provide a variety of ways for users to interact; through chat, messaging, email, video, voice chat, file-sharing, blogging, forums, discussion groups, and applications. In the US, the most popular and well-known social networking websites are MySpace and Facebook. Evidence of their brand strength can be found in the volume of searches for their respective brands, which are among the most commonly used search terms across All Categories of websites, both appearing in the top ten search terms overall.
In January 2008, MySpace and Facebook combined to represent 88% of market share of visits to a custom category of 53 social networks. These two leading social networks have successfully attracted a large mainstream audience, ranking among the top ten most-visited websites across All Categories during the same time frame. Although these two websites currently attract a majority of the social networking audience, there are many other social networks seeking to capture users; some offerings are directly competitive social networks (e.g., Bebo, Friendster) that cater to a broad number of interests, while others focus on a specific niche (e.g. Gaia Online, Flixster) or a specific demographic (e.g., BlackPlanet.com, Club Penguin, MiGente.com) and can be complementary. LinkedIn, a businessoriented community, also serves a larger audience with a very specific goal of managing contacts for professional networking purposes.
Many users maintain accounts with multiple social networks which result in cross-traffic between many of the websites, signaling a low barrier to prevent switching, where users can drop one network and substitute with another. In January 2008, 6.9% of the traffic to MySpace originated from Facebook and 4.7% of the total traffic from MySpace visited Facebook immediately after. 25.1% of Facebook’s traffic came from MySpace and 20.5% visited MySpace following their Facebook visit. This is not just the case with MySpace and Facebook; the Hitwise Social Networking & Forums industry received 26.7% of traffic from Social Networks while 25.7% visited Social Networks websites after. The one exception is LinkedIn, where the users are less likely to come from another social networking website.
The Social Networks custom category overall has enjoyed significant growth in the US over the past two years. However, the category reached a peak during the week ending June 23, 2007 with a market share of visits of 9.01%, 53% higher than the 5.9% market share for the week ending February 2, 2008. Some of the downturn can be attributed to a backlash against advertising, privacy, and excessive activity (e.g., friend requests, notifications) on social networking websites. On Facebook, for example, users have formed groups to protest the inviting of friends through applications (over half a million members) and privacy violations. Traffic to social networks that attract a younger audience is also susceptible to the school calendar, as evidenced by spikes during summer and holiday breaks. Not every social networking website is being heavily affected by the decline; the market share of visits to Facebook and myYearbook increased 34% and 633% respectively comparing January 2008 and January 2007. Several smaller social networks targeted at a specific niche such as Takkle and Club Penguin also gained market share over the past year.
The market share of pages for the Social Networks custom category has declined to 15.3% in January 2008, a decrease of 26% compared to January of last year. However, the volume still dwarfs many other online industries, driving 2.5 times more pages than the Search Engines industry and 8.3 times more pages than News & Media, so social networking websites continue to offer a significant amount of potential advertising inventory. In addition to driving page views, retention still remains high and users are returning to the websites regularly. For example, 95% of visitors to MySpace and 94% of visitors to Facebook in January 2008 were returning visitors from the previous month.
Despite the current decline in overall market share of visits, the visitors that are going to social networking websites are spending more time there. The average visit time for the Social Networks custom category during the week ending February 2, 2008 was 20 minutes and 44 seconds, which is a 39% increase over the 14 minutes and 58 seconds recorded the same week of the previous year. While the time spent on MySpace has remained consistent over the past 24 months, Facebook users are increasingly spending more time interacting with the website. The average time spent on Facebook for the week ending February 9, 2008 was 20 minutes and 30 seconds, up from 12 minutes and 17 seconds during the same week the previous year.
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