Stay with MySpace, Facebook is for your mom! March 17, 2009
It is exaggerated that the traffic of MySpace has been stagnant or even falling especially in the U.S. market. It is true that there has been a 28% drop of its market share of the U.S. social networking market compared with the previous year. (from 72.92% to 52.81%) The statistics were released by a web measurement firm called Hitwise. At the same, the market share of Facebook has grown from 14.46% to 36.03, which represents a 149% growth.
The truth is that there has been a demographic shift rather than a ‘death sentence’ for MySpace. If you want to be in contact with young people, say, under 30, you best choice at the moment would still be MySpace. It is shown from the table above that the numbers of young users aged between 18 and 24 has increased 1%. Users of older age groups are the major groups who are leaving MySpace. Meanwhile, according to Facebook, the number of users older than 30 years of age has increased. As more people aged from 18 to 24 choose to use MySpace, Facebook has a 27% drop in its users of this age group. (from 40.14% percent to 29.22 %) To be exact, Facebook claimed that one of the fastest growing areas is women over 55 years of age.
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If you include comCore, a third-party into the comparison of these figures of traffic, the focus will be more apparent. Monthly active users of Facebook reached 57 million on January while the number for MySpace only had minor fluctuations around 76 million. The data collected by Facebook itself shows that the number is only two-thirds of that counted by comScore. The only explanation is that comScore has got the wrong number. It is still claimed by Facebook that the number of its users in the U.S. is growing at a rate of one million per week.
What does this tell you then? It is known that MySpace originated from entertainment and customizable MySpace Layouts while Facebook’s root went back to college campuses. The focus of MySpace has always been on popular culture, music, video and other entertainment services, which all seem to suit younger generations better. Ads and services provide the main source of profit for the company. You might say that MySpace is not for everyone, well, you are right. It does have a niche market. Facebook, on the other hand, is growing internationally, with a little everything for everybody.
