I came across the Neilson Net Ratings for the top U.S. social networking sites. It shows that MySpace had 49.5 million unique visitors in October 2007, growing 19 percent over October 2006. While their growth percentage lags behind Facebook’s 125% and LinkedIn’s 189%, MySpace is still the giant, with an 80% overall market share.

This week I look at MySpace, by the numbers:

The Beginning:

• Founded in August 2003 by then publicly traded internet company eUniverse (later became Intermix)
• The project was overseen by Brad Greenspan (eUniverse’s Founder, Chairman, CEO), Chris DeWolfe (MySpace’s current CEO), Josh Berman, Tom Anderson (MySpace’s current president), and a team of programmers and resources provided by eUniverse.
• The very first MySpace users were eUniverse employees.
• The company then used its resources to push MySpace to the masses. eUniverse used its 20 million users and e-mail subscribers to quickly breathe life into MySpace

The Traffic:

• Attracts new registrations at a rate of 230,000 per day.
• As of September 7, 2007, there are over 200 million accounts.
• MySpace hit a new all-time high with 71.9 million unique visitors in October
• In terms of Page Views, MySpace has been the highest ranking site on the internet since early 2006.
• comScore MediaMetrix’s new data shows that the site gained two billion page views from May to June.
• People visit an average of 18 times per month, and stay for over 26 minutes
• 38% of people streaming video on the Internet in the U.S. are doing so on MySpace
• The total number of unique streamers has gone from 35 million in January to more than 50 million in April
• MySpace has a traffic rank of 986
• 3 month average of MySpace percent of global internet reach is 5.46 %, up 13%
• Alexa Traffic Rank: 6
• Average Visits per Visitor
o MySpace users visit the site 20% more often than the closet competitor in the social networking category
• Average Minutes Per Visitor
o MySpace users spend about 10 minutes more each month on the site than the closest competitor in the social networking category
• Total Monthly Minutes Spent
o MySpace has 3 times more minutes on the site than its closet competitor in the social networking category
• Average Daily Visitors
o MySpace gets 3 times more visitors on the average day than its closet competitor in the category
• Myspace traffic rank in other countries:
o Puerto Rico 1
o United States 3
o Australia 7
o Malaysia 7
o Mexico 8
o Greece 8
o United Kingdom 9
o Germany 9
o Italy 10
o Canada12
• Where people go on Myspace.com:
o viewmorepics.myspace.com - 22%
o profile.myspace.com - 17%
o home.myspace.com - 14%
o messaging.myspace.com – 14%
o vids.myspace.com - 1%
o blog.myspace.com - 1%
o mail.myspace.com - 1%

The Demographics:

• Made up predominately teens and twentysomethings
• A Forrester report shows that nearly 80% of 12-17 year olds use MySpace at least weekly which is three times more than any other social network
• 40% of MySpace users from households earning more than $75,000
• The site is home to 2.2 million bands, 8,000 comedians, thousands of filmmakers
• Myspace users come from these countries:
o United States 46.8%
o Puerto Rico 6.6%
o United Kingdom 4.1%
o France 3.3%
o Mexico 2.8%
o Germany 2.6%
o Australia 1.7%
o Canada 1.5%

The Financials:

• Rupert Murdoch paid $580 million for MySpace’s parent company, eUniverse
• MySpace employs 300 staff and does not disclose revenues or profits separately from News Corporation.
• In August 06, Google signed a $900 million multi-year deal to provide a Google search facility and advertising on MySpace
• Silicon Alley Insider estimate that MySpace will do about $600 million in revenue this year. And $1.2 billion or so in 2008.
• MySpace just announced the early 08 launch of ‘SelfServe’, a tool that will let small businesses create and target their own ads.
• 50+ major brands currently advertising on MySpace, including Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, Ford and Sony

Did You Know?

• MySpace is the second most popular social network site in France with 2.3 million unique visitors.
• 6% of early Facebook adopters have abandoned Facebook in favor of MySpace
• Early MySpace users are much more loyal to MySpace than Facebook; only 18% use both MySpace and Facebook
• If one person accounted for all of the time spent on MySpace in March of 2007, he would be surfing for the next 52,214 years
• The 100 millionth account being created on August 9, 2006, in the Netherlands
• In April 2007, a house in the United Kingdom was wrecked by gatecrashers storming a party after reading an invite for it on MySpace. The party caused an estimated £20,000 worth of damage
• Greenpeace, the ACLU and Food Not Bombs have created Myspace accounts
• Chinese version launched in April of 2007 and has many censorship-related differences. Discussion forums on religion and politics are absent, and a filtering system that prevents the posting of content about Taiwan independence, the Dalai Lama, Falun Gong, and other “inappropriate topics”.

Internet speculation suggests MySpace is rolling out changes in the coming weeks aiming to offset that “young and fun” perception and, most likely, maintain their lead over Facebook. Remember Friendster? Well they now have a 0.34% market share. Can anyone put a dent into the MySpace juggernaut and, if so, how?

Add Tom to your social network!

4 Responses to “Social Media By the Numbers: MySpace”

1. Aneesh (1 comments.) Says:
   November 26th, 2007 at 12:56 am

   Nice blog i love it

   –
   Simple Tricks

2. Tom Tsinas (21 comments.) Says:
   November 26th, 2007 at 11:37 am

   Thanks Aneesh!

3. Aerosmith (5 comments.) Says:
   December 6th, 2007 at 8:35 am

   You have great information about Myspace. I can just imagine how much they are earning with this site. People find ways to earn money. Thousands of them fail. But this site is a very good example for the people who want to earn money and not finding the way. This really motivates. They are very professional though. I like this site, I am also one of the numbers in your article. Now its usual for me to go on myspace, search new friends and send comments and messages to people in my friends list. But this is so huge when I read this article. You have studied it very well..

4. Tom Tsinas (21 comments.) Says:
   December 14th, 2007 at 1:59 pm

   Thanks so much Aerosmith!!

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