In Your Face, MySpace!

Search Marketing Blog

In Your Face, MySpace!

Posted by Sean McMahon on 06.18.2009

“Facebook is becoming the go-to social networking site for marketers,” said eMarketer senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson. “While MySpace still has a huge quantity of visitors, they are becoming less relevant for advertisers.” This revealing statement was conveyed in an eMarketer article today titled ‘Facebook Overtakes MySpace’ which reported that for the first time ever, Facebook has become the most popular social networking site in the United States.

From a May 2009 report by comScore, eMarketer conveyed that total unique visitors to Facebook increased by ninety-seven percent (+97%) during the past twelve (12) months to more than 70,278,000. This compared to a five percent decrease (-5%) in total unique visitors of 70,2550,000 at MySpace during the same time period.

The following chart reveals the Top 20 social networking sites across the country, and the percent of change from May 2008 to May 2009.

One critical fact to point-out, however, is that MySpace still dominates Facebook in terms of advertising revenue. As noted in this eMarketer article, “MySpace also led the revenue category, predicted to earn $495 million in 2009, 115% more than its rival.”

However, if Facebook continues to rapidly add new visitors at its current pace, it won’t be long before the most popular social networking site surpasses this total ad revenue at MySpace.

Let us know if you perceive Facebook to be a more viable social media channel than other popular networking sites.