The December 2009 data from comScore (SCOR) were released Tuesday, and the results for the social media sector are nothing short of staggering. Fifty-four percent (112 million) of the 205 million-strong U.S. internet-user population are on Facebook, with 27% (57 million) still using News Corp.’s MySpace. But according to data from both comScore and Experian Hitwise (EXPN), the most active users were on Tagged, MyYearbook and Orkut. And Facebook users were more active than those on MySpace.
There’s no doubt that plenty is happening in the social media space, but there are some facts that just might surprise you, either because of the speed of change or the discovery of players that may not have occurred to you.
1. Growing impact of social networking on surfing habit: In the U.S., 25% of all page views came from the top social networking sites and that is up 83% from the 13.8% posted in December 2008.
2. Social media is still growing: one in 10 went to a social networking site in December 2009, up almost 100% from December 2008’s 5.8%. Compare this to the page view data and you get a sense of how sticky the social media sites are.
3. Social media sites are more vulnerable to trends: From December 2008 to December 20009, MySpace and Facebook switched spots. A year ago, 64% of visits to the top 10 social networks belonged to MySpace, with 29% going to Facebook. By December 2009, 28% went to MySpace, with 68% at Facebook.
4. Facebook’s prowess: Facebook’s market share surged 286% year-over-year, but it wound up being good for everyone, since it grew the market at the same time.
5. Market share growth was a bit rare: Aside from Facebook, only Tagged gained market share, as an increasingly crowded market required players to fight a little harder for eyeballs. Tagged amped up its share by 35%.