Social Network Stats: Facebook, MySpace, Reunion (Jan, 2008)

Update Nov 2008: I’ve started a new list of data, with links to new sources on this page Social Networks Site Usage: Visitors, Members, Page Views, and Engagement by the Numbers in 2008.

Every so often as an Analyst I get numbers from some of the companies I cover (I’m mainly covering social networks now), here are some that I’ve received from Reunion, I feel it’s helpful to share this with my readers.

Sources
The ones from MySpace are handed to me from a member of the press, someone I have no reason not to trust, and the Facebook stats are from their own site.

Facebook

Quick Analysis: The hot talked company Facebook has the highest growth rate, and at Forrester we predict it to achieve the same number of registered users as MySpace in Q4 of 2008, or early 2009 given the current growth rates. The widget platform, which launched summer 2007 has had strong growth as more than 13,000 applications have been launched. Please don’t call this the MySpace killer as each of these sites serves a different demographic, with a different purpose, and different tools. Facebook is more of a ‘lifestyle’ play that allows members to connect to each other.

General Growth
* More than 60 million active users
* An average of 250,000 new registrations per day since Jan. 2007
* An average of 3% weekly growth since Jan. 2007
* Active users doubling every 6 months

User Demographics
* Over 55,000 regional, work-related, collegiate, and high school networks
* More than half of Facebook users are outside of college
* The fastest growing demographic is those 25 years old and older
* Maintain 85 percent market share of 4-year U.S. universities

User Engagement
* Sixth-most trafficked site in the United States (comScore)
* More than 65 billion page views per month
* More than half of active users return daily
* People spend an average of 20 minutes on the site daily (comScore)

Applications
* No. 1 photo sharing application on the Web (comScore)
* Photo application draws more than twice as much traffic as the next three sites combined (comScore)
* More than 14 million photos uploaded daily
* More than 6 million active user groups on the site

International Growth
* Canada has the most users outside of the United States, with more than 7 million active users
* The U.K. is the third largest country with more than 7 million active users
* Remaining top 10 countries in order of active users (outside of the U.S., Canada and UK): Australia, Turkey, Sweden, Norway, South Africa, France, Hong Kong

Platform
* Over 7,000 applications have been built on Facebook Platform
* 100 new applications added per day
* More than 80% of Facebook members have used at least one application built on Facebook Platform

MySpace

Quick Analysis: MySpace the largest Social Network in North America maintains a dominant position as media site, primarily aimed at youth, giving them the opportunity to relate to brands and bands, as well as self-express. This site will continue to do with advertisers and marketers. Expect to see more TV and video networks to integrate and work with MySpace, who has the new generation that Generation X was to MTV.

Metrics
· MySpace has more than 110 million monthly active users
around the globe
· We are the country’s trafficked site on the Internet
· 85% of MySpace users are of voting age (18 or older)
· 1 in 4 Americans is on MySpace, in the UK it’s as common to
have a MySpace as it is to own a dog

·On average 300,000 new people sign up to MySpace every day,
this month we broke a record and had 4.5 billion page views to the
site in one day.

We are localized and translated in more than 20 international
territories: U.S., UK, Japan, Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy,
Spain, Mexico, Canada, Netherlands, New Zealand, MySpace en
Espanol, Latin America, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and
Finland.

·MySpace is one of the fastest growing websites of all time,
we have:
·100 Billion rows of data
·14 Billion comments on the site
·20 Billion mails on the site total
·50 Million mails per day (more than Yahoo, Hotmail,
or Google)
·10 Billion friend relationships
·1.5 Billion images
·8 Million images being uploaded per day
·60,000 new videos being upload to MySpaceTV each day
·More than 8 million artists and bands on MySpace Music
Acts including Lily Allen, Sean Kingston, Arctic
Monkeys, Dane Cook discovered on the site by users

Company Details
·Launched in January 2004
·Acquired by Fox Interactive Media in October 2005
·Los Angeles-based
·Founded by Chris DeWolfe, CEO and Tom Anderson, President

Reunion

Quick Analysis: This quiet company is profitable already, and is making some strong growth with repeat users that are buying services from the company, as well as advertising. Reunion caters to an older crowd that is seeking to connect with each other from school, childhood, work, or locations. It’s surprising that this company has 32 million registered and is already profitable.

Highlights
·Over 32 Million Registered Members, and Growing
·70+ Million Site People Searches Actively Tracked
·7+ Million Avg. Unique Visitors Monthly
·700,000+ Paying Subscribers

Update Nov 20th from Kate at Reunion:
·50 million total registered members
·Adding 1.6 million+ members monthly (mostly adults)
·Nearly 1 million active paying subscribers

Competitive Detail
·Critical Mass of Post-Facebook Members, with 90% Over 25 Years Old
·Patented Technology to Keep Address Book Updated
·Proven, Balanced Revenue Model: Higher Value/Member With Subscription Model

Financial Summary
·Profitable Revenue Growth of over 100% every year without any external capital
·Ranked #664 in Inc. 5000 Top Companies
·4th Fastest-Growing Company in Los Angeles (LA Business Journal)
·Recently took 1st outside investment of $25M from Oak to accelerate growth

I’m thinking about publishing these numbers once a quarter or once a month, if you’re a company that’s in the social networking space, you can send me some valid and confirmed numbers at my email, listed on my contact page. These are not really centralized anywhere in the industry, and I think it could be of a service to everyone.

Update Nov 2008: I’ve started a new list of data, with links to new sources on this page Social Networks Site Usage: Visitors, Members, Page Views, and Engagement by the Numbers in 2008.

316 Replies to “Social Network Stats: Facebook, MySpace, Reunion (Jan, 2008)”

  1. Hi Jeremiah,

    I´m a spanish strategist, a new one, trying to learn things on this world that I´m starting to love. I´ve to tell you, man, you are my main source of Knowledge, thank you very much. I´ve learned more in last month than in the pervious one, owe you one. If you ever come to Madrid a dinner on me.

  2. I just want to say Thanks.
    I like your blog, great info, and really helpful.

    Is there any data source about vertical networks?

    Thanks!

  3. Informative stats!

    But would anyone happen to know the number of businesses (business members) registered on MySpace and Facebook?

  4. Good report overall. Good to see some analysis of usage across the SN spectrum.

    Can you provide reference for Facebook daily Photo upload statistic (14M photo uploads/per day)

    and clarify 2 items from following:
    “Photo application draws more than twice as much traffic as the next three sites combined (comScore)”

    #1
    Which facebook photo application did you consider?

    #2 which three other apps (I suppose you meant facebook apps ) from comscore report did you consider for this conclusion?

    cheers
    -ME

  5. I’m curious how non-profits are using social networking. I volunteer at an exotic animal sanctuary. We can’t take all the animals we get calls about (someone buys a mountain lion then realizes it doesn’t make a good pet — go figure…). At this point all the staff can do is say, “Sorry we can’t take it”. Trying to figure out a way to put people who are trying to get rid of an animal in touch with someone who is in a position to take it. Was wondering if a social networking site could be of use in this, but generally speaking the demographic is older and not necessarily tech-savvy…

  7. Jeremiah, in reference to the online Social Networking space in general, what are the demographic and psychographic profiles of site users.

  8. I am an avid reader of your blog and have been hoping for an update on these stats – are you aware of any new numbers out there?

    As always, wonderful post!

  9. First, interesting article. Myspace was not founded by Tom Anderson(39)and Chris DeWolfe(42). It was created by a back room programmer and brought to life by Brad Greenspan (Former Intermix CEO). Chris was working for Spam company and was assigned to Myspace. Tom was hired much later after Myspace was already started. Second, Myspace is clearly beginning to experience gradual extinction as newer, faster, user rich communities arise. Just as Friendster, the question is will the site still be relevant in 2, 3, or even 4 years from now?

  10. I have experienced and read a fair amount of comparisons between Facebook and MySpace. One thing stands out- there are Facebook zealots out there. Really hostile commentary constantly hovering over poorly articulated predictions
    of the demise and “ugliness” of MySpace. Granted MySpace attracts the “ordinary” tech illiterate layteen-adult but maybe that is the whole point.
    Any dummy can make a MySpace page and get prompted to perhaps improve it (or uglify it). For some this results in shocking displays of bizarre aesthetics.
    However MySpace has not taken an interest in imposing many standards on
    how people should present themselves because according to legend this
    networking site was intended for artists and musicians. Tell an artist how to present art or a musician how to promote acid punk and your likely
    going to see a furrowed brow and perhaps other unfavorable body language.
    Try it out. If you get a good response maybe think about formulating a contract.

    Facebook is supposed to be more dignified, streamlined and coherent. To achieve this there are imposed limits to customization. This is great.
    It would be a shame if the demographic that loves white space and uniformity didn’t have a place to go to feel socially accepted and engaged. But what is truly interesting is the hostility projected at MySpace that describes not so much preferences for efficiency in communication but rather is more reminiscent of the first time the angry
    white male authority league saw Elvis Presley gyrate on Ed Sullivan or the first business executive seeing his daughter wearing the first AC-DC teeshirt.

    It’s a social phenomena and less of a truly technical debate. Add on top of this the obsession with beating MySpace at it’s own game and what do we get? More of the unwashed masses on Facebook asking for customization.
    What happens when Facebook becomes just another MySpace? Pandemonium?

    I saw my favorite band on Facebook recently. Somehow they made the page look kind of wild. Facebook zealots be warned. Be careful when competing
    with the brutish MySpace “ugliness” popularity lest you become what you profess to hate.

  11. Hello my name is Juan ans I am doing a paper comparing myspace, facebook, and likedin. Can you tell me what you think about liknde in? Thank you. This website is EXTREMELY helpful

  13. Hey thanks this will be very helpful in this paper i amwriting on the dangers and benefits of facebook and myspace…you’ll be mentioned in it as a refernece if thats ok with you

  14. Hi,

    I was wondering if you’ve got some stats on usage overlap.. i.e. on average how many social services are used by 1 user?

    I’m doing some research on this.

    Thanks,

    Amit

  15. Thank you so much, my debate on the benefits of social networking sites is now a lot more substantial.

  16. Jeremiah thank you for this info its awesome!!!!.

    I´m a Phd student working on my thesis about the use of internet and mobile phones for achieving a real debate between politics and citizens in order to get a real democracy in Latin America.

    could you explain me, how i can contact Social Network´s managers to ask about stats of user a little bit more specific.

    Thank you for your help

    Juan Carlos

  17. real demographic data would say what kind of people use these sites, such as education level, income, background, etc. this post is garbage.

  18. I am curious if there is a demographic cut for social networks by gender and ethnicity. If we are target marketing a specific ethnic group, which social networks do they use? What % of Facebook users are: African Heritage, Hispanic, Native Lands, women, gay, disabled, etc.

  19. Jeremiah–Did you catch this story from the BBC suggesting that social networks are becoming email 2.0? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7942304.stm

    I’m a freelance journalist based in Japan and I’m writing a short piece on social networks for a locally published lifestyle magazine called Kaleidoscope. I’d like to get your view on the BBC article. I don’t quite see how you how you can think of social networks as email. Please let me know if I can quote you. If not, any comments just for my understanding will be helpful.
    Thanks,
    John Boyd
    Japan
    tel: 81-44-873-4103

  20. This is interesting. I am doing a project and this is extremly helpful! thank you!

    -mindy:)

  22. I still think that facebook is better than myspace because of all of the aplications and fun things you can do. Its much easier to use for me.

  23. Facebook and MySpace are great. The next thing they should work on should be data reporting consistent clearly and defined data reporting. I’m wondering if there is space for a new generation of social-interaction web sites?
    Lydia, editor of westhost review

  24. Due to lack of references i do not believe the statistics set before me. In your next blog i recommend referencing where u get your information.

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  36. hey i am a 15 yearold and in my speech class we are having a public forum debate about socail networking and all the sats. you have have helped alot thanks!!

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  47. I think Facebook is bettter than Myspace.! (: 
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