Social networking is becoming one of the most preferred activities for Internet users worldwide. Top social networking websites like MySpace, Facebook and Bebo are being visited by millions of users everyday in US. MySpace leads the social networking sites market with a dominant 73.82%, followed by Facebook with 14.80%, according to a Hitwise press release. Interestingly the number of US Internet visits to the social networking sites shows a drop, but the time spent among all social networking websites increased when compared with April 2007.
MySpace has 73.82% of US internet visits to social networking sites, which is increased by only 0.31% compared to March 2008, but decreased by a notable 5% when compared to the number of visits in April 2007. MySpace also failed to improve the new visitors rate as it received only 5% and the remaining 95% are returning visitors in April 08. When it comes to average time spent on the site, it is decreased to 29 min 54 sec which is 3% less compared to April 07.
Facebook is the second leading site with 14.80% market share, increased by 0.6% compared to March 2008 and by 32% over the year. When it comes to type of the visitors, the share of new visitors is only 7% while the rest 93% is formed by the loyal visitors of Facebook. Average time spent on Facebook improved significantly by 57% from April 2007 with an average user spending 20 min 52 sec on it in April 2008.
myYearbook has many things to cheer up, as they increased their market share significantly by 475% though the share is only 1.33% in April 2008. It receives 10% of its traffic from new visitors, which is more than the top two social networking sites. It also had a remarkable growth of 51% in the average time spent on it to 32 min 54 sec by a visitor, which is the highest among the social networking sites.
Bebo is another social networking site, which has the highest new visitors percentage among the other sites. Bebo leads the market with 17% of new visitors, but showed a 13% decrease in traffic compared to April 07. When it comes to the average time spent on Bebo, it has 30 min 01 sec, which is good but reduced 3% from the previous year.
When the overall market share of U.S. visits to the social networking custom category is considered, there is a 3% increase in total traffic compared to March 08, but the traffic is decreased 16% compared to April 07. In April 2008, the average time spent among all social networking websites increased 73 percent compared to April 2007.
Facebook and myYearbook are the two growing social networking sites but still far behind the leader MySpace. MySpace, the top social networking site is clearly showing signs of little drop in its leadership. Social networking websites continue to attract loyal visitors who return regularly to communicate with their friends and dear ones.
