Most impressive is MySpace, which outpaces all in terms of revenue.
Facebook growing is no surprise. In fact it would be a surprise if Facebook did not grow. It is quite simple, Facebook has had the most money invested, literally poured, into it, at 500 million USD. This immense, and some amy say ridiculous amount of capital can be aggressively spent on PR and marketing schemas to acquire users.
Twitter also has now secured 55 million total USD in financing, and this too will be poured into PR and user acquisition efforts.
So really growth is just an effect of how much money you can spend to pay newspapers, press, bloggers and other communication channels to write about your service.
The internet is far removed from the days when technical innovation meant growth and success, and is now just a reflection of the physical world, where marketing and PR dollars are a must in order to build a brand. In numbers Facebook has 175 million users and has almost burned through 500 million USD (i.e. they have paid almost 3 USD a user).
MySpace, for all its flaws, is making good revenue in comparison to their total funding, which I believe was only like 20 million USD, before News Corp acquired the service.
Adam Ostrow
· 9 months ago
So far as I know, Facebook hasn't spent anything on advertising, and they certainly don't pay press to write about them, though they do have PR people. MySpace has done a better job monetizing to-date, but, they've also had a bigger audience for longer and the sales force of News Corp behind it.
illian
· 9 months ago
Why would a company have PR people if they do not buy press. I think it is a little naive to believe that they do not buy press. Of course they do not buy adverts, but PR is bought. Its not a judgement on them, but just they way things are done...PR spins the story, and all companies buy PR, period!
Word of mouth is long gone in today's world, and the money and investment placed in Facebook and Twitter, are all about calculated growth.
susuh
· 9 months ago
@Mike:
Why would Twitter pour 55m USD "into PR and user acquisition efforts"? You can't buy better PR than they have now for free...
Rich
· 9 months ago
Nice stats you got there. Well, I think that's very possible as social networking sites today are growing like mushrooms. Needless to say, they're everywhere. In fact, I think this trend will continue as long as they come. These sites are also said to be a threat to SE search, but not totally.
I also think that email will never die since it is through emails that newsletters are delivered, and emails look more professional. For me, it still feels good to read a letter while enjoying my privacy.
radith
· 9 months ago
and social media has been surprassing porn sites :D i hate myspace so much..too many annoying ads >_< and in my country ( indonesia ) Friendster is the most popular social networking site, but based on my experience, i'm sure facebook will beat it.. love the simplicity of facebook and twitter :D
chris o.
· 9 months ago
This is good news. In a weird way, it's made the email more personal. Almost like a written letter.
Best, @christopherott
craig
· 9 months ago
I am not surprised by this. Social networking is more casual than email, the same way more people may txt message than call someone.
GoEverywhere Team
· 9 months ago
And the beauty is that there's no spam or junk folder to deal with!
Emma
· 9 months ago
Hi
Is it possible to download the report somwhere? I'm writing a thesis about social media and what effect it can have for companies. Focusing on communities and medias like Twitter. This report wolud be good for me to have. Thank you.
Someone talked about how people text someone rather than call them. Color me confused, but I never understood that. If you have a phone, call them. It's simple, and takes a minute or two, and is a heck of a lot more interesting. Texting just seems lazy to me.
Shazwi Suwandi
· 9 months ago
Calling seems lazier lol... Cos you dont have to take the hassle to text... But you can't blame ppl who just love to sms... It's a generation thing... Like how adults used to not understand social networking online...
And the advantage of text is you dont have to reply immediately... Calling may catch a person off something else which may be disastrous...
Other than that, I only call for more formal conversations... Sms will always win during casual chats...
Eric
· 9 months ago
However, email marketing is still much more profitable than social networks
prowse
· 9 months ago
You really don't know, do you? I am guessing you probably graduated from college around 2 to 4 years ago and don't yet think twitter is a good thing to advertise with. It's not a about profit, it's about personal "branding" 15 years ago it was "networking", 5 years ago it was "re-inventing yourself" - I think now it's "re-investing in yourself". Invest time for yourself, your image. Answer your emails, reply to my reply to you, here. keep doing that, and as Gary "Vee" says "Crush it!"
Astralis
· 9 months ago
People said the same thing about RSS Feeds -- that they'll take over email. It didn't happen.
@Carokanns
· 9 months ago
Suprise, suprise when Google's CEO says "Twitter is a poor man's email"! Wait now... isn't Gmail for free? http://bit.ly/10FBq
acurrie
· 9 months ago
I'll take my last-century desktop email client over the craptacular Facebook messaging system, thanks...
Shel Horowitz
· 9 months ago
I'd find this hard to believe if I didn't have kids in their teens and 20s. In that demographic, e-mail is irrelevant, except when they need to talk to parents or teachers. They talk to each other on Facebook and Skype and mobile text messaging--all day long.
Instant messaging has been around for a long time. But once you get out of college, running around socializing all day isn't the priority in life. Business and family take over and email becomes a much more convenient message delivery system.
Additionally, instant messaging in business has always been around. Every heard of MSN Messenger? There's also Google Talk.
Annalise
· 9 months ago
It is obvious that social networking would eventually overtake email for communication, making it more personal, and easier in a lot of ways.
Kevin Montgomery
· 9 months ago
Adam, Good post. I'm an independent singer-songwriter and have been touring hardcore for the past 10 years. I started noticing a decrease in emails coming through from fans/friends about 3 years ago. In years past, email was the main way of reaching out to my fanbase. Now, i find that my friends/fan find their preferred method of communication and that is where you have to reach out to them---myspace, facebook, twitter....even skype with a few. There are some holdouts that prefer email, but your article fully supports whet i had suspected has been going on for awhile. Good post. Sincerely, Kevin Montgomery http://www.kevinmontgomery.com
Adam Ostrow
· 9 months ago
Thanks for the comment Kevin. I think music was probably one of the first places we saw this shift, especially with MySpace a few years back, given how dominant it was/still is with artists.
Kevin Montgomery
· 9 months ago
Yes, Adam......a fan/friend only has so much time on their hands. Whereas fans used to spend time emailing me, and then going to a largely static website........i believe that they shifted to the social networks, and then their attention starts to drift!! My belief is that in order to reach out to your fans effectively......you need to converse with them in the medium that they are comfortable. I certainly noticed a difference when the social networks came around. Think if they did not exist? We would still be using email and texts. Now, think if email didn't exist??!!!?? You would be back to sending out mailers in the mail!!! That is what my tools were when i was on A&M Records in 1994.......snail mailers!!! Everything is evolving.....i love it. Thanks again, Kevin
prowse
· 9 months ago
Back on the other hand, you still would not want to kill your mailing list, or your forums (you dont have one? Shame), a blog or two, facebook, MySpace, twitter, Skype name, AL of it. You can't rest now, dude! I still have a BBS running on an old PC-XT still hooked to a modem, and it still gets hits!
Kevin Montgomery
· 9 months ago
Prowse, Are you referring to the old snail mail? I killed that years ago! Back then i couldn't afford to keep up with it.........and those addresses are long gone. You make a good point on not killing your email marketing though. Email for me is still the portal to link to all the other social networks with a fan. I use all the social networks that you mention currently...... myspace, facebook, skype, twitter.....and good old email. Oh, and yes, i have a blog. http://www.kevinmontgomery.com I never got into the forum thing? Explain how you think it would be more productive than a blog with "friend connect" say as your commenting system? Kevin Kevin
GoEverywhere Team
· 9 months ago
I access Twitter and Facebook on my webtop whenever I log on - it's my preferred medium for easy interaction with colleagues, clients, and friends. I have several conversations going on - plus I don't need to weed through junk mail! And since I'm already on Twitter and Facebook for a variety of other reaons, it gives me one less application that I need to open and weed through.
Maria Botta
· 9 months ago
I would be curious to know more about how it all breaks down Biz vs personal, and where does LinkedIn rank? Botta
Adam Ostrow
· 9 months ago
LinkedIn is included ... reports 15M global users, about 4% reach.
Rodolfo Llanos |soloingles.com
· 9 months ago
Today start a new social network, based on interest of the people http://likexo.com , check, ;)
wakuwaku
· 9 months ago
Excellent summary of the report.
swag
· 9 months ago
Its studies like these that make me wonder if researchers like Nielsen understand social media at all.
The intended privacy spheres are completely different between social media and e-mail. Not recognizing that is akin to commissioning a study to survey if the flu is more popular than syphilis.
prowse
· 9 months ago
Ouch! Nail on the head. Yes, someone else gets it!
AlexBlom
· 9 months ago
Interesting. I'm not stunned that Facebook is still struggling to monetize. Funnily enough QQ still has a higher profit than Myspace.
Vicki
· 9 months ago
Social Networking worldwide is finally catching up to the company that invented the concept over 52 years ago.. built their product and business around it.. and both are 'based on the simplicity of nature' - 3rd video down on the right..
pnw fitness
· 9 months ago
I don't really email with family and friends at all. I don't even know a lot of my friend's email addresses, and these are people I've known a decade +.
About the only people I email are those I know over 50 & my clients. Generally the clients are close to, or to way older than 50 also.
netlatch
· 9 months ago
I wonder if you took away either social networking or email, which would have a more devastating effect on society. Popularity does not equate to importance.
Will Buddha Weatherby
· 9 months ago
I have basically switched from writing a blog to posting on Facebook because of the feedback from people in my community. I have hundreds of posts to date and a couple of other very active friends (out of hundreds) as well. It is so much more useful for me than email or a blog in many ways.
James Austin
· 9 months ago
Social networking is the best way to remain connected
Ryan Biddulph
· 9 months ago
Very impressive numbers for both myspace and facebook.
Most people know how much that social networking has exploded over the years but these stats are still pretty amazing. I don't see a change in these trends anytime soon as more and more people are becoming computer literate and have a desire to connect with others.
Ryan
John Herrington
· 9 months ago
Good post. Did Nielsen release any frequency numbers on email versus community usage? Seems like that might be a more compelling argument if people are using Facebook everyday versus their email once a week. I have my doubts though.
Mike Foster
· 9 months ago
Social networking is one of the fastest growing industries in the world, with sites like Facebook adding extradinary number every day. I try to keep up, but it's exhausting, leading me to create this music video: Social Networking Blues
peace, mike
steve dodd
· 9 months ago
I'm still very concerned about user privacy in the SM domain. Tools are widely distributed that can analyze publicly available content. Email is "relatively" private. Social Media is not. If people become too "trusting" of this new technology, the impact could be devastating. Identity theft is at an all time high and growing equally as fast as social networking itself. All SM players are trying to commercialize to stay alive. Ultimately this may mean using the data posted freely on their sites for commercial gain. There is no free ride, never has been, never will be. One final thought, if anyone thinks the "bad guys" are not spending tonnes of money to figure out how to "capitalize" on this trend, you're living in a cloud........IMO.
Scott Burns
· 9 months ago
This is valuable research and calls attention to the growth of social media as a channel. I think the "horse race" mentality between channels is a little distracting. New channels emerge because they fill a role that old channels didn't fill effectively. Over 300 government agencies use my companies platform for digital communication. Email continues to be the most powerful channel and well used channel by a landslide. However, social media is filling critical needs where email really fell short. Interestingly, we're seeing exponential increases in interest in email communication from the government even as social media use also grow dramatically. The channels appear to be feeding / complementing each other very well. More on my take here: http://tinyurl.com/bqja3
David Culbertson
· 9 months ago
This report is being overhyped, in my opinion. This report measures activities over a year, not daily activities. According to the Pew Internet, social networks lag far behind search and email as a daily activity. Will this change over time? Perhaps, but not until you can do a complete search from Facebook or Twitter; and get your email too. It seems more likely to me that Google's universal search will expand to include Twitter posts and FB profiles. Or perhaps Google will give better insights into real-time search data they already have.
Jatinder Kapur
· 8 months ago
I think both social networks and emails will have there own place in future.
Scott
· 8 months ago
I also have 2 younger kids and they will text me from a different room on the house, so I know that texting and social networking is the wave of the future, I have just joined a new service for all social networking sites.You connect the application to your social network page and friends who visit your site can text you from your page to your phone. My kids are all over it. On a total side note, you can make money by using the service. Check out the video explaining it at www.lichattotext.com Good Luck
Along_Parker88
· 8 months ago
Thanks for the presentation. We at http://us.buuuz.com Find this very useful.
Facebook User
· 8 months ago
I have started using an amazing SN tool called OrSiSo (Organize, Simplify, Socialize). It hooks me up to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, MSN, Y! chat AND LinkedIn and gives me a unique interface to manage all the updates from all my friends direct to my desktop using a really funky Adobe AIR app.
The best part is that it lets me put groups of my friends into different 'circles' so that I can prioritize only the information from the people I care about. At the same time I can update my status on different networks from the same place, so I can maintain a personal and professional profile without upsetting people from both camps. If someone has a profile on multiple networks, I can "merge" their details so I know they belong to multiple places from one unique contact card.
Their website is at www.orsiso.com and they launched an open Beta this week, you can use the registration code I received: PB32B8RW
Tom Culler
· 7 months ago
Before you hop onto OsSiSo, you might want to read this article...
The percentage includes social networking and blogs. Did Nielsen draw this conclusion? Otherwise, I think your article is misleading.
Sunny
· 8 months ago
Yes you are right
Steven Duque
· 8 months ago
Extremely interesting, clever article on the mischaracterization and underestimation of the Facebook's role in contemporary society, despite its seeming triviality by Greg Atwan, writer of "The Facebook Book" and "Privilege":
Excerpt: "Facebook is the largest photo-sharing site on the Internet—easily beating out dedicated snapshot studio Flickr. This is no college-quad feat: Photos are only increasingly critical in spreading information, and Facebook’s photojournalistic capacity is still untapped. (It’s not unreasonable to imagine that this Depression’s Agee and Evans will have nothing but a Facebook album.)
More importantly, it’s the youth’s medium of choice for sending messages (it’s more popular than email), planning events, and organizing politically. Other sites (Friendster) have made good in the short-term by offering the sort of space Grigoriadis describes for nugatory gossip and amorous overtures, but Facebook has won the battle by getting its users addicted to its infrastructure."
atasha hoffman
· 7 months ago
I wish to find the message sent by atasha hoffman today the 18th April 2009
Claire
· 7 months ago
Social Networking can serve a higher cause than email. Besides connecting people with the same ideals, these people can actually achieve something together. On www.pifworld.com people and development projects are brought together to make a positive change worldwide. The platform aimes for goals that can never be reached through email.
John
· 7 months ago
Social Networking sites are bound to overtake even email as a primary form of communication. Instead of 'send me an email' it will be 'Twitter me' or 'Send me a Facebook message' etc. I think over the next 5 years we will see a huge shift towards these Networks of communication, picking up the phone to make a call may seem laughable in 2010, it will all be online video conferencing directly to your network of friends and family by then.
vcao
· 6 months ago
Hello, I am newbie here, This is a nice website Welcome to my website: http://www.avi-converter.net Thank you very much.
All Comments
Facebook growing is no surprise. In fact it would be a surprise if Facebook did not grow. It is quite simple, Facebook has had the most money invested, literally poured, into it, at 500 million USD. This immense, and some amy say ridiculous amount of capital can be aggressively spent on PR and marketing schemas to acquire users.
Twitter also has now secured 55 million total USD in financing, and this too will be poured into PR and user acquisition efforts.
So really growth is just an effect of how much money you can spend to pay newspapers, press, bloggers and other communication channels to write about your service.
The internet is far removed from the days when technical innovation meant growth and success, and is now just a reflection of the physical world, where marketing and PR dollars are a must in order to build a brand. In numbers Facebook has 175 million users and has almost burned through 500 million USD (i.e. they have paid almost 3 USD a user).
MySpace, for all its flaws, is making good revenue in comparison to their total funding, which I believe was only like 20 million USD, before News Corp acquired the service.
Word of mouth is long gone in today's world, and the money and investment placed in Facebook and Twitter, are all about calculated growth.
Why would Twitter pour 55m USD "into PR and user acquisition efforts"? You can't buy better PR than they have now for free...
I also think that email will never die since it is through emails that newsletters are delivered, and emails look more professional. For me, it still feels good to read a letter while enjoying my privacy.
Best,
@christopherott
Is it possible to download the report somwhere? I'm writing a thesis about social media and what effect it can have for companies. Focusing on communities and medias like Twitter. This report wolud be good for me to have. Thank you.
//Emma in Sweden
http://server-uk.imrworldwide.com/pdcimages/Glo...
And the advantage of text is you dont have to reply immediately... Calling may catch a person off something else which may be disastrous...
Other than that, I only call for more formal conversations... Sms will always win during casual chats...
Shel Horowitz, frugalmarketing.com
Additionally, instant messaging in business has always been around. Every heard of MSN Messenger? There's also Google Talk.
Good post. I'm an independent singer-songwriter and have been touring hardcore for the past 10 years. I started noticing a decrease in emails coming through from fans/friends about 3 years ago.
In years past, email was the main way of reaching out to my fanbase. Now, i find that my friends/fan find their preferred method of communication and that is where you have to reach out to them---myspace, facebook, twitter....even skype with a few. There are some holdouts that prefer email, but your article fully supports whet i had suspected has been going on for awhile. Good post.
Sincerely,
Kevin Montgomery
http://www.kevinmontgomery.com
My belief is that in order to reach out to your fans effectively......you need to converse with them in the medium that they are comfortable.
I certainly noticed a difference when the social networks came around. Think if they did not exist? We would still be using email and texts.
Now, think if email didn't exist??!!!?? You would be back to sending out mailers in the mail!!! That is what my tools were when i was on A&M Records in 1994.......snail mailers!!!
Everything is evolving.....i love it.
Thanks again,
Kevin
You make a good point on not killing your email marketing though. Email for me is still the portal to link to all the other social networks with a fan.
I use all the social networks that you mention currently...... myspace, facebook, skype, twitter.....and good old email.
Oh, and yes, i have a blog. http://www.kevinmontgomery.com
I never got into the forum thing? Explain how you think it would be more productive than a blog with "friend connect" say as your commenting system?
Kevin
Kevin
Botta
The intended privacy spheres are completely different between social media and e-mail. Not recognizing that is akin to commissioning a study to survey if the flu is more popular than syphilis.
About the only people I email are those I know over 50 & my clients. Generally the clients are close to, or to way older than 50 also.
Most people know how much that social networking has exploded over the years but these stats are still pretty amazing. I don't see a change in these trends anytime soon as more and more people are becoming computer literate and have a desire to connect with others.
Ryan
peace,
mike
One final thought, if anyone thinks the "bad guys" are not spending tonnes of money to figure out how to "capitalize" on this trend, you're living in a cloud........IMO.
Good Luck
The best part is that it lets me put groups of my friends into different 'circles' so that I can prioritize only the information from the people I care about. At the same time I can update my status on different networks from the same place, so I can maintain a personal and professional profile without upsetting people from both camps. If someone has a profile on multiple networks, I can "merge" their details so I know they belong to multiple places from one unique contact card.
Their website is at www.orsiso.com and they launched an open Beta this week, you can use the registration code I received: PB32B8RW
http://ria.feedables.com/story/2741248/OrSiSo-W...
Excerpt:
"Facebook is the largest photo-sharing site on the Internet—easily beating out dedicated snapshot studio Flickr. This is no college-quad feat: Photos are only increasingly critical in spreading information, and Facebook’s photojournalistic capacity is still untapped. (It’s not unreasonable to imagine that this Depression’s Agee and Evans will have nothing but a Facebook album.)
More importantly, it’s the youth’s medium of choice for sending messages (it’s more popular than email), planning events, and organizing politically. Other sites (Friendster) have made good in the short-term by offering the sort of space Grigoriadis describes for nugatory gossip and amorous overtures, but Facebook has won the battle by getting its users addicted to its infrastructure."
http://www.avi-converter.net
Thank you very much.