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A new report breaks down trends and consumer preferences for social networks, in particular MySpace and Facebook. The report is somewhat behind the curve, as research studies in social media tend to be, and tells us much of what we already know…that there is an exodus from MySpace to Facebook. But there are some interesting stats and insights about which age groups preferred which networks…at the time this data was gathered. We would have assumed that MySpace with its music and custom pages was for the youth and Facebook with its clean interface and minimal spamming potential appealed more to Gen-Xers, despite the network’s roots in the college market. Not the case, according to this. Also, the greatest opportunity appears to be in ages 30-39, where 32% didn’t know which social network they preferred; in all likelihood, these people don’t belong to any…just yet.
eVOC Insights released a new social networking report, “The Changing Face of Social Networking – Move over MySpace, There’s a New Kid in Town”. The report explores the proliferation of social networking sites and identifies what key attributes are required to become a leader in this new and rapidly growing space. MySpace is one of the largest social networking sites with more than 100 million reported members since its inception in 2003, and more than 255,000 new members joining every day. Facebook is beginning to gain ground, achieving more unique users than MySpace for the first time in 2007 and seeing more active and frequent daily visitors than MySpace in 2008. As new players continue to enter the social networking space, there is a clear need to understand how current social networking users perceive these new sites and identify what key features are required to prevent loyal users from being wooed by the ever growing competition.
Highlights from this report include:
- 68% of consumers currently use a social networking site
- 80% are likely to use a social networking site in the next year
- 76% of users are likely to communicate with friends they know online
- Among ages 13-19, users significantly prefer Facebook (51%) over MySpace (36%); 8% didn’t know
- Among ages 20-29, users prefer Facebook (43%) over MySpace (33%); 16% didn’t know
- Among ages 30-39, users significantly prefer MySpace (34%) over Facebook (16%); 32% didn’t know
- 71% of users find Facebook easy to use, compared to only 54% on MySpace
- Facebook is also rated more secure; While MySpace offers more customization
In terms of the green social networks, Gaia was the only one referenced in the summary with 2% of respondents saying that they use it, compared to 44% for MySpace, 41% for Facebook, 9% for Yahoo! 360 (which no longer exists), and 3% for Friendster.
Any way you slice it, though, the report is bullish for social networking.
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1 The "Don't Be Evil" Social Network | Max Gladwell // Apr 23, 2008 at 1:18 pm
[...] said, as we reported recently on social networking trends, 32% of internet users between 30 and 39 did not prefer one social network to another. Our [...]
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