Hitwise's senior research analyst examines the brand strength of "MySpace" through search queries and provides a snapshot of its competitors.
MySpace is far and away the de facto standard for social networking and is highly entrenched in the youth culture of today. Myspace.com was the fourth most visited internet domain in February 2006 after Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo and Google. Search is a strong indicator of brand strength, and MySpace is one of the strongest brands on the web. Five out of the top 10 search terms entered into search engines for the four weeks ending March 4, 2006 were some variation of 'myspace.' The Hitwise Search Term Suggestion tool captured 39,032 keyword phrases containing 'myspace' during that period-- that's 55 percent more than the 25,132 searches containing 'yahoo' in the same period. An examination of the list shows how involved users are with their MySpace pages-- searches like 'myspace layouts' and 'myspace graphics' have been among the leading search terms on the web for months, and examination of the Hitwise Clickstream data for MySpace shows that there are dozens of sites dedicated to helping users improve their MySpace page, like BlogThings, Memgen and Free Web Layouts.
Despite the dominance of MySpace, growing numbers of internet users are trying out alternative sites, and several sites have grown significantly in the past month. The market share for Bebo has increased by 36 percent in the month of February (week ending Mar. 4, 2006 versus Feb 4, 2006) and its average session time of just under 20 minutes indicates that its users are highly engaged. Tagged takes a slightly different approach from MySpace and Bebo, with the ability to add "tags" or small symbols to other member pages, user generated quizzes and a celebrity look-a-like contest. Its market share has increased by 19 percent in the past month, and it has an average session time of over 24 minutes. Bolt boasts the ability to host more of users' music, videos and photos, and its market share increased by 27 percent in February. XuQa is the leading alternative to Facebook, requiring a college email address for registration, and its market share was up 16 percent in February.
What's interesting about the current data on these new sites is that they have specific geographic skews. Just as MySpace gained a following in Los Angeles and grew outward, these smaller sites have developed strong followings in specific geographic areas. Sconex, a site which is limited to high school users, garnered 92 percent of its traffic from the state of New York in the month of February. Tagged has a stronghold in Illinois, Texas, and Georgia with 23 percent, 11 percent and nine percent of its visitors coming from those states respectively. Bebo received 12 percent of its traffic from Texas in February, and was also strongly represented in Oklahoma, Kansas and Mississippi. North Carolina accounted for 15 percent of XuQa's traffic in February, followed by Michigan at 12 percent. XuQa is also strongly represented in southern states like Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina.
It will be interesting to watch the social networking space as the year progresses-- will MySpace lose market share as concerns grow over its safety? Will another site become part of the social currency of youth? Internet behavior can evolve quickly, but unseating MySpace could be difficult as it continues to add features and gain new users.
More information about this topic and other online trends is available through LeeAnn Prescott's blog.
Hitwise is the world's leading online competitive intelligence service. Each day, Hitwise monitors how more than 25 million internet users interact with over 500,000 websites across 160 industry categories. By monitoring more people, more websites, more often, Hitwise provides marketers with timely and actionable marketing insights on how their online presence compares to competitive websites. Companies use this information to maximize the return on their online investment, in efforts such as search marketing, affiliate programs, online advertising, visitor segmentation, content development and lead generation. Hitwise collects internet usage information via a combination of ISP data partnerships and opt-in mega panels, and complies with local and international privacy legislation as audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Founded in 1997, Hitwise is a privately held company, headquartered in New York City and operates in the United States, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. More information about Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.com.
LeeAnn Prescott is senior research analyst, Hitwise. Read full bio.