US Web stats company Compete has some
interesting analysis on how Social Networking sites compare to portals. From a
sample size of around 2 million US people, Compete concludes that social networking
sites are quickly approaching the traffic level of the big portals like Google and Yahoo.
Their key findings:
1. In June, 2 out of every 3 people online visited a social networking site
2. Since January 2004, the number of people visiting or taking part in one of the top
online social networks has grown by over 109%
3. Social networking sites are now close to eclipsing traffic to the giants – Google
and Yahoo
They liken the growth of SNS to email in the 90’s. A couple of charts from
Compete:
Given my recent coverage of international markets, it’d be interesting to see how the
likes of Bebo fits into this picture – as Bebo recently overtook MySpace as the top SNS
in the UK. Compete’s stats are US-only, but in any case it’s clear that all trends
point to SNS sites overtaking the Internet portals – sooner rather than
later.
