In November 2008 Facebook drew 200 million unique worldwide visitors; more than 1 in 5 people who accessed the Internet that month visited the site. When sites are that big growth generally stagnates, but in Facebook’s case it’s still skyrocketing. In December, 222 million people visited the site says newly released Comscore stats, a 10.8% month over month growth rate. 22% of the total Internet audience went to Facebook in December.
Facebook now has nearly 100 million more worldwide users than MySpace, which added 4 million new users in December to 125 million total. The page view difference is more dramatic – Facebook had 80 billion monthly page views in December v. 43 billion for MySpace. Just six months ago the sites were about the same size.
Facebook, still a private company, is the world’s default social network. MySpace is still the king in the U.S., but trends suggest that 2009 is its last year on top. By January 2010, at current relative growth rates, Facebook will overtake MySpace as the largest U.S. social network as well.
We reached out to MySpace for a comment on the growth trends. They say “We are laser focused on building a sustainable global business which we measure by profits and revenue – not just eyeballs. In a tough economic climate, our international revenue is up 35 percent year over year and we continue to focus on those markets with the strong monetization opportunities. Additionally, MySpace continues to dominate the U.S. market–where the bulk of online advertising revenues reside–both in terms of monetization and user engagement with more than 76 million unique users and a 40% spike in engagement year over year.”
That’s an impressive growth! I guess it would be hard for someone to takeover FB. Hi5 has a daunting task ahead…if they are not content with the actual position.
facebook has competition worldwide, if not alone from myspace. Graph of facebook vs rest all networks together would be nice comparison, without recounting uniques. All countries have 2 leading social networks in top 10 websites, which is good for customers..
Facebook is all about data collection. They have no real SEO value for business owners or just normal people with Blogs. Also, Facebook customer service is terrible and WAY behind their growth. Facebook has problems monetizing their users as well.
China and Japan have Social Networks that rival Facebook in a big way, remember the United States is a small country when comparing number of citizens.
Chinese Social Network: QQ.com has over 300 Million Active users – http://www.psfk...-the-dough.html
Japanese Social Network: Mixi – http://en.wikip...a.org/wiki/Mixi
My Space; Face Book; Twitter now Blastoff….The next generation of Social gathering sites with much more is here.
We don’t care what anyone says – MySpace is the best. If you are are a person of creativity Facebook is not the answer – it’s boring. Mostly for stuff shirts. MySpace is so exciting and free spirited, and we wouldn’t trade it for Facebook because we’ve tried it and know from experience – just how boring Facebook is… (0:
yeah but myspace revenue is 3 x that of facebook
Revenue wins.
I concur.
Eventhough MySpace is the epitome of annoying, they’re clockin duckets.
that’s what lycos said in 1999, back when it was much larger than google and google didn’t care about revenue.
It’s only a matter of time when their revenue will catch up.
I think Facebook’s position looks pretty good. It’s hard to imagine that commanding 22% of WW internet audience while still growing at a freakish clip doesn’t put Facebook in an incredibly strong position to ramp up revenue.
If you want to clock ducats check out blastoff.
And how much $$$ are these numbers translate to? When will you start following the numbers that really matter?
The story was written by “Michael Arrogant”, he is always more interested in “shock and awe” instead of the “meat and potatoes”.
i agree.. B***** Michael Arrogant..
facebook will soon start generating lots of money, this is going to be great success story like google in coming years
good job facebook, you guys really rock in execution!!!!
@Sam–facebook will soon start generating lots of money
umm how? if they haven’t monetized yet it will be very difficult.
FB is Monetizing. they have half a billion dollars of other peoples money. FB is not a startup. they are a well funded startin. can we all move on now.
Umm. Are you sure you understand what the term “monetization” usually means in this context?
Why couldn’t Facebook use the same monetization techniques as MySpace? Yeah, MySpace has the advantages of leveraging Fox’s advertiser relationships, but a company with reach to 22% (and growing) of worldwide internet users will be hard for advertisers to ignore.
Not from advertising. Unlike Google, advertisements on Facebook do not add value — which is primarily related to the product (search vs social network). So, in order to have a solid revenue stream, Facebook needs to generate cash another way.
Rock in execution? Um, hello, do you remember the beacon fiasco?
By 2010, people will probably be into something else and Facebook and MySpace will both be on their way to irrelevancy.
Sign me up!!
@james – silicon valley dropout spoke to that a bit.
if fb is ~2x the pageviews but ~1/3 the revenue – are myspace sitewide cpm 6x facebook? or is it just that myspace sells 6x the inventory per pv? myspace has become a real, fast-growing profit center for newscorp – one of the best $500M media acquisitions i can think of.
mathew
http://www.blist.com
A simple website comparison will show you the difference:
http://www.myspace.com
http://www.facebook.com
Notice the amount of advertising on myspace? (and that’s just the homepage)
Myspace has clearly focused itself on blending with the entertainment industry – a profitable untapped online advertising niche (notice no entertainment companies are on these search engine advertising lists: http://www.alle...ling-google-ads). Let’s not forget they also signed a $900 million search deal with Google: http://www.guar...ws.broadcasting
With their focus still on growth, it looks more and more likely that facebook will be selling aggregates of its user’s data (e.g. shopping trends amongst 25 year old males from Seattle who happen to drive a Prius and have moustaches) to the highest bidders.
I wonder how much money they are burning on a daily basis. Can someone find out that number? If so, does facebook need an employee to shovel more cash into the furnace?
what this data doesnt show us & what is bein reported in other social network stat sheets is that myspacers stay logged in longer, at 40 billion hours a month vs. facebooks 18 billion hours……this is probably due to the fact of myspace video/tv & myspace music……..
but for both sites to still be reporting these annual growths is huge…..even tho FB blew past myspace its still astounding that myspace is growing at 5 million users a month…….
MySpace growth is nothing to sneeze at, it’s just hard to focus on it while Facebook explodes.
But without revenue and no indication of a solid plan for it, does member growth matter? Given all the attention, one can be reasonably certain that a business model will arise that enables FB to be sustainable, but shouldn’t there be more attention given to MySpace, given the combination of member growth AND revenue?
You’re right arrington – facebook is exploding. Just like Napster exploded…
Wow, this is huge. Frankly I never understood the hype around MySpace. I guess I am probably to old for the wild mess that most profiles are there
@ skoopd, i beg the differ, this is how i see it
facebook has the friends keepin in touch with friends thing on lockdown………so people will go to FB to catch up with old friends etc.. etc…
myspace will still get as much traffic if not more, b/c the difference is people will see that myspace is more for entertainment/blog purposes, with music & tv playing a huge role, so people will go there for those needs plus to share videos + music with there friends……..
just my 2 cents
Myspace seems it has also a bit different market target than FB…there are more young people with other things in mind on Myspace than on FB (I suppose)…that’s why wild wild west mentality still dominates there.
i totally agree mircea
In terms of status I think Facebook has joined the giants of the internet: Google, Amazon, Yahoo, and Ebay- (of course a couple of those companies are struggling at the moment). But I think Facebook belongs on this list. If I had to pick a sixth it would probably be Netflix, but not Myspace.
Myspace may have traffic now, but how relevant will it be going forward? Facebook has locked in its audience. I don’t think they are going anywhere, and Facebook will figure out a way to monetize the eyeballs some day.
I think that people in general have a vastly overstated opinion of Facebook. All of those websites listed above revolutionized, and help shape the Internet. Yahoo invented relevant Internet search, and Google revolutionized it, Amazon’s affiliate program spawned a cottage industry, and Ebay created the idea of the Internet classified ad. What has Facebook done that is so revolutionary? The other thing about those other services is that they provide real value, not just entertainment value (which is extremely fickle).
Finally, the MySpace quote in the article is dead on. They are focused on what they should be focused on, making money. The Zuckerberg growth, then revenue priority list is outrageous. If you cannot monetize 200M users, why is monetizing 220M users any easier?
“What has Facebook done that is so revolutionary?”
I would say their ability to expand/enrich one’s communicative abilities is pretty revolutionary. I don’t remember a service before that was able to help me locate old acquaintances and strengthen new ones (among other things). Hence, I also disagree with your statement that facebook is merely for entertainment.
“If you cannot monetize 200M users, why is monetizing 220M users any easier?”
As I wrote a little bit earlier, my thinking is that facebook is trying to “horde” all the users of the internet. It would then be easy to create data sets of these users that would make advertisers drool. That’s what I think is in the back of their minds (facebook Connect is just for starters) while they patiently devise a way to tap their users information.
This, of course, assumes they CAN find a way to sell their user’s data (which it seems they haven’t so far).
Right on.
Joe, I think you are right to an extent about extending the communicative abilities was revolutionary. However, to put them in the league of Yahoo, Google, Amazon, and eBay is simply too much for me.
I think they are in real trouble when it comes to revenue models. They need to come up with something very unique, Google-esque you might say, in order to retain their users and make enough money to pay back their investors. Obviously, new ad placements won’t work because their killer app is the look and feel, and to me, selling user data is simply not going to cut it. Not only that, I can tell you if they started selling off their user’s data, they would hemorrhage users.
There are so many ways that Facebook can fail.
First, the “social graph” of each user is not representative of the person’s real life social graph. It’s better than Myspace, but still not accurate and that is problematic. I have already seen people’s Facebook behavior become more hesitant, or contrived. Facebook is banking on this being “real” social interaction, but it is becoming less and less so.
Second, this is a socially driven application. Now that “everyone” is on Facebook, the market mavens are going to be looking elsewhere. They will sniff out all the problems with Facebook and find the best alternatives and lead another exodus–because it’s always cool to be doing something that not everybody is doing. And everyone follows the cool kids.
Third, the only thing preventing the above from happening is Facebook locking in user data, contacts, etc. But they will be facing increasing pressure to open up as time goes on. The tactic of locking in users is an evil tactic, and will be exposed and criticized more and more going forward. Once they surrender to those pressures, it’ll be like Niagara Falls. Other companies, like Microsoft, lock people in by having software that costs money, that requires training, that is incompatible with others. Facebook has none of that power.
I agree, I think Facebook/Mark Zuckerberg will figure out how to montize the site, sooner or later.
Facebook is the world’s largest social network and will be for the foreseeable future IMO. MySpace I can see stagnating or even worse, declining If FB Connect becomes the de facto web ID.
I do think another major social network will challenge Facebook sometime down the line. Maybe Digg should have launched it’s own developer platform?
I really can understand why Facebooks grows so fast so much. Once you are inside you just want all of your friends gets part of it. I love it.
Facebooks will make a lot of money. There are endless opportunities. I would pay a monthly fee. I allready do it with another network. And I don’t have so much fun with that and I don’t really use it anymore.
A.T.
http://www.vauman.com
MySpace was fun for a while and for music and movies, it is still great. MySpace could easily bring those who defected to Facebook back if they calmed down the profiles a bit. I won’t go on MySpace and be forced to wait 7 minutes for someone’s profile to load because they’ve posted 200 photos of things representing who they are as a person. In addition, as social networking moves up the age ladder, older people getting involved will NOT have the patience for messy profiles on MySpace.
I find Facebook apps more manageable, and for the most part, profiles are consistent, easy-to-read, etc. I maintain a MySpace profile because I was there first, but it tells people to come and see me on Facebook. How many ACTIVE users does MySpace have?
I agree with Shane….& if anything, i’d put myspace 6th on that list just b/c it came 1st and brought social networking to the forefront……..& in my opinion the only reason facebook blew up, is a direct result of the spam attacks that myspace seen for about 2 months about a year ago……….
& in response to alex and jamie, FB has nothing to compete against myspace music or the video content myspace offers……(im on both, so im not being biased, just stating opinion)
& facebook apps almost always fail for me, so i dont even get the privilege of doing any of them…….& this happens on my Mac at work and my PC at the house……
but i think they will continue to both function for what they are…FB to talk with friends & Myspace to experience entertainment with friends….
I really love Facebooks. No wonder it grows so fast. Once you are inside you just want all of your friends are part of it. It has a very nice user interface and nice design.
They will make soon a lot of money. They even could charge a small fee from their users. I guess a lot of them will pay it. I allready payed fees for other networks and I didn’t have so much fun with them.
Facebook launched some interessting new products like Connect. This will have a lot of impact to the web. There are endless opportunities for interesting apps.
the last paragraph says everything you need to know for long term sustainability
Right now trying Facebook Connect. I was unware of this feature of FB.
Why Web [2.0] companies get more buzz for their audience than their revenue?
It would be interesting to talk a little more about web companies/startups that make real money for a while… at least, until the recession/depression is over.
I think that true entrepreneurship is the intersection between innovation and monetization (IMO)
wow that is impressive
“Unique Vistors” haha
Interestingly, Facebook noted they had hit 150 million users a few weeks ago http://blog.fac...ost=46881667130 … but at that same time the unique visitors count is well over 200 million.
This comparision might actually suggest that Facebook users access Facebook from more locations (iPhone’s, work, and home) than MySpace users.
Facebook needs to keep an eye on Twitter.
Just wanted to to mention twitter
there isn’t a day that passes where twitter isn’t mentioned on this site.
They all need to keep an eye on blastoff.
Facebook: Massive market penetration + no revenue = zero market share.
Myspace: Half as much market penetration + solid revenues = massive market share.
If you can’t understand the difference, you should be fired from life.
At what point are they going to stop focusing on growth for growth’s sake? Does Zuckerberg realize it’s not possible to actually get every single internet user on the planet to sign-up? At some point you have to focus on making money, and when you’re barreling down the side of a mountain, it’s hard to change directions.
Most of that growth is outside of the US, in countries that are difficult, if not impossible, to monetize.
Assuming they actually find a working revenue model (seems unlikely at the moment), the second they turn on the spiggot, they’ll start losing users by the millions. Free is a very different animal than paid or ad supported or whatever they plan on doing.
All the focus on growth leaves little time to improve the service.. Sure, all my friends are there.. but the novelty has worn off and it’s a pretty boring hangout.
Facebook will not lose “millions” once they begin to increase ad placements. For most people that use facebook, its as essential as having an email address.
John, you do remember Friendster, don’t you? People thought that was going to be “the” site too. They didn’t listen to their users. Their users left.
I hate a lot of things about FB. If a better company comes along and allows me to migrate all my stuff easily, then I’d go & take my friends w/ me.
What is the value of an ad on FB? I’ve never clicked on one. In fact, I hardly notice them — Most just advertise the fact that you can create an ad for FB.
I SALUTE YOU
YOU NEED TO BLOG FOR THIS SITE! lol
Is anyone here complaining about revenue an actual Facebook investor? I would leave the bitching about monetization to them.
6 months ago it was “Yeah but they don’t have as many US users…” This month it’s “Yeah but they don’t monetize as well…” Sounds like a bunch of Facebook hating for the sake of it. If Facebook wanted to put giant banner ads on their main page, like MySpace, they could do it tomorrow. MySpace isn’t sitting on any kind of advantage, there.
So go Facebook! It’s the social network I like best. Love seeing them succeed. No hating on anyone else required.
Frankly, users, pageviews, and all of those other metrics are useless if you cannot make money. Yes, they could put giant banners up, but the ineffectiveness of Facebook ad campaigns is well-documented. The problem with advertising on Facebook is that the users are not in consumption mode. The advantage that MySpace has is that its advertising revenue model (its users are in consumption mode) was established very early in its evolution, whereas Facebook has not.
@Shane,
Just curious. Is that theory or actual faqs? Post some reference please.
Also, why do you think users are in “consumption” mode in MySpace as opposed to Facebook? Younger audience? More flashy profiles? Whats the differentiating factor here?
Again, not trying to critize but I’d love to see numbers. It’d be very useful
Thanks
Myspace is such a waste of web space. The site design is dreadful, the functionality is worse. I do not have any friends that still use it. All the kids I know dont even bother any more, they just stick with Bebo.
Here in Australia the only video you get from myspace is user generated, which is crap, we can get that from youtube while for music we have a number of offerings and the major studios aren’t even al on board with Myspace.
Facebook is about 4 times bigger in AU then myspace, while myspace still makes $$$ think of the amount of advertising on it, there are more ads then content. People will not stick around for that while facebook offer’s much more subdued ads that are actually relevant to the reader.
And another thought, PV’s for facebook seem quite low, but considering chat, etc. this might be the case as the PV’s on this is much lower but the time spent would have to be longer.
Moral of the story, if you dont live in the US you choose facebook, while the yanks choose myspace.
thats interesting to note……….(once again not biased, im on both sites equally)
maybe you can clear some things up for me then about FB…….or maybe the AU FB doesnt have these problems….
i think it is b/c of the spam attack on myspace for facebook being so strict but i cant believe i didnt bring this up before……..
My brother got banned from his FB account for 2 weeks for sending too many messages……it was 20 or so……is that how a social network is suppose to function?
one of my friends just started up recently with FB & he was adding all his friends at once & they banned his account for awhile b/c they said he was spamming……but he obviously wasnt…he was excited to get connected with friends…is that how a social network is suppose to function?
i’ve had several other friends that got there account deleted for no reason given as well……..if you google or yahoo news facebook & find other articles like this 1, or one comparing myspace and facebook it is interesting to note that many other people have the same problem……
do you guys have this problem in AU? & could these tight regulations be the downfall of FB?? only time will tell
You’re comparing two business models.
MySpace business model is to put ads everywhere on their website.
Facebook business model is to hide the ads and make them as unintrusive as possible.
Myspace business model makes money, FB doesn’t.
Eventually Facebook will have to change their model, and it may have to look more like the MySpace model. At that point will the users stay?
Myspace is just one big ad campaign so it isn’t surprising that they make more money than facebook.
I am a member of facebook and myspace but barely ever use myspace and rarely now use facebook… but for the person who said that if facebook charged a small fee to be a member most people would pay, absolutely no way… I only go onto facebook if i ever receive an email about something on facebook. I email directly and talk to my friends on the phone now that I am out of college to bother going on to facebook to check out random people I used to keep in touch with… barely anyone would pay to be a part of a social network unless it truly provided them some value… facebook is just a fun site to go on every once in a while
Myspace is tired, nasty and juvenile.
I predict Twitter will surpass both, in terms of users and revenues–if they can execute. They should also lift the daily API limit to allow 3rd party developers create apps w/core functionality similar to FB, MS, Linkedin..
Distributed Twitter apps vs walled garden is the future…you heard it here first.
2 comments:
a) the golden opportunity is with fb connect
b) from a monetization standpoint, fb looks more like a hotmail, yahoo mail, aol mail, gmail, than say the google (search). my point is those were/are hard to monetize and commoditized quickly (although i don’t think fb will commoditize because of “a” above)
my $0.02
{seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/u5iSPuRaw8_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:” ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/O2nm6w5ico”}}}
For me personally, Myspace spams the crap outta my mailbox with things that do not interest me, while Facebook does not. That’s the difference for me. Also, I find most Myspace pages to be woefully ugly. When I click into a web page, I don’t necessarily wish to listen to some gangster rap blast out at me instantly, or read dark red font text writing on a bright green background.
Myspace to social networking is what Geocities was a few years ago to web page design.
Yes, Facebook is the Myspace of tomorrow!
most people here are short sighted.
facebook can launch an ad network twice as powerful as adwords with their reach soon
But you’re missing the point. Adwords works because people come to Google for information. People do not come to Facebook for information. They come to socialize with their friends. This is why ads on Facebook are not as effective as Adwords. You can target your adds down to the individual all you want, but if users ignore the ads does it really matter?
myspace is dead already, i don’t understand who can use it. it’s old and useless
facebook, is the best social network ever
myspace is toast…
facebook is a significantly better platform…
but by definition, it won’t be very cool in 2-3 years and there will be another…
were i to own facebook shares privately, i would sell at my first shot…
growth will continue but it’s finish is already written…
“Bailout News and Laughs. We find it, read it, sort and then give it back to you ALL DAY EVERY DAY. We are keeping ALL the records on the greatest Taxpayer heist in history! Come Check Us Out! WE run NO ADS on the site. And tell your friends and anyone else who cares about their future and that of their children. Please help us spread the word!”
Myspace will lose. Their interface sucks. It is held together with duct tape and fishing wire. Spam and stupid profile page skins are lame.
I left there a year ago.
myspace is very cool for the music, but not for work…
and twitter is very simple, but is very poor interface…
I am also part of those who are optimistic about FB: so many members, such high traffic, and most of all suceeded in being “default homepage” for so many –> easy to leverage upon this mass audience to a) be able to try many models without too much pressure b) have revenues skyrocket as soon as they trigger the right one.
I, for one, can’t stand Myspace. Facebook, on the other hand, hits the right balance. I don’t have a lot of time to put into Facebook, but I appreciate the way it lets me reconnect with old friends without a lot of work.
Thanks to Facebook, I’ll be going to my High School Reunion this summer — I think that’s pretty cool.
Yes, everyone is rushing to Facebook. Just last month, I was added as a friend by my girlfriend’s cat.
Yes, but opposed to Google, Amazon, eBay, etc. – what about the business model?
One thing is for sure: with the rise of facebook’s popularity and the competing presence of myspace, it is clear that social media is here to stay. Businesses can benefit by employing Social Media Optimization to boost internet presence on these and other social media sites, as they provide valuable online networking and branding opportunities.
Sooner or later all this marketshare is not going to mean much if they do not make money. Simple as that. I’ve said this many times before. I could start a business giving away Mercedes Benzs that I bought from borrowed capital. I would obtain 100% market share. Then once I have 100% market share, I raise the price to try and make money (Facebook can “raise the price” of using their site in a number of ways), and once I do that, my market share plummets. I think it’s a lot more prudent to make the growth in both market share and profit a concerted effort. The Facebook business model will eventually have to be changed and at that point will they be able to hold on to their market share? That’s the question.
Agree
Myspace was really cool when it first started. But now, the whole website seems really bad. There were some profile pages where i think is really messy and it’s hard to read the words on it.
Facebook is really clean, simple and has a very nice interface. And that compared to Myspace is a really really big advantage. Facebook is also very user-friendly.
Facebook is definitely better!
Cheers!
No one here is disputing that Facebook is a better website than MySpace. MySpace is a better business, that is my contention. I have a couple of ideas that I think Facebook could implement to make a bunch of money, I am just waiting for them to contact me.
Facebook is way better.
agree
Without seeming to know it, you are comparing two business models.
The MySpace model is to put ads everywhere on their website, resulting in distraction, clutter, etc.
The Facebook business model is to hide the ads and make them as unintrusive as possible, resulting in the clean, organized page that users like you prefer.
The Myspace model makes money. The Facebook model does NOT make money and may NOT be sustainable as is.
Eventually Facebook will have to change their model, and it may have to look more like the MySpace model. At that point will users like you be willing to stay?
What Facebook did that was revolutionary: build a social network of scale that was irrevocably built upon genuine identity. That contrasts with MySpace and more or less all its other competitors, even those in countries like Germany, Spain, China, Russia etc. which attempt to be Facebook clones. Even most of those have not understood the critical importance of a real “social graph” in fb lingo. Your friends validate your identity. You are online who you are in real life (unlike way too many of you commenters here hiding behind some degree of anonymity).
As for revenue, you think that a service of 150-160 million growing at more than 5% a month which happens to have the most detailed demographic data of any service in history cannot make money? Get over your prejudice. Facebook is wisely focusing on growth while it can afford to. If it started to run out of money it could move slightly towards MySpace’s more cluttered and commercial model and be fine financially. Meanwhile, Facebook wants to be the winner that takes all. So far it is not doing badly.
My blog/book page about Facebook:
http://www.face...efacebookeffect
Okay, but once they start trying to make money and they have to change what they are doing now, do you think the users will stay?
Will users stay if they charge to use the site?
Will users stay if they start selling your profile information?
Will users stay if the site becomes cluttered with advertising?
Will users stay if the model starts becoming more intrusive to your privacy?
You are ASSUMING the answer is yes to these questions.
I am not sold.
Before facebook, the biggest social network in korea did exactly the same thing. Based on your government ID (ie. there was no other way to create an account). And guess what? It’s big…but not 15 billion big (even on a per capita basis). The business model in social inventory is tough to figure out.
Its not all about making the ” quick buck”
its who provides a better service.. and at THIS point Facebook definatley takes the cake. As more and more people realize what WE have Myspace’ll definatley fade out unless they change their ” business mantra”
People keep focusing on revenue. Facebook has a huge mind share. Google was in the same position, they had a huge mind share, but a rather low market share in terms of overall revenue. Facebook has top tier engineers, as well as business people. In the coming years they will finally become a huge money making machine.
that’s amazing. facebook continues to gain relevance and its reach is massive…
Facebook Good. Can he penetrated Korean market. I doubt it !