Web analytics firm Compete has released its data for the month of May, and as Justin Smith over at InsideFacebook has already pointed out, US traffic to Facebook.com has increased by nearly 8% to 82.9 million unique visitors last month, with Facebook Connect sites generating an additional 65 million uniques. That means that, according to Compete, a total of 113 million people in the U.S. interacted with the Facebook service. The data also shows MySpace is (still) steadily decreasing compared to the beginning of the year, while Twitter growth seems to have flattened all of the sudden.
While it is interesting to see how the hot social networks stack up in terms of traffic, I thought I’d also take a look at how well Facebook is doing compared to other Web giants like Google.com, Yahoo.com and MSN.com. To my surprise, Facebook appears to have become a real challenger to these Internet juggernauts, who are relatively old compared to the social network that started out in 2004 as a university student-only service and only really opened up to the public in September 2006.
Evidently. this is only one way to look at things. First, Compete does not always provide spot-on traffic estimates (data from comScore suggested Facebook had yet to surpass MySpace in US traffic back in March) and second it’s hardly fair to compare these websites as they all serve different purposes and audiences. But the picture painted here is that Facebook has unmistakingly grown up to become one of the most popular Internet destinations on the planet, both in terms of registered users (well beyond 200 million at this point) and in terms of received traffic. And we’re still talking about a privately-held (albeit massively funded) company that has come this far. No wonder its valuation is surging.
Then there’s our model of the true value of social networks, which gave Facebook a clear lead as well.
For comparison, Compete pegs Google to have received a total of 145.5 million unique visitors in May, ahead of Yahoo (135.5 million) and MSN.com (97.5 million), which means Facebook has already overtaken the MSN website and is nearing the former two. It’s important to note that all four sites show a significant increase in U.S. traffic since the beginning of this year, but Facebook is definitely on the steepest growth curve here. In January 2009, total traffic to Facebook was somewhere around 68.5 million uniques, which means the May number of 113 million represents a 61% jump, mostly thanks to the successful spread of the Facebook Connect service.
If these trends persist, expect Facebook to come out on top of the Compete charts well before the year ends.
LOL you cant be serious.
Facebook is so useless and doomed.
I supposed its all the idiots from Myspace finally converting.
I would have loved this post by MGS, he would have given some really good excuse about twitter growth.
Compete statistics are example of ‘lies’ and ‘damn lies’. Web user behaviors are too complicated to be estimated by about a million toolbar unless you have information from ISPs.
compete DOES use info from ISPs. you’re thinkin about Alexa with the toolbar.
Facebook is the new google. I really like them more than google and yahoo.
This makes no sense whatsoever :S You can’t compare search engines to social networks and say which one you like better.
Unless all you search for is your friends / crushes / stalked college girls then facebook is a search engine.
…and yet they did. It was just baseless and ridiculous.
Honestly I spend so much time there that if they had a search box in the top right for the web, I might not need google.
You are not alone. I am not one of them but I know many friend with facebook as their homepage. I think it is coming… Think twitter realtime search matched with Google. Or, in other words. Facebook internal network search + Facebook Connect search + web search mashup into one search bar. Might be interesting no?
Unless Facebook releases social search…
True. It is how I like smoothies more than subways and elevators.
And pretty soon, those idiots will get that they have actual work to do or maybe even real friends to meet in real locations.
And they’re going to call it “The Next Big Thing”.
i dont add people i dont know on facebook.
You know, standalone, Facebook would have faded at the end of two years – just like MySpace. Social networking sites have a halo effect – the period during which they’re perceived as being “cool”. Right now, its Facebook that’s cool – if you aren’t on FB, you’re out of tune, and if you’re on MySpace, hi5, Orkut, etc., then you’re just plain too old.
In two years, this halo effect will fade as it always does. Things never stay cool forever. Something like Google isn’t cool anymore, but it provides a really valuable service that other competitors just can’t compete against. Can’t say that for FB.
But on the other hand, the Facebook Connect initiative seems to be one source of longetivity for FB. If it could make Connect the defacto standard for weblogs, it could easily stay on (despite losing its coolness).
The difference between Facebook and all the other sites (Myspace) — is that Facebook is it for the long haul. You dont see them selling their homepage to the highest bidder, or skinning every aspect of the site.
Facebook is about allowing people to share content, if they can maintain that metric, sharing, there will be no halo effect – as people will continue to find value in their friends thoughts and data.
If they were about making gobs and gobs of cash their number one priority, users would eventually find another site that allows them to easily share.
I agree with you .But i think the social networks out there need to get creative you got Google talk with Grand Central and you got other new sites that are opening up different ways of socializing try Bueno.com ,Gizmo call and others that combine the two ways we socialize online and phone.
I don’t worry what ever their traffic is, but I wish my blog traffic should get like them. Of course, every one’s wish..
Twitter got too much attention suddenly.The bad thing about it is that many user dont actively tweet.
I think Google Wave will redefine how all these sites work (FB, Linkedin, twitter). With Wave, google simple needs to supply an open database where people can connect and the rest is all done on your local machine. The fact that it’s an open protocol (unlike FB) means that a lot of people will adopt it. Google already has all the pieces in place, they just have to start rolling it out.
We’re all voyeurs//
So now it’s time to open the ‘Champagne’ and cheer…..Cheers!!!
nice one Facebook!
face book is gone … twitter is the next…
Hmm, looks like I have to check my FB account now and see if there’s something worth coming back.
Twitter growth is over
http://siteanal...om/twitter.com/
I know the issue about access via extern apps, but the trend is clear
these numbers are flawed to say the least. Think of people that delete all cookies when closing the browser. They are counted as unique visitors the next day the go into any of the above sites. In addition, all facebook users in the US are about the same number as all the unique visitors for last month (~83M). That says the site was either visited once by every registered user, or that it’s growth is being trumped by the growth of twitter.
Yeah, like my Mom knows how to delete cookies *rolleseyes*
may be you should tell her how before she gets her ass handed to her by an identity thief.
Twitter flattened! Onoes! Quick, need more celebs!
“But the picture painted here is that Facebook has unmistakingly grown up to become one of the most popular Internet destinations on the planet,”
Robin, just have in mind that “The Planet” cannot be measured by U.S. only stats. Facebook surely isn’t even near in traffic if you measure planet traffic.
I’ve found Compete’s #s to be pretty far from the truth. They tend to grossly overestimate the traffic a site receives. Looks great for websites … but not so great for actually tracking what’s going on.
Quote: “To my surprise, Facebook appears to have become a real challenger to these Internet juggernauts…”
I would really love to see a revenue and margin curve projected over this data. Growth, reach, etc means all nothing (beside a higher cost base) if you can not monetize it. “Finding a revenue model later” is just a cheap excuse for being inable to do so…
Here comes a revenue f****er.. I had to scroll so down
The BIG news here is that Twitter’s explosive growth suddently stoped. As mashable.com correctly points out. But of course, this was almost ignored by Techcrunch biased twitter lovers.
This is really amazing! Although Facebook is a social network, and not a portal or search engine, clearly people love spending time there. What remains to be seen is if Facebook can continue to grow at this rate. I also wonder what Facebook’s ranking looks outside the US?
82.9 + 65 = 113? Que?
http://www.comp...com/subdomains/
I just don’t see how this matters. I don’t know why Google or Yahoo would worry about traffic numbers competing with Facebook. People go to Facebook for completely different reasons, reasons Facebook can’t monetize while the others can. This is a flawed comparison because it never addresses that.
From my observations it seems young college girls seem to be the demographic most intrigued by Facebook. I have observed a classroom, and while the lecture is going on, they spend the entire time looking at pictures on Facebook. It’s pretty amazing, but I actually like it, because they help bring the curve down when test time rolls around.
Not surprising at all. Wish they could share some traffic lol
Facebook is not the new Google – it’s much bigger. Because its not just technology, its a social technology that connects people and their daily lives. And fb connect is the ultimate boost. At http://www.klatcher.com, we were able to turn fb connect into a groundbreaking business and growth technology for our users. The fb team is truly great. So my bet is on facebook.
Riiight.
Ye.. I hadn’t thought about it. Definitely, fb would give people better life.
it will take on google and yahoo soon
Geocities used to be one of the top 3 sites also, long ago. Facebook won’t last forever, but they definately have a long opportunity to make money for the next few years.
[...] Via | TechCrunch.com [...]
P.S. – Sorry, forgot to tell you great post!
It would be wrong to compare Facebook with Google, a search engine. The online social networking sites find itself in a roller coaster rides. So now it is Facebook, later another popular site will make it. One private search engine site that is giving Google a run for their money is http://www.aafter.com.
Tony Smith
Why even compare FB with GOOG, nothing similar to them except they have tons of users. FB is fun for socializing especially if you don’t have anything better to do. MySpace was exciting for a while but didn’t actively fix their idiosyncrasies and eventually lost to FB.