MySpace Future is Golden September 01, 2006 By Debra Aho Williamson http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/11027.asp eMarketer zeros in on this successful social network, looking at its growth trajectory, competitors and ad revenue.
Love them or hate them, social networks have become an indisputable part of the fabric of the internet. Led by MySpace, now the seventh most visited site in the United States, social networking is a cultural phenomenon that is still developing a stable revenue model. Marketers will spend an estimated $280 million on social network advertising in the United States in 2006 and an additional $70 million in other markets, mostly to create profile pages and sponsored promotions. Companies are likely to go even deeper to develop marketing efforts that fully embrace the "one-to-one-to-many" nature of social networks, inevitably boosting ad revenues.
The largest chunk of the estimated $280 million in U.S. social network advertising will go toward MySpace, which eMarketer estimates will generate $180 million in U.S. ad revenue this year.
MySpace has a dominating presence over other social network sites. According to comScore, MySpace received 51.4 million U.S. unique visitors in May 2006. Classmates and Facebook followed, with 14.8 million and 14.1 million unique visitors, respectively.
The total U.S. internet audience has grown four percent over the past year, but several social network sites, including MySpace, Facebook and Bolt, have grown by triple-digit percentages, according to comScore. Other sites that either did not exist a year ago or were too small to measure have also generated large gains.
MySpace's user trajectory has been remarkable. In May 2006, it rose to become the seventh most visited site among U.S. internet users, according to comScore. Seven months prior, in October 2005, it was ranked 19th.
Debra Aho Williamson is a senior analyst at eMarketer. This article was drawn from her latest report, Social Network Marketing: Carving Out Some MySpace. Contact eMarketer directly.
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