Facebook Trumps MySpace
A recent survey conducted by marketing firm Youth Trends shows that American youths between the ages of 17-25 like Facebook more than MySpace.
The survey, which asked respondents to list their three favorite sites on an unaided basis, split the results by gender and found that among American females between 17-25 years of age, Facebook was the top favorite Web destination, taking about 69% of the pie. MySpace finished a distant second with 38%, while YouTube followed with 22%.
Google had 13% of the vote, CNN had 10%, while the New York Times, AOL, MSN, Pink is the New blog, and WWTDD rounded out the top 10.
For males, the rankings look a bit different. Facebook topped the list with 56% of the vote, but YouTube was second with 19%, while Yahoo! and Google tied for third with 17%. ESPN was fifth with 16%, and MySpace was 14% at the sixth spot.
Wikipedia, CNN, Amazon, and Break rounded out the top 10 list for males.
Pink is the New Blog and WWTDD were the first ever blogs to make the top 10 list for females.
In line with general expectations about the financial viability of social networks, eMarketer expects $865 million to be thrown their way in 2007. MySpace is expected to catch $525 million, while other general social networks, including the likes of Facebook, Bebo, and Piczo, are expected to take $200 million.
MySpace is generally regarded as the king of social networks, and was the top search term for Lycos for the week ending February 24, 2007. If anything, Youth Trends’ survey reminds everyone that "social networks" is far from synonymous with "MySpace," and that there are plenty of other big players out there. Facebook seems to be the most significant.
Sources:
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1004636
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/03/01/lycos-top-searches
