Social Networks by the numbers

For December 2007, MySpace.com received 72 percent of U.S. visits among the social networking category. Facebook.com received 12.57 percent of visits and Bebo.com received 1.09 percent of visits. (according to Hitwise)

U.S. traffic to all the social networking websites increased four percent year-over-year. MyYearbook experienced the largest gain in market share in December 2007, increasing 407 percent compared to December of the previous year. Facebook and Club Penguin followed, increasing 51 and 48 percent, respectively. For those who are unaware of Club Penguin, it is the entry point for children into their first brush with social networks.

In December 2007, MySpace received 95 percent of its share of traffic from returning visitors. Among the top five social networking websites by market share, Facebook and BlackPlanet.com followed with 93 and 89 percent, respectively, of traffic returning from the previous month.

Market Share of U.S. Internet Visits to Top 10 Social Networking Websites

Rank

Name Domain

Dec-07

Dec-06

YoY % Change

1

MySpace http://www.myspace.com

72.32%

78.89%

-8%

2

Facebook http://www.facebook.com

16.03%

10.59%

51%

3

Bebo http://www.bebo.com

1.09%

0.99%

10%

4

BlackPlanet.com http://www.blackplanet.com

1.04%

0.96%

8%

5

Club Penguin http://www.clubpenguin.com

0.80%

0.54%

48%

6

Gaiaonline.com http://www.gaiaonline.com

0.76%

0.58%

31%

7

myYearbook http://www.myyearbook.com

0.73%

0.14%

407%

8

hi5 http://www.hi5.com

0.63%

0.64%

-1%

9

Classmates http://www.classmates.com

0.55%

0.58%

-7%

10

Yahoo! 360 360.yahoo.com

0.54%

0.91%

-40%