Category: Statistics

MySpace is doing well despite Facebook

In spite of all the recent fuzz about Facebook, the indisputable No. 1 social networking site MySpace still has potential.

“The latest audience data show that it continues to expand faster than most top competitors except for Facebook, in a sign that there is more upside for the social networking heavyweight. News Corp. brass and Wall Street folks said MySpace has managed to boost its advertising rates and thereby profitability, making it less dependent on big future audience growth.”

MySpace’s unique audience in July was 61.3 million, (up 33 per cent year-over-year), three times larger than Facebook’s 19.5 million (up 129 per cent).

Tags: , , , , . Ping.

Teens on social networks more often victims of cyberbullying

Pew Internet has a new study out about cyberbullying. Among other things it reveals that “32% of all teenagers who use the internet say they have been targets of a range of annoying and potentially menacing online activities – such as receiving threatening messages; having their private emails or text messages forwarded without consent; having an embarrassing picture posted without permission; or having rumors about them spread online.”

Girls are more often than boys being harassed online. And teens who are active on social networks have been bullied more often than those who are non-social network users (39% vs 23% have experience some form of cyberbullying).

However, worht noting is that Pew says that “most teens say that they are more likely to be bullied offline than online”. Full report here in pdf.

See also here – one in four Swedish bloggers have been harassed.

Tags: , , , , , . Ping.

Social networks a top news source for young people

WAN, the World Association of Newspapers, have published phase two of a research project about youth media behavior. The study, titled “Youth Media DNA” is a result of interviews with young people in 10 countries, among them Sweden.

Feedback from the respondents:

“…indicate that the importance of the social network as a disseminator of news and information is on the rise. Many participants in this phase listed “discussion with friends” as a top source for news and information, sometimes ranking higher than TV or newspapers. In particular, social networks appear to be key in spreading entertainment news for most young people.”

About user generated content, the study suggests:

“While most participants do not view video sharing sites like YouTube or blogs as credible first sources for news, many participants see them as channels for voicing opinion. In this sense, social networking and user-generated content sites can be seen as complements to their news and information experience.”

Tags: , , , . Ping.

One in four bloggers have felt harassed

There is currently a big debate in Sweden regarding hateful comments and behaviour in the blogosphere. And since there’s a lot of guessing going on I thought that I would re-post this graph from my most recent blog survey BlogSweden2. One in four bloggers say thay they have felt harassed by comments in the blogosphere.

e15alla

The same graph in Swedish:

15alla

Tags: , , , , . Ping.

The Danish blog reader is a woman

A new Danish blog survey, BlogTjek 07, shows that the typical blog reader in Denmark is a 34 year-old woman, living in Copenhagen. She reads about 2-5 blogs and prefer personal blogs.

– 63 percent of the readers are women, 37 percent are men.
– 50 percent of the male blog readers have a blog of their own, while only 40 percent of the female readers blog.

More than 3,500 blog readers participated in the survey. Full report here (pdf).

For reference see BlogSweden 2 (in English), a Swedish blog readers survey.

Tags: , , , . Ping.

Facebook is growing fast

The most well-known of the global social networking sites is obviously MySpace with in excess of 100 million registered users. But other sites are also thriving in its shadow, like Facebook for example. Carolyn Abram presents some impressive statistics:

– Facebook grew from 7.5 million users last July to almost 18 million users now. Over half of the users log in daily.
– The site has 30 billion page views monthly, is the 6th most trafficked US site and account for 1% of all time spent on the internet.
– There are more than 1 billion photos on the site.

Shel Israel has a great comment:

” If you are a marketing professional and you continue to ignore stats like these, my urgent advice is pay attention. A whole generation [is] absorbed in the social media and if you overlook them, you may have a future career in the restaurant service industry.”