MySpace/Facebook: Who’s The Largest Social Network? Ask TechCrunch…
Aw. It looks like our little boy is growing up!
Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch has a great story today about Facebook and how fast the Web site is growing at an incredible rate worldwide. The growth numbers presented by Schonfeld in this posting are very impressive, given the sites existing size.
From TechCrunch:
According to figures compiled by comScore, Facebook’s visitor growth is up 153 percent on an annual basis. This compares to anemic 3 percent growth for MySpace. Other social networks showing strong global growth include Hi5 (100 percent) and Friendster (50 percent), despite each of those being less than half the size of Facebook. Orkut and Bebo fall in at 41 percent and 32 percent growth, respectively.
Much of these huge growth numbers come from the fact that Facebook had hardly no presence in many of these regions until recently when it started its major push to translate the site to other languages. A year ago, it had only one million uniques a month in all of Latin America, three million in the Middle East and Africa, and four million in all of Asia Pacific. When you look at it that way, 10,555 percent growth isn’t as amazing as the raw numbers would suggest. And within these regions, it still has a lot of work to do. For instance, it is floundering in Japan.
I was never a big Facebook fan until I was introduced to the Web site a few months ago by a friend who is a Facebook nut! MySpace and Facebook are clearly the two leaders in this fight but it will be interesting to see how the sites grow in the next year to two years. Facebook has recently updated their site and it has been getting mixed reviews from what I have heard and read.
From the New York Times:
Facebook rolled out a major redesign of its social networking site late Sunday that features a cleaner interface that links feed technology with user forums. Company officials said the updated site will give users more control and ownership over their profiles.
But many who follow Facebook pointed out that there is more behind Facebook’s facelift than its stated aim to simplify and clean up the design of its user profiles. The new version, which is now in limited use, will be rolled out gradually to Facebook’s 80 million users in the “coming days,” Facebook said.
The redesign, for example, integrates feed technology and the Facebook Wall, a forum for users and their friends to post comments, photos, video and content from third party applications. In addition, users will have the option of previewing third party applications before adding them to their profile or granting it access to their information.
Sarah Perez, a blogger at Read Write Web, noted that the redesign coincides with the move into the job market by many of the users who flocked to Facebook when the site launched in 2004 as a closed network just for college students.
“Cleaning up a Facebook profile as well as ditching a slew of time-wasting applications is almost like a coming-of-age ritual now,” Perez noted. “As the college kids move into the real world, the social network needs to reflect their changing needs in order to stay relevant while still appealing to the next generation of users.” She said Facebook is looking to convince the so-called Gen Y workforce “that their set of social media tools can be the new way to get things done. It helps when profiles aren’t filled with pointless, time-wasting apps that don’t just fill your screen but also spam you and your friends with their notifications.”
I still prefer MySpace to Facebook. I believe that the personalization ability that you have on MySpace is great and I feel that there are more opportunity’s to express yourself on MySpace. Facebook has come a long way, but I don’t feel that they’re quite there yet. I also want it stated that I am not a fan of the Facebook redesign. But, I am only one person in a global audience of millions. So, I propose this question. Who do you like best: MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Hi5, Friendster or Orkut? Thoughts?
This entry was posted on August 12, 2008 at 8:57 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.
Tags: Bebo, comScore, Erick Schonfeld, Facebook, Friends, Friendster, Hi5, MySpace, Orkut, Read Write Web, Sarah Perez, Social Network, Social Networking, Social Networking Growth, TechCrunch, United States, Worldwide Growth
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December 22, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Well, redesign was best thing in facebook users & for facebook (saves money and resources) – its hard to argue whit this. Anyone who argues whit this haven’t been surfing on peoples profiles filled whit 50 different pointless apps.