Worldwide Social Networking Sites

New global user data is now available from comScore media metrix for Facebook and MySpace. Worldwide, Facebook is taking the lead with 123,900,000 unique visitors, an increase of 6%. Those 123 million + visitors were just for the month of May. This is compared to 114,600,000 unique visitors to MySpace, which is down 1% from May ’07. Also, in terms of page views, Facebook took the cake with 50.7 Billion compared to MySpace’s 45.4 Billion.

MySpace still has the lead in the United States though. But I think many people are moving away from MySpace. I personally changed my MySpace page to just be a Music MySpace page to promote my music. I canceled my regular MySpace page. Everyone I know is on Facebook and I am not getting friend requests from creepy 99 year olds like I do on Myspace.

Social networking site trends are important for bands to be knowledgeable about. I have heard of many instances where a MySpace page has led to lucrative international exposure, but bands should also concentrate on sites popular within certain areas of the world. A few examples are hi5 in Latin America, Orkut in Brazil, Bebo in the UK, and Studivz in Germany. This could be the first step (and a traceable step at that) for a band attempting to enter a new international market with their music.

I will continue to monitor international social networking sites.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com