Top 5 social sites – week ending 28/08/2009

September 3, 2009 · Posted in Blog, Social networks, Web/site review

1. Facebook – 47.50%

2. YouTube – 16.63%

3. Bebo – 4.26%

4. Twitter – 2.21%

5. MySpace – 2.21%

No surprises here from the weekly release from hitwise. The only point to take note off is Twitter which has over taken Fox’s Myspace.

Myspace is basically an online space for music videos and emerging artists which is very one dimensional. I cannot remember the last time anyone referenced Myspace.
Whereas Twitter has proven to very beneficial for music artists, marketing companies, SEO’s and “normal people” communicating with one another. The ability to link with people with the same interests is so easy and offers a good way to engage with end users or your target audience.

Facebook dominates social network sites for a number of years now and with the recent work undertaken by them to integrate updates into twitter accounts they are effectively becoming the first port of call for the internet (the doorway to other sites). Facebook have also appointed the brains behind gmail to increase the usability of facebook and maybe actually use it as an online webmail client (I know I have been battering on about it for months now)

Twitter has close to 51 million registered users (this will include spammers and dead accounts) but increase in users have exploded worldwide, Biz Stone has suggested the social HQ for the 3 year old company is London which would surprise most.

It might be a case of Bebo looking over its shoulder for twitter, the one thing Bebo has on its side is the younger user, the 12-17 year old bracket is monopolised by bebo currently, this could be down to twitter limiting users to 140 characters and bebo is more like a mini website rather than a profile.

Youtube – google’s video sharing site is staying steady in second place.
Youtube have recently changed a number of elements to its site and in the UK has brought back the ability to add music video’s. I think the sooner the other social platforms integrate directly into youtube the sooner both Google and the other networks can share revenue.
The issue with Youtube recently is the amount of video’s pulled down, which has led to site such as vimeo to become more popular with bloggers aka social activists and music promoters and artists to promote their content. Personally I like the way in the UK there is a new wave of content being uploaded by the tv stations, it shows how online broadcasting is the way of the near future and how important it is to keep their content available in other avenues.

I expect to see Twitter in third place by Q2 next year, the only thing standing in the way could be a sale or spam accounts.

Danny Denhard
Twitter: @betalabs

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