Internet users visit social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, more than they use their email, with such online activity growing 5% from the previous year, according to a recent study done by media research group Nielsen.
Facebook alone has seen a nearly 600 % increase in user minutes from December 2007 to December 2008. Although it initially began as a site for university students, Facebook has now become a nexus point for people of all ages, seeing their most significant growth in users from ages of 35-49. Surprisingly, the social networking site saw a larger increase (13.6 million) in the amount of users from ages 50-64 than in those under the age of 18 (7.3 million). Facebook also trumps Bebo--a site that attempts to centralize all users' networking profiles in one place--on the amount of monthly unique visitors, 12.5 million to Bebo's comparatively meager 4.7 million. Nielsen attributes the success of Facebook over other Internet sites such as Bebo or Myspace to its simple design and minimal use of advertisements.
Yet the latter has caused it to gross less than a third of MySpace's ad revenue--$1 billion to $300 million. Still, Facebook is the world's most popular social networking site, with 108 million new users in 2008, beating MySpace by a cool 25-plus million newbies.
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