How Large is the Social Media Space?

According to comScore Media Metrix, the total US internet audience has grown by roughly 4% in 2006. Yet several social networks like MySpace, Facebook, and Bolt have seen growth percentages in the triple-digits. 

According to Nielsen/NetRatings, the top 10 social networks (MySpace, ClassMates.com, Flickr, FaceBook, YouTube, etc.) received roughly 68.8 million unique visitors by 2005 – reaching 45% of all active web users. 

That means that nearly 50% of all internet traffic ran through one or more social networks last year. But think of the explosive growth and public acquisitions in 2006… In June of  ‘06, US web stats company, Compete, released some fascinating data that blows 2005’s growth out of the water:

Their Key Findings:

In June, 2006, 2 out of every 3 people online visited a social media site. Social Media sites are now close to eclipsing traffic to search giants like Yahoo! and Google.?   MySpace alone received 55 million visitors in June 2006
 
For those of us who participate in the global markets, it’s interesting to note that Bebo overtook MySpace as the top social network in the UK during most of 2006.