Social networking sites gained a lot of eyeball-share last year. The time that users spent on sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace nearly doubled in the past year, increasing by 83% relative to April 2008. The number of minutes spent on Facebook by its 200 million active members spiked 700% year-over-year to 13.9 billion. The second most popular social networking site, MySpace, saw a 31% fall in minutes spent on the site to 4.97 billion, but ranked number one in video stream consumption.
Blogger, Tagged and Twitter took the third, fourth and fifth spots. In April 2009, the number of tweets unleashed shot up 3,712% from April 2008.
The missing link? Money.
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has a position in Facebook, while News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS) owns MySpace. Other large companies constantly try to get a piece of other smaller plays, or buy them outright.
But with all their efforts, the almighty buck remains elusive in this space, not to mention the fickleness nature of consumers when it comes to social networks. Until that changes, companies would be wise to double their own time spent and own efforts in monetizing all those eyeballs. And larger companies interested in a piece of the action would be wise consider their moves more cautiously.
But with all their efforts, the almighty buck remains elusive in this space, not to mention the fickleness nature of consumers when it comes to social networks. Until that changes, companies would be wise to double their own time spent and own efforts in monetizing all those eyeballs. And larger companies interested in a piece of the action would be wise consider their moves more cautiously.
Black Friday expected to be strong, no promises for Christmas
Will JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon be our next Treasury Secretary?
Gold surges to another new high of $1167 per ounce
