Yikes: MySpace Number 1

I stumbled across this Reuters piece that cites Hitwise data arguing that MySpace is now number 1 as a percentage of all US Internet visits (not in terms of unique users). Cue the “wadaga, wadaga, wadaga” sound of a cartoon character rapidly shaking his head from side to side.

Here’s additional coverage from Adotas, The Street and Search Engine Journal, which quotes comScore data cited by The Street to show diversification of MySpace’s audience:

[T]he News Corp. site has recently experienced declines in its audience aged 12 to 17, 12 to 24 and 12 to 34, while seeing increases in the 21-to-34, 25-to-34, and 35-to-54 demographics, according to data from comScore Networks . . .

Obviously lots of people are spending lots of time on the site. Part of that is undoubtedly curiosity, part of it is salacious voyeurism, part of it is herd mentality and part is real utility for some subset of users (see, e.g., Business & Entrepreneurs group).

If MySpace is going to realize the full monetization potential of its audience and build long-term stability, it’s going to need to evolve into something different. (The richest opportunity is probably as a media/video site.)

It started as a bunch of young people “checking out” each other and new bands. It’s starting to become a portal with a full range of content that would supplant music (by itself) or more prurient interests as a motivation for visiting the site. The recent SimplyHired integration (jobs) is one example of a valuable utility tapping into the massive audience on the site.

Regardless, MySpace may be able to generate tons of revenue through sponsored links and contextual ads just because of sheer traffic volumes on the site. And if the audience is truly diversifying then any more commercial evolution may not as severely impact the Gen Y, Z, AA audience’s perceptions of the site (as “uncool” or “so 2006″).

I’ll be open that I don’t like the user experience (or most of the content) on MySpace but it’s an undeniable force to be reckoned with online. All the market metrics, whatever their source, need to be considered with healthy skepticism but, directionally, nobody can argue with the rapid growth and sheer scale now of MySpace.

In case anyone doubted it, the Internet is a social medium and MySpace and other community/user-participation sites (e.g., Yahoo! Answers, YouTube) are making that point loud and clear. Here’s Robert Young (from GigaOm) with an interesting commentary on social media and “The Rise of the Social Media Empire.”

Five years from now it will be interesting to reflect on MySpace and what it will have become (assuredly something different than it is today).

Finally, this news (MySpace being #1) will no doubt feed a kind of panic and frenzy and may drive more M&A around social media (see my earlier post re Greed2.0).

Top Search Terms Driving Traffic to All Sites: Week Ending July 8, 2006

source Hitwise

Note also that eight (8) of the top 20 search queries above are explicitly or implicitly local.