Facebook’s Traffic up 89% Since Open Registration
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Written By Emily Koh | July 6, 2007 | Share This
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Facebook continues to be the poster child of social networking success: new data released by comScore Media Metrix today revealed that Facebook had an 89 percent increase in traffic since last year, having grown to 26.6 million unique U.S. visitors in May 2007. The influx is presumably a result of Facebook opening registration to the public in September 2006, instead of just to college and high school students and businesses.
What’s interesting is that the most dramatic growth was not from the original target audience of 18-24 year olds, which only saw a paltry 38 percent growth, but among 24-35 year olds (up by 181 percent), 12-17 year olds (up 149 percent) and 35 years old and older (98 percent). Even more interesting is that unique visitors who were 35 and older now make up the biggest demographic within Facebook at about 10 million unique visitors — that means nearly 40 percent of users are not your fresh-eyed college kids, but their bosses or even parents. From the official comScore press release:
“Given its roots as a college networking site, Facebook has historically shown very strong skews toward the 18-24 year old age segment,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. “However, since the decision to open registration to everyone, the site has seen visitors from all age groups flood the site. As the overall visitation to Facebook continues to grow, the demographic composition of the site will likely more closely resemble that of the total Internet audience.”
Though user growth bodes well for Facebook (and potential investors?), it also brings up new privacy issues. Dana Borgatin at Inside Chatter points out that this shift in demographic now resembles that of MySpace, which also underwent the same transition:
What’s more, the “old folks” now outnumber the youngins at Facebook. Is that really a good thing? When MySpace met with the same aging effect last year due to more mainstream adoption of its property, the number one social network was derided for losing the youthful glow so cherished by marketers.
Facebook now finds itself in the same youth no longer rules social networking boat. Will marketers balk? After all, Facebook gears its entire advertiser pitch around a claim to offer the “ideal” audience of “youth trend-setters” critical for brand success.
Now that Facebook isn’t just catering to the college set, it may have a difficult time evolving to meet its new majority audience, while staying relevant to the core group that defines it.
Topics: Social Media |