The age of Facebook vs. MySpace

[Update: New November stats available here] This is a continuation of my look at social networks and their populations from a marketing perspective. When it comes to this arena Facebook has most of the buzz, but MySpace still has the volume. As strategic counselors to our clients, it is important to make qualified decisions about the vehicles we use as part of a campaign.

MySpace has become the red headed step child of the social media world as Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn have continued to gain popularity and support. But, what does MySpace really look like and how does it compare?

I was able to pull comparison numbers for the age of both networks and some interesting patterns emerged. Take a look at the following graph that shows MySpace in blue and Facebook in red.

The age of MySpace vs. Facebook (US)

Click to enlarge image.

MySpace has more people in every segment (nearly double across the board), but a couple points stand out:

• The 13-17 age group on MySpace is four and a half times larger than that of Facebook.
  
• Every age range between 18 and 50 is close to double on MySpace what it is on Facebook.
  
• The 50+ group on MySpace is 10 times larger than on Facebook, that is a 1000% difference.
  
• The 50+ age group on MySpace is nearly one quarter the size of the entire Facebook community.
  

Here are the actual numbers:

age range	Facebook	MySpace	variance
13-17	4,943,960	22,618,106	457%
18-21	9,957,600	20,326,180	204%
22-25	6,833,380	13,029,345	191%
26-30	4,282,200	10,528,581	246%
31-35	2,402,720	4,958,016	206%
36-40	1,503,640	2,843,813	189%
41-45	727,880	1,577,310	217%
46-50	473,240	981,911	207%
65+	703,020	7,030,912	1000%

Takeaways and questions:

• These numbers represent all total users, not active users so take it with a grain of salt.
  
• I don't have growth numbers on MySpace so it's tough to gauge its vitality at this point.
  
• MySpace has a huge number of Boomers in their community. I will watch this demographic in coming months.
  
• MySpace skews younger than Facebook, engaging more of the highschool population.
  
• Populations between MySpace and Facebook (18-50) mirror each other in terms of population trends.
  
• Both sites offer ad targeting
  

What do you think? Are you still considering MySpace for campaigns? The demographics and targeting options let you reach people in tailored ways. I do think that the marketing options on MySpace are very limited and that's one hesitation that I have personally. 

 

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advertising, Facebook, LinkedIn, marketing, Matt Dickman, social media, strategy, Techno//Marketer, Twitter

Comments

[Christian Averill]

Great post, but ultimately it's about what your strategy is. MySpace definitely has more volume, but behavior is different from that on Facebook.

[Matt Dickman]

Christian -- I agree about behavior, I think MySpace is a little more murky for marketers. What do you think the biggest behavior differences are? I personally have only had one actual connection on MySpace.

[Esteban]

Nice demographics, Matt.

I think you have a slight mistake on the:

The 50+ age group on Facebook is nearly one quarter the size of the entire Facebook community.

Should read:
The 50+ age group on MySpace is nearly one quarter the size of the entire Facebook community.

[Matt Dickman]

Esteban -- Thank you for pointing that out. I read over these things 10 times, but I always miss something. Much appreciated.

[Asi]

Hi Matt

It is my belief that soon enough there won't be much of a behavioural difference on FB MS and Bebo. They all platform for people to hang out, communicate, socialise, share and self-express.

MySpace still (probably for long time) carries the legacy of music where facebook plays on the social utility ticket.

Increasingly, all three are adopting the successful features and functionalities of each other so FB steps into artists page whereas myspace adopts the extremely popular newsfeed.

I very much agree that myspace is a mess for marketers and indeed murky. Let's not forget that back in 2006 every brand wanted to have a myspace page and today 99% or them are inactive - I see the same process repeats itself today on facebook.

For most people, SNS are for communication, sharing and self-expression, NOT for searching for products, marketing promotions or hunting for information.

As much as I want to believe that any brand's activity on SNS should be long term investment that is value-led and not brand-led, after reviewing hundreds of fan pages on FB I'm starting to believe that your best hope is to create a tactical high impact campaign-like activity and move away.

more here
http://no-mans-blog.com/2008/08/27/on-fan-pages/

keep up the great posts

A.

[SEO Services India]

Nice post.
Thanks for sharing.

[Matt Dickman]

Asi -- Thanks so much for the comment. I think you hit on a number of the challenges that marketers are having on these sites. At the end of the day it's about delivering value to the customer. That could be through the addition of a service or even the removal of one. Everyone should click through to your post too, very well written.

SEO -- Thank you!

[marketing is a dirty word]

Hi Matt
I'm wondering where you pull these stats from? I'm quite interested to do a similar comparison on which is the predominant social netwrok in Australia (I'm thinking it may be the reverse to the US situation i.e. facebook wins out, but not sure). Any guidance would be great.