The age of Facebook vs. MySpace; November update

This is the latest edition of my look at social networks and their populations from a marketing perspective. All numbers in this post are US-only and are collected using each site's advertising management systems so they are up to date and accurate from a marketer's perspective. (Who wants to talk about populations that can't be reached by marketing? Not me.)

There were some surprising shifts in the population of MySpace this month. Of note:

• 30.32% drop in the 14-17 age group (October-November)
  
• 32.93% gain in the 41-45 age group
  
• 40.65% gain in the 46-65+ age group
  

Facebook, by comparison had fairly consistent gains across all age groups. Increases ranged from 26.30% to 30.86%.

November's look at the real age of MySpace vs. Facebook (US)

Click to enlarge image.

Here are the actual November numbers:

age range	Facebook	MySpace	variance
13-17	5,189,680	17,573,640	339%
18-21	10,668,400	19,943,000	187%
22-25	7,558,940	12,597,340	167%
26-30	5,298,480	11,128,488	210%
31-35	3,370,360	5,720,288	170%
36-40	2,325,280	3,607,996	155%
41-45	1,157,860	2,096,724	181%
46-50	733,700	1,381,044	188%
51-65+	1,085,160	7,558,656	697%

MySpace continues to lead by volume across all age groups, here are some interesting details:

• Females make up 54% of MySpace and 58% of Facebook
  
• Males make up 45% of MySpace and 42% of Facebook
  
• Facebook's largest percentage gains vs. MySpace are in the 31-35, 41-45, 46-50 and 51-65+
  
• MySpace's total US population is 81,607,176
  
• Facebook's total US population is 37,387,860
  
• 
  

Key takeaways and burning questions:

• These numbers represent all total users who can be reached through each site's advertising systems (not all active users)
  
• I'm continually interested in the Boomer audiences on these sites and how they engage
  
• MySpace skews younger than Facebook, engaging more of the highschool population
  
• Populations between MySpace and Facebook (18-50) nearly mirror each other in terms of population trends
  

What do you think? Are you considering MySpace for campaigns? What other networks are you investigating? The demographics and targeting options on both sites let you reach your audience in targeted/tailored ways.

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Comments

[Scott Meis]

Thanks so much for sharing these updated stats Matt. Pretty surprising in my book especially with the huge gap that still skews towards MySpace with the 13-21 demographic. I'd be curious to see how many of those profiles remain active on MySpace. Maybe it's just me, but it feels like Facebook has all the momentum in their favor at the moment in terms of growth but it will be interesting to look at this snapshot a year from now to see how it pans out.

[Matt Dickman]

Scott -- Unfortunately, there is no way to tell the activity of the accounts (though that would be excellent). I think MySpace is still pretty active, however I think Facebook's population is more active as a percentage. That's just my opinion.

[David Kirkpatrick]

I find it hard to believe there are really almost 8 million Americans aged over 51 who are active on MySpace. Could that figure actually arise because of the large number of early teens who lie about their age in order not to appear ineligible for social network activity?

[Matt Dickman]

David -- Unfortunately, they don't let you filter by activity (it certainly doesn't behoove them to do so, think newspaper/magazine circulations). I am going to keep an eye on that number. It certainly does look a little out of place, but who knows. Thanks for the comment!