The age of Facebook vs. MySpace: February/March edition
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
So sorry for the delay in this report. MySpace seems to only update their ad targeting stats every other month (Facebook is done in real time). 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.)
What you need to know right now:
- For the first time, over half of the population of Facebook is over 25 (60% MySpace is still under 25)
- Overall Facebook is up 22% while MySpace is down .5%
- Facebook has now surpassed MySpace in 31-50 age ranges
- Facebook's 50+ group is the fastest growing followed closely by the 41-45 group
- MySpace's largest losses are ages 35 and under
- Facebook growth under age 25 is still slow (this group is maxing out)
MySpace down overall; Facebook over 50 booming; Facebook overtakes MySpace in the 31-50 populations
Total US populations of MySpace and Facebook:
Looking at Women on both sites:
Looking at Men on both sites:
Here are the actual Feb/March numbers:
| AGE RANGE | Δ last period | MySpace | Δ last period | |
| 13-17 | 6,051,940 | +7.58% | 17,072,104 | -0.18% |
| 18-21 | 11,572,420 | +6.65% | 19,840,744 | -0.81% |
| 22-25 | 8,715,060 | +11.61% | 12,346,236 | -1.46% |
| 26-30 | 7,703,320 | +22.55% | 10,949,876 | -1.86% |
| 31-35 | 5,859,840 | +29.63% | 5,778,080 | -0.44% |
| 36-40 | 4,941,180 | +38.16% | 3,744,776 | +1.27% |
| 41-45 | 3,000,860 | +47.33% | 2,226,476 | +1.80% |
| 46-50 | 1,950,220 | +50.57% | 1,510,488 | +3.39% |
| 51-65+ | 2,945,680 | +51.90% | 7,692,972 | +0.91% |
Other key takeaways:
- These numbers represent all total users who can be reached through each site's advertising systems (not all worldwide active users)
- MySpace's reporting system is not real time like Facebook's. Keep this in mind if you're planning a campaign.
- MySpace skews younger than Facebook, engaging more of the highschool population
- Facebook engages much more of the college population (inverse to MySpace)
- Women make up well over half of the Facebook population across all age ranges
- MySpace's 50+ population is over 70% female, Facebook is over 63% female
What do you think? What other networks are you investigating? The demographics and targeting options on both sites let you reach your audience in targeted/tailored ways and minimize waste. Knowing where your customers are is key.
Data sources: If you're curious, here is where the data comes from on both sites.
- Facebook - Go here http://www.facebook.com/ads/create and edit the audience settings as you wish. No need to even create an ad.
- MySpace - Go here https://advertise.myspace.com and then click "Click here to get started". Enter a test ad. Then you can filter by age/gender/geo/etc.
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