Facebook sees 40 Percent Growth Year over Year

MySpace continues as Social Networking leader with 72 percent market share;
Summer sizzles for social networking as traffic increases 11 percent

NEW YORK, NY - July 23, 2008 - MySpace.com received 71.92 percent of the market share of U.S. visits in June 2008 among a custom category of 57 of the leading social networking websites according to Hitwise. The market share of U.S. visits to the social networking custom category increased 7 percent in June 2008 compared to May 2008 but has decreased 19 percent year-over-year.

Among the top 10 social networking websites, Facebook ranked second by the market share of U.S. visits with 16.91 percent, followed by MyYearbook, which received 1.54 percent. MyYearbook experienced the largest gain in market share in June 2008 among the top five visited websites, increasing 318 percent compared to June 2007. Tagged and Facebook followed, increasing 45 and 40 percent, respectively.

Seasonality of Social Networks - Updated

As Hitwise reported last month social networking websites see an increase in visits during the summer months. Comparing the average percentage of U.S. visits for June-August 2007 to same period in 2006 saw an increase in visits by 38 percent. So far this summer, the social networking category is averaging about 6 percent of U.S. visits which is up 11 percent compared to the other months in 2008. This trend was the same in 2007, up 16 percent in summer and in 2006, up 10 percent. For more analysis on this seasonal trend please visit the Hitwise Research blog  at www.ILoveData.com.

MySpace Tops among Average Time Spent

In June 2008, the average time spent among all social networking websites was 27 minutes and 34 seconds, representing an increase of 9 percent compared to June 2007. Among the top five most visited websites, MySpace led with users spending an average of 31 minutes and 12 seconds on the website. Facebook experienced the largest growth in average time spent, increasing 41 percent in June 2008 to 21 minutes and 6 seconds from 14 and 56 seconds in June 2007.

UK Figures

In the UK Facebook.com accounted for 45.29 percent of UK Internet visits to social networking sites during June 2007. This represents a 188 percent increase compared with a year ago. Bebo.com, which was the market leader last year, was the second ranked social networking site in the UK during June, with a market share of 25.04 percent. MySpace.com ranked third with a market share of 14.75 percent. Combined, the "big" social networks accounted for over 85 percent of UK Internet visits to the category in June 2008.

About Hitwise

Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Only Hitwise provides its 1,500 clients around the world with daily insights on how their customers interact with a broad range of competitive websites, and how their competitors use different tactics to attract online customers.

Since 1997, Hitwise has pioneered a unique, network-based approach to Internet measurement. Through relationships with ISPs around the world, Hitwise's patented methodology anonymously captures the online usage, search and conversion behavior of 25 million Internet users. This unprecedented volume of Internet usage data is seamlessly integrated into an easy to use, web-based service, designed to help marketers better plan, implement and report on a range of online marketing programs.

Hitwise, a subsidiary of Experian (FTS: EXPN) www.experiangroup.com operates in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. More information about Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.com.

For up to date analysis of online trends, please visit the Hitwise Intelligence-Analyst Weblogs at http://weblogs.hitwise.com and the Hitwise Data Center at www.hitwise.com/datacenter.