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Hitwise Intelligence - Alan Long - Asia Pacific

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Social Media overtakes Search Engines

January 22, 2010

In our recent report on Social Media in Australia, ‘The Rise and Rise of the Social Network”, I highlighted Social Networking and Forums growth and predicted that it would overtake Search Engines in visits during the weeks either side of Christmas.

The chart below confirms that during the week of Christmas (week ending 26 December 2009) the Social Networking and Forum industry category overtook Search Engines share of visits for the very first time. While this looked like a short term lead, we are now seeing continued growth of Social Networking and Forums to now sit just 0.4% share behind Search Engines in week ending 16 January 2010.

A daily pattern that has emerged over the past three months is Social Networking and Forums attracting increase share during the weekends, predominantly on Sunday. The first daily lead by Social Networking and Forums compared to Search Engines was on Sunday 15 November 2009, and the first full weekend was Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd November 2009.

In week ending 26 December 2009 Social Networking and Forums gained its highest market share for the year peaking at 14.8% on Christmas Day. Search Engines highest market share day of 2009 was Saturday 10 January at 14.5%.

Underpinning Social Networking and Forums’ growth has been a number of key websites, including Facebook and YouTube. Facebook and YouTube both had their highest share of visits for 2009 on Christmas Day (25 December 2009) with shares of 8.0% and 2.2% respectively.

2010 is set to be another year of strong growth for the Social Networking and Forums category, and for marketers the challenge is to effectively participate and generate word of mouth that has measurable and effective business outcomes.

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