About Hitwise
Hitwise is the leader in online competitive intelligence. Contact Hitwise to maximize your online marketing programs.
Hitwise Intelligence - Heather Hopkins - UK
Analyst Weblog
« Big Brother 7 Strong Launch - Pete Favourite So Far | Nike Ipod Tie Up - A Good Match Online »
Bebo and MySpace Complementary?
May 23, 2006
I just got off the phone with Heidi Dawley, a UK based journalist writing about MySpace and Bebo for Media Life Magazine. During our conversation she asked a good question, "Does Bebo threaten MySpace"?
A couple of weeks ago, I predicted that Bebo would overtake MySpace in share of UK internet visits before the start of the new school term. Bebo is a much stronger force in the UK than in the US, where it ranked 25th in our Net Communities and Chat category last week. Sandra posted this morning that Bebo is bigger than MySpace in New Zealand. Hence my particular interest in Heidi's question - with Bebo gaining in popularity in the UK and Asia Pacific - does it threaten MySpace.
I responded that it is unlikely that Bebo will replace MySpace - rather than the audience's attention being diverted from one to the other, it is more likely that the audience's attention will fragment. It is hard for one platform to be all things to all people. For example, MySpace might be the place I go to discover new music but Bebo may be where I go to connect with classmates (were I still in school!).
I looked at Hitwise to see if our data supported my claim. In April, 1 in 10 visits to MySpace came from other sites in the Net Communities and Chat category. Bebo was the top site in the category referring visits to MySpace, accounting for 2.51% of upstream visits to MySpace (see table below). Bebo receives 7% of its visits from other sites in the Net Communities and Chat category, with MySpace accounting for 2.28% of its traffic.
There is a natural flow of traffic among social networking sites and so this audience fragmentation already exists. It will be interesting to watch to see if the share of visits downstream from MySpace continues to increase as Bebo captures a larger share of the UK market.
Posted by Heather Hopkins at 12:30 PM
| 
(3)
| 
(0)
TrackBack
TrackBack URL:
http://weblogs.hitwise.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/217.
Comments
James, you are right Bebo and Friends Reunited go after a similar audience and so are truer competitors than Bebo and MySpace. However, Bebo overtook Friends Reunited in UK visits in the week ending 19th November 2005. Also, Bebo executives seem to have their sights set on MySpace in the US. I have seen some interesting quotes this week from their executives about how they will use their new found funding.
More fun to come!
Posted by Heather Hopkins | May 24, 2006 06:31 AM
The main threat from Bebo is to ITV and their investment in Friends Reunited. Bebo has rolled out a much more advanced platform based around school/ college social networking with all the digital lifestyle features (photos, video, rich profiles) that FriendsReunited was so slow to develop.
Posted by Jamescoops | May 23, 2006 08:59 AM