MySpace.com Growing Up
MySpace.com is breaking its mold of the teenage online hotspot and is attracting more of an older crowd according to a recent analysis by comScore Media Metrix. According to comScore, more than half of the users of MySpace are 35 or older.
An analysis of visitors to MySpace.com shows that as the site has experienced dramatic visitor growth, it has become more popular among older Internet users.
The most significant shift has occurred among teens 12-17, who accounted for 24.7 percent of the MySpace audience in August 2005, but today represent a much lower 11.9 percent of the site’s total audience.
Conversely, Internet users between the ages of 35-54 now account for 40.6 percent of the MySpace visitor base, an 8.2 percentage point increase during the past year.
Liz Gannes of GigaOm did her fact checking on this news, contacting MySpace for confirmation on comScore’s study. Liz writes :
We called Fox Interactive spokesperson Ann Burkart to ask if comScore is off the deep end on this one, and she said the numbers are actually totally accurate with what MySpace is seeing internally.
Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix, notes; “As social networking sites have become mainstream, the demographic composition of MySpace.com has changed considerably. Last year half of the site’s visitors were at least 25 years old, while today more than two-thirds of MySpace visitors are age 25 or older,” continued Mr. Flanagan.
“It will be interesting to monitor the shifts in Facebook’s demographic composition that will undoubtedly occur as a result of the company’s recent decision to open its doors to users of all ages.”
Older users more than likely means users with more income and a wider marketing mix for Fox Interactive and Google (the MySpace search partner) to profit from.
