The trend graph below from Comscore/Chicago Tribune will likely tell you some things that you already knew, or at least suspected:
- Facebook is continuing its steady rise in popularity
- Twitter has experienced exponential growth over the last 12 months but user numbers are now steadying
- MySpace plateaued, and its popularity is on the decline
Importantly, these trend graphs measure ‘unique visitors’ as opposed to simply restating the total number of registered users. That’s important because it indicates how many people actually decided to login in a given month.*
In this light, the downward trajectory of MySpace looks bad indeed. What’s also interesting is the steadying of Twitter’s growth. I would wager a guess that this illustrates the high rate of churn from people who saw Twitter as the next big thing because of all the media hype, signed up, and then tuned out.
A final word on revenue streams, or lack of them in Twitter’s case. MySpace has a couple. Facebook is now profitable. And Twitter will ‘roll out premium accounts this year’.
Oh dear.
[Sources: Comscore, Chicago Tribune]
