MySpace Is Over; Long Live Facebook

(MoneyWatch)  Mashable has posted a list of the top U.S. social networking sites, according to Nielsen Online, and though MySpace still dominates, with a unique audience in November of 59.1 million, that stat barely counts when you compare its year-on-year growth to the no. 2 social networking site, Facebook. In that category, Facebook shows 116 percent growth compared to last year, while MySpace had 3 percent growth compared to November last year. Wow.

Facebook's base was, not surprisingly, smaller, but as a result of growth that can only be described as meteoric, it now stands at 47.5 million users. As Mashable so rightly points out, it will surpass MySpace in unique users in 2009. Here are other telling stats: time spent per person on MySpace has declined by 23 percent; on Facebook it increased by 112 percent.

I find these numbers surprising only in how outsized they are, but maybe, upon further review, I shouldn't be surprised at all. As some of you know, I've written a column on social media for Mediapost for almost a year, and, as a result, I am Facebook-ed, Plaxo-ed, LinkedIn, MySpace-ed and Twittered within an inch of my life. Writing about social media is translated by many readers as an open invitation to friend you; every morning my inbox greets me with new friends and followers. Trust me, MySpace just ain't happening.

Since starting to write the column in February, my Facebook friends, most of whom I've never met, have increased from 54 to 256. My MySpace friends have increased from one to ... three. Two of those three work at MySpace, and, yes, one of those is Facebook (oops! I meant MySpace) founder Tom Anderson, who automatically becomes your MySpace friend when you sign up for an account. (I should add that I'm passive about gathering friends, even on Facebook. I haven't sought out Facebook friends at the expense of acquiring MySpace buddies. I let them come to me.)

Some who read this will argue that, as a forty-something somewhat early adopter, I don't fit the MySpace demo. That's true. But the Nielsen numbers make it painfully clear that, no matter what the MySpace demo is, MySpace is maxing out.