Social networking sites are growing 47% year-over-year, according to a report by Nielson/NetRatings. Audience to social networking sites have increased from 46.8 million users in 2005 to 68.8 million in 2006.


Social networking sites are growing 47% year-over-year, according to a report by Nielson/NetRatings. Audience to social networking sites have increased from 46.8 million users in 2005 to 68.8 million in 2006.
Such sites reach 45% of active web users.

MySpace was the top social networking site with 38.4 million unique visitors as of April 2006, and a 367% year-over-year growth. Blogger was second with 18.5 million visitors and an 80% growth, followed by Classmates Online with 12.8 million visitors and a 10% growth.

Other sites in the top 10 list include:

YouTube: 12.5 million unique visitors

MSN Groups: 10.5 million unique visitors. Growth decreased 14%

AOL Hometown: 9.5 million unique visitors. Growth decreased 15%

Yahoo Groups: 9.1 million unique visitors with YOY growth of 11%

MSN Spaces: 7.1 million unique visitors with YOY growth of 286%

Six Apart TypePad: 6.7 million unique visitors with YOY growth of 32%

Xanga.com: 6.6 million unique visitors with YOY growth of 27%

The report also listed the top 5 websites based on retention rates. MySpace was top of the list with 67.04% retention rate, followed by MSN Groups with 57.62% retention rate.

Other sites in the list include:

Facebook: 51.73%

Xanga.com: 48.92%

MSN Spaces: 47.33%

The report listed the top 10 websites based on parent company, of which Microsoft was top with 112 million unique visitors, and by brand, of which Yahoo was top with 105 million unique visitors.

The report listed the top 10 advertisers, based on data from AdRelevance.

The top advertiser was Vonage Holdings with an estimated spending of $37.9 billion, followed by GUS Plc with $28.1 billion and United Online with $21.8 billion.

Other advertisers in the top 10 list were:

Netflix: $14.3 billion

LowerMyBills.com: $14.2 billion

Verizon Communications: $12.9 billion

Apollo Group: $11.5 billion

NexTag: $11.5 billion

E*Trade Financial Group: $10.3 billion

Scottrade: $8.8 billion

For more information on the report, click here.

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