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Public Council Teleconference: Application Rationalization — Hidden Costs and Smart Decisions
November 17 at 11:00 am US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Honorio Padrón, of The Hackett Group, who will share the drivers for companies to tackle application rationalization and the results of research that define the hidden cost of complexity. Additionally, we will discuss key decision milestones—to start or not, holding the course steady and fulfilling expectations.
Virtual Desktop Cost-Benefit Analysis — Michael Jacobs, Catlin Group
The analysis contained in this presentation measures the cost of everything from the machines and licenses to the infrastructure for virtual vs. traditional desktop environments.
Honor your best senior team members - Apply for the CIO Ones to Watch Award
Get well-earned public recognition for your top up-and-coming team members, your IT organization and your enterprise. Award winners will be announced, publicized and feted in May 2010, great timing to help attract new IT recruits to your company.
Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »January 17, 2008 — CIO —
A report released by Hitwise yesterday revealed that MySpace received 72 percent of the United States’ overall Web traffic from the 10 largest social networks in December 2007. But Facebook, which came in second with 16 percent, remains the fastest-growing social network.
The report measured the market share of social networking sites by calculating how many “visits” they received in December 2007 compared to the year before. A visit is defined as Web traffic directed at a domain or category of a social networking site.
Falling into third and fourth were Bebo and BlackPlanet, which both received around 1 percent.
The report painted a mixed picture for MySpace. In December 2007, about 95 percent of the site’s visitors were return users—people who had visited the site at least one other time in the same 30-day period—indicating a loyalty among its users. In addition, MySpace saw users spend an average of 29 minutes on the site, while Facebook trailed at 19 minutes. The one caveat: That was a nearly 10-minute increase for Facebook, while MySpace (which had 30 minutes last year) saw a slight downturn.
The latest Hitwise report shows the market share of the top 10 social networks and the year-over-year growth rate.
| Rank | Name | Dec '07 | Dec '06 | % change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MySpace | 72.32% | 78.89% | -8% |
| 2 | 16.03% | 10.59% | 51% | |
| 3 | Bebo | 1.09% | .99% | 10% |
| 4 | BlackPlanet | 1.04% | .96% | 8% |
| 5 | Club Penguin | .80% | .54% | 48% |
| 6 | Gaiaonline.com | .76% | .58% | 31% |
| 7 | MyYearbook | .73% | .14% | 407% |
| 8 | hi5 | .63% | .64% | -1% |
| 9 | Classmates | .55% | .58% | -7% |
| 10 | Yahoo 360 | .54% | .91% | -40% |
| Source: Hitwise | ||||
Nonetheless, both sites can use those numbers to help generate revenue from advertising.
“It’s a sign that [users] are coming back and interacting as much as possible,” says Heather Dougherty, Hitwise’s director of research.
“If you’re an advertiser looking to place media on the site, that’s very attractive.”
But MySpace also saw its growth rate shrink by 8 percent, paling in comparison to Facebook, which increased by 50 percent over last year. Jonathan Yarmis, an analyst with AMR Research, says those numbers indicate that Facebook has been able to evolve from a collegiate and high school phenomenon to engage a broader, older audience.
“The growth rate says it all,” Yarmis says. “By opening the platform, Facebook has seen a ton of growth from people who are not in the 20-something demographic. It’s to the eternal consternation of my son, who is 16, that I, at 52, have more friends than he does [on Facebook].”
What wasn’t immediately clear from the report was how many users entertain accounts in both Facebook and MySpace. Hitwise’s Dougherty couldn’t specify how many users had an account at both, but she did say that 7 percent of visitors to MySpace proceeded to visit Facebook immediately after. And 5 percent of Facebook users went to MySpace immediately after.