Youths No Longer Predominant at MySpace: Half of site's users 35 or over

[Mutley]

NYT/AP: Youths No Longer Predominant at MySpace
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 6, 2006

NEW YORK (AP) -- It's not all youths on MySpace. Half of the site's users are 35 or older, according to comScore Media Metrix's analysis of its U.S. Internet traffic measurements. Only 30 percent are under 25 despite a common belief that the site is mostly populated with kids and young adults.

Just a year ago, teens under 18 made up about 25 percent of MySpace, the popular online hangout run by News Corp. That's now down to 12 percent in the comScore analysis released Thursday.

By contrast, the 35-54 group at MySpace grew to 41 percent in August, from 32 percent a year earlier.

''This analysis confirms that the appeal of social-networking sites is far broader,'' said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president for comScore, adding that the data suggest that social networking is becoming mainstream.

Sites such as MySpace encourage their users to stay in touch by offering tools such as message boards, photo sharing and personal profile pages. Members can expand their networks by adding other users as friends and, in turn, connecting with their friends....

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Social-Networking-Youths.html

[qnr]

1. Run by News Corp? The Murdoch News Corp? Seems like a lot of DUers

use it. Up to them of course, I'm just a little surprised.

[mark414]

2. they bought it out a couple years ago i believe

once it became clear that this thing was gonna be a huge deal...i think the price was somewhere in the "low" billions

[qnr]

3. I hate when that happens. Most of the time it doesn't work out well,

though I have no experience with MySpace (I think that's the name we're talking about) so I don't know if the purchase had any impact on the concept or implementation.