2008 Social Media Statistics

Social Media Data Compiled by Austin's New Media Lab

nmlab.com

Facebook Statistics page 2

Twitter Statistics page 2
Linked-In Statistics page 3
YouTube Statistics page 3
Flickr Statistics page 3
Digg Statistics page 4
Wikipedia Statistics page 4
Blogs Statistics page 4

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2008: THE YEAR OF SOCIAL MEDIA GROWTH:
2008 saw a rise in traffic and contribution levels on all major social networking sites and
statistics can be found scattered across the Internet (as are warnings about the reliability,
subjectivity and interpretation of the various statistic sources) but we've simply compiled stats
from across the web to demonstrate the explosive growth of social media and some of the
demographics of the space so that out of the trillion unique URLs indexed by Google (1) and
the two billion searches on Google each day (2), you can better gage your online presence.

FACEBOOK:
Social networking site, Facebook grew 85% in 2008 (3), has 150 million users (4) and is
present in 170 countries (5) and is used on all continents, even Antarctica (4). Nearly half of
all Facebook users are on the site daily (4), over 35 languages are used on the site (4), and
over 54.5 million people visit each month (6). Despite Facebook's origination as a networking
site for college students, it has since evolved and less than 20% of users are under 18 (6).
Users average 100 friends (5) and currently, over 700 million photos are uploaded each
month (5) to the site.

Takeaway Facebook Statistics:

*150 million users, 54.5 million unique monthly visitors
*Grew 85% in 2008
*In 170 countries, all continents and is in 35 languages
*Under 20% of users are under age 18
*Users average 100 friends
*700 million photos are uploaded monthly

TWITTER:
Microblogging site Twitter grew an unprecedented 752% in 2008 (3) and has 4.43 million
monthly unique visitors (3). As of the date of publication, there were 1,128,618,000 tweets
since the site's launch (7) (and if you watch the live counter, it moves faster than the world
population clock). Twitter users are roughly 60% male, 40% female (8) and 45% have a
college degree while 15% have a graduate degree (8). Half of the users' household income
exceeds $75,000 (8) and it's no kiddo network- 20% are under age 35 while 40% are aged 45
and over and the most dense age group of users is aged 35 to 44 representing 40% of all
users (8).

Takeaway Twitter Statistics:

*Grew 752% in 2008, 4.4 million unique monthly visitors
*1,128,618,000 tweets so far
*60% of users are male, 40% are female
*45% have a college degree, 15% have a graduate degree
*50% have household incomes over $75,000
*20% are under 35, 40% are aged 35-44, 40% are 45 and older

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LINKED-IN:
This professional site acts as a resume sharing site with networking functionality. Although
Linked-In has been around for several years, the site traffic grew 153% in 2008 (3) and 319%
since 2007 (9), possibly as a result of a significant increase in the overall amount of people
using the Internet and consequently, networking sites. The lowest average user's household
income is $87,500 (10) and Linked-In has 30.1 million users (10). In September 2008 alone,
the site had 11.9 million unique visitors (11).

Takeaway Linked-In Statistics:

*153% growth in 2008 and 319% growth since 2007
*30.1 million users, 11.9 monthly visitors
*Lowest average household income is $87,500

YOUTUBE:
The video sharing site, YouTube is a great example of video viewing trends online. Although
the site's traffic only grew 21% in 2008 (3), YouTube has 258 million users (12), half of which
visit at least weekly (12). An average of 100 million videos are viewed every day (12), over 5
billion videos have been uploaded (13) and 13 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every
minute (14). What's incredible about the site is that it hosts 44% of all online video (14) and
did you know that 75% of Internet users view online video (13)?

Takeaway YouTube Statistics:

*21% growth in 2008, 258 million users, hosts 44% of all online video
*5 billion videos uploaded, 13 hours are uploaded every minute.
*100 million videos are viewed every day
*75% of Internet users view video

FLICKR:
Flickr is a photo sharing site that allows users to upload, comment on, organize and share
digital photos. In 2008, it grew 29% and has over 27.5 million monthly visitors (3). Flickr
hosted 2 billion images at the start of 2008, after several years in operation and in last year
alone, the site increased to 3 billion images uploaded (15), showing a rapid increase in photo
sharing. Flickr users are evenly divided in half by sex (17) and more than 70% have some
college education (8). Roughly 60 of users have incomes over $50,000 (8). The age
breakout may surprise some as less than 20% of users are under the age of 24, 40% are
between 25 and 44 while 40% are over the age of 45 (8), making it one of the more matured
audiences in the top social networking sites.

Takeaway Flickr Statistics:

*29% growth in 2008, 27.5 million monthly visitors
*3 billion images uploaded by the end of 2008
*50% male, 50% female users
*Over 70% have some college, 60% have income over $50,000
*20% under age 24, 40% aged 25-44, 40% are over 45

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DIGG:
This social bookmarking site allows users to share online articles and sites with each other
(and with the public) and is how many find new material to read. Digg grew an impressive
91% in 2008 (18) and has 33.4 million monthly visitors (8). Interestingly, 80% of Digg users
are male (8) and by far, the largest sector of age is 25-44 year olds (8). Digg users are
educated, with over 40% holding a bachelors degree (8) and 70% of users have household
incomes over $50,000 (8).

Takeaway Digg Statistics:

*91% growth in 2008, 33.4 monthly visitors
*80% of users are male
*Largest age demographic is aged 25-44
*40% of users have a bachelor's degree
*70% of users have a household income over $50,000

WIKIPEDIA:
This collaboratively written, dynamic online encyclopedia grew 15% in 2008 and has over
59.6 million monthly visitors (3). Wikipedia has over 10 million total articles in 250 languages
with 2.7 million articles written in English (16). There are over 75,000 active contributors to
Wikipedia (16) and the site is frequently referenced by traditional media outlets.

Takeaway Wikipedia Statistics:

*Grew 15% in 2008, 59.6 million monthly visitors
*Over 10 million articles, 27 million in English
*Over 250 languages

BLOGS:
Blogs are so hard to lump together as there are so many platforms, types and metrics, but
just Blogger.com alone grew 68% in 2008 (3), matching the trend of rapid growth evident
across all social media. There are 184 million people worldwide that have started a blog, 26.4
million of which are in the U.S. (17), 346 million people read blogs, 60.3 million in America
(17), and a reported 77% of active web users read blogs (17).

The trend toward blogging is unavoidable, even shown by journalists as 95% of the top 100
U.S. newspapers have reporter blogs (17). There are roughly 1 million blog posts every day
(17) and 80% of bloggers write product or brand reviews (17) while 31% say they "frequently"
blog about company information and gossip (17). 50% of bloggers see blogs becoming the
primary news source within five years (17) and 37% have already been quoted by traditional
media (17) as a result of their blogging efforts. 51% of bloggers are male, 58% of bloggers
are over the age of 35 and 42% are between 18 and 34 (17). 51% have a household income
over $75,000 (17), 74% are college graduates (17), and 44% are parents (17).

American bloggers spend 3.5 times longer on the web than watching television (17) and while
online, they do more than just write articles- 84% of bloggers comment on other blogs (17)

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and 64% use social networking sites (17). 69% of bloggers use an RSS feed reader (17) and
41% are Twitter users (17). Bloggers are diverse, active, and socially engaged and traffic
growth on blogs was highly evident in 2008.

Takeaway Blogging Statistics:

*Blogger.com grew 68% in 2008
*184 million people started a blog, 26.4 million in the U.S.
*364 million people read blogs, 60.3 million in the U.S.
*77% of active web users read blogs
*95% of the top 100 newspapers have reporter blogs
*37% of bloggers have been quoted in traditional media
*1 million blog posts are written every day
*80% of bloggers write product/brand reviews
*31% of bloggers frequently post company info and gossip
*50% of bloggers see blogs as the primary news source by 2013
*51% of bloggers are male, 42% are aged 18-34, 58% are over 35
*51% of bloggers have an income over $75,000
*74% of bloggers are college graduates, 44% are parents
*American bloggers spend 3.5 times longer on the web than watching tv
*84% of bloggers comment on others' blogs, 69% use a feed reader
*64% of bloggers use social networking sites, 41% are on Twitter

2009 TO SEE CONTINUED GROWTH:

Social networking sites have become a prevalent part of Internet use and a dominant way for
people to discover new information, network socially and professionally, and share
information along the way. 2008 was a year of explosive growth and 2009 is projected to
continue to grow (18) despite the challenges surrounding the social media space.

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SOURCES:
(1) http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/we-knew-web-was-big.html
(2) http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2008/09/05/how-many-searches-has-google-done/
(3) http://compete.com
(4) http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=46881667130
(5) http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
(6) http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/13/social-networking-will-facebook-overtake-myspace-in-the-us-in-2009/
(7) http://popacular.com/gigatweet
(8) http://ignitesocialmedia.com/2008-social-network-report.pdf
(9) http://mariosundar.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/linkedin-grows-audience-320-march-2008-nielsen-online/
(10) http://www.andersonanalytics.com/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,
0&cntnt01articleid=52&cntnt01origid=16&cntnt01detailtemplate=newsdetail.tpl&cntnt01dateformat=%25m.%25d.%25Y&cntnt01returnid=46
(11) http://mashable.com/2008/10/20/facebook-traffic-record/
(12) http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/28/morgan-stanleys-march-internet-trends-report-social/
(13) http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2444
(14) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube
(15) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flickr
(16) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About
(17) http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/
(18) http://www.scribd.com/doc/8944081/Social-Media-2009

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