VC looks behind the numbers of social networks

July 23, 2007 By

Jeremy Liew is a venture capitalist with Lightspeed Partners and is becoming one of my favorite VC blogs. Anyway, tonight he digs into the usage numbers of the top social networks. I learned some interesting things. First, Facebook isn’t most popular. I already knew that. MySpace is used WAY more often (my brother, Ben, is on MySpace). Second, that Google’s Orkut usage is higher, even in the US, than I expected.

I have some theories about all these numbers. I might do a video for my Facebook friends in the morning, but gotta get some sleep first.

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  • http://www.watblog.com/ Priya S

    In India Orkut takes the cake for being the most notorious and famous social Network, Facebook is slowly catching on quickly . Though i like facebook much better, coz after a point of time orkut just got static, there was nothing beyond scrapping.

    This post makes interesting reading for why Orkut works in India http://watblog.com/?content=detail&id=930

    Cheerio!

  • http://www.watblog.com Priya S

    In India Orkut takes the cake for being the most notorious and famous social Network, Facebook is slowly catching on quickly . Though i like facebook much better, coz after a point of time orkut just got static, there was nothing beyond scrapping.

    This post makes interesting reading for why Orkut works in India http://watblog.com/?content=detail&id=930

    Cheerio!

  • http://www.beercosoftware.com/ Chris

    Did anyone consider the fact that Hi5 considers 20M in VC as a huge find troubling when Facebook a site that trails it in Alexa traffic rankings is supposedly valued at 6 Billion dollars?

    Hi5 says:
    “Yahoo! We have 20 Million dollars!, Finally!, now we can afford to REALLY do something cool”
    while sitting at #11

    Facebook says:
    “We’re worth wayyyyyy more than 6 billion”
    While they’re 2 back at #13

    Are you guys over in the Silly Valley all on crack?
    Sorry, It just defies all logic.
    You all over there, Scoble included are MASTER illusionists. With a capital M.

  • http://www.beercosoftware.com Chris

    Did anyone consider the fact that Hi5 considers 20M in VC as a huge find troubling when Facebook a site that trails it in Alexa traffic rankings is supposedly valued at 6 Billion dollars?

    Hi5 says:
    “Yahoo! We have 20 Million dollars!, Finally!, now we can afford to REALLY do something cool”
    while sitting at #11

    Facebook says:
    “We’re worth wayyyyyy more than 6 billion”
    While they’re 2 back at #13

    Are you guys over in the Silly Valley all on crack?
    Sorry, It just defies all logic.
    You all over there, Scoble included are MASTER illusionists. With a capital M.

  • mikeelliott1

    Amazing how quickly Livejournal has fallen off the face of the earth.

    http://mikeelliottsblog.wordpress.com

  • mikeelliott1

    Amazing how quickly Livejournal has fallen off the face of the earth.

    http://mikeelliottsblog.wordpress.com

  • http://www.beercosoftware.com/ Chris

    BTW, buddy Matt from Copernic still needs a contract so if you are interested, you can still contact us. He is wicked good with the desktop application of search engine technology. I have one offer from GB, but that is on hold for 2 days. Even if you want him at your company offices, I can try arrange it for a transaction fee. Good people are very hard to find. Now to tie it into this post. Perhaps Hi5 with their new found 20M would like to hire somebody to improve their site or search. I would happily broker it for them. Matt is a friend and a super programmer.

  • http://www.beercosoftware.com Chris

    BTW, buddy Matt from Copernic still needs a contract so if you are interested, you can still contact us. He is wicked good with the desktop application of search engine technology. I have one offer from GB, but that is on hold for 2 days. Even if you want him at your company offices, I can try arrange it for a transaction fee. Good people are very hard to find. Now to tie it into this post. Perhaps Hi5 with their new found 20M would like to hire somebody to improve their site or search. I would happily broker it for them. Matt is a friend and a super programmer.

  • http://wttf.org/ jeremy

    My 2 cents, Myspace has been a lot more customizable which is a big draw for a lot of the creative types, or those that want to feel creative. Whether or not this was a good idea varies from person to person, but it can definitely puts it’s flaws right out in front.

    Facebook Always seemed so elitist to me because at first you couldn’t get in unless you were enrolled in a school. Fresh out of college, and it wouldn’t let me sign up for an account so I never went back.

    Personal blogs, now that’s where it’s at. It’s a pitty livejournal isn’t up there, but it’s stayed the same for so long.

  • http://wttf.org jeremy

    My 2 cents, Myspace has been a lot more customizable which is a big draw for a lot of the creative types, or those that want to feel creative. Whether or not this was a good idea varies from person to person, but it can definitely puts it’s flaws right out in front.

    Facebook Always seemed so elitist to me because at first you couldn’t get in unless you were enrolled in a school. Fresh out of college, and it wouldn’t let me sign up for an account so I never went back.

    Personal blogs, now that’s where it’s at. It’s a pitty livejournal isn’t up there, but it’s stayed the same for so long.

  • http://act2.spaces.live.com/ Alfred Thompson

    The question though is quality over quantity. Since advertising pays for so much of this activity things get more complex. Facebook reaches a different demographic than MySpaces. Would you rather reach 70,000,000 teams with small amounts of money to spend or 35,000,000 18-35 years olds with much larger amounts of money to spend? It may depend on what you are selling of course but in general isn’t the 18-35 group the “prime target” for most advertising?

  • http://act2.spaces.live.com Alfred Thompson

    The question though is quality over quantity. Since advertising pays for so much of this activity things get more complex. Facebook reaches a different demographic than MySpaces. Would you rather reach 70,000,000 teams with small amounts of money to spend or 35,000,000 18-35 years olds with much larger amounts of money to spend? It may depend on what you are selling of course but in general isn’t the 18-35 group the “prime target” for most advertising?

  • http://livinginfirstlife.wordpress.com/ Jay (living in First Life)

    Alfred – you miss the point. Facebook is not targeted anymore. Everyone can join.

  • http://livinginfirstlife.wordpress.com Jay (living in First Life)

    Alfred – you miss the point. Facebook is not targeted anymore. Everyone can join.

  • http://chiperoni.org/ n,n.

    i signed up at Facebook to evaluate.
    I’m tired of re-adding friends, etc. I’ve already done that at Xing, LinkedIn, etc.

  • http://chiperoni.org n,n.

    i signed up at Facebook to evaluate.
    I’m tired of re-adding friends, etc. I’ve already done that at Xing, LinkedIn, etc.

  • http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog Dare Obasanjo

    You’re surprised that Orkut has ~600,000 unique users a month which is less than Vampirefreaks.com and Hoverspot.com? How unpopular did you think the service was?

    Oh, maybe you were confused by the fact that they seem to have a huge number of page views per user (in the hundereds)? That usually points to a badly designed user interface in this age of AJAX.

  • http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog Dare Obasanjo

    You’re surprised that Orkut has ~600,000 unique users a month which is less than Vampirefreaks.com and Hoverspot.com? How unpopular did you think the service was?

    Oh, maybe you were confused by the fact that they seem to have a huge number of page views per user (in the hundereds)? That usually points to a badly designed user interface in this age of AJAX.

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  • http://500hats.typepad.com davemc500hats

    good post by Jeremy, however i still think user engagement metrics need to be overhauled.

    User Engagement is a Depth, not a Breadth, Metric.
    http://500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/2007/07/user-engagement.html

  • http://www.financebam.co.uk/car-insurance/ sakthi

    I’m using Orkut,Facebook and Hi5, but I little bit feel sick about Facebook system. Every time I send message to people it asking me to enter security code(captcha), the letters in the box also not clearly visible..
    car insurance comparison

  • http://www.financebam.co.uk/car-insurance/ sakthi

    I’m using Orkut,Facebook and Hi5, but I little bit feel sick about Facebook system. Every time I send message to people it asking me to enter security code(captcha), the letters in the box also not clearly visible..
    car insurance comparison

  • http://500hats.typepad.com/ Dave McClure

    good post by Jeremy, however i still think user engagement metrics need to be overhauled.

    User Engagement is a Depth, not a Breadth, Metric.
    http://500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/2007/07/user-engagement.html