MySpace — Not for Kids

By Ian, on October 5th, 2006

The majority of MySpace users (51.6%) are aged 35 and older, according to a press release from metrics company comScore.

An analysis of visitors to MySpace.com shows that as the site has experienced dramatic visitor growth, it has become more popular among older Internet users. The most significant shift has occurred among teens 12–17, who accounted for 24.7 percent of the MySpace audience in August 2005, but today represent a much lower 11.9 percent of the site’s total audience. Conversely, Internet users between the ages of 35–54 now account for 40.6 percent of the MySpace visitor base, an 8.2 percentage point increase during the past year.

By contrast, it is the network’s competitors, principally Xanga and Facebook that attract younger audiences.

What to make of this? Well, MySpace has been around for longer than a lot of its current competitors, if only by a couple of years. Perhaps older people are more likely to sign up for the best-known of these sites, rather than a younger competitor? Perhaps, too, older people are less likely to move elsewhere.

It is unclear, as well, whether these ‘visitor’ figures are drawn from accounts, or active users. If the former is the case, older people curious about social networking sites would presumably be drawn to try out the well-known MySpace rather than a lesser known site. That’s what I did, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that was true of other (crinkly) people.