Internet Marketing Blog by Noon-an-Night

Earlier today, CNET published Nielsen’s data for April 2008 about social networks. Normally, these numbers basically reveal the same things every month, but there were some interesting trends that emerged from this set.

As you can see from the chart above, it seems that MySpace may have reached its critical mass. Although they’re still twice as big as Facebook, they’re only experiencing a fraction of the growth that Facebook is. If their rate of growth stays at the same level (or declines even more), Facebook may have a realistically chance at significantly closing the gap between them.

Another interesting data point is Club Penguin. In case you’re not familiar with Club Penguin, it’s a social network aimed at kids: “Using cartoon penguins as avatars, players waddle around, chat, play minigames, and participate in other activities with one another in a snow-covered virtual world.” It was acquired by Disney last year for $350 million. However, as the data shows, it’s having a hard time achieving any additional growth. The reason? As one commenter noted:

Club Penguin growth static? Of course it is, you have to PAY a Monthly Fee to enjoy half of it’s features! In today’s economy you think I want to PAY a Monthly Fee so my daughter can buy virtual clothes for a little penguin avatar?? Come on! She can visit half a dozen sites where she can do that, no charge! Charge money for WOW, leave the kiddie sites for free. Throw in an advertisement here and there to make up for it.

Finally, the last data point worth mentioning is LinkedIn. Although many people have thought that LinkedIn wouldn’t succeed, it’s still seeing an extremely high rate of growth. This is very good news for LinkedIn, since they may be in the process of looking for a billion dollar valuation.