MediaPost’s Research Brief has an interesting collection of data from Nielsen Online. Note how much video is watched on Facebook versus Myspace:
Top 5 Social Networking and Blog Sites Ranked (April 2009, U.S. Home and Work) Site Total Video Streams
(000)Time Spent Viewing
(Minutes x 000)Myspace.com 120,793
384,030
41,537
113,502
Stickam 19,617
54,522
FunniestStuff.net 10,206
34,456
Funny or Die 6,503
17,725
Source: Nielsen VideoCensus, June 2009
So we all thought that Facebook was taking over the world. It turns out that more people are watching video on Myspace, and for a longer period of time (a ratio of 3 to 1!).
What does this mean for us? Not much. I won’t post personal video to either Facebook or MySpace, because I’m scared about the ownership issues involved. Promotional video (movie trailers, band promos) should go up on all of the sites to ensure maximum saturation. And I can’t help but cringe at the quality of video on both MySpace and Facebook; it is for that very reason that I have posted my company’s promotional work on Vimeo instead of any of the top social networking or video sites.
It does have relevance, though, to remind us that the “hot trends” that get reported on often only have a kernel of truth, and the true picture is much more nuanced or complex. While Facebook is having a banner year, MySpace is not losing as much ground as the mainstream media would have you believe; and MySpace actually is “stickier” (people stay on the site longer), something that advertisers are very aware of.