Older Canadians Drive SocNet Growth

March 9, 2011

comscore-social-media-growth-canada-mar11.gifCanadians age 55 and up were the largest drivers of social networking growth in that country during 2010, according to a new report from comScore. Data from “The 2010 Canada Digital Year in Review” indicates between Q4 2009 and Q4 2010, Canadians age 55-64 experienced 36% growth in unique social networking visitors and 48% growth in total social networking visits.

Similarly, Canadians age 65 and older reported 36% growth in unique social networking visitors and 48% growth in total visits. Canadians 55 and up represent a combined 18% share of total social networkers.

Young Canadians Fall Away From SocNets

In contrast, social networking actually declined among Canada’s youngest consumers in the same time period. Canadians age 2-17 reported 9% fewer unique visitors and an 18% reduction in total visits.

Meanwhile, Canadians age 18-24 reported a 1% drop in unique social networking visitors and 7% reduction in total visits. Social networkers age 2-24 represent 27% of the total social networking population.Canadians between the ages of 25 and 54 reported moderate growth in both categories. In terms of share of social networking usage, consumers in this age range account for a total of 55% of Canadian social networkers.

Overall SocNet Use Up 13%

comscore-canada-socnet-2010-mar-2011.JPGLooking at overall Canadian usage of “conversational media” (social networking sites and blogs), the report indicates social networking usage increased 13% between Q4 2009 and Q4 2010, growing from about 21 million to 24 million unique visitors. In the same timespan, unique Canadian blog visitors increased 9%, from a little more than 16 million to almost 18 million.

Technorati Media Posts Largest Conversational Media UV, Time Growth Rates

comscore-canada-conversational-sites-2010-mar-2011.JPGOf the 15 leading Canadian conversational media sites by unique visitor in 2010, fourth-place Technorati posted the largest growth rate in unique visitors between Q4 2009 and Q4 2010, growing 40%. Technorati also posted the largest year-over-year increase in total minutes spent (161%).

However, Facebook is the clear leader among Canadian conversational media sites in terms of unique visitors. With more than 20 million in Q4 2010, Facebook more than doubled the unique visitors of second-place Blogger, which reported about 10 million. Facebook increased its unique visitors by 7% but saw its total minutes drop 4%.

Eleventh-place MySpace performed the most poorly year-over-year in terms of loss rates for both unique visitors (-42%) and total minutes (-76%).

Facebook Surges in US

US social networking category leader Facebook continued its momentum as it amassed millions of new users and people spent more and more of their time on the site, according to another recent report from comScore. “The 2010 US Digital Year in Review” indicates that Facebook accounted for 10% of US page views in 2010, while three out of every 10 US internet sessions included a visit to the site.

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