From MySpace to MomSpace

Stats from comScore Media Metrix claim that in the US at least, MySpace has a much broader demographic than the teen segment it is commonly associated with. In fact only 30% are under 25, with just over half over 35.

They estimate that MySpace has 56m users in the US, against Facebook’s 15m, Xanga’s 8m and Friendster’s 1m, but surprisingly they omit Bebo from their stats.

Whether the early adopting teens will approve of Mom and Dad playing in their space is another matter, but social networking sites are broad enough for multiple niches to interact independently of each other. Certainly the stats indicate how social networking has infiltrated the mass market as it moves along the technology adoption curve at rapid speed.

The stats have raised eyebrows in the blogosphere as well as in a straw poll in the office, although Giga Om writes that it has had the figures confirmed by Fox Interactive.

From a UK perspective, it is not a huge leap of faith to believe that those ‘oldies’ among the 14m that got to grips with this space through Friends Reunited are now finding their way onto the next generation of social networking sites.