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Fickle fate: MySpace's big challenger

Among social networking sites, MySpace has been dominating the headlines as the top site, particularly since Rupert Murdoch's recent acquisition. How much longer that is so is quite another matter.

Social networking is a fickle field in which destinies are rewritten by the day.

Bebo, born only 10 months ago, has just nabbed the No. 2 spot among social networking and chat sites in Britain and could be at No. 1 by September, and just this morning it became No. 1 in New Zealand, according to Hitwise, the online competitive intelligence provider.
Next, it's America, says the company, with a fresh $15 million investment in cash in its pockets. "Within the next quarter or two we will start making a push in the U.S.," says Jim Scheinman, vice president of Bebo, based in San Francisco.

As a larger market, the U.S. could also be tougher, but Bebo's prospects for challenging MySpace here as well are no less strong, say analysts. "It certainly can grow in the U.S., and I think that the infusion of capital they got this week will help that," observes Heather Hopkins, director of research at Hitwise UK.
Bebo was launched in July 2005 by British entrepreneur Michael Birch and his wife, Xochi, as a social networking site largely aimed at 13- to 24-year-olds. Earlier this week, venture capital firm Benchmark Capital Europe announced that it had invested $15 million in Bebo.

Bebo is focused around schools and university communities and allows its users to create home pages, blogs and make friends. Its tight focus around each user’s school can mean that it can spring quickly to popularity within a region as groups of friends at particular schools shift to the site.
While it is similar in many ways to social networking sites like MySpace, one key difference is that, as a new site, it has an easier interface, says Hopkins. "Teenagers tend to be a fickle bunch and so if there is something that is easier to use elsewhere they tend to move."

The site has shot up in the rankings in some of its key markets, such as Ireland, Britain and New Zealand, in recent months.
It is now ranked No. 2 in terms of share of visitors among social networking and chat sites in Britain. In the month of April, MySpace nabbed 11.89 percent of all visits to social networking sites, according to Hitwise, while Bebo snared 9.55 percent.

And the gap is closing fast. In the eight weeks ended April 29, Bebo’s share of visits to all categories rose 45 percent, compared to 29 percent for MySpace, according to Hitwise.
This has led Hopkins to forecast that by September, Bebo could nab the No. 1 place from MySpace in Britain, as measured by share of visits.

By contrast, in the U.S. Bebo ranked 29th by share of visitors in the social networking category in April. What’s more, MySpace, bought last year by News Corp. for $580 million, is in a formidable position in the U.S., with a market share of 43.51 percent, based on share of visits to networking and chat sites.

Nonetheless, Bebo’s popularity is growing in the U.S. Figures from Hitwise show that in the net communities and chat category the site has risen from No. 30 for the week ending March 4 to No. 25 for the week ending May 20.

"MySpace and Facebook and a few others have done a pretty good job in the U.S. and Canada, so it will take a little longer to achieve our goal there," says Bebo's Scheinman. "The best product in this space is going to win, and we feel we are the best. Meanwhile, elsewhere on the internet for the week ended May 14, Microsoft remained the No. 1 parent company, followed by Yahoo, Time Warner and Google, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. EBay fell out of the No. 5 spot to No. 6, bumped by News Corp.
 
Yahoo was again the top brand, followed by MSN and Microsoft. Last week’s No. 2 brand, Google, fell to No. 4, followed by AOL. GUS Plc held its lead in advertisements, followed by Vonage, United Online, NexTag and Low Rate Source. The No. 1 advertising site was still Yahoo, followed by MySpace, MSN, AOL.com and Juno.
 
Visits per person and domains visited per person stayed even at 16 and 38, respectively. Online time per person was up slightly from 16 last week to 16:04.