June 28, 2007
Portals lose ground to the social networks
If you were still in any doubt as to why Yahoo! and MSN are in the tank, this chart should make all crystal clear (it’s from Sandeep Aggarwal at Oppenheimer, who has just started coverage of the internet advertising sector, based on comScore data.)
The reach of the big portals, in terms of unique visitors, has not diminished, but the shift in pageviews to the social networks has been striking.
However, anybody tempted to gloat too quickly about the fate of antiquated "Web 1.0" companies like Yahoo should weigh up the wider implications of this. This change in online behaviour is potentially disruptive to the entire internet advertising business, as noone has yet worked out how best to monetise these socially-connected eyeballs. Change on this scale can be painful.
This proofs what we thought for a long time now. Time spent on Social Networking sites has to be taken from someone, and it can’t be only the TV…
Posted by: Göran Askeljung | June 28th, 2007 at 6:19 am | Report this comment