Study: U.S. social networking users up 44% by 2013

Posted by Erina Lin on February 18, 2009 at 3:21 AM

The number of people in the United States using social networking sites at least on a monthly basis will grow 44 percent from 79 million in 2008 to 115 million in 2013, a new study by eMarketer predicts.

The growth will mostly come from boomers, Generation X and tweens, Media Post reported.

eMarketer estimated that the number of users between ages three to 11 will boost 61 percent, while adults 18 and over will be up 49.5 percent, and teens 20.1 percent, in the next five years.

The overall U.S. social networking users will increase 11 percent to 88.1 million this year, Media Post reported.

One of the two leading players, MySpace, already has 130 million users worldwide, 76 million of whom are in the United States. Facebook, on the other hand, has more 175 million active users, with 70 percent are outside the United States. Facebook has been growing strong recently, with around 600,000 new users added every day, Media Post reported.

eMarketer especially highlighted the following trends in the study, such as the expanding user demographics, rising engagement, the impact of mobile social networking and Twitter, and whether the rapid growth of Facebook in the second half of 2008 will continue.

The research company also encouraged marketers to engage users while they share product recommendations and buying advice. "This organic flow of information is difficult to track and capture, but companies should find the tools to understand the impact of social network communication on the purchase process," according to Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst and the author of the report.