by Anna Buss
Changes in the age structure of social networks can create a critical situation for these communities.
Online networking is no longer dominated by younger users. Look at the international social network Xing: 37% of all members are older than 40. One example is the Spanish group “Mayores de 40 años” which has more than 4.500 members. “Older users are very motivated to organize events at the social network”, says Angela Rittig. As a Xing manager, she monitors this data carefully. In March 2009, 50% of all Xing-related events were organized by 40-50 year old members. Another example of this trend is Facebook: started as a service for university students, during the last months the network has added almost twice as many 50-64 year old users as new visitors under 18 years old.
The same effects are found in a study created in spring 2009 by The Nielsen Company: the biggest growth rate in social networks is seen in the group of users between 35 and 49 years old. The audience is becoming increasingly broader and older.
This development could create a critical situation if you look at advertising earnings: the clear, simple design with reduced advertising space seemed to be a motor of Facebook’s success. And maybe MySpace - a network that still has a younger audience - has a design that is too busy for 40+ people. But this busy design contains much space for ads. As a result, Facebook can attract more older users but does not have enough advertising space, and MySpace cannot attract older users but offers advertising space.
