Use of social network sites decreases

Internet consumers may be scaling down their use of social networking sites because of the increased presence of advertising.

Following data produced by market researcher comScore, BusinessWeek reported that the last four months have witnessed average user time spent on social sites decrease by 14 per cent.

The most popular of these sites, MySpace, saw its user population fall to 68.9 million in December, down from 72 million in October.

Ad spending for social networking sites has increased dramatically, with global spend soaring to $1.2 billion (£6.2 million) in 2007.

eMarketer has estimated that this will increase to $2.1 billion (£1.1 million) this year.

However, the recent decrease in user time spent on social networking sites suggests such spend may be disproportionate.

Tim Vanderhook, chief executive officer of Specific Media, remarked: "What you have with social networks is the most overhyped scenario in online advertising."

Video game publisher Green Screen stopped advertising on MySpace last year due to a poor response rate.

© Adfero Ltd