Advertisers to spend more on social networks

U.S. ad spending on social networks will hit $900 million this year, up from $350 million last year, according to research from eMarketer. Further, between 2007 and 2011, U.S. ad spending on social networks is expected to increase 180% to $2.5 billion, predicts eMarketer’s new report, “Social Network Marketing: Where to Next?”

“The lead players, MySpace and Facebook, continue to perform strongly and will account for 72% of all U.S. revenue in the category this year,” says Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst and report author. “Beyond that, hundreds of new social networking ventures are coming online and existing web sites are adding social networking capabilities.”

Of all U.S. web sites in February 2007, MySpace received the greatest market share of unique visitors, 5.93%. Facebook came in 11th with 0.76% and YouTube hit 12th with 0.61%.