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Our Bureau

Coimbatore , May 29

A survey by Nielsen/NetRatings, an Internet media and market research firm, has shown a sharp rise in the growth of social networking sites. The study also said that successful sites exhibited a high visitor retention rate.

Mr Jon Gibs, Senior Director (Media), said that social networking sites were "the reality television of the Internet. The content is relatively inexpensive for publishers to produce. Social networking will become more ingrained in mainstream sites."

He added: "However, like reality programming, the concept of `reality' alone or (in this case) `social networking' may not be enough. In a competitive marketplace, sites would have to provide consumers with distinct content."

According to the survey, April's top 10 social networking sites collectively grew 47 per cent year-on-year, from 46.8 million last year to 68.8 million in April 2006, reaching 45 per cent of active Web users.

MySpace, which attracted significant media attention, topped the list with 38.4 million visitors (8.2 million), registering 367 per cent growth.

Blogger took the second spot, garnering 18.5 million visitors (10.3 million), growing at 80 per cent.

Classmates Online was third with 12.8 million visitors. Newcomer YouTube bagged the fourth spot, pushing MSN Groups and AOL Hometown further down the list. MSN Spaces, however, grew by 286 per cent.

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