Mirror, Mirror on the wall, Which is the stickiest of them all?
It’s not the mirror but Nielsen Netview that has the answer.
And it says Facebook.
It takes something special to hit a milestone of 300 million users and Facebook is currently the perfect role model for all websites in terms of web stickiness.
In August, the average time spent on Facebook by each person hit an astonishing figure of 5h 18 mins. That’s about twice of Google’s 2h 46 mins average. See the table below.
This does not mean that Google is not as good as Facebook. The difference in average time spent only shows how Facebook and Google serve different needs altogether! Facebook’s addictive games, endless quizzes and random chats have contributed greatly to this disparity.
Google aims to help us search fast; lower time spent on the site is definitely a good sign. But we must not forget that Google has multiple products such as Google Docs and Reader that keep us on its domain. It’s hard to tell whether it’s good news for Google when we are just analyzing one number.
Facebook still has vast room for improvement
Definition: Active Reach – The percent of active Web users who went to a specific site during the reporting period. Active Web users include anyone who went online or used an Internet application at least once during the reporting period.
Facebook currently has an Active Reach of 44.6%. Looking at it the other way, approximately 55.4% of active web users are not engaged on Facebook. On the other hand, competitors like Google and Microsoft are nearing the 100% mark at 84% and 75% respectively.
Bottomline: Facebook has yet to hit its peak. It has conquered the U.S and Europe market but not so yet in the Far East. Facebook Lite, a stripped down version of Facebook is here to the rescue.
Will Lite work? Only time will tell.
