Quantcast Reports on 'Facebook Effect'

July 24, 2007; 08:00 AM

Quantcast, the first open Internet ratings site that enables Web publishers and advertisers to easily understand audience trends online, today released findings on what it calls "The Facebook Effect."

In an analysis of leading Quantified* Publishers, Quantcast found a common dramatic increase in traffic for those publishers that have built and deployed widgets (“applications”) on the Facebook platform.

“Just six weeks into Facebook’s open platform initiative, we are seeing striking results,” said Konrad Feldman, co-founder and CEO, Quantcast Corporation.  “The Facebook platform is driving substantial incremental traffic to application publishers’ Web sites, as consumers find new routes to exploring their wares.”

The Quantcast charts below (figures 1 and 2) reveal the relative growth in daily uniques to three leading widget publishers, each with multiple applications running on the Facebook platform.  Since Facebook’s open platform initiative began on May 25^th of this year:

• Slide, the leading personal media network, has more than tripled its global reach in Web site traffic.

- Slide grew domestic U.S. daily unique visitors from approximately 312,000 to more than 1.1 million, an increase of 265 percent. 

- Slide grew global daily unique visitors from approximately 753,000 to more than 2.3 million, an increase of 207 percent.

• HOTorNOT, an early leader in social media, has doubled its global reach in Web site traffic.

- HOTorNOT grew domestic U.S. daily unique visitors from approximately 182,000 to more than 350,000, an increase of 98 percent. 

- HOTorNOT grew global daily unique visitors from approximately 289,000 to more than 722,000, an increase of 152 percent.

• RockYou, creator and distributor some of the most popular self-expression widgets on the Web, has more than tripled its global reach in Web site traffic.

- RockYou grew domestic U.S. daily unique visitors from approximately 145,000 to more than 521,000, an increase of 228 percent. 

- RockYou tripled its global reach, increasing global unique visitors from approximately 286,000 to more than 1.3 million, an increase of 339 percent.

Figures 1 and 2 reveal the relative growth in daily unique visitors for domestic U.S. and Global audiences, respectively. http://www.quantcast.com/quantcast-facebook-effect-20070723.jsp  

Figures 1 and 2 reflect the relative traffic levels as a percentage of daily unique visitors at the beginning of the period for domestic U.S. and total Global  Internet, respectively, as  directly measured by Quantcast.  Slide, HOTorNOT and RockYou are members of Quantcast’s Quantified Publisher program.  Go to: http://www.quantcast.com/quantified-publisher.jsp .

“Like many publishers, we have had a great response from the Facebook community,” said James Hong, co-founder, HOTorNOT.  “We are thrilled that in addition to distributing our application, Facebook’s open platform is helping us introduce our Web site to the next generation of Internet users.”

"Facebook has been an instrumental platform to leverage our applications (widgets) and viral growth expertise,” said Jia Shen, CTO and co-founder, RockYou. “We've been able to successfully create the deep social experiences we are committed to. Already, 30% of user profiles on Facebook showcase a RockYou application. Quantcast has been a pivotal tool to gauge our growth and impact on this very dynamic and new platform.”

About Quantcast™ Corporation
Quantcast (www.quantcast.com) is the world’s first open Internet ratings service. The free service measures more than 30 million Web destinations and billions of Internet visits each month to produce comprehensive traffic, demographic and lifestyle profiles of online audiences. Quantcast’s models are derived from visits by more than 250 million Internet users, or 65 percent of the U.S. Internet market and 35 percent of the global Internet market. Quantcast helps advertisers gauge the audiences of millions of sites and services while enabling publishers to accurately represent their sites, videos and widgets through direct measurement. The company was founded by a team of web analytics experts committed to making accurate and insightful internet audience information available on the Web.
 

*Quantified publishers are those that have joined Quantcast’s free Quantified Publisher program and added pixels to their Web pages for direct measurement. To learn more, please go to: http://www.quantcast.com/quantified-publisher.jsp .