I received this post today on the changes on the Internet landscape over the past year. Many of us in the business may have felt the shift in the many ways people are now using this constantly changing medium. Interesting the I saw the shift long before the financial meltdown. We did a lot of email marketing for the retail industry. Around early to mid 2008 there seemed to be a shift in the business. Retail saw a down turn in sales - started to focus on cutting costs and doing everything themselves - even using Facebook before it was really popular.
Now the email marketing industry is gasping for it's very life as more and more companies are doing things within.
The stats in this article are amazing for anyone that follows the online world and trends that effect us all.
In summary, people aren't using eBay in this time of belt tightening, Craigslist traffic is down as people are staying put while MySpace,com, once the darling of the social networking universe is down 20% (not suprising).
The big upswing is of course Facebook, Twitter and suprisingly Walmart!
After looking at the numbers, I started playing with the list. I wonder if economists can now predict the state of things to come by the way the top ten web sites are shaping up!
Top 10 Web Properties by Traffic Increase for 2009
Rank Wessite Domain % change this year 55 Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football football.fantasysports.yahoo.com 1840% 40 Twitter www.twitter.com 559% 2 Facebook www.facebook.com 236% 13 AOL www.aol.com 170% 47 Yahoo! Profiles members.yahoo.com 140% 39 Match.com www.match.com 135% 48 Google Video video.google.com 124% 6 YouTube www.youtube.com 109% 31 Target www.target.com 69% 20 Walmart www.walmart.com 64% 7 MSN www.msn.com 58%
Here is my synopsis of what's happening:
1. America is staying home and watching sports, getting away from their troubles on Fantasy Football. 2. The rest of the country is using Twitter to track their every movement - while others want to know what their current friends are up to and catch up with old on 3. Facebook. 4. AOL emails were big from the beginning - all these people getting Twitter and Facebook messages are filling their AOL email boxes. 5. and 6. Spots 5 and 6 are dating site - people staying home still want to get laid! 7. and 8. Spots 7 and 8 are an example of just how popular online Video is on the Internet 9. People seeing all these deals are still willing to got to "Tar Jay" as many of my style maven friends that frequent Target and revel in the deals like Racoons washing their food. 10. Walmart in the number 10 spot - is great for entertainment, deals and people watching.
Since Walmart is coming to every town - it's now becoming the go to place for everything online!