Gartner Analysts Research The Social Media Market – Grows to $7.25B

According to a Gartner Analyst report, the size of the Social Media market grew to $7.25B, with a B! If you aren’t using social media, you need to be. Per Gartner, “In the next two years, the growing demand for advertising on social networking sites will bridge the gap between the cost per click on Facebook and that on other websites.”

Facebook is the largest player in the social media market, with a 30% revenue market share. However, LinkedIn is gaining in popularity, along with Google, whose social media position has been boosted with Google+. 

Gartner breaks down social media revenue into:

• Advertising sales of display ads contribute to 61% of overall revenue. 
• Gaming – contributes 25% of revenue for social media; growing sector.
• Subscription Revenue – some professional networking sites like LinkedIn charge a subscription fee for advanced services.
• Other – revenue from paid applications like music, virtual wallets, etc. This sector will grow with social TV and other social experiences.

Gartner estimates worldwide page views for YouTube in 2010 to be 875 billion and that the company earns 99.5% of its revenues from ads. 

If you are focusing on an International Market, you might want to know that the top 5 social media sites worldwide are:

• Facebook – 30%
• Mobage (Japan) – 15%
• YouTube – 13%
• Gree (Japan) – 7%
• Ozone (China) – 7%
• Others – 28%

Per Gartner’s report, “In 2010 social sites began to earn increased ad revenue. As marketers transition from one-time placement and clicking of ads toward ongoing engagement with Internet users, more brands will consider advertising on these sites and a higher percentage of their budget will be allocated to them. A lot also depends on the percentage of engaged users that any website has, as marketers will spend ad dollars where they can be assured the maximum number of ‘eyeballs.’”

The breakdown for the amount of time spent per week on social networking sites is: 13% >10hrs., 22% <30 min., 29% 30 min. – 1 hr., 18% 1 – 5 hrs., and 18% 5-10 hrs. 

Gartner adds, “The industry is now preparing for the next phase — social ubiquity — in which consumers are almost constantly connected and aware of each other's locations and needs. Social ubiquity will empower consumers in new ways. They will be influenced by — and will influence — real-time information, contextual data and social factors that go beyond the physical sphere into the virtual.”