The Middle Aged Discover Facebook (A Little Late to the Game)

"Because the mind of an over-50 is likely superior to that of a drink-addled undergrad, at first there was uncertainty about whether older users would find the Facebook-led social-networking phenomena attractive." -- Chris Stevens in the UK's Telegraph newspaper

MySpace and Facebook aren't just for high school and college kids any more.

Back in May, market research firm ComScore Media Metrix reported that Facebook had over 10.4 million users aged 35+ ... a 98% increase from twelve months earlier. Although "35+" is a pretty broad demographic, it's the largest of four age groups in the study, making up about 40% of Facebook users.

That 98% growth did trail the 25-34 group (+181%) and users age 12-17 (+149%); however, it exceeded growth in Facebook's original 18-24 target demographic.

Facebook isn't the only social networking site with a substantial older following -- the original mega-site, MySpace, has similar appeal among the middle aged. In October 2006 -- a generation ago in internet time -- Comscore said that 40% of MySpace visitors were 35-54, up from 32% a year earlier.

The success of mainstream social networking sites like Facebook seems to have stunted the growth of niche sites targeting the middle aged. In May, Hitwise listed the top ten U.S. social networking sites; none were aimed at middle aged (or older) adults. The result is a mini-shakeout. Eons laid off 1/3 of its staff in September; in October BOOMj was sold to a direct mail mortgage marketing company with a miniscule $1.4m market cap. They presumably found BOOMj's mailing list to be the only asset of value. And VOIS.com (VOIS:OB), which in June said it was "social networking / social commerce" site for users 30-50 now seems to have become something else as the company seeks to raise funds.

The smaller sites may be missing the benefit of the "network effect:" if all your friends are on one large network -- and you can easily find them -- what can a smaller, age-targeted one offer? Especially if the large sites offer the ability to filter out tens of millions of users and focus on the thirty you want to engage with? It's hard to imagine elements of a social networking site that are truly age-specific and unique -- you can as easily have a "Woodstock veterans" group on Facebook as on a boomer site.

That's not to say it's impossible to attract a middle aged audience. Business networking site LinkedIn has an older user base (the average user is 39), but that's because it targets professional and white collar workers. Light on the "social" and heavy on the "networking," it's not a direct competitor of MySpace and Facebook.

Age alone just may not be the right way to segment social networkers.

--- The studies released over the past year are of higher quality than earlier ones. Previous analyses used user registration data, which could be flawed for many reasons. Average age calculations based on MySpace registration data, for instance, were skewed by the "Age = 99" default for new users.