HOT : User Generated Content and Social Networking

eMarketer estimates that during 2006, marketers in the US will spend $280 million on advertising and marketing on social networking sites, with an additional $70 million in expenditures projected on an international level.

The latest tracking data on fastest-growing web sites (July 2005-July 2006) from Nielsen NetRatings found that UGC (user-generated content) sites, which are Internet web sites for sharing photographs and videos or for blogging account for five out of the top 10 fastest-growing Web brands.

Top Three Web brands overall:

• MySpace tops the list, increasing 183 percent, from 16.2 million unique visitors to 46.0 million.
• Google ranks second, growing 23 percent, from a unique audience of 76.2 million to 94.0 million
• eBay is number three, increasing 13 percent, from 51.1 million to 57.8 million unique visitors.

Tags: social networking, user generated content, eMarketer, Neilsen NetRanking