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Thinking About MySpace Users

A perception still exists that MySpace is a website for kids. And this perception isn't entirely inaccurate: the specific numbers may not be available for general consideration, but a cursory look at the MySpace site -- the advertisements, a sampling of profiles -- indicates that the age range of MySpace users trends young. But trending young isn't the same as exclusively young.

There are certainly adult MySpace users. How many adult users? MySpace alone may know what the demographics of MySpace users are -- information that would certainly be used for advertising -- but the model for MySpace isn't inherently juvenile. MySpace, at its core, is a social network. Socializing is just for kids? Of course not.

Most MySpace users are younger, but there are adult MySpace users too. Let's take a guess and presume the division between MySpace users is seventy percent to thirty percent, favoring younger users. On its face, thirty percent may or may not be a considerable percentage. Thirty percent is a considerable percentage for MySpace users, however, when one considers how many MySpace users there actually are.

On a typical MySpace profile, MySpace states there are -- rounding out -- one hundred ninety million users in the MySpace network. When trying to determine how many adults use MySpace, assuming thirty percent of MySpace users are adults, you get twenty-five million, rounded, from one hundred ninety million. Using this formula estimate, twenty-five million of MySpace users are adults.

MySpace claims there are one hundred ninety million users in their network. This number is certainly an overestimate. Why? The standard indication of a MySpace user is the presence of a MySpace home page, something MySpace refers to as a profile. It's not at all uncommon, however, for MySpace users to create more than one profile: one user creates several profiles in some instances. So while there may be one hundred ninety million MySpace profiles, each of those profiles does not indicate a unique MySpace user.

Even if one accepts that not every MySpace profile indicates a unique MySpace user -- a safe assumption -- it's still not difficult to estimate how many actual MySpace users there are. Say each actual MySpace user creates, on average, two MySpace profiles: this may be a slightly low estimate, but it's not unreasonable. If each MySpace user creates two profiles, then there are actually ninety-five million unique MySpace users, not one hundred ninety million.

Regardless of how the number of unique MySpace users is actually estimated, the final number will be considerable. This has clear implications: MySpace is a great networking opportunity, whether the networking be social in nature, or professional.

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Zinn Jeremiah is an online writer who writes on a number of different topics. You can read more of Zinn's articles at article exchange. Get resources for MySpace at MySpace layouts.