UGC Sites Among Fastest Growing Web Brands

Posted on August 10, 2006

A new Nielsen//Netratings study has found that user-generated content (UGC) sites like ImageShack, Heavy.com and Flickr have been some of the fatest growing websites over the past twelve months. A couple tables from the a new Nielsen//NetRatings study are provided below.

Table 1: Fastest Growing Web Brands*, July 2006 (U.S., Home and Work)

Brand	Jul'05 UA (000)	Jul'06 UA (000)	% Growth
HSBC	1,290	6,377	394%
Sonic Solutions	1,098	3,740	241%
Associated Press	2,901	9,692	234%
ImageShack	2,324	7,745	233%
Heavy.com	965	3,021	213%
Flickr	2,105	6,346	201%

Notes: There are several UCG sites in the top ten but it is still led by HSBC, which saw strong online banking growth, and the Associated Press. Sonic Solutions provides CD burning & DVD burning software as well as the MyRoxio Community.

Table 2: Top 10 Brands on the Web, re-ranked by Year-Over-Year Growth, July 2006 (U.S., Home and Work)

Brand	Jul'05 UA (000)	Jul'06 UA (000)	% Growth
MySpace	16,239	46,025	183%
Google	76,198	94,031	23%
eBay	51,122	57,759	13%
MapQuest	39,269	43,585	11%
Yahoo!	98,485	106,224	8%
MSN/Windows Live	91,049	95,593	5%
Amazon	35,891	5,891	5%
Real Network	35,707	36,685	3%
AOL	74,095	74,507	1%
Microsoft	92,457	88,042	-5%

Notes: MySpace continues pulling away from its competitors. It is going to be difficult for the company to continue this growth.

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