MySpace Recount By: Jason Hahn - Topic: Web - Date: September 28, 2006

So, how many people really use MySpace?

This has been a question plaguing some people who find it very hard to believe the "100 million users" statement that seems to add radiance to MySpace's divine aura.

A recent posting on forevergeek.com offers a self-declared "unscientific" study into the truth behind MySpace's true user base.  The results vary significantly from the 100 million figure.

Here is the approach taken:

"So to do some quick little debunking (and spreading some new numbers), I decided to do a quick an dirty analysis. I was going to check 303 random MySpace profiles and classify them into one of the following six types:

1. Invalid Friend ID error
2. Has not logged in since creation date (you can figure that out when you see multiple users in a row)
3. Logged in for upto a week after creation
4. Logged in for upto a month after creation
5. Last logged in within the last month
6. Last logged in within the last week

It goes without saying that #1-#2 are not real users, #3-#4 were just checking out what the hype is, #5 may still be a real user, and #6 is reflective of a 'real' user (especially in the social networking scene)."

The end result was that in reality, MySpace has about 43 million users, which makes the 100 million a 133% inflation.

Now, 43 million "real" users are nothing to scoff at, but if this approach bears any significance, it would seem that there is definitely a material difference between reality and hype that warrants some clarification, especially to companies looking to ink deals with the social networking behemoth based on their reach.

(I wonder if Google delved into this matter before their $900 million deal...)

Bryan Hance did a similar study of his own earlier this year and found some different results supporting the notion that about 82% of MySpace users logged in within five days of their previous log in.

You can read more about this issue here and here.