This must have been one of the selling points for Google when deciding to buy out YouTube. According to Compete.com’s Jay Meattle, YouTube is beating MySpace in terms of month-by-month growth.
MySpace was barely a blip on anyone’s radar before the site hit a sudden spike because of the viral effect. Founded in 2003, MySpace traffic didn’t really start to take off until late 2004. The social networking site then grew exponentially from a few million visitors to 20 million visitors 25 months into its existence.
Meattle points out that YouTube, founded in February 2005, follows a similar mountainous line of growth, but is actually growing faster. YouTube hit 20 million visitors after 16 months, nine months faster than MySpace, a trajectory that puts YouTube at 50 million visitors within a year.
Google made their money back on the YouTube buy immediately as GOOG stock went up enough to cover it upon news of the acquisition. But at that growth rate, the buy may have been a steal. Wall Street analyst Jim Cramer, the Friday before the buy, put a $3 billion price tag on YouTube.
Other possibilities have been kicked around in the blogosphere about the future of YouTube. One commentator suggested that, as YouTube grows, the musician base that was once MySpace would jump ship to YouTube for better exposure. That’s not to say the power of MySpace is lost, just diminished a bit.
Google is expected to give an earnings conference call today, where more information about the acquisition is likely. Depending on what is said there, some analysts figure the stock could skyrocket, maybe as high as $500 per share.
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