Web Image Sites Show Explosive Growth Due to Rise in Blogging Activity

Nielsen//NetRatings reported that traffic to image hosting Web sites has skyrocketed due to the massive rise in blogging activity seen since the beginning of this year. As a category, image hosting sites have grown 406 percent to more than 14.7 million unique users since January 2005, accounting for nearly 10 percent of active U.S. Internet users.

The top referring sites for the top five image hosting sites during August 2005 included MySpace.com, Xanga.com, LiveJournal.com, Blogger.com and MSN Spaces. In July 2005, Nielsen//NetRatings reported that 20 percent of active Web users, or 29.3 million people, accessed blogging or blog-related Web sites, growing 31 percent since the beginning of the year.

"The large rise in blogging activity has lifted other Web sites, the primary one being image hosting sites," said Jon Gibs, senior research manager, Nielsen//NetRatings. "Simple text-based 'diaries' have evolved into a more image-oriented presentation."

Nielsen//NetRatings Report (PDF)

(Via OCLC Abstracts)

Posted by Tom on September 20, 2005