Monetizing MySpace Traffic

• Posted: Saturday, August 16, 2008
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• Author: pradhana
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• Filed under: MySpace

By Debra Aho Williamson, Senior Analyst

Last week, News Corp. said that Fox Interactive Media (FIM) generated $225 million in revenues in the quarter ended June 30, 2008, up 23% year over year. But revenue growth is sliding: FIM revenues climbed 55% year over year in the quarter ended March 31, 2008 (News Corp.'s fiscal Q3), to $210 million, and 87% in fiscal Q2, to $233 million.

Adding it all up, FIM generated revenues of $856 million in fiscal 2008—off 14% from the $1 billion target News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch had set this time last year, and also down from the $900 million News Corp. had suggested FIM would earn in last quarter's earnings call.

FIM consists of a number of Websites, including MySpace, AmericanIdol.com, PhotoBucket and FOXSports.com. News Corp. has never said publicly how much of FIM's revenues come from MySpace, but the generally accepted estimate is 80%. That would put MySpace at about $685 million in revenues for the fiscal year (including both US and international).

Despite the slowing rate of revenue growth, an eMarketer analysis of FIM US revenues versus unique visitors shows that FIM is getting better at monetizing its traffic.

eMarketer estimates that the US accounts for 80% of total FIM revenues. That puts US revenues at FIM at $180 million in the June quarter, up 23% from $146 million in the same quarter in 2007. By contrast, the average number of monthly unique visitors in the US grew just 6.6% in the same time period, according to eMarketer's analysis of comScore Media Metrix data.

Read more - eMarketer

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