• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, September 30, 2005

Image Sites, Blogging and Female Teens Go Hand-in-Hand

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.

In July 2005, 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.

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

Top 5 Image Hosting Web Sites, Jan. vs. Aug. 2005 (Home & Work, U.S.)
Site	Jan 05 UA (000)	Aug 05 UA (000)	Jan-Aug
PhotoBucket	1,537	12,241	696%
ImageShack	1,150	3,444	199%
Putfile.com	-	1,302	-
TinyPic.com	-	715	-
Imagevenue.com	-	559	-
Category*	2,912	14,734	406%
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, September 2005

Female teens between the ages of 12 to 17 years indexed the highest out of the age groups broken down by gender. Females between 12 to 17 years were two and a half times more likely to visit an image hosting site than the average site audience, followed by males in the same age group (see Table 2).

"Particularly for the younger demographics where social circles have permeated online, Web journals have become just another way of getting to know someone," said Gibs.

Highest Indexing Age & Gender Groups for Image Hosting Sites (U.S. Home & Work)
Demo Group	Unique Audience	Composition %	Composition (000) Index
Female 12 - 17	2,219	15%	259
Male 12 - 17	1,532	10%	191
Male 21 - 24	479	3%	182
Male 18 - 24	1,004	7%	175
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, September 2005

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