Is Facebook over? Tagged.com overtakes giant for time spent per visit as 'social discovery' - meeting people - is new trend



Social site overtakes Facebook for minutes spent per visit

Also beats Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest

Facebook makes moves towards 'social discovery' as site buys start-up Glancee, which 'finds friends' nearby



You may never have heard of it, but San Francisco website tagged.com was revealed as the social network Americans 'engage' with most - and hints 'social discovery' could be the new trend in networking.



Tagged.com beat Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest to attract users for, on average, 12.1 minutes every time they visit.

Facebook itself has made moves towards 'social discovery,' buying Glancee, dubbed a 'friendly stalking' application which locates nearby Facebook users with similar interests to be your 'friends'.

Tagged.com has overtaken Facebook for time spent per visit - the site is built for 'social discovery', ie meeting new people

'I'D DO IT AGAIN': MARK ZUCKERBERG FACES QUESTIONS OVER PURCHASE OF INSTAGRAM





Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced investor questions about the No. 1 social network's slowing revenue growth and its $1 billion Instagram purchase - saying, 'I'd do it again.' Zuckerberg took to the stand as part of a cross-country roadsho to promote the social network's $10 billion initial public offering.

Wearing his trademark ‘hoodie’ sweatshirt, jeans and sneakers, Zuckerberg fended off one investor who questioned the deal to buy photo-sharing developer Instagram, an acquisition analysts and media said may have been concluded too hastily.



Tagged users visited an average of 18 times each during March according to ComScore, second only to Facebook’s average of 36 visits per visitor.

However, each time a Tagged user visited the site, he or she stuck around for 12.1 minutes — which trailed only Tumblr (14.7 minutes) and beat Facebook (10.9 minutes).

Tagged CEO Greg Tseng co-founder Johann Schleier-Smith started the site in 2004, hoping it would take on Facebook as a social network for high schoolers.

‘We took a hard look and decided we weren’t going to win,’ he said.

‘But we had found out a lot of our users were actually using Tagged to meet new people, so that led us to pivot into a new space called ‘social discovery,’ where people use sites to make new social relationships.’

Tagged is now billed as a site to meet new people rather than keep in touch with existing friends.

Tseng says Tagged’s 10 million core monthly active users form an average of 100 million new connections per month.



The site has been profitable since 2008, and over the past year tripled its staff to a current count of more than 170.

Similar 'social discovery' sites such as Badoo.com have also seen significant success.

A spokesman for Badoo said it aimed to encourage people to use their social networks to instigate conversations and friendships, while maintaining face-to-face friendships.

Amy Mills said: 'This research highlights the importance of having a healthy balance between online and offline social interaction.

'Seven in 10 Badoo users tell us they use it to chat and make new friends. This study shows social networks give people a boost in confidence to approach new people.'

'Social discovery' - sites built for meeting new people - could leave older sites such as Facebook behind

Over 125,000 new users were signing up to Badoo every day as of December 2012 - and 51 million unique users enjoying the service every month



Badoo has become one of the top 65 most visited websites in the world.

Badoo is based on a ‘Freemium’ business model - similar to sites such as Spotify - with registered users having access to most services for free but can then pay for more premium features.

As a result, Badoo has no adverts, and doesn't have games such as Zynga's hits Mafia Wars and Farmville.

It's based in London, but is owned by Russian entrepreneur Andrey Andreev.



Andrey, 37, is originally from Moscow but now lives in London, he founded three successful internet businesses Spylog, Begun and Mamba before he created Badoo in 2006.

Unlike rivals, the app doesn't tell you the actual location of potential 'friends' - just that they are nearby The app is not on the scale of Instagram - it only has a few thousand users - but it's an indication that Facebook is serious about mobile apps







