This morning’s online news reported that Bebo is about to close its Australian operations. But what does that really mean?

To Australian Bebo users it means very little, there will be no change to their interaction with their social networks, but to AOL, who purchased Bebo in March 2008, it means a whole lot more, it is a response to not being able to substantially commercialise their audience in Australia against the growing behemoth of Facebook.

Bebo is currently the number 6 ranked website in the Social Networking and Forums industry, behind Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Twitter and Yahoo! Answers. By way of comparison the following chart highlights the growth of Bebo versus Facebook, MySpace and the Social Networking and Forums industry.

• Social Networking and Forums industry growth October 2009 vs. October 2008 = +25.0%
• Facebook growth October 2009 vs. October 2008 = +100.9%
• MySpace growth October 2009 vs. October 2008 =-52.1%
• Bebo growth October 2009 vs. October 2008 = -53.8%

Average visit time comparisons also highlight the Facebook growth and the difficulty the other Social Network are facing in competing effectively. Facebook’s average visit time climbed 23.1% between October 2009 and October 2008 to 25 minutes 57 seconds, while Bebo suffered a 9.6% drop to 22 minutes 34 seconds and MySpace users decreased 7.5% to 24 minutes 30 seconds.

When websites gain momentum such as Facebook is currently experiencing, there is always going to be current competitors pushed aside and reduced to minor roles in the market, just look at the number of Search Engines that couldn’t compete effectively with Google once it hit its stride.

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Copyright Hitwise Intelligence – Analyst Weblogs – Bebo out from downunder?