YouTube 'has the assets to become social media'

14:00 23rd April 2010

Video hosting website YouTube has the assets available to launch itself as a social media website, according to Social Media Portal.

However, the social media resource's co-founder and editor Tim Gibbon said that it does not seem as though YouTube is interested in going down that road.

He said: "Video is at the heart at what is does and given that Google has experienced the woes of social networks, it's unlikely it may follow this path."

Mr Gibbon added that the surge in popularity of social media website Facebook means it could now become a challenger to more niche websites.

He was speaking after data received by Mashable from comScore revealed that 41 per cent of social media traffic is from Facebook.

The data showed that both Facebook and YouTube experienced growth during 2009, with MySpace dropping behind Facebook in the list of most used sites.

Facebook's burst in popularity can be shown by comparing the statistics to figures from last year, when 38 per cent of social media traffic was from MySpace, with Facebook receiving 33 per cent.

Mr Gibbon said that although 41 per cent is a "great deal of traffic to hold" for Facebook, social media website users can be fickle and may move on to another site in the next few months.