Morgan Stanley report on the social Web

Morgan Stanley released a report on Internet Trends on March 18th. The news shouldn't surprise you much if you are a follower and believer in the Social Web.

But it is great validation. There are some really interesting highlights (as noted by Michael Arrington of Techcrunch)

 - YouTube + Facebook page views > Google or Yahoo page views (and may be bigger than both combined)

 - 6/10 top internet sites are social (youtube, live.com, facebook, hi5, wikipedia, orkut); none were on the list in 2005

 - YouTube has 258 million users, 50% visit weekly or more

 - >50% of Facebook users log in daily, 95% of Facebook users have used at least one third party application

 - Skype revenue is $1.67/user/year, up 9% Y/Y

 - 14 million photos uploaded daily on Facebook

 - Google + Yahoo = 61% of U.S. Online Ad Revenue

 - Google: $4.4b ad revenue in Q4, paid out $1.4 billion to partners

 - Yahoo: $1.6 billion in ad revenue in Q4, paid out $429 million to partners

I've been telling people that Social Networks are the new "portals" and that there is a fundamental shift in how people use the web, these figures definitely point in that direction. Further, the fact that 95% of Facebook users have used a 3rd party application is a major statement for a key underpinning of the social web - that companies can connect to Social Network users through applications and have the opportunity to create/grow brand and develop revenue. 

Maybe the most significant number is the amount of money paid out to partners of Google and Yahoo for ad inventory. It was $1.8 billion in Q4. That's a lot of ads.