Yesterday I spoke at the the Millennials Conference in Los Angeles. I talked about some websites that have a high concentration of users in the 18-24 age group, and are enabling users to share content beyond the usual activities on social networking sites. 18-24 year-olds make up 19% of the adult online population, and based upon their website preferences, are much more interested in creating and sharing content than the average online user. Here are some popular sites you may not have heard of:

CarDomain, "the place to show off your car pictures and photos" ranks #1 in the Automotive - Recreation category, with 8.3% share of the category for the week ending 4/14/07. Its average session time last week was over 14 minutes, and 44% of its visits were from users between 18 and 24, and they were more likely to reside in small towns and rural areas.

deviantART is a website where users can search for and upload original artwork. For the week ending 4/14/07, it ranked #1 in the Entertainment - Arts category, with a 36% share of visits. Its average session time was nearly 22 minutes, 57% of users were female and 37% were between 18 and 24. Its market share of US visits was up 67% from March 2006 to March 2007.

FanFiction.Net users write stories containing their favorite characters from television shows, movies and books. Writing these stories takes a lot of time, as the average session time for the week ending 4/14/07 was more than 38 minutes. Its visits skewed female, at 59%, and 40% of visits were from 18-24 year olds. It ranked #1 in the Entertainment - Books and Writing category with a 26% share for the week ending 4/14/07, and its market share of visits was up 17% from March 2006 to March 2007. I posted on it last year here.

These sites enable users to create content and communicate about topics that they are passionate about. One of the themes that came up on the panel was that the activities young people engage in are not that much different now than before the current technology explosion, but the tools are different. For artists, writers, and car aficionados, these sites offer a form of expression and facilitate connections that would not have been possible 20 years ago.

LeeAnn Prescott

LeeAnn Prescott is Research Director for Hitwise covering the US market. This post was originally posted on Hitwise blog here.