Facebook Is Largest Social Network In UK
Facebook.com accounted for 45.3% of UK internet visits to social networking sites during June 2007, according to a new report from Hitwise.
Bebo.com, which was the market leader last year, was the second ranked social networking site in the UK during June, with a market share of 25.5%. MySpace.com ranked third with a market share of 14.8%.
In America MySpace remains the market leader, capturing 71.9% of US internet visits to social networking sites during June. Facebook was in second place with a market share of 16.9%, representing a 40% growth over the previous year.
| Top 5 Social Networking Websites Ranked by Market Share of US Internet Visits | ||||||
| Rank | Name | Domain | Jun-08 | May-08 | Jun-07 | YoY % Change |
| 1 | MySpace | www.myspace.com | 71.92% | 72.73% | 77.42% | -6% |
| 2 | www.facebook.com | 16.91% | 16.24% | 11.60% | 40% | |
| 3 | myYearbook | www.myyearbook.com | 1.54% | 1.40% | 0.33% | 318% |
| 4 | Tagged | www.tagged.com | 1.08% | 1.00% | 0.69% | 45% |
| 5 | Bebo | www.bebo.com | 1.05% | 0.90% | 1.52% | -41% |
| Note – data is based on a custom category of 57 of the leading social networking websites ranked by market share of US visits, which is the percentage of online traffic to the domain or category, from the Hitwise sample of 10 million US internet users. Hitwise measures more than one million unique websites on a daily basis, including sub-domains of larger websites. Hitwise categorizes websites into industries on the basis of subject matter and content, as well as market orientation and competitive context. | ||||||
| Source: Hitwise | ||||||
One smaller niche social network that is currently growing rapidly in the UK and elsewhere is the ‘micro-blogging’ service Twitter. Weekly UK Internet visits to www.twitter.com increased by 631% during the 12 months ending 12 July 2008, with 485% of that growth coming this year.
Robin Goad, research director at Hitwise, said: “Although it is still most popular with classic early adopter segments of the population, the breadth of Twitter’s appeal may surprise some people.
“During the four weeks ending 12 July 2008, visitors were split 50/50 male/female, while only 15% were from London. 25-34 year olds are still the most over represented age group visiting the site, but 37% of visitors to the site are now aged 45 and over.”
Hitwise: www.hitwise.co.uk