Google search is by far the most popular website in the UK, with nearly 28 million unique users, according to figures released by Nielsen Online today.
The search engine’s unique users are up by 15% from around 24 million in June 2007 to 28 million in June 2008 – miles ahead of other websites in the UK.
eBay came second with around 15 million uniques users, up by 9% from nearly 14 million users in June last year, followed closely by MSN/WL Messenger, which was up 2% year on year to 14.6 million unique users in the UK.
The study also reveals that two Microsoft-owned sites, Hotmail and Windows Media Player, experienced a drop in audience figures.
Hotmail fell by 7% year on year to just under 11 million unique users, with analysts sugggesting that people are communicating via facebook now rather than email.
Windows Media Player dipped by just 3% to below 12 million unique users – down from 12.4 million in June last year.
The figures show that only six of the ten most popular UK websites have outpaced overall internet growth (11%) over the past year, with two growing but by less than this rate.
| Growth of UKs most popular websites/applications: June 2007 – June 2008 | |||||
| Rank | Website/Application | % Change in UA Jun 07 – Jun 08 | UK Unique Audience (000s) Jun 08 | UK Unique Audience (000s) Jun 07 | Business |
| 1 | Google Search | 15% | 27,909 | 24,253 | Search |
| 2 | eBay | 9% | 15,165 | 13,975 | Classifieds/Auctions |
| 3 | MSN/WL Messenger | 2% | 14,628 | 14,300 | Instant Messaging |
| 4 | Google Maps | 57% | 14,577 | 9,301 | Maps/Travel Info |
| 5 | Amazon | 25% | 12,184 | 9,762 | Retail |
| 6 | YouTube | 52% | 12,163 | 8,014 | Video sharing |
| 7 | Windows Media Player | -3% | 11,989 | 12,409 | Media player |
| 8 | Wikipedia | 41% | 11,250 | 7,998 | Social information |
| 9 | Hotmail | -7% | 10,897 | 11,663 | |
| 10 | BBC News | 18% | 8,494 | 7,226 | News |
| Source: Nielsen Online, UK NetView, home & work data, including applications | |||||
| e.g. The Unique UK Audience to Google Search increased by 15% from 24.3 million in Jun 07 to 28 million in Jun 08 | |||||
The Nielsen Online data also reveals that Google tops the fatest-growing websites among the ten most popular sites with Google Maps (57%), followed by YouTube (52%) and Wikipedia (41%).
Overall, Walkers Snack Foods is the UKs fastest-growing website in the last year, with a massive increase of around 2,600% year on year, from 17,000 unique users in June 2007 to 444,000 in June 2008.
The Top 10 fastest-growing websites in the UK also contains two coupon/reward sites (MyVoucherCodes and Fair Exchange) and a shopping comparison site (FindStuff).
Alex Burmaster, internet analyst at Nielsen Online, said: “Sites tapping into consumer concerns about the economy, giving them to opportunity to save money, dominate the fastest growing list.”
He added: “In terms of audience numbers, it’s been a very mixed year for the leading websites and applications. Whilst Google, Amazon and the social media players have outpaced overall internet growth, Microsoft has had a very challenging time.”
Nielsen Online: www.nielsen-online.com/
