Increase in UK 15-24 year olds visiting social networks
More people in the 15-24 year old age group are visiting social networking sites than they were a year ago, according to new research from comScore.
It said that while the average 15-24 year old is spending less time overall on social networking sites, it appears to be due to youngsters spending less time around secondary sites.
In June, 6.8 million 15-24 year olds visited a social networking site, up 14% year on year. However, although the total audience is up, the time spent on these sites has fallen 9% over the same period.
Mike Read, SVP and managing director, comScore Europe, said: “Recent reports have suggested that 15-24 year olds in the UK are moving away from social networking sites because they’re no longer cool as older users have encroached on their virtual space. comScore research indicates that is simply not the case.
“In fact, more 15-24 year olds are using social networking sites than a year ago, so there isn’t any particular aversion to the activity. What does appear to be happening is that younger users are beginning to consolidate around Facebook and are spending less time on competing sites.”
The research also shows that Facebook has a substantially older user profile than Bebo and MySpace; 77% of Facebook visitors are age 25 or older, compared to 65% of Bebo visitors and 69% of MySpace visitors.
| Total Unique Visitors (000) | Total Minutes (MM) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun-08 | Jun-09 | % Change | Jun-08 | Jun-09 | % Change | |
| Total Internet: Age 15-24 | 7,076 | 7,747 | 9 | 10,488 | 11,454 | 9 |
| Social Networking | 5,998 | 6,821 | 14 | 2,419 | 2,211 | -9 |
| Facebook.com | 3,844 | 5,806 | 51 | 952 | 1,512 | 59 |
| Bebo | 3,860 | 2,790 | -27 | 1,034 | 392 | -62 |
| MySpace sites | 2,409 | 1,818 | -25 | 294 | 105 | -64 |
| Windows Live Profile | N/A | 1,630 | N/A | N/A | 8 | N/A |
| Twitter.com | N/A | 598 | N/A | N/A | 10 | N/A |
| Buzznet | 279 | 406 | 46 | 8 | 7 | -12 |
| Digg.com | 365 | 375 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 78 |
| Tagged.com | 174 | 337 | 94 | 2 | 27 | 1,150 |
| DeviantArt.com | 311 | 331 | 7 | 13 | 4 | -67 |
| Orkut | N/A | 211 | N/A | N/A | 25 | N/A |
Last month, a comScore study found that 29.4 million people accessed at least one social networking site in the UK in May, averaging 4.6 hours per visitor.
Elsewhere, a study from CSS Insight found that a third of young adults in the UK regularly access Facebook and Twitter from their mobiles.