Social networks and blogs increase in popularity

Member communities – which includes social networks and blogs – has become the fourth most popular category online, visited by over two-thirds (67%) of the global online population according to new research from Nielsen.

John Burbank, CEO of Nielsen Online, said: “Social networking has become a fundamental part of the global online experience.

“While two-thirds of the global online population already accesses member community sites, their vigorous adoption and the migration of time show no signs of slowing. Social networking will continue to alter not just the global online landscape, but the consumer experience at large. This study explains why.”

According to the Nielsen report, Facebook is visited monthly by three in every 10 people online across the nine markets in which Nielsen tracks social networking use. Facebook has its greatest reach in the UK market (47%). Orkut in Brazil has the largest domestic online reach (70%) of any social network in these markets.

Nielsen also found that one in every 11 minutes online globally is accounted for by social network and blogging sites. In the UK, these sites now account for one in every six minutes.

Mobile is playing an increasingly important role in social networking. Nielsen found UK mobile web users have the greatest propensity to visit a social network through their handset, with 23% (2 million people) doing so, compared to 19% in the US (10.6 million people). These numbers are a big increase over last year – 249% in the UK and 156% in the US.

Germany saw the greatest increase in penetration of social networks and blogs across 2008, from 39% of the online audience in December 2007 to 51% in December 2008 – an actual increase of over 12 percent points. Following Germany was the UK, where the sector grew from 59% to 69% – an increase of 10 percentage points.