UK surfers are biggest social networkers

10th October 2007

Nearly 25 million people in Britain visited a social network site in August according to comScore research.

The social media measurement group's data revealed 78 per cent of UK web users access sites like Facebook or MySpace, compared with the average of 56 per cent in the rest of Europe.

However, the research also showed that 80 per cent of all activity on the sites is by 20 per cent of users. Heavy users in the UK spent an average of 22 hours social networking over 71 visits in August. Light users visit the sites less than five times a month.

"This study reveals the importance of looking beyond averages if one is to clearly understand the characteristics of the key segments that make up the users of social networking sites," said Bob Ivins, managing director of comScore.

According to recent figures by Nielsen/NetRatings, Facebook is currently the social network leader with 6.5 million visitors in August 2007, a growth of 541 per cent since December 2006. Myspace has grown 20 per cent in the same period and has 6.4 million users.