26 September 2007

Facebook has overtaken MySpace to become the most popular social networking site in the UK. Facebook has established itself as the most popular social community on the web among Britons, overtaking MySpace as the most popular social networking site in the UK.

Facebook received 6.5 million unique visitors in August, comparatively MySpace’s received 6.4 million, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. Both sites are now visited by one in every five Britons with Internet access. The average Facebook user spent more than 16 hours on the site during August, compared with about nine hours for MySpace.

These statistics comes alongside reports that Microsoft, is considering taking a five percent stake in Facebook that could value the social network at $10 billion.

Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, just three and a half years ago. It has since increased at a phenomenal rate in popularity among users and advertisers alike and is now exploring how to exploit the wealth of personal information - ranging from music tastes to religious leanings - that users plug into their profile pages.

Facebook has also raised controversy, through concerns raised by users over privacy in the mist of a recent decision to make Facebook users' names and photographs accessible through search engines such as Google.

However, research also points out the fickleness of social network users, Facebook is no longer the fastest growing social network in the UK, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. That achievement now ascribed to Perfspot.com, which achieved 274,000 users last month.

Alex Burmaster, of Nielsen//NetRatings, said: MySpace has managed to maintain more than six million visitors in each of the last six months, it will be interesting to see if Facebook can achieve this level of audience retention.

The UK's most popular social networks
1. Facebook - 6,506,000 unique users in August - Increased 541 percent since December
2. MySpace - 6,379,000 unique users in August - Increased 20 percent
3. Bebo - 4,449,000 unique users in August - Increased 64 percent
4. Windows Live Spaces - 2,333,000 unique users in August - Decreased 1 percent
5. Friends Reunited - 2,112,000 unique users in August - Increased 1 percent


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