Facebook is UK's most popular social network

Latest figures published from Nielsen//NetRatings, a global leader in internet media and market research, reveal the most popular, most engaging and fastest-growing social networks in the UK.

Facebook has overtaken MySpace for the first time in the UK in terms of unique visitors but it is no longer the fastest growing social network; that honour across 2007 goes to Perfspot.com.

The UKs most popular Social Networks.

Facebook received 6.5 million unique visitors in August 2007 compared to 6.4 million for MySpace - both are now visited by one in every five Britons online.

Since December 2006, Facebook's audience has grown by 541 per cent compared to 20 per cent for MySpace.

Almost half (48 per cent) of Britons online (15.3 million people) visited at least one of the ten most popular social networks in August 2007.

The most popular social networks in the UK in August 2007 were Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Windows Live Spaces, Friends Reunited, BBC Communities, Flickr, Piczo, Yahoo! Groups, WAYN.

In August 07, 6.5 million Britons (20 per cent of all active Britons online) visited Facebook; 541 per cent more than did so in Dec 06.

Alex Burmaster, European Internet Analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings said: "Three months ago I predicted Facebook would catch MySpace in September this year but its continued phenomenal growth meant it only took until August to achieve this feat.

"This is particularly extraordinary considering that at the end of 2006 Facebook was one fifth the size of MySpace.

"However, even in the fickle sphere of social networking, 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 UKs fastest growing Social Networks across 2007 were as follows.

Perfspot.com had no recorded figures until April 2007; since then it has grown by 756 per cent in just four months - making it the fastest growing social network in 2007 ahead of Facebook, which has grown by 541 per cent across the eight months from December 2006.

Three of the ten fastest growing social network brands are formed around specific interest groups - business, travel and music.

The fastest growing social networks in the UK across 2007 were PerfSpot (756 per cent since Apr 07), Facebook (541 per cent), LinkedIn (194 per cent), Orkut (182 per cent), WAYN (80 per cent), Imeem (79 per cent), Bebo (64 per cent), BBC Communities (27 per cent), Friendster (24 per cent), Tagged (24 per cent).

The suspicion that the next big thing in social networking could always be just round the corner is illustrated by PerfSpot.

It wasn't even on the social network radar until April of this year but in the last four months its visitor numbers have grown at a greater rate than Facebook has across the last eight months.

Some, however, have theorised the future of social networking will revolve around specific interest-groups as opposed to the general behemoths that dominate today.

The fact that a number of the fastest-growing networks concern specific interest areas, such as business (LinkedIn), travel (WAYN) or music (Imeem), seems to add credibility to this theory.

Among social networks, Facebook accrued the most total time spent by Britons (991 million minutes) followed by Bebo (600 million minutes) and MySpace (540 million minutes).

Virtual world Second life is the leading social network in terms of monthly time per visitor (5 hours 29 minutes) followed by teen community Habbo (3 hrs 6 mins) and Tagged.com (2 hrs 40 mins).

Not surprisingly, the most popular social networks tend to rack up the most total time amongst Britons online.

Bebo, although less popular than MySpace, accrues more total minutes due to a much higher average time per visitor.

However, one has to look away from the 'Big 3' to find the most engaging social networks.

"The average Second Life visitor spends an astonishing five and a half hours there - over twice as long as the average visitor to Facebook and almost four times as long as the average visitor to MySpace.

Please note that the social networking list is a custom list created by the Nielsen//NetRatings PR department and is not an official Nielsen//NetRatings category.

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