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Via Mike Butcher at TechCrunch UK, rumours of Facebook’s death may have been greatly exaggerated:

A few weeks ago I said the recent dropin UK traffic to Facebook was not significant as it had happened over the Christmas break. According to 95% of the British media this view was wrong and the fall heralded the end of the social networking roller-coaster as we know it.

Today Hitwise reportsthat Facebook’s market share of UK Internet visits last week (w/e 22 March 2008) was equal to its previous record high of 2.16% during the Christmas week (w/e 29 December 2007)

I hate to say I told you so…

More: http://uk.techcrunch.com/2008/03/25/facebooks-not-dead-it-was-just-resting/

comScore has released several key findings from its Digital World: State of the Internet report, which highlights the changing dynamics of worldwide Internet usage.

Key findings include (taken from comScore’s summary):

·          The U.S. now accounts for 21 percent of Internet users worldwide.  While growth in the number of Internet users in the U.S. has slowed, several Asian and Eastern European countries continue to add new users at a rapid rate.

·          Google is the dominant search brand in most countries, including most of Europe and Latin America, with a few significant exceptions — countries where Chinese, Korean, and Russian languages dominate.

·          Chinese language search engine Baidu currently ranks #3 in worldwide search market share, behind Google and Yahoo!

·          The number of worldwide visitors to social networking sites has grown 34 percent in the past year to 530 million, representing approximately 2 out of every 3 Internet users. MySpace and Facebook are in a tight battle for the global leadership position, each attracting more than 100 million visitors per month.

·          Online video has become the dominant online entertainment format, led by the global popularity of YouTube with more than 250 million visitors in January.

·          The Internet has become an important source of news for most Web users.  The top 10 global news brands show great diversity between country of origin, including the U.S., U.K., China and South Korea.

More: http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2115

Via netimperative, four in five UK internet users admit to feeling unsafe sharing their mobile phone number via social networking sites like Facebook, Bebo and MySpace:

Nearly 80% of all respondents in a recent Mobyko.com survey stated they would not publicise their own number in this manner. The findings reveal the reason behind this growing trend of cautiousness – is the innate lack of trust relating specifically to the people within an individual’s online social network.

Julian Saunders, CEO of Mobyko.com said: “We know that people freely share their mobile numbers in the physical world.  But, when it comes to doing so in the virtual world different factors come into play.”

More: http://www.netimperative.com/news/2008/february/4/brits-2018lack-trust-in-digital-age2019

Among comScore’s findings: Yahoo! sites ranks as the top US ad publisher with a 19 per cent share of online display ads.

Publisher: share of display ads, display ads per visit
 
Yahoo! Sites: 18.8%, 20.5
Fox Interactive Media: 16.3%, 47.5
Microsoft Sites: 6.7%, 9.8
Time Warner Network: 5.8%, 10.1
FACEBOOK.COM: 1.5%, 8.4
eBay: 1.2%, 8.4
Google Sites: 1.0%, 1.3
Viacom Digital: 1.0%, 20.6
United Online, Inc: 0.5%, 18.3
Amazon Sites: 0.4%, 8.2
New York Times Digital: 0.4%, 11.5
CBS Sports: 0.3%, 22.4
COMCAST.NET: 0.3%, 4.0
PHOTOBUCKET.COM: 0.3%, 16.8
BEBO.COM: 0.3%, 27.2
ESPN: 0.3%, 6.2
Weather Channel, The: 0.3%, 8.8
NFL Internet Group: 0.3%, 12.9
Ask Network: 0.2%, 3.4
Glam Media: 0.2%, 11.9

comScore reports: “One dimension to understanding a site’s ability to monetize its content is the number of display ads it serves. Of the top 20 ad publishers, Fox Interactive served the most display ads per user visit to its sites (47.5), a particularly high number that is a function of both site engagement and how many ads are displayed per page.  Bebo (27.2), CBS Sports (22.6), Viacom Digital (20.6) and Yahoo! Sites (20.5) each served an average of more than 20 display ads per user visit.”

More: http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2045

comScore reports that Facebook has made it into the UK’s top 10 web properties ranking for the first time:

“The Christmas season had a significant impact on the prevailing traffic trends in December,” said Bob Ivins, EVP of European Markets for comScore. “Eight of the top ten gaining properties were retail-related as consumers shopped for holiday gifts online, and online greetings also proved popular. That online coupon sites also grew so strongly suggests consumers may have been a bit tighter with their wallets this Christmas season.”

December’s Top 25 (rank in December, name of web property, total unique visitors that month): 

1: Google Sites, 29,292,000
2: Microsoft Sites, 27,760,000
3: eBay, 21,683,000
4: Yahoo! Sites, 21,070,000
5: BBC Sites, 18,016,000
6: Amazon Sites, 16,309,000
7: Time Warner Network, 14,387,000
8: Ask Network, 13,937,000
9: Wikipedia Sites, 12,567,000
10: Facebook.com, 12,438,000
11: Fox Interactive Media, 12,224,000
12: Home Retail Group, 12,211,000
13: Apple Inc., 11,690,000
14: Bebo.com, 11,212,000
15: Lycos Europe Sites, 10,937,000
16: CNET Networks, 9,626,000
17: Tesco Stores, 9,587,000
18: DMGT, 8,238,000
19: Dixons Stores Group, 8,078,000
20: British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB), 7,792,000
21: Play.com Sites, 7,666,000
22: Viacom Digital, 6,647,000
23: Adobe Sites, 6,280,000
24: Kingfisher, 6,109,000
25: Orange Sites, 5,864,000

More: http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2029

Via netimperative, London becomes most popular Facebook network.

Members of a city specific Facebook network have today reached an all time high, as London becomes the first city worldwide to have 2 million members on Facebook.

The total number of UK residents now signed up to the social network site has reached 8 million, a clear warning to organisations that protecting your brand reputation on social media is more important than ever.

More: http://www.netimperative.com/news/2008/january/28/london-becomes-most-popular-facebook-network

Via netimperative, social networking apparently costs UK companies more than £6.5 billion (not million):

The recent popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo are costing UK corporations close to £6.5 billion annually in lost productivity, according to a poll.

The study, conducted by Information security consultancy - Global Secure Systems (GSS) and Infosecurity Europe 2008, was carried out amongst 776 office workers.

More: http://www.netimperative.com/news/2008/january/21/social-networking-costing-firms-a36.5bn

Via Jemima Kiss at the Guardian (and in turn via paidContent.org), Facebook is coming soon to a phone near you. Be afraid. Be very afraid:

Facebook is negotiating with Nokia over a mobile tool that could see the social networking site built into hundreds of thousands of phone handsets. The Finland-based mobile firm is said to be exploring ways of promoting a mobile version of Facebook through specific handsets in the same way that YouTube features on Apple’s iPhone, website paidContent said today.

Nokia is also reported to be negotiating with Facebook about buying a small stake in the company and an unnamed executive confirmed that “a partnership is in the works”. Both developments would give Facebook a healthy foothold in the mobile market.

More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jan/21/digitalmedia.mediabusiness?gusrc=rss&feed=media

And: http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-nokia-and-facebook-working-on-mobile-deal-could-involve-investment/

Via the always busy Jemima Kiss at The Guardian, social networking sites show no signs of slowing:

The social networking phenomenon is set to intensify this year with the launch of new specialist communities and the further commercialisation of services, according to a report from analysts at Experian.

The report, The Impact of Social Networking, says companies will want to tap the trend for social networking but will tailor services for niche audiences that will attract advertisers.

More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jan/15/facebook.myspace

One noteworthy pull quote:

ComScore said social networking sites collectively saw 25 million unique users during November, with each user spending an average 334 minutes on the sites and making 24 separate visits.

As the UK population gets more grey around the temples each day, Saga’s launch of a social networking site for over-50s is a canny move to say the least:

The social networking trend has scythed its way through offices and schools around the country - but now a new website is hoping to appeal to older internet users. Saga Zone, created by the insurance and holiday company, launches today with the aim of becoming the social website of choice for the over-50s. Users of Saga Zone must be over 50 - but once they have joined members can create their own profile pages, contact friends or join in online discussions.

More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/oct/31/news.socialnetworking

Just because your 88-year-old granny doesn’t know a website from her Werther’s Originals doesn’t mean there isn’t masses of revenue to be generated from older users who might turn their noses up at Facebook.

More from that Guardian report:

A survey this year by media regulator Ofcom found that older surfers make up a significant proportion of the internet population, and are much more likely to spend money online. Surfers over 50 account for nearly a third of all time spent online by British web users.

And UK people of all ages have emerged as Europe’s social networking power users, according to comScore:

Usage of social networking sites in the U.K. proved heavier than the European average in terms of hours spent, pages viewed, and the number of visits per month. The average visitor to social networking sites in the U.K. spent 5.8 hours per month on those sites in August and made 23.3 visits. This was a significantly heavier usage level than in France, which averaged 2 hours per month and 16.8 visits per visitor, or Germany, with 3.1 hours per month and 13.8 visits per visitor.

From: http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1801