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/

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

ALMOST TWO THIRDS of social networking site users are worried about the safety of their personal data and 31 percent of them lie to protect their identities, claims new research.

More here: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=42429

And The Register makes an interesting point:

Much of the hype surrounding Facebook – and it’s tipped to be the biggest tech IPO since Google – is founded on its ability to monetise those 150 million users. For if at the cold, cold heart of Web 2.0 is a data collection and warehousing exercise, then Facebook has the most valuable database outside the Googleplex. Evidently lots of marketers agree – and activity around the Facebook API is frenetic today.

But what if that information is worthless?

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/18/dodgy_facebook_info/