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/

“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

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

 

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

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/

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/

Workers who spend time on sites such as Facebook could be costing firms over £130m a day, a study has calculated.

According to employment law firm Peninsula, 233 million hours are lost every month as a result of employees “wasting time” on social networking.

The study – based on a survey of 3,500 UK companies – concluded that businesses need to take firm action on the use of social networks at work.

Full story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6989100.stm