The Facebook-isation of Britain

Jul 22, 2008 by Dirk Singer

Internet measurement firm Hitwise released data today showing that Facebook’s social network market share is almost twice that of its nearest competitors.

In June 2007, Facebook had 16% of all social network visits in the UK, Bebo 34% and MySpace 30%. A year on, and Facebook towers over the others with a 45% share, compared to Bebo’s 25% and MySpace’s 15%.

According to analyst Robin Goad, the decline of Bebo and Myspace is even more pronounced when you consider that, “YouTube.com overtook Bebo to become the second most visited Web 2.0 property in the UK during June, while Wikipedia overtook MySpace to move into fourth position. Combined, these five sites now account for one in every 15 UK Internet visits.”