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U.K.‘s Hottest Social-Media Sites Now Led by YouTube

Published on March 10, 2008 | Email this article

YouTube has replaced Wikipedia as the most-popular social-media website in the U.K., increasing traffic 56 percent from Jan. ‘07 to reach 10.426 million unique U.K. visitors in Jan. ‘08, Nielsen reports (via MarketingCharts).

Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of Britons online - or 20.8 million people - visited at least one of the 10 most-popular social-media sites in Jan. ‘08; that’s 21 percent more than the 17.1 million who visited at least one of Jan. 07’s top 10.

(View tables of the most popular U.K. social media websites - and the fastest-growing ones.)

Top 10 U.K. Social Media Websites

Social networks made a strong showing in January:

  • Traffic to Facebook increased 712 percent year over year, moving up 15 places to take the No. 3 spot behind Wikipedia.
  • Slide, Facebook’s add-on tool, entered the top 10 for the first time.
  • MySpace, despite a 9 percent YOY decrease in traffic, was still more popular (5.026 million visitors) than U.K.-based social-networking site Bebo (4.090 million), traffic to which increased 53 percent.

Top 10 Fastest-Growing U.K. Social Media Sites

  • Half of the 10 fastest-growing online properties from Jan. ‘07 to Jan. ‘08 were video sites:
    • No. 3 vidShadow’s traffic increased 639 percent since the first month of measurable data (Nov. ‘07).
    • Veoh (up 595 percent) and Youku (up 524 percent in 9 months) were No. 4 and No. 5, respectively.
  • Among social networks…

    • PerfSpot was the fastest-growing: Traffic was up 713 percent in nine months.
    • Facebook’s traffic grew 712 percent year over year.

Video is “the biggest star of the 2008 social media scene,” said Alex Burmaster, an internet analyst at Nielsen Online. “Whether it’s people snacking on video clips or feasting on full-length TV programs and movies, the video sites look set to be the name on everybody’s lips as they improve their technology, the ease of use and awareness amongst our TV-loving nation. We’ll have to see if sites like vidShadow or Veoh join YouTube in being as famous as Facebook.”

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