London, 5 March 2009 - Hitwise, the leading online competitive intelligence service and an Experian company, today reveals that Facebook, Britain's favourite social network and the second most visited website in the UK after Google, is also the most searched-for brand by UK Internet users. During the 12 weeks ending 3 January 2009, 1 in every 42 Internet searches in the UK included the term 'facebook'. Facebook received 52% more searches than the second most popular brand, YouTube. The third most searched-for brand was the auction site eBay, while British social networking site Bebo ranked fourth. The BBC rounded out the top 5, and was also the most searched for 'offline' brand during the 12 weeks ending 3 January 2009.
10 most searched for brands by UK Internet users (ranked by market share of UK Internet searches, 12 weeks ending 3 January 2009):
1. Facebook (2.39%)
2. YouTube (1.57%)
3. eBay (1.25%)
4. Bebo (0.96%)
5. BBC (0.86%)
6. Amazon (0.47%)
7. Argos (0.44%)
8. Sky (0.27%)
9. Tesco (0.26%)
10. Yahoo! (0.26%)
Facebook's UK Internet traffic has more than doubled over the last year and it is now the second most visited website in the UK after google.co.uk. The social network accounted for 1 in every 24 UK Internet visits during the month of February and traffic to the site has already increased by 18.6% during 2009.
"The fact that Facebook is the most searched-for brand and the second most visited site in the UK not only illustrates its success, but also the popularity of social networking in Britain," commented Robin Goad, Research Director for Hitwise in the UK. "Social networks now account for 1 in every 10 UK Internet visits and 1 in every 5 page views. Only search engines receive more UK Internet visits than social networks. During February 2009, social networks received 13.1% more UK Internet visits than online retail websites, and 27.9% more than Adult websites, which they overtook in September 2008."
BBC is the most searched for 'offline' brand, eBay the top retail brand
Of the top five most searched-for brands in the UK, the BBC is the only brand not to be Internet specific, and conducts the majority of its activities 'offline'. Overall there are 4 'offline' brands in the top 10, with Argos ranking 7th, Sky 8th and Tesco 9th. "Six of the top 10 brands (Facebook, YouTube, Bebo, BBC, Sky, Yahoo!) are media companies of one shape or another, and most of these rely primarily on advertising to generate their revenues," commented Goad. "The list also reveals the importance of online video: YouTube is the second most searched-for brand in the UK, while iPlayer is now the BBC's third most popular sub-brand online after News and Sport."
The remaining four brands are all online retailers: eBay, Amazon, Argos and Tesco. "eBay and Amazon remain the most popular online retail brands, but the more traditional high street players are gaining on them all the time," commented Goad. "During the key month of December, the top 100 high street retailers actually received 68% more UK Internet visits than their online-only rivals."
About Hitwise:
Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Only Hitwise provides its 1,500 clients around the world with daily insights on how their customers interact with a broad range of competitive websites, and how their competitors use different tactics to attract online customers.
Since 1997, Hitwise has pioneered a unique, network-based approach to Internet measurement. Through relationships with ISPs around the world, Hitwise's patented methodology anonymously captures the online usage, search and conversion behaviour of 25 million Internet users. This unprecedented volume of Internet usage data is seamlessly integrated into an easy to use, web-based service, designed to help marketers better plan, implement and report on a range of online marketing programs.
Hitwise, a subsidiary of Experian (FTS: EXPN) www.experiangroup.com operates in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. More information about Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.com.
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