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Bebo overtakes MySpace as most visited social networking site in the UK

HITWISE UK SOCIAL NETWORKING UPDATE

Bebo overtakes MySpace as most visited social networking site in the UK

London, 8th August 2006, On the back of yesterday's announcement that News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media has signed a multiyear deal to use Google search to direct traffic across its network of internet sites, including MySpace.com, Hitwise reveals that Bebo has just overtaken MySpace for the first time ever in the UK based on weekly visits.

Following the launch two weeks ago of its music service, dubbed "Bebo Bands", Bebo surpassed MySpace in weekly market share of UK internet visits to become the most visited social networking site in the UK for the week ending 5th August. Bebo had overtaken MySpace in daily visits on two individual days in May, but this marks the first time the site has overtaken MySpace in weekly visits. In the US, however, MySpace continues to be the most visited social networking site.

In the UK, Bebo's market share of visits has grown 17% in the past two weeks, whilst MySpace has seen its market share decline 5%. Bebo led MySpace by 3% in market share of visits last week, with one in every 135 UK internet visits going to Bebo. The site also became the 11th most visited site on the internet, up from #17 two weeks ago. For average session duration, Bebo also continues to maintain its lead on MySpace, with visitors spending an average time of 28 minutes 58 seconds on the site, compared with 26 minutes 26 seconds for MySpace.

"Bebo Bands re-energised Bebo's membership base to boost visits to the site at a typically slow time of year for social networking", commented Heather Hopkins, Vice President of Research for Hitwise UK. "In April, Hitwise predicted that Bebo would overtake MySpace in share of UK visits at the start of the new school term, as the summer is typically a slow time for the site. The launch of Bebo Bands brought members back to the site and it shot ahead of MySpace ahead of our projection."

Share of weekly UK visits to Bebo and MySpace, week ending 25th Feb to week ending 5th Aug 2006

About Hitwise:

Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Only Hitwise provides its 1200 global clients 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 ISP's around the world, Hitwise's patented methodology anonymously captures the online usage, search and conversion behavior of 25 million Internet users. This unprecedented volume of Internet usage data is seamlessly integrated into our easy to use, web-based service, designed to help marketers better plan, implement and report on a range of online marketing programs.

Hitwise is a privately held company, headquartered in New York City and operates in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. More information about Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.co.uk.

For up to date analysis of online trends, please visit the Hitwise Intelligence-Analyst Weblogs at http://weblogs.hitwise.com/

For media enquiries, please contact:
Jannie Cahill
jannie.cahill@hitwise.com
Tel: 020 7378 3619

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HITWISE UK SOCIAL NETWORKING UPDATE

Bebo overtakes MySpace as most visited social networking site in the UK

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