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HITWISE UK SOCIAL NETWORKING UPDATE
Bebo challenges MySpace for most popular social networking site. UK Internet searches for "bebo" outstrip those for "myspace".
London, 4th May 2006, With searches for "bebo" ranking third among all UK internet searches in the four weeks ending 29th April 2006, MySpace - which was acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation last year for $580 million - may struggle to hold on to its position as the UK's most popular social networking site.
According to Hitwise, the leading provider of online competitive intelligence, searches for "bebo" have spiked since January, rising to third position among all searches typed into search engines by UK internet users in the four weeks ending 29th April 2006, compared to searches for "myspace" in 24th position. This highlights growing interest in Bebo as well as the site's opportunity to oust MySpace as the leading social networking site in the UK.
Whilst MySpace still leads social networking sites in share of visits and enjoys a 17% larger share of visits than Bebo (the #2 ranked site in the category), Bebo is fast closing the gap. In the eight weeks to 29th April 2006, Bebo's share of visits to all categories rose 45%, compared to 29% for MySpace. Other indicators, such as share of UK page views, point to Bebo's growing strength in the social networking space. In the week ending 29th April, Bebo overtook MySpace in share of page views, rising to an 18.6% share of social networking site page views, compared to MySpace's 17.4% share.
"At current growth rates we can expect Bebo to overtake MySpace in share of UK visits before the start of the new school year," said Heather Hopkins, Director of Research for Hitwise UK. "MySpace, if it is to maintain the top position, will need to continue to innovate to keep and grow its membership base, reported to exceed, 70 million. The youthful audience these sites attract is highly fickle. Comparing the top 100 Net Communities and Chat sites in 2005 and 2006 we have seen 29% of those sites churn."
About Hitwise:
Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Each day, Hitwise measures how more than 25 million internet users interact with over 500,000 websites across 160 industry categories.
By measuring more people, more websites, more often, Hitwise provides marketers with timely and actionable marketing insights on how their online presence compares to competitive websites. Companies use this information to maximize the return on their online investment, in efforts such as affiliate programs, search marketing, online advertising, content development and lead generation.
Hitwise collects internet usage information via a combination of ISP data partnerships and opt-in panels, and complies with local and international privacy legislation as audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Founded in 1997, Hitwise is a privately held company, headquartered in New York City and operates in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore.
More information about Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.co.uk
For up to date analysis on online trends, please visit the Hitwise Intelligence-Analyst Weblogs at weblogs.hitwise.com.
For media enquiries, please contact:
Jannie Cahill
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