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2007
Bebo Overtakes eBay as Most Searched for Brand in the UK

HITWISE UK SOCIAL NETWORKING UPDATE

Bebo overtakes eBay as most searched for brand in the UK and takes #1 spot among social networks in May

London 11th June 2007 - Hitwise, the leading online competitive intelligence service, today reveals that the term "bebo" has become the #1 search term based on volume of UK Internet searches, overtaking "ebay", which has held the spot for all but one week in the past two years.

Except for one week in September 2006, the term "ebay" has topped the list as the highest volume search term in the UK. However, Bebo again became the #1 most searched for term in the UK for the week ending 26th May 2007 and has held the #1 position for the past three weeks. Share of UK Internet searches for "bebo" have increased three fold in the past year and two-fold in the past six months.

For the month of May, Bebo ranked #6 among All Categories of websites based on share of UK Internet visits, up from #8 in April and ahead of MySpace at #8. Bebo now ranks behind Google UK, eBay UK, Windows Live Hotmail, Google.com and MSN UK.

Bebo continues to appeal mostly to kids living with their parents. The MOSAICTM Groups "Happy Families" and "Rural Isolation" are most highly indexed on the website. Internet users from the Group "Happy Families" were 23% more likely to be on Bebo than average and those from "Rural Isolation" were 95% more likely to be on the site. Both groups are more likely than average for the UK offline population to have kids between 10-14 years of age.

For additional insights on the social networking category, request the recently published Hitwise UK Social Networks Research Note at http://www.hitwise.com/uk/registration-pages/the-impact-of-social-networking-in-the-uk

Top 10 Websites ranked by share of UK visits, May 2007
Table 1 - June 11.png

About Hitwise:

Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Only Hitwise provides its 1,200 global clients with daily insights on how their customers interact with a broad range of competitive Web sites, 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 behavior 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 is a subsidiary of Experian (FTS: EXPN) www.experiangroup.com 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 weblogs.hitwise.com and the Hitwise Data Center at www.hitwise.com/datacenter.

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 eBay as most searched for brand in the UK and takes #1 spot among social networks in May

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