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Facebook confirms its position as UK’s no 1

Posted in Digital, Arif Durrani, Latest reporters' blogs July 23rd, 2008 by Arif Durrani

Facebook’s hold on the UK’s social networking scene has been underlined this week, after figures from online research specialist Hitwise places it well ahead of its rivals, with 45 per cent share of the market.

No other social networking site tracked by Hitwise has come close to commanding such a lion’s share in the past 18 months.

It’s easy to forget just how quickly Facebook has risen through the social networking rankings since bursting onto the British scene (as a measureable force) in the summer of 2006.

Even this time last year, it only commanded 15 per cent of the market, placing it third in the Hitwise rankings, with less than half the share of Bebo (33 per cent) and a long way behind MySpace (29 per cent).

Within the space of three months, Facebook leapfrogged first MySpace then Bebo to take the top spot by the start of September 2007. Since then it has never looked back.

Ongoing site developments over the past 365 days have helped secure its top dog status, including dozens of different language versions, ranging from all Western European languages to simplified and traditional Chinese language versions, Russian and Japanese.

Elsewhere, there has also been changes made to its privacy controls, an entire spectrum of new applications introduced, aided by the arrival of a new open developer platform, and let’s not forget November’s introduction of Facebook Ads.

The resulting 188 per cent rise year-on-year compares very favourably with Bebo’s 25 per cent growth hike and MySpace’s 15 per cent.

The data highlights a heady time for the young start-up, but any growing pains will have been eased by its swelling user figures and continued buzz surrounding the brand; not to mention the small matter of $240 million courtesy of Microsoft in October.