Social networking booms in UK

Nearly 30 million Britons visited a social networking site in May, according to the latest figures from comScore.

The research company said in its report that some 80 per cent of the total UK online population accessed social media and networking sites during the month, with 89 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds doing so.

Each social networking user spent an average of 4.6 hours on these websites during May, with Facebook, Bebo, Windows Live, MySpace and Twitter being the most popular.

Mike Read, senior vice-president and managing director of comScore Europe, highlighted the implications of the demographics figures for advertisers, noting that a significant proportion of those aged 55 and over visited social networks in May.

"Advertising on social networking sites has a better chance of reaching these older demographics than site categories such as business and finance," he commented.

Earlier this year, a report from eMarketer predicted that there will be 21.9 million frequent users of social networking websites in the UK by 2013.

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