Social networking sites show growth

Social networking has undergone a boom in popularity in the last year, as new figures show the growth experienced by the major players.

According to comScore statistics, Tagged achieved the greatest rate of growth, receiving 13,167 visitors in June 2007 - up 774 per cent on the 1,506 visitors it had the same month last year.

Facebook continued its expansion, achieving a 270 per cent growth on its 2006 figure of 14,083 visitors, increasing to 52,167.

With a 172 per cent increase on visitor numbers from 6,694 in June last year to 18,200 this year, Bebo also showed growth, while MySpace received 72 per cent more visitors to hit 114 million from 66,401.

The figures apply to unique visitors aged 15 years old or older and the sites were chosen on the basis of having global visitors of more than ten million and 50 per cent growth in the last 12 months.

"It would appear that social networking is not a fad but rather an activity that is being woven into the very fabric of the global internet," said Bob Ivins from comScore.

"As social networking continues to evolve, it will be exciting to see if networks are able to cross cultural barriers and bring people from different corners of the globe together in fulfilling the truest ideals of social networking."

A recent report from Visa and Yahoo! revealed that people who use social networking sites, blogs and other online media are more likely to buy goods and services online than other web users.
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