NEW YORK, NY — Now visited by 67-percent of the global online population, “member communities,” which includes both social networks and blogs, has become the fourth most popular online category. The group is growing twice as fast as any of the other four largest sectors (search, portals, PC software and email), according to The Nielsen Company’s report, “Global Faces and Networked Places.”“Social networking has become a fundamental part of the global online experience,” said Nielsen Online Chief Executive Officer John Burbank. “While two-thirds of the global online population already accesses member community sites, their vigorous adoption and the migration of time show no signs of slowing. Social networking will continue to alter not just the global online landscape, but the consumer experience at large.”
 
According to the Nielsen report, Facebook — which the report calls “the world’s most popular social network” — is visited monthly by three in every 10 people across the nine markets in which Nielsen tracks social networking use. Orkut in Brazil has the largest domestic online reach (70-percent) of any social network in the markets studied.
 
Among other findings revealed in the report:
One in every 11 online minutes globally is accounted for by social network and blogging sites.

The social network and blogging audience is becoming more diverse in terms of age: The biggest increase in visitors to “member community” websites during 2008 came from the 35- to 49-year-old age group (up 11.3 million).
Mobile is playing an increasingly important role in social networking. Nielsen found UK mobile Web users displayed the greatest propensity to visit a social network through their handsets, with 23 percent (2 million people) doing so, compared to 19-percent in the U.S. (10.6 million people). The numbers represent a big increase over 2007 levels: up 249 percent in the UK and 156-percent in the U.S.
 
Among the markets Nielsen measured, penetration of visits to social networks and blogs was highest in Brazil, where 80-percent of the online audience visits such sites. The share of overall internet time for which social networks and blogs accounted also is highest in Brazil, where nearly one in four (23-percent) online minutes is spent at the sites.
 
Germany saw the greatest increase in penetration of social networks and blogs across 2008, from 39-percent of the online audience in December 2007 to 51 percent in December 2008 — a relative growth of 39-percent.

“Social networking isn’t just growing rapidly,” said Alex Burmaster, the communications director for Nielsen Online and author of the study. “It’s evolving — both in terms of a broader audience and compelling new functionality. We felt compelled to analyze the state of the social networking market globally and consider what implications this has for our publisher and advertiser clients.”