From a foothold in a small number of European markets a year ago, Facebook has swept past its rivals to take top spot amongst the region’s social networks. A new survey from comScore shows that, far from falling back to earth, the Facebook phenomenon is growing at an astonishing rate.
The social networking site grew by 314 per cent across Europe in the last year, attracting nearly 100 million unique visitors. And Facebook’s engagement levels are also ahead of the pack, with the average user spending three hours per month on the site. A year ago, Facebook usage accounted for 1.1 per cent of all minutes spent online in Europe; by February 2009 that number had increased to 4.1 per cent of all minutes. Facebook’s share of time spent on social networks has rocketed from 12.3 per cent a year ago to over 30 per cent today.
Facebook’s growth is reflected in a broadening range of uses for the social network, with Microsoft Advertising providing real-time updates from the Cannes Lions through Facebook this year.
Mike Read, comScore managing director of Europe, said: “Facebook has very quickly taken a leading position across most of the European social networking market, despite having a strong foothold in just a few European countries a year ago. In the last year, it has climbed the rankings in virtually every market.”
Facebook owns the number one social networking position in 11 of the 17 countries surveyed by comScore. At 22.7 million visitors, the UK represents its largest single market, up 75 per cent from a year ago. France’s 13.7 million Facebookers represents stunning growth of 518 per cent from a year ago. Most recently, Facebook has edged into top spot in Spain, with 5.7 million users, up nearly tenfold on last year. Italy’s growth of 2,700 per cent to 10.8 million Facebookers represents the most dramatic national increase.
