UK obsessed with Facebook
Britons spend an average of 5.3 hours per month on sites like Facebook.
Wednesday, 12, Dec 2007 10:33
Britons are more preoccupied with social networking than anyone else in the world, apart from Canadians, it has been revealed.
A new study released today shows the growing influence of websites such as Facebook and MySpace with Britons revealed to clock up an average of 23 visits to social networking sites per month.
While email remains the paramount concern in Europe and North America for internet users, 39 per cent of British respondents to the survey from the communications regulator Ofcom said they used their internet connection to access social networking websites.
The report also used ComScore data from August 2007 to show that adults in the UK use social networking sites more than anyone else in Europe and for longer periods of time, devoting an average of 5.3 hours a month to the sites.
The Ofcom study also investigated the differences between male and female internet users, with more British women in the 18 to 34 age group using the internet than their male counterparts.
And while broadband take-up is now faster in the UK than in the US for the first time, more British internet users are dissatisfied with their internet connections than people in any of the other nations surveyed, the report showed.
The second annual International Communications Market report analyses trends in the £873 billion global television, radio and telecommunications sectors in 2006 and compares the UK with 11 other countries: France, Germany, Italy, the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Japan, Canada and the US.
Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards said: "The report shows that convergence, bundling and the move to digital communications is a powerful global phenomenon.
"It's important to understand international comparisons so Ofcom can develop better policies to serve the interests of consumers and citizens in the UK."