More people globally now use social networks/blogs than email – 66.8% vs. 65.1%, according to a study released last week by market research firm Nielsen. This means that two-thirds of the world’s Internet population visit social networking or blogging sites, categories that now account for almost 10% of all Internet time. Social networks and blogs are now the fourth most popular online activity today, following, in descending order: search, general interest portals & communities and software applications. Email comes in fifth, and the use of social networks grew at double the rate of email usage — 5.4% vs. 2.7%.
More details from the report:
- Time spent on social networks and blogs is growing at over 3 times the rate of overall Internet growth.
- The total amount of time spent online worldwide increased by 18% between December 2007 and December 2008
- In the same period the amount of time spent on “Member Community” sites (social networks and blogs) rose by 63%.
And to think that not that long ago, email was considered the second coming.
For more details, see Global Faces and Networked Places.
