Social networks ‘fundamental part of online experience’

Member communities, which includes social networks and blogs, is now the fourth most popular online category, according to a new report.

Over two-thirds of the worldwide online population visit sites in the category, which is growing twice as fast as any of the other four largest sectors, such as search and email, according to the Nielsen Company’s Global Faces and Networked Places.

John Burbank, chief executive officer of Nielsen Online commented: “Social networking has become a fundamental part of the global online experience.”

He said that the global online population’s “vigorous adoption and the migration of time show no signs of slowing”.

The report reveals Facebook is visited by three in every ten people every month across the nine markets in which Nielsen tracks the use of social networking.

Last month, Nielsen Online revealed there was a 20 per cent year-over-year increase in unique visitors to career development websites, with 41.5 million unique visitors in January last year up to 49.7 million in the same month in 2009.