Facebook accounts for 1 in every 7 Internet page views in the UK

Contact:

Lindsay O’Gorman

Marketing Executive, Hitwise

+44 (0) 207 378 4763 Tel

lindsay.ogorman@hitwise.com Email

Release embargoed until 16 October 2009

EXPERIAN HITWISE SOCIAL NETWORKING UPDATE

Facebook accounts for 1 in every 7 Internet page views in the UK

UK Internet visits to Facebook have increased by 86.1% over the last 12 months

London, 14 October 2009 – Experian Hitwise, the leading online competitive intelligence service, today reveals that Facebook accounts for 1 in every 7 pages viewed by UK Internet users. The popular social networking website (www.facebook.com) accounted for 14.5% of all UK Internet page views[1] during September 2009, equivalent to 1 in every 7.

“During September Facebook was the second most visited website in the UK after Google UK (www.google.co.uk), but because users view a much larger number of pages per visit, Facebook is the clear leader in terms of page views,” commented Robin Goad, Director of Research for Experian Hitwise in the UK. “During September, Facebook received more page views than Google UK, eBay UK (ww.ebay.co.uk) and YouTube (www.youtube.com) combined.”

UK Internet visits to Facebook have increased by 86.1% over the last 12 months

UK Internet visits to Facebook increased by 86.1% between September 2008 and September 2009, and have more than doubled over the last 14 months. During September, Facebook accounted for almost half (49.2%) of all UK internet visits to a social networking website.

“Although it has fallen somewhat off the media radar in favour of Twitter recently, Facebook remains far and away the most popular social networking website in the UK,” commented Goad. “One significant factor is that the site’s growth in the UK doesn’t yet show any signs of slowing. A key measure of success for any social network is average session time; as we have seen with sites such as Friends Reunited and MySpace, when average session times begins to drop off visitor numbers soon follow. Facebook has yet to experience this problem: Hitwise monitoring data shows that its average visit time[2] increased from 19 minutes 59 seconds in September 2008 to 26 minutes 14 seconds during September 2009.”

About Experian Hitwise

Experian Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Experian Hitwise gives marketers a competitive advantage by providing daily insights on how 25 million Internet users around the world interact with more than 1 million Web sites. This external view helps companies grow and protect their businesses by identifying threats and opportunities as they develop. Experian Hitwise has more than 1,500 clients across numerous sectors, including financial services, media, travel and retail.

Experian Hitwise (FTS:EXPN), www.experianplc.com, operates in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada and Brazil. More information about Experian Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.co.uk.

For up-to-date analysis of online trends, please visit the Experian Hitwise research blog at www.ilovedata.com and the Experian Hitwise Data Centre at www.hitwise.com/datacentre.

About Experian

Experian is the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to clients in more than 65 countries. The company helps businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision making. Experian also helps individuals to manage their credit relationships and protect against identity theft.

Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended 31 March 2009 was $3.9 billion. Experian employs approximately 15,000 people in 40 countries and has its corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; Costa Mesa, California; and São Paulo, Brazil. 

For more information, visit http://www.experianplc.com.