• All Analyst Weblogs
• North America
  • Bill Tancer
  • Heather Hopkins
  • Heather Dougherty
• United Kingdom
  • Robin Goad
• Asia Pacific
  • Alan Long
  • Sandra Hanchard
  • Hitwise To Go
• Insider
  • Client
  • Company
  • Industry
  • Product

Hitwise Intelligence - Robin Goad - UK

Analyst Weblog

« Top 10 websites of 2008 | TV and Games are UK's most searched for subjects »

Facebook the most searched for brand in the UK

March 05, 2009

Britain’s favourite social network and the second most visited website in the UK after Google, is also the most searched-for brand by UK Internet users. During the 12 weeks ending 3 January 2009, 1 in every 42 Internet searches in the UK included the term ‘facebook’. Facebook received 52% more searches than the second most popular brand, YouTube. The third most searched for brand was the auction site eBay, while social networking site Bebo ranked fourth. The BBC rounded out the top 5, and was also the most searched for ‘offline’ brand during the 12 weeks ending 3 January 2009.

Ten most searched for brands by UK Internet users (ranked by market share of UK Internet searches, 12 weeks ending 3 January 2009):

1. Facebook (2.39%)
2. YouTube (1.57%)
3. eBay (1.25%)
4. Bebo (0.96%)
5. BBC (0.86%)
6. Amazon (0.47%)
7. Argos (0.44%)
8. Sky (0.27%)
9. Tesco (0.26%)
10. Yahoo! (o.26%)

Facebook’s UK Internet traffic has more than doubled over the last year and it is now the second most visited website in the UK after google.co.uk. The social network accounted for 1 in every 24 UK Internet visits during the month of February and traffic to the site has already increased by 18.6% during 2009.

The fact that Facebook is the most searched-for brand and the second most visited site in the UK not only illustrates its success, but also the popularity of social networking in Britain. Social networks now account for 1 in every 10 UK Internet visits and 1 in every 5 page views. Only search engines receive more UK Internet visits than social networks. During February 2009, social networks received 13.1% more UK Internet visits than online retail websites, and 27.9% more than Adult websites, which they overtook in September 2008.

Of the top five most searched-for brands in the UK, the BBC is the only brand not to be Internet specific, and conducts the majority of its activities ‘offline’. Overall there are 4 ‘offline’ brands in the top 10, with Argos ranking 7th, Sky 8th and Tesco 9th. Six of the top 10 brands (Facebook, YouTube, Bebo, BBC, Sky, Yahoo!) are media companies of one shape or another, and most of these rely primarily on advertising to generate their revenues. The list also reveals the importance of online video: YouTube is the second most searched-for brand in the UK, while iPlayer is now the BBC’s third most popular sub-brand online after News and Sport.

The remaining four brands are all online retailers: eBay, Amazon, Argos and Tesco. eBay and Amazon remain the most popular online retail brands, but the more traditional high street players are gaining on them all the time. During the key month of December, the top 100 high street retailers actually received 68% more UK Internet visits than their online-only rivals.

This data is taken from our recent search engine webinar, which was presented by Hitwise Client Intelligence Analyst Richard Seymour. You can listen to a recording of the webinar here, which includes analysis of the following topics:

• How reliant are UK websites on search engines for their traffic?
• Market share data for Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft Live Search and Ask.
• The difference between branded and generic search in the UK.
• What are the top subject areas for each search engine?
• Paid search rates by industry and engine.
• Search engines demographics.

Follow Hitwise UK on Twitter.

Posted by Robin Goad at 08:00 AM | (1) | (0)
In Categories BBC | Branding | Demographics | Google | News and Media | Retail | Search | Shopping and Classifieds | Social networks

TrackBack

TrackBack URL:
http://weblogs.hitwise.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/1142.

Comments