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Nielsen: Social Networking Outpaces E-Mail

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By WALT BELCHER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 10, 2009

More Internet users are communicating on social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter than by e-mail, according to a study by Nielsen Media Research.

Nielsen's global study of social networking, released this week, found that 67 percent of online users spend time on social networks, compared to 65 percent who use e-mail to communicate.

Using search engines remains the most popular online activity with 86 percent of online users, followed by visiting Web sites (85 percent).

The research company found that social networking is growing at twice the rate of other large drivers of Internet use such as Web portals, e-mail and search.

Nielsen concludes that the shift to social activity online will have profound effects on marketers and publishers. For example, social networks are cutting into time spent with other online activities which could mean a decline in traffic on Web sites that are supported by advertising, according to Nielsen.

Nielsen found that two-thirds of the world's Internet users visited a social networking site in 2008. All told, social media now accounts for almost 10 percent of Internet time. Facebook is the leader with monthly visits by three out of 10 Internet users in nine global markets, according to Nielsen.

Facebook has enjoyed rapid worldwide growth, especially with older online users. Nielsen says Facebook's greatest growth has come from 35 to 49-year-olds, and it has added twice as many 50- to 64-year-olds as those younger than 18.

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