London — According to a latest report from the UKOM suggests that social media leader Facebook has surpassed the world’s biggest software monopolist Microsoft for the first time last month, to become the second most popular website in the United Kingdom.
Web-based measurement company United Kingdom Online Measurement (UKOM) recorded the social media company Facebook captured a record 26.8 million visitors in Britain in May, up 7 percent year on year, beating the 26.2 million who visited Microsoft’s MSN/WindowsLive/Bing sites combined, the organization said on Monday. Google remained comfortably ahead of the pack, with 33.9 million UK visitors in May.
Facebook, on the other hand, has grown its unique user base to a new height worldwide, even as around six million Americans recently unplugged themselves from the dominant social media network.
Although Facebook, which is operated by founder Mark Zuckerberg, has not officially endorsed that it now has 750 million users globally.
However, UKOM presumes that the sharp surge in Facebook traffic is due to people over 50 years who are signing up for social networking in increasing numbers.
“The growth in audiences to these social networks is now primarily being driven by the 50-plus age group. Just a few years ago, this group may have found itself out of place on these sites,” said James Smythe, general manager at UKOM.
The Facebook page of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth is shown on a computer screen in London November 8, 2010. Image Credit: Reuters/Dylan Martinez
Besides, both companies are pale in comparison with Google, which witnessed 33.865 million unique visits in May, although that figure has been mostly level over the past year compared to the rises and falls of Microsoft and the slow, steady rise of Facebook.
Also, the rival social network Twitter’s UK audience jumped by a third to 6.14 million in May, a massive 34 per cent increase on the previous month, after thousands of users retweeted allegations of celebrity scandals in defiance of gagging orders, including an extra-marital affair by Manchester United soccer star Ryan Giggs.
Moreover, there has been a seven percent rise in Facebook’s user base in the UK over last one year. The user base of micro blogging website Twitter in the country has also increased by one third to reach 6.1 million. Google remains the highest scorer with 33.9 million visitors in May this year.
Overall, these figures contradict the recent findings of Inside Facebook, which earlier this month said that around 100,000 UK Facebookers had in fact quit the service. While its growth is not phenomenal, there still appear to be more people joining the network across Britain every day.
Nevertheless, that claim prompted Facebook to grumble about the growth slump report, while failing to offer up any stats of its own. But it might jump in with a figure soon, given that it recently announced it had passed the 500 million milestone last summer.