Brits are top social networkers

15:00 19th February 2009

Brits are the number one users of social networks in Europe, according to new figures.

A study by comScore has found that 79.8 per cent of the UK internet audience use social networking sites on the web - a larger share than any other European country.

Researchers looked at the use of social networking sites in a series of European countries over December 2008.

It was found that over 29 million Brits logged on to social networking sites, providing a glimpse of the potential the medium has as an advertising channel.

Looking at the wider picture, the total number of European social networkers reached the 210 million mark.

Following the UK in terms of the share of internet audience penetrated by social networking sites were Spain, Portugal, Denmark and Italy.

comScore Europe's senior vice-president and managing director, Mike Read, noted the emergence of Facebook in France in 2008.

He said: "Not only was it a year that saw significant growth, but it was also a period in which Facebook took the category by storm after translating its interface into French early in the year."