Facebook becomes 3rd most visited site in the UK

14:30 18th June 2009

Facebook has overtaken Yahoo! to become the third most visited website in the UK, recent figures reveal.

Figures from comScore released to New Media Age showed that the number of users of the social media site increased by over 63 per cent year-on-year in April.

While Yahoo! experienced an eight per cent increase in the number of visitors over the past year, data from April showed a one per cent decrease in visitors.

Robin O'Neill, head of online trading at GroupM, said many online marketers and companies have yet to fully realise the potential of the social media site for advertising.

"There's a lot of potential for growth as brands are coming around to that way of thinking, but it hasn't had the amount of money spent that you could associate with the portals because we haven't got to grips with its speed of growth," he commented.

Ian Maude, head of online at analyst firm Enders, said the amount of display advertising on social networks is likely to increase.

He asserted that there is a "shift" in the sector towards cheaper space and behavioural and targeted advertising.

The expert noted that in 2008 there was a significant increase in advertising spend on Facebook.

This comes after Lee Odden said in an entry on OnlineMarketingBlog.com that companies should take measures to make their websites social media-friendly.