Social networks and blogs pass personal email in online activity

March 10, 2009

Email is now old school, according to a survey released by Nielsen Online. Social networks like MySpace and Facebook and personal blogs are now visited by 67 percent of the global online population, surpassing email as the fourth-most popular online category.

Member Communities, a category which includes both social networks and blogs, are growing twice as fast as any of the other four largest sectors (search, portals, PC software and email), according to the Nielsen report.

"Social networking has become a fundamental part of the global online experience," said John Burbank, CEO of Nielsen Online. "Social networking will continue to alter not just the global online landscape, but the consumer experience at large."

Facebook - the world's most popular social network - is visited monthly by three in every 10 people online across the nine worldwide markets in which Nielsen tracks social networking use.

The social network and blogging audience is becoming more diverse in terms of age, Nielsen reported. The largest growth in social networking and blogging globally came from the 35-49 year old age group, which added more than 11 million users in the category.

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