Social network statistics – youth dropping out?

Some interesting research by comscore and ofcom was released recently showing the strength of UK social networks..

First up, from Comscore; data on the Top 10 Social Networking sites in the UK:

top-10-sn-may-09

Secondly, also from comscore, showing that unsurprisingly younger audiences are more engaged today;

sn-engagement-may-09

Finally research from Ofcom shows that it is amongst the older audiences that social networks are experiencing the most growth. 25-34 years olds on Facebook increased from 40% last year to 46% this year; whilst 35-54 years grew the fastest – up 8% to 35%.

What was most interesting though was that 15-24 year olds decreased by 5% to 50% over last year. It is the first time it has decreased so it is not exactly a trend but it will be interesting to see whether this is a blip or the start of some longer trend. Could youngsters be falling out of love with social networks? They are definitely still using the internet as much as before. My bet this is a blip and that usage will continue to grow.

Riaz Kanani

Founder of Radiate B2B, which helps companies target advertising at specific companies usually as part of an account based marketing programme.

I have spent almost two decades building startups or expanding fast growth companies in a variety of functions - from tech to operations to marketing, with a little corp dev on the side.

Always up for a discussion on building tech businesses and the latest tech trends. Tweet me.