Number of Britons using social networks to reach 27m by 2012

The number of Britons joining a social network is expected to treble from 9.6m to 27m by 2012, according to Datamonitor.

The market analyst predicts the UK, which has the highest membership of sites such as Facebook and Bebo in Europe, to see the strongest growth in Europe over the next five years.

It cites reasons such as the convenience to socialise without leaving home, and the growth in silver surfers using such sites, as the reasons behind the social network boom.

France, which at 8.9m has the second highest number of social networks, is estimated to reach 21.3m by 2012.

Europe is expected to see a jump of 41.7m to 107.4m by 2012.

Matthew Taylor, consumer markets analyst at Datamonitor and author of the report, said, "Consumers are creating and joining existing social communities which, if harnessed correctly, can be an important marketing tool. The wealth of information stored on online social networks provides many potential benefits for marketers."

It comes as Friends Reunited has revamped its site in an attempt to compete more against the likes of Facebook and MySpace (nma.co.uk 29.04.08).

www.nma.co.uk Suzanne Bearne 2008-05-02