According to the New York-based Hitwise, a researching company which collects data directly from ISP networks, micro-blogging service Twitter overtakes social networking giant MySpace in the United Kingdom for the first time in history. Last week, Twitter picked up 1 in every 400 UK Internet visits and is currently ranked as the 27th most visited website in the UK, beating MySpace by one position. From 17/01/09 to the week ending 29/08/09, UK Internet traffic to the website has increased by a staggering 974% over this period. What’s more is that Hitwise also admits that Twitter is probably even more popular than its numbers imply, as Hitwise is only measuring traffic to the main Twitter website, not access via mobile or third party applications like Twitterrific and Tweetdeck.
In Hitwise’s social network category, Twitter ranked fourth behind Facebook , YouTube and Bebo and one place above News Corp’s social network. However, the number of people visiting the micro-blogging service is still a far cry away from Facebook, which dominates the social networking category in the UK, with 47.5%.
On the other hand, MySpace’s popularity has fallen drastically. It has recently cut back on its global operations after admitting that its expansion plans were too ambitious. Meanwhile Twitter has yet to set up offices outside the US.
