Google-owned video-sharing site YouTube is now the most popular user-generated site in the UK, new research suggests.According to figures produced by Nielsen Online, the web property saw an increase in traffic of 56 per cent during January this year, compared to the same month in 2007. It is said to have had 10.4 million unique visitors over the period.
As a result, YouTube overtook the user-edited encyclopaedia Wikipedia, which experienced 9.6 million unique visitors during January.
Meanwhile, Facebook recorded 8.5 million hits, while do-it-yourself blogging service Blogger was identified as the fourth most popular user-generated site, with 5.1 million visitors.
Social networking sites MySpace and Bebo came in fifth and sixth positions, experiencing 5.02 million and 4.09 million visitors respectively.
It was also discovered that 20.8 million UK web users visited at least one of the top ten user-generated sites during January.
Commenting on the findings, Alex Burmaster, a web analyst at Nielsen Online, said: "The fact that almost two-thirds of Britons online visited at least one of the top social media sites shows it isn't a niche part of the internet but is now the backbone supporting its growth.
"Whilst the majority of the most popular social media sites are the networks, most of the fastest growing are video sites, which points to video being the biggest star of the 2008 social media scene."
According to figures released last month by comScore, travel, career, tax and real estate sites all saw increases in traffic in the UK during January as users took stock of the past year and began planning for 2008.
