Nielsen: Global time spent on social networking sites up 82 % year-over-year

Posted by Erina Lin on January 25, 2010 at 5:10 PM

In December 2009, an average user spent more than five and half hours on social networking sites, up 82 percent compared to the same period one year ago. The overall traffic to social media sites has also boosted since December 2007, Media Post reported.

Social networks and blogs topped as the most popular online category in terms of average time spent in December worldwide, followed by online games and instant messaging.

Facebook was the leading global social networking site in December 2009 with 206.9 million unique visitors, or 67 percent of global social media users visiting the site.

Like the global pals, Americans are spending more time on social networking and blog sites - total minutes up 210 percent and the average time per capita up 143 percent year-over-year in December 2009.

To break down by individual country, with 142.1 million unique visitors, the United States beat others with the largest number of social media and blog users in December 2009, followed by Japan, with 46.6 million. Australia led in average time per person spent, with nearly seven hours on social media sites in December 2009. The United States and the United Kingdom came next closely, according to the Nielsen Company.