Facebook is Britain’s most used site

Facebook accounts for 13 per cent of all internet time, according to figures from web-monitoring company Nielsen Online.

UK users now spend one in every eight minutes online using the social-networking site.

This represents a big jump in Facebook's popularity - last year the site accounted for just over seven per cent of UK internet use.

Nielsen’s chart of the most heavily used web brands reveals that sites providing communication and music and video content dominate Britons’ web habits.

MSN/Windows Live is the second most used site, while YouTube, BBC, Apple and AOL Media Network also feature in the top 10.

"Between just the two of them, the two most heavily used web brands - Facebook and MSN/Windows Live - account for almost 11 billion of the 48 billion minutes that Britons spend online," said Alex Burmaster, Communications Director, EMEA, Nielsen Online.

"That’s over one in every five minutes and highlights just how competitive the online space is for both publishers and advertisers when it comes to capturing consumer attention," he continued.

The 10 most visited brands increased their dominance of the market over the last 12 months.

In April 2008 the top 10 brands accounted for 42 per cent of all UK internet time. This rose to 45 per cent in April 2009.

"The internet is a complex and varied ecosystem and I think most people would be surprised by just how much time is accounted for by relatively few brands who, in turn, are increasing their share of the pie," said Burmaster.

Nielsen's figures reveal that in April 2009 the average Briton spent 22 hours 20 minutes online or using web applications.

This represents a 34 per cent increase on a year ago, when the average time spent online was 16 hours 36 minutes.

Other figures released today by comScore show that The Sun Online was the most popular online UK newspaper in March, attracting 4.6 million visitors, up eight per cent from a year ago.

Second behind The Sun Online was Guardian.co.uk, with 4.3 million visitors, followed by Telegraph.co.uk, with 3.9 million visitors.

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