HITWISE UK RETAIL AND SOCIAL NETWORKING UPDATE

153% increase in UK Internet traffic from social networks to online retailers since last Christmas

London, Monday 22nd October

Hitwise, the leading online competitive intelligence service, today reveals that the amount of UK Internet traffic online retailers receive from social networks increased by 153% between December 2006 and September 2007. In September 2007, 3.1% of UK Internet visits to the Hitwise Shopping and Classifieds category came from a Hitwise custom category consisting of the top 25 social networks in the UK.

Auctions, clothing and entertainment are main retail beneficiaries of social networking traffic

Online auction sites, in particular eBay, are the main retail beneficiaries of the social networking phenomenon, receiving 31.4% of all downstream traffic that Social Networks send to Shopping and Classifieds sites. The more traditional retail categories – Department Stores and Apparel and Accessories sites – are next, respectively receiving 1 in 8 and 1 in 9 of all UK retail visits from Social Networks. The close links between social networks and the entertainment industry help Music and Video & Games retailers, which are the fourth and fifth biggest beneficiaries respectively. Combined, these five categories account for 72% of all online retail traffic sent from social networks.

Figure 1: Share of downstream traffic to the Hitwise Shopping and Classifieds parent category from Net Communities and Chat websites, September 2007

Social networks 4^th biggest source of traffic to online retailers

In September 2007, Social Networks accounted for 1 in every 20 UK Internet visits. Robin Goad, Research Director at Hitwise UK, commented: “In terms of Internet visits, Social Networking has grown by over 70% in the UK since last Christmas, and it is starting to have a serious impact on many different types of website. Social Networks are now the fourth most popular source of traffic for Shopping and Classifieds sites after Search, Email Services and other Shopping and Classified sites.  And this traffic increasingly reflects British society as a whole. Social networks are no longer just for teenagers and students – between December 2006 and September 2007, the proportion of visitors aged 55+ to our Net Communities and Chat category, which is dominated by social networks, has increased by 63%, while the proportion coming from the 18 – 24 age group has decreased by 19%.”

www.facebook.com is the 5th most visited URL in the UK

In September 2006, www.facebook.com was the 126^th most visited URL in the UK, but its market share has increased 30 fold over the last 12 months, from 0.056% of all UK Internet visits to 1.66% in September 2007. www.facebook.com is now the fifth most visited URL in the UK, and it is also the fifth most popular source of traffic for other websites. In the retail sector, www.facebook.com refers 1% of UK Internet traffic to Shopping and Classifieds websites.

“Since opening up to the general public in September 2006, Facebook’s growth has been driven by a combination of viral marketing and rapidly increasing brand awareness,” commented Robin Goad. “A quarter of Facebook’s traffic comes from web-based email services, which is a combination of new invites and alerts to existing members. A further quarter comes from search engines, and an illustration of the site’s brand strength is the fact that ‘facebook’ is now the third most searched for term in the UK.”

Share of UK Internet visits to Facebook.com, December 06 - September 07:

About Hitwise:

Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Only Hitwise provides its 1,400 clients around the world with daily insights on how their customers interact with a broad range of competitive websites, and how their competitors use different tactics to attract online customers.

Since 1997, Hitwise has pioneered a unique, network-based approach to Internet measurement. Through relationships with ISPs around the world, Hitwise's patented methodology anonymously captures the online usage, search and conversion behaviour of 25 million Internet users. This unprecedented volume of Internet usage data is seamlessly integrated into an easy to use, web-based service, designed to help marketers better plan, implement and report on a range of online marketing programs.

Hitwise, a subsidiary of Experian (FTS: EXPN) www.experiangroup.comoperates in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. More information about Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.com.

For up-to-date-analysis of online trends, please visit the Hitwise Intelligence-Analyst Weblogs at http://weblogs.hitwise.com and the Hitwise Data Center at www.hitwise.com/datacenter.

For media enquiries, please contact:

Jannie Cahill

jannie.cahill@hitwise.com

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