The UK will be knocked off its perch as the top social networking country in Western Europe, with Germany predicted to take the top spot, according to forecasts. By the end of 2014 eMarketer claims there will be 33.9 million social network users in the UK but that due to faster growth, Germany will have 35.4 million social network users.
According to the analysis, the UK will remain the second to Germany by the end of 2017 with 36.7 million users, comfortably ahead of the 30.1 million users expected in France. But despite losing out to Germany, the UK remains top of the pile when it comes to Facebook usage.
eMarketer claims that nearly 30 million UK residents will access Facebook each month this year; well ahead of the 22.1 million users expected for each of France and Germany. Nearly half the population and more than six in 10 internet users will use Facebook this year, meaning the UK is only behind homogenous markets such as Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands.
When taken as a percentage of total social network users in the country, the UK’s Facebook population rises to 93.4 per cent penetration; only slightly lower than Spain’s rate of 93.9 per cent.
Source: The Telegraph
