The most popular UK sites are consumer-driven

There are some surprising facets of a recent comScore report, listing the top online properties in the UK. Consumer related hubs - ticket brokers, retail and travel booking sites - are showing the most growth in the industry.

by Kristina Knight

One not-surprising fact is that Google is still the most visited site in the UK with 27.3 million March visitors. Microsoft (26.8 million visitors) and Ebay (22 million visitors) filled out the top three sites. But that is where the typical results ended.

British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) was the top gaining Internet property for the month with 9.7 million visitors. That is a 36% increase over February numbers. Vodafone also showed big gains with 4 million visitors, British Airways showed 4.4 million visitors and WalMart had 2.3 million visitors.

Social networks also showed strong growth to finish out Q3. UK-based Tagged.com showed 226% growth for the month of March with more than 3 million visitors. Facebook.com showed 36% growth and Six Apart websites showed 30% growth.

For online marketers it is clear that targeting the consumer is more important that ever as more users head online to buy tickets, make travel plans and purchase everyday items. More consumers are also headed online to make connections with friends. By knowing what an advertiser's target market is, ad buys can be optimized for the most response.