Ryan Giggs injunction drives record traffic to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

June 30, 2011

Record numbers of Britons turned to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to learn about the Ryan Giggs injunction.

The social networks saw a surge in user numbers last month as thousands logged on to find out details about the footballer’s alleged extra-marital affair, online traffic figures from UKOM/Nielsen indicate.

According to the measurement body, the growth in visitors to social networks is mostly being driven by the over-50s. Twitter’s UK audience was up by a third from April, with a 65 per cent rise in men aged 50-64 visiting the site at the peak of the media storm over gagging orders in May. The number of female pensioners using the site also doubled month on month.

Both LinkedIn and Facebook also enjoyed record traffic in the UK last month, fuelled by a surge in their popularity amongst the over-50s age group, as more older people look to develop their social and professional networking skills.

LinkedIn, whose market value has increased 58 per cent to $6.65 billion since flotation on the New York stock market, registered 3.6 million UK visitors in May, up 57 per cent from a year earlier.

The figures also show that Facebook overtook MSN last month, making it the second most popular site in the UK, with 26.8 million users, behind Google's 33.9 million.