Most European web users are now registered on some form of social media site, new research has revealed.

According to the latest comScore report on the use of social networking, three-quarters of European internet users over the age of 15 logged on to one of the sites in December 2008.

The study found that social networking is prevalent in the UK, where 79.8 per cent of users were recorded logging on, followed by Spain at 73.7 per cent, then Portugal at 72.9 per cent.

It also found that the use of social media site Facebook grew significantly in France by 443 per cent, becoming the country's top networking provider.

Senior vice president and managing director of comScore Mike Read commented: "It will be interesting to see what happens in 2009 as Facebook and native social network Skyrock battle for the top position in the French market."

TMC Net recently reported that social media sites could be set to start taking advantage of their giant audience base.

This came after market research company YouGov highlighted the fact that there is a lot of money to be made off the back of social networking.

Living Streams comment:  Now is the time to get into social media / networks for advertising and SMO (social media optimisation)