ComScore, a global leader in measuring the digital world, has released a report on the top social networking sites in Europe, with a particular focus on France, based on data from the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service.

According to study, around 22 million French Internet users visited at least one social networking site during December 2008, reaching 64% of the whole French Internet viewers.

The report said that social networking draws three quarters of European internet users of the 282.7 million European internet users age 15 and older who went online by a home or work PC in December 2008, 211 million visited a social networking site, representing a penetration of 74.6%.

Out of the 16 individual European countries included in the study, social networking reach was quite low in France, at 63.9%, as against 79.8% in the U.K. or 73.7% in Spain.

In spite of its fairly low penetration, France’s social networking viewers (21.7 million visitors in December) were the third largest in Europe following UK (29.3 million visitors) and Germany (24.9 million visitors).    

Over 21.7 million French Internet users visited a social networking site during December 2008, up 45% as compared to the last year.

Facebook.com rated as the most popular social networking site with 12 million visitors, arising 443% over the course of the last year after rolling out a French language user interface in February. Skyrock stood at second place with 11 million visitors (up 8 percent), followed by another French site, L'internaute Copains d'Avant, which enjoyed impressive 112 percent growth throughout the year to reach 5.8 million visitors in December. MySpace Sites (3 million visitors) and Flickr.com (1.8 million visitors) rounded out the top five.   

Mike Read, SVP and Managing Director of comScore, Europe said, “2008 was a significant year for social networking in France.”

“Not only was it a year that saw significant growth, but it was also a period in which Facebook took the category by storm after translating its interface into French early in the year. 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,” Mike added.