The Most Popular Social Network in Holland Is … Not (Yet) Facebook

comScore has released a study of social networking usage in the Netherlands based on the comScore Media Metrix service. The study reveals that the Dutch social networking market continues to grow strongly as sites like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin extend their respective footprints in the market.  In fact, Holland has the highest penetration of users on Twitter and LinkedIn worldwide:  more than one in four Dutch Internet users visits these sites during the course of the month.

But the #1 social network in the Netherlands is Hyves, which continues to hold the top position among social networking sites in the market with more than 7.6 million visitors in March. But Facebook is quickly gaining ground, surging 76% in the past year to nearly 6.6 million visitors.  Twitter.com and Linkedin.com rank third and fourth, respectively, with more than 3 million visitors and each and growing approximately 70% in the past year.  The stats exclude visits from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

As far as the penetration of Twitter, 26.8% of Dutch Internet users visited the site in March, beating other countries where the site is extremely popular, including Japan (26.6%), Brazil (23.7%) and Indonesia (22%).

For more statistics on social networking in the Netherlands, visit comScore.