"Member Communities", which includes social networks and blogs, were visited by 67% of the global online population, behind search, 86%, general interest portals including Yahoo and MSN, 85%, and PC software, such as media players, at 73%.
E-mail lagged behind, accounting for only 65% of the global online population.
The use of social networking communities is increasing twice as fast as any of the other four largest sectors, with time spent on the sites now almost 10% of all internet time, rising three times faster than the overall internet rate, The Nielsen Company's Global Faces and Networked Places research shows.
According to the report, Facebook - the world's most popular social network - is visited monthly by three in every 10 people online across the nine social networking markets that Nielsen tracks. They include the UK, Brazil, US, France, Spain and Germany.
Facebook has its greatest reach in the UK market, with 47% of web users accessing the site, while Google run social networking site Orkut has the largest domestic online reach in Brazil, reaching 70% of Brazilian web users.
Mobile is also playing an important role in social networking, with 23% of UK mobile web users visiting a social network site using their handset, compared to only 19% in the US.
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