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Adrian Weckler at yourtechstuff.com questions Bebo’s high Irish visitor figures, asking "Are there really more people watching Bebo than the majority of TV shows?".

The real question here is why internet advertisers are not pushing for more independent visitor numbers accreditation systems, such as ABC Electronic, an offspring ABC the UK and Irish newspaper audit system?

With universities and schools blocking access and massive coverage in the Irish media, it wouldn’t be too hard to think Bebo is as large worldwide as it is in Ireland. But Bebo is massively dominated by users from Ireland according to Google Trends. Leaving MySpace as the world’s most popular ‘social networking’ site (sic).

A press release from the company states “According to third party sources like Nielsen and Alexa, Bebo is the largest social networking site in the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand” – while Nielsen is a trusted source, Alexa’s accuracy is questionable. Google Trends shows MySpace, not Bebo, as “the largest social networking site in the UK”. Although Google Trends shows both sites growth rates are somewhat mirror, MySpace is well ahead. The accuracy of Google Trends is, however, another question.

On Bebo in Ireland, Justin Mason writes “Also I think MySpace has a similar problem to Orkut — it’s already ‘owned’ by a population somewhere else, who are talking about stuff that makes little sense to Irish teenagers. As a result, it’s not being used as a social system here in Ireland; instead, it’s just used by musicians who want a cheap place to host a few tracks without having to set up their own website”. If Bebo is ‘owned’ by Ireland-based users – and still growing in popularity here - it might leave less chance of Bebo expanding worldwide.