Bebo Traffic Down, Brand Up Ahead Of AOL AcquisitionBebo Traffic Down, Brand Up Ahead Of AOL Acquisition

AOL may have to work a little to turn its acquisition of Bebo into a competitive advantage, according to recent traffic statistics.

Hitwise on Friday reported that Bebo has recently lost ground in terms of its Web traffic, but the social networking site has "enormous brand equity" in the United Kingdom.

The social networking site ranks fourth among the Hitwise list of 55 social networking sites, behind MySpace, Facebook, and MyYearbook, receiving just 1.15% of all U.S. visits in that category in February.

Bebo's share of U.S. Internet visits last week dropped 23% compared with the same week last year, and they dropped 22% for the month, year over year, Hitwise reported.

MySpace holds 67 times the share of U.S. Internet visits compared with Bebo, while Facebook has 11 times the share of Internet visits that Bebo has, according to Hitwise.

However, Hitwise said that time spent on Bebo is higher on average than on other social networking sites. Hitwise found that users spend an average of 30 minutes and 26 seconds on Bebo, while MySpace users spend an average of 30 minutes and seven seconds on that site, and users spend an average of 21 minutes on Facebook.

Bebo's statistics for time spent on the site have remained flat compared with last year, while the same statistics for MySpace have decreased slightly, according to Hitwise, but Facebook user time has increased 69% year over year.

MySpace appears to be sending visits to Bebo, sending 22.15% of Bebo's traffic last week. New users accounted for 17.37% of Bebo's traffic in February, while returning users accounted for 82.62%, Hitwise reported.

In the United Kingdom, Bebo is the most searched-for brand, making it more popular there than eBay or Facebook, Hitwise said.