A study by Hitwise shows that in the UK, YouTube (GOOG) is about to overtake the BBC site as the most visited homepage in the country.
For the last two years, bbc.co.uk has been the number one ranked entertainment site in the country weekly. YouTube has been in the number two position since October and is closing in fast.
This doesn't mean the BBC site isn't growing, it's just that YouTube is drawfing their growth. The BBC site has grown by 12 percent in May from last year, while YouTube has grown by seven times over the same time period.
Just last week the lead by the BBC site has dropped to only 1.6 percentage points, meaning it's only a matter of weeks, if that, before YouTube is number 1.
The major caveat here is the study is only referring to homepage visits, not overall page views. Still, the YouTube growth is phenomenal whatever way you want to look at it, as it's also not taking into account clicks beyond their homepage either.
Another result of the Hitwise study showed that in the UK, entertainment will overtake retail and classified websites to become the third most popular category by the end of June.
The top three visited sites in the UK are Google.co.uk at the top position, with a 8.2% market share, then eBay.co.uk is next, with Hotmail.com coming in third.
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