(London, England) Net Communities today announced that it has been appointed to handle the UK direct advertising sales for Digg.com, the leading social news site.

Digg now has 4 million users in the U.K. (40 million in the U.S.) and Alexa ranks Digg as the 67^th most trafficked U.K. website.  Among UK tech news sites, Digg enjoys a 13.6% market share, more than three times that of CNET News and The Register, according to Hitwise.com, August 2009.

“Digg is one of the most original and vibrant community sites on the internet and we’re excited to team up with them,” said Net Communities managing director Andy Evans.   “Our goal is to capture that excitement and effectively sell it in to advertisers and agencies and establish Digg as one of the top marketing resources in the U.K.”

In Q4 2009, Digg introduced its innovative, next generation Ad platform, DiggAds™, which integrates ads alongside organic content on the Digg website. The system is designed to elevate great ad content and filter out what isn’t resonating with the Digg community.  As users “digg” or vote up ad content, the advertisers will pay less per click and see better ROI, while lower performing ads will be seen less until they are priced out of the system.

“The U.K. is an extremely important market for us, both in terms of expanding the Digg community and growing ad revenue,” said Bob Buch, VP of Business Development.  “Outside of the US, it is one of the most popular regions for Digg in terms of location of users, so it was important for us to find a partner that really understands the Digg platform and audience.”

Digg has expanded rapidly in its first five years.  It launched showcasing primarily technology content but has evolved into a destination that now includes a broad range of other topics such as Sports, Entertainment, Science, World & Business, and Gaming.  The company recently also launched Digg Dialogg, which features exclusive online video interviews, using questions that have been submitted and voted on by the Digg community, with such well-known guests as Al Gore, Sir Richard Branson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Sacha Baron Cohen in his cinematic guise as Bruno. 

See the Digg's 5 years in 5 minutes video