Facebook Cements Global Domination of Social Media. Almost. [Infographic]
Facebook this. Facebook that. Facebook blah blah blah. In digital circles that's all anyone seems to talk about these days. Over 500 million people can't be wrong? Or can they? The picture isn't quite as black and white, or should that be blue and white?
PR giant Edelman recently published two social media maps looking at social networks and social media consumption across Europe and Asia along with an analysis of the most popular social networks and online usage.
At first glance Facebook is dominant, with the majority of online time spent on social networks or consuming video, with Zuck's giant dominating the European scene. From the research:
"The first thing to strike us was the growing dominance of Facebook as the most popular social network in the vast majority of countries surveyed. 12 months ago the picture was quite different, but today Russia’s V Kontakte, Poland’s Nasza-klasa and Dutch Hyves are the only remaining local networks to make it on to the map."
Scratch below the surface though, and the picture becomes more complex,
"Despite Facebook’s leadership, country specific sites, for example the German StudiVZ Sites, HI5 in Poland and Spanish Tuenti continue to have large and active memberships. In many cases Facebook beats them by only a slim margin and right across the region, the Windows Live (client) platform continues to be popular."
The picture in Asia, also shows Facebook on the march. Indonesia recently surpassed the UK as Facebook's #2 market and nine of the 13 markets the research show a strong presence, aside from China, although that may change with rumours of a deal with Chinese search giant Baidu.
However, it's not all going Facebook's way:
"Having said that, the North Asian countries do have a strong local social media presence. In China it’s RenRen, South Korea has CyWorld, Taiwan [has] Wretch and Japan has become a Twitter nation quickly."
More blurb here
Sources: Edelman Europe & Edelman APAC.
Photo (c) Paul Butler / Facebook.
2 June 2011 by Sam Michel
Sam Michel is the founder of Chinwag and blogs here for work, and more randomly at Toodlepip. He runs Chinwag Jobs, Digital Mission and tends to focus on murky place where technology, community and marketing collide. You'll find him on twitter @toodlepip.
Sam Michel is the founder of Chinwag and blogs here for work, and more randomly at Toodlepip. He runs Chinwag Jobs, Digital Mission and tends to focus on murky place where technology, community and marketing collide. You'll find him on twitter @toodlepip.
