Social networking is spreading worldwide as Facebook and others adapt locally

Aug 15, 2008

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gyIkr2i8d9-1xDGYac9OtUeFnUKg

MONTREAL — Social networking is spreading worldwide as Facebook and other sites adapt to local cultures and languages with use in Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific all shooting upward.

By contrast, the growth of new users of social networking sites in North America is beginning to level off, says a report by U.S.-based comScore, an online data marketing firm.

“The real growth is obviously occurring internationally with respect to social networking in broader terms, but even more specifically with certain sites like Facebook and Hi5,” senior analyst Andrew Lipsman said Friday.

“The sites that have made an emphasis on speaking to a specific market are the ones that are growing rapidly.”

In Latin America, social networking on the Internet is up 33 per cent with 53.2 million unique visitors to social networking sites in June 2008 versus June 2007.

“They tend to be very highly engaged in Latin America in different forms of communications online,” including text messaging and chatting, said Lipsman.

“I think social networking goes along with that.”

Facebook.com took over the global lead among social networking sites in April, now more popular than MySpace, comScore said.

In Europe, social networking grew by 35 per cent to 165. 2 million unique visitors in June ‘08 versus the same period a year ago. In Asia, it grew by 23 per cent to about 200 million unique visits.

While comScore found that social networking is up 66 per cent in the Middle-East and Africa to 30.1 million unique visitors for the same time period, Lipsman said the growth is only from Israel and South Africa.

Lipsman said Facebook, which lets friends and families stay in touch, has users in many languages.

“In a lot of regions we are seeing where it had a minimal presence last year, it’s quickly moving up the ranking in a lot of cases and taking the No. 1 spot.”

Facebook had 132.1 million unique visitors worldwide in June ‘08 versus a year earlier, up 153 per cent. MySpace had 117.5 million, up three per cent for the same time period.

“Facebook is seeing strong growth just about everywhere.”

Analyst Carmi Levy said worldwide users are making Facebook relevant in their own regions.

“Facebook doesn’t provide the content, it simply provides the venue for people to connect with each other in whatever culturally acceptable way they deem fit,” said Levy, senior vice-president of strategic consulting at Toronto’s AR Communications Inc.

“There really is no American message incorporated within Facebook or MySpace or any of these other services.”

Lipsman said about two-thirds of MySpace’s traffic is still coming from the United States, making it less diversified than Facebook.

Hi5, an international social networking site with a local flavour, finished third behind Facebook and MySpace. Hi5 doubled its traffic in June ‘08 with 56.3 million unique visitors versus June ‘07.

Andrew Moore-Crispin, editor of HUB:The Computer Paper, said it’s common for successful social networking sites to be translated into as many languages as possible.

Social networking sites become regionalized with their own cultural differences, Moore-Crispin said, adding he has friends overseas who approach Facebook more as entertainment than as a way to connect with people.

“Things that I find interesting, you are not going to find interesting and vice versa and across the pond, people’s tastes are different as to what they want to do online,” he said.