Facebook might be the world’s biggest social network, rapidly on its way to reach the magical one billion user mark, but it is not the only one. Here are a few others that are highly competitive in their domestic markets:
- Vkontakte (In contact): Russia’s leading social network has more than 110 million registered users and 33 million daily unique visitors. According to comScore, the site had Europe’s highest overall user engagement in December 2011, with visitors spending an average of 7.9 hours on Vkontakte during the month. Facebook still lacks far behind in Europe’s largest internet market with its 5.3 million Russian users, although strong growth rates have been reported recently.
- Mixi Japan: 2011 has been the year when Japan went global over social networking. Facebook and Twitter have both experienced impressive growth, and especially Facebook’s 460 percent year-on-year growth is nothing short of spectacular, as reported by Nielsen. Still, Mixi has close to 15 million monthly active users, 80 percent of which access the site through their mobile devices. Being second only to Twitter in what is considered one of the largest ecommerce markets in the world obviously makes this an important platform for international marketers.
- Cyworld: South Korean social network, Cyworld, is something of a home grown phenomenon. According to Alexa, 90 percent of the social network’s 25 million user base comes from its domestic market – this equates to more than every second of the country’s total internet users. Although Facebook has been making some serious inroads into South Korea over the past year, Cyworld continues to be a significant player in Korea’s highly developed and attractive online market.
At the International Search Summit @ SMX West on February 27th Michael Bonfils will introduce some of these major social networks competing with Facebook and Twitter. More specifically, he will share insights into who uses the sites, what they offer to advertisers and how organisations can leverage them as part of a global online strategy. Passes for the summit are still available.
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Immanuel Simonsen
Research Manager at Webcertain
As the Research Manager of multilingual web marketing agency Webcertain, Immanuel heads up the company’s global market research activities and large content marketing projects. He is the author of several reports and guides, including ‘The Essential Guide to Rel-Alternate-Hreflang’ and ‘The Webcertain Global Search and Social Report 2013’. Apart from being a tutor at the International Marketing School -- teaching online marketing professionals on business opportunities around the globe -- Immanuel is a regular speaker at the International Search Summit, a leading event series dedicated to multilingual search and social media marketing.
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