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World Map Of Social Networks

Posted: December 22nd, 2009 | Author: Jaan-Matti Lillevälja | Filed under: Facebook, Social media, Surveys and stats, Trends | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments »

world map of social networks 580x294 World Map Of Social Networks

Italian writer, blogger and photographer Vincenzo Cosenza has put together a visualization showing the most popular social networks around the world on a map, based on recent traffic data (December 2009).

As we can see from the map, Facebook is still strong and on the rise. It is dominating most of the western world, together with Africa, Middle-East and the Pacific region. With a user base of 350 million and growing, the map will probably look even greener next year.

Friendster…is…well…Friendster. Nothing to talk about here.

Although Facebook is also growing in Russia, it is still dominated by Odnoklassniki and V Kontakte. I personally don’t see this situation changing any time soon either. They both support cyrillic and are strongly oriented on the Russian-speaking community. They are also widely used among Russian inhabitants in other Eastern European countries.

Google’s Orkut is shrinking steadily, still dominating only in Brazil and Estonia. With Facebook’s user base having grown by 50% in both of these countries in one year, Orkut probably won’t be on the map at the end of 2010. Orkut also used to be big in India, but with Facebook growing by 150% in two consecutive years there, it has lost it’s dominant position.

Mixi is mainly dominant in Japan, with it’s main “advantage” being the possibility to stay totally anonymous – The people in Japan like to generally stay anonymous when surfing. Facebook’s privacy settings haven’t really been embraced there…

China’s QQ, when only usernames are concerned, is the biggest social network in the world. QQ today has over one billion usernames, but only one tenth of them are recurring visitors, topping at 91 million in Dec. 21. Without a doubt, QQ is the biggest player in China and will probably stay that way for a long time.

There are also a bunch of smaller players, being dominant in only one or two countries. But Facebook is changing that situation quite fast:

When compared to june 2009, Facebook has become dominant in 19 countries:

India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Czech Republic, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Azerbaijan, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Oman, Yemen, Quadeloupe and Martinique

So, China aside, Facebook is still growing fast. By the same time next year, we will probably see a map where Facebook is dominating most of the western hemisphere, together with the Middle-East and the Pacific. The only real players who are stopping Facebook from having a total “world dominance”, will probably be China’s QQ and V Kontakte in Russia.

9 Comments on “World Map Of Social Networks”

  1. 1 Kaart sotsiaalvõrgustikest üle maailma « DreamGrow internetiturundus said at 9:45 pm on December 22nd, 2009:

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  2. 2 Tweets that mention World Map Of Social Networks | DreamGrow Digital -- Topsy.com said at 10:44 pm on December 22nd, 2009:

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Priit Kallas and Jaan-MattiLillevälja, Jaan-MattiLillevälja. Jaan-MattiLillevälja said: World Map Of Social Networks – http://www.dreamgrow.com/world-map-of-social-networks [...]

  3. 3 uberVU - social comments said at 4:19 am on December 23rd, 2009:

    Social comments and analytics for this post…

    This post was mentioned on Twitter by JaanMatti: World Map Of Social Networks – http://www.dreamgrow.com/world-map-of-social-networks…

  4. 4 World Map of Social Networks « AndaPR said at 4:29 am on December 23rd, 2009:

    [...] Marketing, Social Media | Tags: Social Media, Social Networks | Leave a Comment  Seen on the DreamGrow Digital blog…a world map of social networks created by Italian writer, blogger and photographer [...]

  5. 5 Priit Kallas said at 11:51 am on December 23rd, 2009:

    The interactive version of this map is here

  6. 6 Nacho Villoch said at 2:38 pm on December 24th, 2009:

    Very interesting and a good research work… despite it is not 100% accurate, at least regading Spain.
    In Spain, the most popular -in terms of number of users , with over 6,5 Million, and much more in term of minutes Per day, uploaded User generated contents, and conversations, – is Tuenti (www.tuenti.com )
    Pretty much focussed on the 14-23 years old segment, it is over growing such boundaries steadily.
    Facebook, being more general, is almost at the same level, but as of today, with the lates available data , Tuenti leads the pack.
    I miss in your map soe information about profesional networks such as Linkedin or Xing. Althoug more vertical and specialised are a ver powerful trend.
    anyway, Congratulations por mashing-up all that info together.

  7. 7 Priit Kallas said at 3:19 pm on December 24th, 2009:

    @Nacho. Thanks for your comment! I checked Facebook for Spain and it gives “Estimate: 7,731,520 people who live in Spain”

  8. 8 Our Most Read Social Media Post For 2009 | DreamGrow Digital said at 1:07 am on January 5th, 2010:

    [...] World Map Of Social Networks. People are stat junkies, as with the firs post on the list, everyone wants to see the numbers. [...]

  9. 9 Nacho Villoch said at 7:16 pm on January 12th, 2010:

    Ups , Priit Kallas, you are right!!
    My info -just few weeks old, aws already obsolete !!-
    the momentum of this socialmedia tsunami dynamics is amazing ; I had underestimated Facebook growth for Spain in my forecasts.
    … so just , forget about my comment,
    Congratulations again for the accurate and updated data. (It couls be interesting to update the charts every quarter and check relative evolutions)

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