Social networks in Asia are booming, with increased technological infrastructure in rural and humbler areas of Asia beginning to take form, further internet users are logging on to social networking websites to connect with one another around the world. When we hear about these statistics of how the world is more connected, with Facebook declaring that the degrees of separation has reduced to four from the original 6 degrees; I begin to wonder whether Facebook is the most popular social network in Asia.
From a general consensus in the Western world we believe that Facebook is a global social networking magnet, which it largely is, where if a person does not have an account with Facebook they are usually deemed as a social pariah. With Asia being the leaders of time consumed browsing or joining social networks it would make sense that it would be via Facebook. The majority of Facebook users in Asia are habituated in the Philippines with a staggering 93.1% of the entire population signed up to Facebook. The Filipinos are actually the leading users of Facebook in the world, with Malaysia and Indonesia ranking at sixth and seventh with 88.4% and 87.5% respectively. This is perhaps due to the countries aspirations to globalise, increased curiosity of the online world and improved technology, in particular mobile technology where social networking websites/applications such as Twitter and Facebook can be easily accessed. However, this is not the case with the majority of social networking users in Asia. In other parts of Asia, such as India and China, local social networks are more established. China’s more prevalent social networking is called QQ (Q Zone) where an approximate 300 million users are spending their time on. India’s preferred social networking site is called Orkut, which is owned by Google, where an estimated 70% online Indian users prefer to use this. The preference could be due to a variety of reasons such as, the cultural and language benefits each website may have to their native users, the fact that QQ is not block by the Great Firewall of China thus allowing them to actually social freely (somewhat) without the need to navigate to Facebook through external proxy changers for instance; Probably most crucially is the fact there is already a large establishment of mutual users preferring to use the local website rather than a more global website like Facebook, where their mutual circle of friends is somewhat reduced or non – existent.
At the moment Facebook’s popularity is confined to the smaller countries of Asia; however I feel it will be a matter of time before the two Asian superpowers are overcome by the popularity power of Facebook. With some users saying that Facebook is now starting to push Orkut from India's number one position.
Would you consider using a small or local social networking website instead of Facebook, if your friends were on it?
References:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_vs_asia_top_social_networks.php
http://linkingasia21blog.com/2011/10/21/the-most-popular-social-networks-in-asia/
I agree with you that Asia has probably the most users on Facebook in the world. Is this due to the lack of a good social life or just because all their friends use it? Facebook is a popular network and it is only a matter of time when it would takeover Orkut and similar networks in countries like India. People want more than they have and Facebook is rapidly spreading across the globe if it hasn't done so already.
ReplyDeleteGood post. Check out Japan and Mixi. Facebook in Japan is not very popular at all over there. Instead, Mixi is the leading social network there.
ReplyDeleteSocial network has made a big impact in asia in fact in indonesia 80% internet users engage with social activity such as manging social network profles. Yh i think that social web has made a big impact in asia.
ReplyDelete"As the emerging economies of Asia come online in earnest, the web's ability to bring people together is proving its most appealing aspect"
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/53626000/gif/_53626982_percentage_social_media_464.gif
Karan Khela, in response to your question, ‘Asia has probably the most users on Facebook in the world. Is this due to the lack of a good social life or just because all their friends use it?’ I feel that it is a combination of developing countries in Asia improving their communicative infrastructure and ambition to globalise as well as socialise with the rest of the world. What better way to socialise with the rest of the world than with Facebook, which has more than 800 million users worldwide. In addition, with the lack of local social networking sites in some Asian countries, it would be the norm for Facebook to be the default social networking site for countries such as the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia; with 80% of Indonesia’s internet users using social networking sites as mentioned by Navsk and 87.5% of the 80% using Facebook, which is a substantial amount.
ReplyDeleteHowever, as Alain has mentioned Facebook’s popularity is not completely universal, as most Japanese social networking users prefer Mixi.
http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics