The map below shows popular social networking sites around the world and as we all know, Orkut rules our world (incidentally, Orkut is India’s youth icon too! :J)
Valleywag too did a similar analysis (based on Alexa data for diff. countries), a few months back and here are a key stats:
- Orkut leads in the Indian subcontinent, as well as Brazil;
- Facebook is stronger, internationally, than Myspace, with surprising strongholds in the Middle East;
- hi5.com is the most international of all the social networks, leading in Peru, Colombia, Central America, and other, scattered countries such as Mongolia, Romania, and Tunisia;
Times have changed in the last few months and FaceBook has started getting good traction in Indian terrain. But is it really that significant to dent Orkut’s market share?
Not too sure. What do you think?
This graphical representation here does not show any social networking site in Japan, does that mean Japan is without any online network?????
I think the clientele for Orkut and Facebook are quite different. Orkut gave users a way to pry around and read up on other users profiles, leave comments, join communities, etc. Orkut users started building a social ranking on how many friends/scraps they got. On the other hand, Facebook is more closed, invite-only network. I am sure Orkut users in India are equally aware of Facebook, its just that Facebook doesnt offer them the self-gratification that Orkut does. My feeling is that unless there is a killer Facebook-app thats India oriented (matrimony, bollywood, etc) FB wont get much traction.
Interesting find Mahesh!! – I cant believe that Japan doesnt have any popular social networking site!
@Unmesh – great analysis! IMO, i dont find FB sticky enough (maybe I am too old for them?) –
But yeah, I do agree that Orkut provides easy sneek peak/masala stuff on your friends than FB – and most of the apps may not sound great for Indian users.
While hi5 maintains its strong hold in Central America, it faces tough competition in Asia from many social networking sites. Hi5.com comes in first ten ranking in Alexa.com.
Watch this space, http://indiashines.com will emerge as exclusive social netwokring portal for India and indians all around the world.
K Saravana Kumar
Japan does indeed have a popular social networking site – Mixi – http://www.mixi.jp. Now that Facebook is in Japanese however, I think Mixi will be given a run for its money. Not sure how they are handling the threat.