According to a new study released Tuesday by comScore, Facebook remains the number-one social-networking site in the world, — and it has undergone 153 percent growth in the past year.
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The Reston, Va.-based research firm said most of the growth for social-networking sites is outside North America. On this continent, the social-networking audience grew nine percent, but the growth was much higher elsewhere — 66 percent in the Middle East-Africa region, 35 percent in Europe, and 33 percent in Latin America. Social-networking sites for the world at large grew about 25 percent.
303 Percent Growth in Europe
Jack Flanagan, comScore executive vice president, said the social-networking trend is reaching maturity in the region where it began, North America. “However, the phenomenon is still growing rapidly in other regions around the world,” he added, “especially as the established American brands turn their focus to developing markets.”
Facebook is a key driver of that global growth. In North America, it grew about 38 percent, but in every other region comScore found its audience has more than quadrupled. In Europe, for instance, its growth was a whopping 303 percent.
Facebook took the global lead in April, and comScore said its growth has been driven by its “concerted effort” to become culturally relevant outside the U.S., through such techniques as its introduction of natural-language interfaces in several markets.
Flanagan noted that Facebook has taken the lead, or at least is competing strongly, in several markets where, a year ago, its presence was minor. In fact, nearly 63 percent of Facebook’s total users are now outside the U.S. and Canada.
MySpace Grows More Slowly
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Hi5.com also experienced phenomenal growth, doubling its visitor base to more than 56 million through the use of its own localization strategy. But Facebook and Hi5 aren’t the only ones growing in leaps and bounds. Global growth rates were 50 percent for Friendster.com, 41 percent for Orkut, 32 percent for Bebo.com, and 19 percent for Skyrock Network.
Interestingly, MySpace showed only three percent global growth, the lowest among the top seven sites profiled by comScore. In the U.S., though, MySpace remains in first place, with Facebook second.
Zia Daniell Wigder, a senior analyst with JupiterResearch, said it’s important to “bear in mind that Facebook didn’t have any translation on their site until this year,” and so was limited to English-speaking audiences. The very high growth rate for Facebook and others, she noted, was an increase over a very small base.
MySpace and Hi5 had been more aggressive in that regard, she said. MySpace, for instance, is now in nearly 30 countries. But the social sites that are exploding globally “can’t keep up this growth rate,” she said, especially since they’ll begin knocking into “well-established local players” in countries like Germany and Japan.
