Online Social Networking Records Worldwide Growth

The popularity of social networking sites is seeing a new high worldwide according to a survey conducted by comScore, a company that measures online digital growth.

Websites like Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, etc are all seeing expanding subscribers all over the world and not just the US. ComScore reported increase of subscriber base worldwide up by 25 percent, which is just 9 percent in the US. record

Details of the report reveal that maximum growth in social networking is seen in the Middle East-Africa region, where 66 percent hike is seen in people registering with these websites. Facebook, MySpace and Friendster have initially been very popular in the US, particularl in North America but recent addition in the users is not much.
"While the social networking trend first took off in North America, it is beginning to reach a point of maturity in the region," said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president, comScore. "However, the phenomenon is still growing rapidly in other regions around the world, especially as the established American brands turn their focus to developing markets," he added.
Apart from Middle East-Africa region, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific are also seeing a growing subscriber base, 20 percent more than what it was in 2007. Europe shows highest number of users of these. Online socializing in Latin also saw a leap of 33 percent from 40 million to 53.2 million users. In the Asia Pacific region, users grew from 162.7 million to 200.5 million, in the past year.
Friendster was initially said to be the most popular site than MySpace and Facebook. MySpace now rules amongst users. In the US, Friendster is not so popular but in the Asia Pacific, it finds a growing user base. Friendster has recently hired Richard Kimber, Google’s former regional managing director (South Asia), to be the new CEO and a member of the board of directors of the company.
"Friendster is growing at an enormous rate in Asia Pacific and is clearly leading the competition," said Kimber in a statement.
The social network of Facebook grew 38 percent in North America in last year. But Europe saw a major rise in registered users of Facebook, a surprising 303 percent from 2007 to 2008. In Asia Pacific, its growth was recorded at 458 percent from 3.7 million users to 20.7 million in 2008. The Middle East-Africa region jumped from 2.9 million to 14.9 million users, a astonishing 403 percent. Of all, Latin America recorded an amazing market arrest at 1055 percent, from 1 million users to 11.9 million users.