Top International Social Networks You Didn’t Know Existed Top International Social Networks You Didn’t Know Existed Tags: Social Media • Social Networks Given the increasingly global world of commerce in which we live, business owners still take a highly ethnocentric approach to social media. While it is estimated that 76% of businesses use social network sites to promote their business, a very small number use social networks that are popular outside their own nation of origin. That is because, in some cases, businesses are not capable of fulfilling orders internationally. But businesses who provide services that can be purchased internationally should make an effort to establish an international social media presence that can be maintained on various social networks that see heavy usage in other countries. China Because Facebook is banned in China, a number of regional sites have cropped up to fight for market share. Sina Weibo Literally translated to mean “New Wave Microblog,” Sina Weibo is a Chinese migroblogging website (akin to Twitter) in use by over 30% of Chinese Internet Users. Reported to have 368 million registered users in mid-2012, users post over 100 million messages every day.

It’s heavily adopted by businesses: 5,000 businesses and 2,700 media organizations in China use Sina Weibo. Unique Properties: Sina Weibo is heavily used by celebrities and popular figures: the top 100 users had over 485 million followers combined, an average of one million followers each. If you get big on Sina Weibo, you get -very- big. Cons: Sina Weibo cooperates with the Chinese Government’s policy of internet censorship. Sina Weibo blacklists some keywords and the site does not support URL shortening services which can mask the identity of a site. Sina Weibo is estimated to employ 1,000 people specifically to monitor the massive influx of posts in compliance with censorship regulations. Opportunities for Businesses: The most evident opportunity is to partner with one of Sina Weibo’s most popular celebrities on an endorsement deal, which easily allows a business to reach tens of millions of fans throughout the network. Advertising and media agencies with a presence in China, like MediaCom, can help implement a strategy like this. Renren Literally translated as “Everyone’s Website,” Renren is a Chinese remake of Facebook.

With 160 million registered users and a total of 31 million active users monthly, Renren is one of the most popular Chinese social networks. Unique Properties: On Renren, users earn “points” for activities like logging in, posting status messages, commenting, and receiving comments. As users earn points, their “level” on the site increases, which unlocks special emoticons, profile skins, and the ability to “go invisible” and view other users’ profiles without their knowledge. Renren also has a virtual currency, much like Facebook’s, which allows users to send gifts, exchange for social gaming perks, and advertise. Opportunities for Businesses: To us, Renren seems to be an opportunity much like Facebook. Set up a profile for your business and begin interacting with customers and fans to generate engagement. Douban Douban is another large Chinese social network, with 53 million registered users as of 2001. Cons: Douban exercises censorship in line with the Chinese Government’s policies. All content passed through Douban is censored. Experts are unsure whether or not Douban may be banned by the Chinese Government in 2013.

Unique Properties: Douban provides an online music, movie, and book database that users can utilize as a recommendation engine. It serves ratings and reviews for both registered and unregistered users. Douban has a high index among intellectuals discussing social issues. Opportunities for Businesses: Particularly if your business is in the content industry, Douban provides an opportunity to reach new minds and start discussions about your content. It’s a must-have social network for music, book, or film publishers. Qzone A fast-growing social network with 597 million users and 150 million active users monthly, Qzone is typically used as a blogging and diary platform, much like LiveJournal. Unique Properties: Part of the high loyalty of the platform is due to the popularity of the instant messaging tool, QQ, provided to users. Unfortunately, this is a one-to-one messaging platform, so opportunities for businesses to reach many users via the instant message tool are limited. Opportunities for Businesses: If one could divise a way to build a loyal following, it would be a ripe opportunity to send customized instant messages to followers by the popular QQ tool.

Kaixin001 Ranking as the 13th most popular website in China, Kaixin is a social network that cannot be ignored. Unique Properties: Kaixin001 offers a 1G online storage platform in addition to Facebook-like qualities. Be careful not to confuse Kaixin001 with other platforms named Kaixin in China, of which there are about a dozen, including some social networks that are imitations of the original. Opportunities for Businesses: Unsure. Kaixin001 is more of a user-focused platform than a business-focused platform. They offer Apps, like online storage, social bookmarking, music, and quizzes that provide functionality. At the time of this writing, I’m not seeing a way to get involved heavily as a business, but that could change with new features. With the userbase that Kaixin001 has, it’s worth watching. Russia Russians have the highest social media usage rates in the world, averaging 9.8 hours per month, about twice the global average.

Vkontakte An overt Facebook clone, Vkontakte offers many of the same features as Facebook and absolutely trounces Facebook’s market share in the country, with 54% of the Russian online population spending 20 minutes per day on average, compared with Facebook’s 24.7% market share and only 3 minutes a day on average. Unique Properties: Since Vkontakte allows users to post streaming music or movies, this could explain why the social network is such an outlier when it comes to average time spent per day. Many users are passively using Vkontakte as a media distribution platform rather than actively engaging with the site. At any rate, media consumption means opportunities for advertising. Opportunities for Businesses: We see two clear ways to establish a presence on Vkontakte. First, the obvious, businesses can set up a page for fans and make friends. Second, the high use of content means that, if your target audience closely aligns with Vkontakte’s user base, you could make some good advertising purchases here. Odnoklassniki With more than 45 million registered users and 10 million daily unique users, Odnoklassniki is a very popular social network in Russia.

The name itself means “classmates,” a good indicator of the type of user they primarily service. Unique Properties: Odnoklassniki has a a unique demographic, primarily men under the age of 35 with post-graduate educations earning less than $30,000 a year. The site ranks highly in former Soviet Bloc countries like Kyrgyzstan and Armenia. Opportunities for Businesses: Limited. Since Facebook and Vkontakte have become more popular, Odnoklassniki’s declining market share hearkens back to MySpace a la 2003. Buyer beware before investing time or effort into building a presence here. Latin America Orkut Hugely popular in Brazil, with 59.1% of Orkut’s users hailing from the country, Orkut provides a discussion platform with over 33 million active users. Cons: Orkut is very prone to viruses. At least four major worms have propogated through Orkot in the last six years. Unique Properties: Orkut is primarily a discussion and chatting site where users can create discussions (similar to Quora) that can be responded to by any user on the site.

Opportunities for Businesses: The discussion platform is great for customer engagement. We recommend that businesses that have customers in Brazil, India, and Japan establish an Orkut profile and begin creating customer-centric discussions. Taringa! Taringa, an Argentinian social networking site primarily concerned with link sharing, think Digg with profiles, is one of the largest social networking sites in Latin America. Unique Properties: On Taringa, users are ranked according to the sum of their past contributions. Users increase their rank by receiving the equivalent of Likes on links that they submit. Users who consistently post content that is accepted by the community will be promoted through the ranks. The higher a user’s rank, the more Likes the user is able to give in a day. Opportunities for Business: Establishing a profile and promoting links of companies and blogs that you support, as well as submitting your own links, can be a great source of inbound traffic. Sonico With reports of more than 20 million registered users, Sonico is a large social networking website in Latin America. On Sonico, users can add friends, manage their personal profile, upload photos and videos, organize events, or play games.

Opportunities for Business: Since Sonico is functionally a clone of Facebook, we recommend establishing a profile and promoting similar types of content to increase engagment and drive traffic back to your site. Europe Netlog Netlog has over 94 million registered users and is popular throughout Europe as well as parts of the Middle East and Asia. Unique Properties: Because Netlog’s demographic includes people from all over the world, the team at Netlog has established an intense localization algorithm that prioritizes results that are geotargeted and personalized for each member’s profile. This means that user searches typically return individuals local and within the same age range as the user searching. Opportunities for Businesses: Best used as a personal networking site, Netlog provides few opportunities to market a brand but many opportunities for traditional sales tactics. Start meeting and greeting, tell people what you’re doing and why they need to hire you or purchase services from your business. XING XING is a professional social network, competing primarily with LinkedIn and European platform Viadeo. 90% of all pageviews on the XING platform come from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Opportunities for Businesses: Limited.

XING has a very rigid no-spam policy, so it’s best used passively simply by setting up a profile and connecting with other users. Southeast Asia hi5 Hi5 is a social gaming platform owned by Tagged, a popular social gaming platform in America. Unique Properties: Hi5 hosts cloned versions of many of the most popular Facebook games, and the main form of interaction on the site is playing games. This means that if your target audience is young and has a high proclivity to play online games, you might have an opportunity here. Opportunities for Business: The best way to use the Hi5 social network is to buy advertising. Since most of the time users spend on the site is not viewing other users’ profiles or viewing status updates, your attempts to sell your product or service will be in vain. Instead, you can purchase homepage takeovers, skins, and branded virtual gifts. With the right budget and spending levels, you’ll be able to purchase in-game branded items that will help to support an integrated campaign. Japan mixi Japan’s most popular social network with 2 million page views per day, registration on mixi is strictly controlled and requires the validation of a Japanese cellular phone number.

Unfortunately, this puts the site out of reach of most Americans. Opportunities for Businesses: Celebrities are very popular on mixi. The right way to attack this market is to partner with a media buying agency with connections to talent in the Japanese market and hire celebrity endorsers for your product. South Korea Cyworld The most popular South Korean social networking platform, Cyworld has about 16 million monthly visitors. Unfortunately, this number is falling as its users convert to Facebook and Twitter. It is unlikely, but possible, that Cyworld will continue to shed users. Cyworld is very ingrained in South Korean culture: the term “cyholic” has entered the popular lexicon. Unique Properties: In Cyworld, users can create avatars and apartments for themselves, rendered in a 2D isometric world, similar to The Sims. Opportunities for Businesses: This would be an excellent opportunity for the right brand to purchase advertising in the form of branded clothes, accessories, or furniture that users could place on their avatar or in their virtual home. On Cyworld, members can form “clubs” and decorate the club space in the same way that they can their own home, providing another opportunity for branded placement.

Celebrities are also popular on Cyworld, providing an opportunity for brand endorsement. India With a billion people and counting, India is expected to become the largest Facebook market in the world by 2015. Ibibo Roughly translated to “iBuild,” ibibo is a social networking service with about 4 million users, roughly 3% of the total Indian Internet population. By contrast, Facebook has about 63 million users in India. Ibibo is absolutely a supporting platform for reaching the Indian market: Facebook clearly dominates the region. Honorable Mention: Orkut Orkut was covered in detail in the Latin America section, but it also has a strong following among Indians. Share your favorite social networking sites in the comments below. Vkontakte is the best one. Tricky Ntt Good info. But I have to admit… Russian Odnoklassniki has its own specific, actually its deprived of free thiking and used for propoganda purposes. Many people has deleted their accounts recently because of flow of brainwashing sh#t melinda Nice compilation. Dint know about many!

Danielle Kogan Wikipedia TLDR (too long, didn't read) Wikipedia TLDR Read on Wikipedia Find on Amazon view_weekSummary VK (VKontakte; Russian: ВКонта́кте, meaning InContact) is one of the largest European online social networking services, based in Russia. It is available in several languages, and is especially popular among Russian-speaking users. VK allows users to message each other publicly or privately, to create groups, public pages and events, share and tag images, audio and video, and to play browser-based games. As of June 2016, VK had at least 369 million accounts. VK is ranked 14 (as of November 2016) in Alexa's global Top 500 sites. It is the second most popular website in Russia, behind Yandex. According to SimilarWeb, VK is the 4th most popular website in the world. As of October 2016, VK ranked as the second most popular social networking website in Israel, after Facebook.

codeFull Article 14 (November 2016 [update] ) [2] Registration October 10, 2006; 10 years ago (2006-10-10) Current status Active VK (VKontakte; Russian : ВКонта́кте, meaning InContact) is one of the largest European online social networking services , based in Russia. [4] It is available in several languages, and is especially popular among Russian-speaking users. VK allows users to message each other publicly or privately, to create groups , public pages and events, share and tag images, audio and video, and to play browser-based games. [5] As of June 2016 [update] , VK had at least 369 million accounts. [6] VK is ranked 14 (as of November 2016) [7] in Alexa 's global Top 500 sites. It is the second most popular website in Russia , behind Yandex . [8] According to SimilarWeb , VK is the 4th most popular website in the world.

[9] As of October 2016, VK ranked as the second most popular social networking website in Israel , [10] after Facebook . Contents Number of Registered users on VKontakte between 2006 and 2012 Pavel Durov , the founder of VKontakte, on his 26th birthday, 10 October 2010. 2006–2008: launch and rapid growth[ edit ] VKontakte was incorporated on 19 January 2007 as a Russian limited liability company . Founder Pavel Durov launched VKontakte for beta testing in September 2006, having just graduated from St Petersburg State University . The following month, the domain name vkontakte.ru was registered. User registration was initially limited to within university circles exclusively by invitation, but the site still grew quickly. In February 2007 the site reached a user base of over 100,000 and was recognized as the second largest player in Russia's nascent social network market. In the same month, the site was subjected to a severe DDoS attack, which briefly put it offline.

The user base reached 1 million in July 2007, and 10 million in April 2008. In December 2008 VK overtook rival Odnoklassniki as Russia's most popular social networking service. 2009–2012: public access[ edit ] Founder and CEO Pavel Durov owned 20% of shares (although he had majority voting power through proxy votes), and a trio of Russian-Israeli investors, Vyacheslav Mirilashvili ( Mikhael Mirilashvili 's son) and Lev Leviev , [11] owned 60%, 10% and 10% respectively. [12] The original founders then sold a stake of 39.99% to Mail.ru Group (formerly Digital Sky Technologies ). [13] [14] On 29 May 2012 Mail.ru Group announced that it has decided to yield control of the company to Durov by offering him the voting rights on its shares. Combined with Durov's personal 12% stake, this gave him 52% of the votes.

[15] [16] In April 2013, United Capital Partners bought 48% of VK shares from Vyacheslav Mirilashvili and Lev Leviev for $1.12 billion. [17] 2013–2014: share changes, IPO cancellation, Mail.ru Group ownership[ edit ] In 2013, the Mirilashvili family sold its 40% share in VK to United Capital Partners for $1.12 billion, [18] while Lev Leviev sold his 8% share in the same deal, giving United Capital Partners 48% ownership. In January 2014, VK's founder Pavel Durov sold his 12% stake in the company to the CEO of Megafon , which is controlled by Alisher Usmanov . Following the deal, Usmanov and his allies controlled around 52% of the company. [19] Shortly thereafter, the CEO of Megafon, sold his 12% stake to Mail.ru , thus allowing mail.ru to consolidate its controlling stake of 52% in VK.

[20] In 2014 Pavel Durov sold his 12% stake to Ivan Tavrin, the CEO of Russian mobile phone operator Megafon. [21] In April 2014 Durov stated he had sold his stake in the company after "coming under increasing pressure" from federal law enforcement to hand over personal details of users who were members of a VK group dedicated to the Euromaidan protest movement. [22] VK canceled their IPO plans after the conditions after Facebook 's IPO, which it saw as a failure. [16] [23] On April 1, 2014, Durov submitted his resignation to the board; at first, due to the fact the company confirmed he had resigned, it was believed to be related to the Ukrainian crisis which started in February. [24] However, Durov himself claimed it was an April Fool's Joke on April 3, 2014. [25] On April 21, 2014, Durov was dismissed as CEO, claiming he failed to withdraw his letter of resignation a month earlier.

[22] [26] Durov then claimed the company had been effectively taken over by Vladimir Putin 's political faction, [22] [27] suggesting his dismissal was the result of both his refusal to hand over personal details of users to federal law enforcement and his refusal to hand over the personal details of people who were members of a VKontakte group dedicated to the Euromaidan protest movement. [22] [27] Durov then left Russia and stated that he had "no plans to go back" [27] and that "the country is incompatible with Internet business at the moment". [26] On September 16, 2014, the Mail.ru group bought the remaining 48% stake of VK from United Capital Partners (UCP) [28] for $1.5 billion, [28] thus becoming the sole proprietor of the social network. [29] Website[ edit ] VK logo before 2015 As with most social networks, the site's core functionality is based around private messaging and sharing photos, status updates and links with friends. VK also has tools for managing online communities and celebrity pages.

The site allows its users to upload, search and stream media content, such as videos and music. VK features an advanced search engine, that allows complex queries for finding friends, as well as a real-time news search. VK updated its features and design on April 2016 [30] Features[ edit ] Messaging. VK Private Messages can be exchanged between groups of 1 to 30 people. An email address can also be specified as the recipient. Each message may contain up to 10 attachments: Photos, Videos, Audio Files, Maps (an embedded map with a manually placed marker) and Documents. [31] News. VK users can post on their profile walls, each post may contain up to 10 attachments – media files, maps and documents (see above). User mentions and hashtags are supported. In case of multiple photo-attachments the previews are automatically scaled and arranged in a magazine-style layout. The news feed can be switched between all news (default) and most interesting modes. The site features a news-recommendation engine, global real-time search and individual search for posts and comments on specific users' walls. Communities. VK features two types of communities.

Groups are better suited for decentralised communities (discussion-boards, wiki-style articles, editable by all members etc.). Public pages is a news feed orientated broadcasting tool for celebrities and businesses. The two types are largely interchangeable, the main difference being in the default settings. Like button on VK (Russian version) Like buttons. VK like buttons for posts, comments, media and external sites operate in a different way from Facebook. Liked content doesn't get automatically pushed to the user's wall, but is saved in the (private) Favorites section instead. The user has to press a second 'share with friends' button to share an item on their wall or send it via private message to a friend. Privacy. Users can control the availability of their content within the network and on the Internet. Blanket and granular privacy settings are available for pages and individual content. Synchronization with other social networks. Any news published on the VK wall, will appear on Facebook or Twitter. Certain news may not published by clicking on the logo next to the button "Send". Editing post in VK does not change the post in Facebook or Twitter, and vice versa. But removing the news in the VK will remove it from other social networks. SMS serves.

Russian users can receive and reply to a private messages or leave a comments for community news using SMS. Languages[ edit ] As of October 2016 the site is available in 83 languages, while advertisements are only shown in the Russian and Ukrainian versions. Russian-speaking users can choose between the standard Russian version and two extras: a Soviet version and a Pre-Revolutionary version. Other than language tweaks (e.g. telegrams for messages and comrades for friends) these versions contain other easter eggs. For example, all private messages in the Soviet version have a stamp saying 'passed server censorship'. The pre-revolutionary version uses old-style Russian orthography . Both extra versions are also ad-free. Promotional use by bands and musicians[ edit ] Musicians that use VK for promotion often upload their own tracks to their official VK pages.

Notable examples include the international celebrities like Tiësto , [40] Shakira , [41] Paul Van Dyk , [42] The Prodigy , [43] Dan Balan , [44] [45] Limp Bizkit , [46] Eros Ramazzotti , [47] Marilyn Manson , [48] Moby [49] and The Offspring . [50] Issues and controversies[ edit ] Litigation[ edit ] In 2008 the leading Russian television channel RTR sued VKontakte (then VK) over unlicensed copies of two of its films, uploaded by VK users. In 2010 this dispute was settled by the Russian Supreme Arbitration Court in favor of the social network. The court ruled that VK is not responsible for its users’ copyright violations, taking into account that both parties agreed with the technical possibility to identify the user who posted illegal content and who, consequently, must incur the liability.

[51] Another ruling early in 2012 went partially in favor of Gala Records (now Warner Music Russia) , a recording studio, when the same court ordered VK to pay $7000 for not being active enough in regard to copyrighted materials. [52] Efforts against copyright infringement[ edit ] VK is DMCA -compliant and offers a content removal tool for copyright holders. [53] [ not in citation given ] Large-scale copyright holders may gain access to bulk content removal tools. [54] Since 2010 VK has also entered several partnerships with legal content providers, such as television networks [55] and streaming providers. [56] Most notably, the Video on Demand provider IVI.ru, that has secured licensing rights with all of Hollywood majors in 2012. [57] These partnerships allow providers to remove user-uploaded content from VK and substitute it with legal embedded copies from the provider's site. [58] This legal content can be either ad-sponsored, subscription based or free, depending on the provider's choices. VK does not display its own advertising in the site's music or video sections, nor in the videos themselves.

On October 2013, VKontakte was cleared of copyright infringement charges by a court in Saint Petersburg . The judge ruled that the social network is not responsible for the content uploaded by its users. [59] In November 2014 the head of The Federal service for supervision of communications, information technology and mass media Maxim Ksenzov said that “Vkontakte” will complete the process of legalization of the content at the beginning of 2015. At that time (November, 2014), negotiations between major labels companies and the social network “Vkontakte” were ongoing. [60] DDoS attacks on sites[ edit ] Because the social network is the one most popular and highloaded sites in runet , its visits can be used to make DDoS attacks on smaller sites. VK performed DDOS attacks on certain sites, making users' browsers send multiple requests to the target site without users' consent. The targets were the Runet Prize voting page in 2008 [61] and the CAPTCHA -solving service antigate.com in 2012.

[62] [63] This was done by inserting an iframe and a piece of JavaScript code which periodically reloaded the iframe. As a countermeasure, antigate was detecting whether iframe was loaded from VK and if it were antigate had redirected request to xHamster , a well-known porn site . VK needed to cease the attack due to the site's use by children. VK tried to use XMLHttpRequest to solve this problem, but had forgotten about the same-origin policy. They succeeded in stopping the attack, though there were many ways to solve the problem with redirect. Blacklisted[ edit ] On May 24, 2013, it was reported in the media that the site had been mistakenly put on a list of websites banned by the Russian government. [64] Some critics have accused the blacklist of being simply the latest in a series of suspicious incidents to have happened to the website in recent months, as the Russian government look to increase their stake in, and control of the site.

[65] Italian controversy[ edit ] On November 18, 2013, following an order from the Court of Rome , VK was blocked in Italy after a complaint from Medusa Film stating that VK was hosting an illegal copy of one of its films. [66] However, as of April 2015, the site has been reopened for Italian users and its mobile app is available on both App Store and Google Play . Founder Pavel Durov's dismissal[ edit ] Founder Pavel Durov was dismissed as CEO in April 2014 after he had failed to retract a (according to himself) prank April fools letter of resignation. [22] Durov then claimed the company had been effectively taken over by Vladimir Putin allies, [22] [27] [67] and suggested his ousting was the result of his refusal to hand over personal details of users to the Russian Federal Security Service and his refusal to shut down a VK group dedicated to anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny . [22] [27] Pornography[ edit ] VK grants easy access to pornographic images, video and other such materials which are shared in certain communities.

This makes the site dangerous to younger users, according to a study conducted by Kaspersky Lab . [68] ITC's Simple Guide To Using Social Media Internationally ITC’s Simple Guide To Using Social Media Internationally par blog-itc - 23/01/2014 Nine times out of ten, you’ve got some followers on your social media outlets that aren’t citizens of your home country. And that’s fine. It’s great, actually. What this means is that you’re reaching a larger population of consumers without even localizing to their culture. If that’s the case, you’ll want to take advantage of that and make the moves to localize accordingly. The emergence of social media in the business world widened the pool of potential, and having worldwide awareness as well as an understanding of your target markets will yield fruitful results for you. Localize Your Social Media Translating your current social media outlets isn’t the only form of social media you should practice. In addition, you should research the target markets, understand their interests and then apply them to your marketing strategy. Once you’ve researched a bit to understand your new markets, you can then begin operating on their preferred social media networks.

Though the Big 5 American social media networks are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, and Pinterest, there are other international social media platforms that you should consider establishing a presence on. – Orkut: Popular with Indian and Brazilian markets, this social media network is owned by Google and is similar to Facebook. – Bebo: In 2008, Bebo hosted over 40 million users local to the UK, Australia and Ireland. – Sina Weibo: This incredibly popular micro-blogging website is similar to Twitter and hosts 500 million users local to China, Singapore, and Indonesia. Other big players in the international social media game include Netlog, Qzone, Badoo, Hi5, Viadeo, XING, and VKontakte (VK). Once you’ve established a presence in both your source and target markets, you’ll start to see your reach and revenue increase. Work With Professionals To Get Started Breaking into a new market can be daunting, simply for the fact that there are a lot of cultural norms that are easy to gloss over. One mistake on that front and the backlash can become your downfall.

Partnering with an LSP, like us here at ITC Global Translations , can simplify this process for you. We can advise you on how best to assign and execute translation work flow, as well as how to adapt your marketing campaigns depending on the culture you’ll be expanding into. We’re here to help you avoid the pitfalls that so many companies commonly fall into. As long as you have ITC Global Translations on your side, this process can be a smooth and successful one. Contact us today. World Map of Social Networks | Vincos Blog World Map of Social Networks Big Data e Politica – Intervista su Radio3 World Map of Social Networks January 2016: a new edition of my World Map of Social Networks, showing the most popular social networking sites by country, according to Alexa & SimilarWeb traffic data (caveat: it’s hard to understand the impact of Google+ because it is part of Google domain traffic). There are no differences since last August: Facebook is still the leading social network in 129 out of 137 countries analyzed, with near 1,6 billion monthly active users.

It has 540 million users in Asia Pacific (+44 million since last December), 323 million in Europe (+12 million), 219 million in USA & Canada (+6 million), 509 million in the rest of the world (+38 million in six months). Japan is the only country where Twitter is the leader. It has 35 million monthly active users, while Facebook has 25 million. In Russian territories V Kontakte and Odnoklassniki are still struggling to conquer the market. In China QZone still dominates the Asian landscape with 653 million users (-6 million users in 6 months). Meanwhile Instant Messaging apps are flourishing: QQ International has 860 million monthly active users and WeChat has 650 million monthly active users (+50 million). But what’s going on behind the first place? Which are the Facebook runner-ups? What would the world be like without Facebook? Here’s the map showing the second ranked social networks in 57 nations analyzed with SimilarWeb and Alexa. Instagram is the second social network in 41 countries. Since August it conquered Argentina, Canada, Denmark, Philippines, Qatar, Switzerland, Taiwan, UAE.

Twitter is struggling for the leadership in 8 nations, especially in Europe, while it lost primacy in Argentina, Philippines, Qatar, Switzerland. Odnoklassniki is 2nd in Russia, Israel, Germany, Ukraine. Linkedin in India, Reddit in Norway. VKontakte is 2nd in Czech Republic while Facebook is fighting Twitter in Japan. Tweet /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// August 2015: a new edition of my World Map of Social Networks, showing the most popular social networking sites by country, according to Alexa traffic data and other similar tools for double-check (caveat: it’s hard to understand the impact of Google+ because it is part of Google domain traffic). Just one difference since last December: Facebook has reconquered Latvia, beating Draugiem, the historical local social network. Zuckerberg’s network, with near 1,5 billion monthly active users, is the dominant social network in 129 out of 137 countries analyzed.

It has 496 million users in Asia (+47 million since last December), 311 million in Europe (+10 million), 213 million in USA & Canada (+5 million), 471 million in the rest of the world (+35 million in six months). In Russian territories V Kontakte and Odnoklassniki are still struggling to conquer the market. In China QZone still dominates the Asian landscape with 659 million users (+30 million users in 6 months). Meanwhile Instant Messaging apps are flourishing: QQ International has 843 million monthly active users and WeChat has 600 million monthly active users. But what’s going on behind the first place? Which are the Facebook runner-ups? What would the world be like without Facebook? Here’s the map showing the second ranked social networks in the most important nations (56 I’ve analyzed thanks to SimilarWeb and Alexa). Instagram is the second social network in 35 countries, from US to Australia. Twitter is struggling for the leadership in 13 nations, especially in Europe. Odnoklassniki is 2nd in Russia, Israel and German. Linkedin in India and UAE.

Reddit is strong in Canada and Denmark. VKontakte is 2nd in Czech Republic while Facebook is fighting Twitter in Japan. Tweet /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// December 2014: a new edition of my World Map of Social Networks, showing the most popular social networking sites by country, according to Alexa traffic data and other similar tools for double-check (caveat: it’s hard to understand the impact of Google+ because it is part of Google domain traffic). Two important differences since last August: – Twitter has conquered Japan, according to Alexa and GlobalWebIndex survey – Facebook is losing ground in Latvia, too, where Draugiem, an historical local social network, is gaining traction Zuckerberg’s network, with 1,393 billion monthly active users, is the dominant social network in 128 out of 137 countries analyzed. It has 449 million users in Asia (+39 million since last August), 301 million in Europe, 208 million in USA & Canada, 436 million in the rest of the world (+74 million since last August). In Russian territories V Kontakte and Odnoklassniki are still struggling to conquer the market.

In China QZone still dominates the Asian landscape with 629 million users. Meanwhile Instant Messaging apps are flourishing: QQ International has 829 million monthly active users and WeChat has 468 million monthly active users. This time I’ve also tracked the first 3 social media used in some countries. As you can see in the table below, Twitter is the second social network in almost all countries, except in Denmark and India. Linkedin is the closest competitor. Tweet /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// August 2014: a new edition of my World Map of Social Networks, showing the most popular social networking sites by country, according to Alexa traffic data and other similar tools for double-check (caveat: it’s hard to understand the impact of Google+ because it is part of Google domain traffic). Two important differences since last December: – in Iran, where State censorship towards western social media is still strong, there was a change of habits: Facenama took the place of Cloob – Facebook conquered two new territories: Latvia, dethroning Draugiem, and Moldova, where Odnoklassniki was the leader.

So now Zuck is the “king of Europe” and he also has a bridge to Russian countries, where local networks are still preferred. Facebook, with 1,317 billion monthly active users, is the dominant social network in 130 out of 137 countries analyzed. It has 410 million users in Asia (+42 million since last December), 292 million in Europe, 204 million in USA & Canada, 362 million in other countries. In Russian territories V Kontakte and Odnoklassniki are still struggling to conquer the market. In China QZone still dominates the Asian landscape with 645 million users, followed by Siina Weibo with 503 million registered users (not active users). Meanwhile Instant Messaging apps are flourishing: QQ International has 829 million monthly active users (+1% YoY) and WeChat has 438 million monthly active users (+57% YoY).

Tweet /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// December 2013: a new edition of my World Map of Social Networks, showing the most popular social networking sites by country, according to Alexa traffic data (caveat: it’s hard to understand the impact of Google+ because it is part of Google domain traffic). A few differences since last June but a lot since June 2009. Zuck’s baby is the dominant social network in in 128 out of 137 countries analyzed: in the latest months Facebook lost Kyrgyzstan, but stole Syria from Maktoob. Facebook has now 1,189 billion monthly active users, but it is growing less rapidly than before (it has added just 34 million active users in 6 months). 351 million users in Asia, 276 million in Europe, 199 million in US & Canada, 362 million in remaining countries (according to Q3 2013 Earnings ) In Russian territories V Kontakte and Odnoklassniki are still struggling to conquer the market.

In China QZone still dominates the Asian landscape with 623 million users, but its growth is slowed by Instant Messaging apps like QQ International (815,6 million monthly active users) and Weixin aka WeChat (271,9 million monthly active users), both owned by Tencent. In Iran, where it’s hard to access Facebook due to state censorship, the leader is still Cloob. Tweet /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// July 2013: a new edition of my World Map of Social Networks, showing the most popular social networking sites by country, according to Alexa traffic data (Google Trends for Websites was shut down on September 2012). Small differences since December update but a lot since June 2009. Facebook has now 1.155 billion monthly active users. More than 100 million users in 6 months.

Africa + Latam are the largest continents with 346 million users, Asia 339 million, Europe 272 million, US & Canada 198 million users (according to Q2 2013 Earnings ) It’s the dominant social network in in 127 out of 137 countries analyzed: in the latest months Zuckerberg’s Army lost Latvia where Draugiem has 1.282.366 registered users, but won South Korea from QZone. No significant movements in the rest of the world. In Russian territories V Kontakte and Odnoklassniki maintain the same positions. In China QZone still dominates the Asian landscape with 611 million users (+10%), followed by Tencent Weibo and Sina Weibo. In Iran, where it’s hard to access Facebook due to state censorship, the leader is Cloob. Tweet /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// December 2012, a new edition of my World Map of Social Networks, showing the most popular social networking sites by country, according to Alexa traffic data (Google Trends for Websites was shut down on September 2012).

Facebook with 1 billion active users has established its leadership position in 127 out of 137 countries analyzed. One of the drivers of its growth is Asia that with 278 million users, surpassed Europe, 251 million, as the largest continent on Facebook. North America has 243 million users, South America 142 million. Africa, almost 52 million, and Oceania just 15 million (source: Facebook Ads Platform). In the latest months Zuckerberg’s Army conquered Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia and Vietnam (update: my data are about visitors, but I’d like to report that Draugiem’s spokeperson told me that they have 1.2 million members in Latvia. Facebook Ads claims 400K members) In Russian territories there was a long battle between two main local players: V Kontakte and Odnoklassniki. According to Alexa the first is gaining ground and now has 190 million registered users. In China QZone still dominates the Asian landscape with 552 million users, followed by Tencent Weibo and Sina Weibo. Since the latest update QZone has also conquered South Korea.

In Iran, where it’s hard to access Facebook due to state censorship, the leader is Cloob. Tweet /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// June 2012, a new edition of my World Map of Social Networks, showing the most popular social networking sites by country, according to Alexa & Google Trends for Websites traffic data*. Facebook with more than 845 million active users has established its leadership position in 126 out of 137 countries analyzed (in this edition I’ve added Uganda). Europe is the largest continent on Facebook with 232 million users, North America has 222 million, Asia 219 million users (Facebook Ads Platform). Countries where Facebook is not the leader: – Russian territories where there is an ongoing battle between the two main local players: V Kontakte and Odnoklassniki. – China where QZone claims 560 million users, followed by Tencent Weibo (337 million) e Sina Weibo (334 million).

– Iran where it’s hard to access Facebook due to state censorship – Vietnam and Latvia still likely to use local social networks: Zing and Draugiem respectively Caveat: Google+ stats are not displayed by Google Trends for Websites Concentration of social networks around the world (animated map) from 17 different top social networks to 7. Top 3 Social Networking Sites (June 2012 – according to Google Trends for Websites) If we take a look over Facebook’s shoulders we can see the battle for the second position between Twitter and LinkedIn or, especially in Europe, between Badoo and Twitter. Tweet /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// A new edition of my World Map of Social Networks, showing the most popular social networking sites by country, according to Alexa & Google Trends for Websites traffic data* (December 2011). Facebook with more than 800 million active users has established its leadership position in 127 out of 136 countries analyzed (in this edition I’ve added Afghanistan).

Since June 2011 the largest social networking service of the world has finally conquered Netherlands, and with it the whole Europe, Brazil, after a long struggle against Orkut, and Japan (caveat: a large part of Japananese networking activities are on mobile. Most important players on mobile are Gree, Mobage, Mixi). Europe is the largest continent on Facebook with 223 million users, North America has 219 million, Asia 202 million users (Facebook Ads Platform). There’s still an ongoing battle on Russian territories between the two main local players: V Kontakte and Odnoklassniki. According to Google Trends for websites, but not to Alexa, Odnoklassniki is winning (I will change my map when the two sources will say the same). Evolution of social networks around the world (animated map) from 17 different top social networks to 6. Top 3 Social Networking Sites (December 2011 – according to Google Trends for Websites) If we take a look over Facebook’s shoulders we can see the battle for the second position between Twitter and LinkedIn or, especially in Europe, between Badoo and Twitter.

Tweet /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// A new edition of my World Map of Social Networks, showing the most popular social networks by country, according to Alexa & Google Trends for Websites traffic data* (June 2011). Below you will find an updated version and an infographic poster of all changes since June 2009. You can also see an animated version of all my maps. Facebook is slowing gaining users around the world (almost 700 millions) establishing its leadership in 119 out of 134 countries analyzed (in this edition I’ve added Ethiopia and Tanzania). Since December 2010 Zuck’s creature has conquered Iran and Syria, although struggling against censorship. Europe has now became the largest continent on Facebook with 205 million users (Facebook Ads Platform). Probably Netherlands and Brazil will be the next countries to surrender. According to Alexa Facebook is already the leader there, but Google Trends shows a different picture (I will change my map when the two sources will say the same).

To put this infographic on your web site, just copy and paste the HTML code below: <br /> <a href="" data-rel="lightbox-21" title=""><img src="" alt="World Map of Social Networks" title="World Map of Social Networks" width="100%" border="0"></a><br /> Signals of changes are coming from Russian territories where there’s a strong battle between the two main local players: V Kontakte and Odnoklassniki. In Kazakhstan V Kontakte was overtook by Odnoklassniki and the same is happening in Russia (according to Google Trends for Websites only). Top 3 Social Networking Sites (June 2011) If we take a look over Facebook’s shoulders we can see the rise of Twitter (in France, Germany and United States) and the slow but constant growth of LinkedIn. New entries since last December analysis highlighted in yellow.

World Map of Social Networks Poster /// LIKE – SHARE – BUY IT To put this infographic on your web site, just copy and paste the HTML code below: <br /> <a href=""><img src="" alt="World Map of Social Networks" title="World Map of Social Networks" width="100%" border="0"></a><br /> Tweet /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// A brand new map of the world, showing the most popular social networks by country, according to Alexa & Google Trends for Websites traffic data* (December 2010). I’ve decided to drop Many Eyes and redesign the map in order to give each social network a fixed colour to ease comparability over time. Below you will find an updated version plus an infographic poster of all changes since June 2009. Zuckerberg’s creature continues to gain users around the world (almost 600 millions). Since June 2010 Facebook has stolen new important nations from local, previously strong, competitors (in 115 out of 132 countries analyzed it is market leader) especially in Europe. In particular: – From Iwiw: Hungary – From Hi5: Mongolia – From Orkut (Google): Paraguay and India.

Orkut remains the first social network in Brasil. In Japan Mixi is still the most used web-based social network (Ameba that I previously mentioned it’s not a pure social networking site, but also a portal/blog-hosting provider). But if we look to mobile social networks usage the leader is Gree followeb by Mobage Town. [edited thanks to the insights from Akky Akimoto ] The situation remains unclear in Armenia, Georgia, Netherlands. In these countries Alexa gives victory to Facebook, but Google Trends for Websites still shows a predominance of local players. Top 3 Social Networking Sites (December 2010) If we take a look over Facebook’s shoulders we can see the rise of Twitter especially against MySpace (in Australia, Canada, Germany and Italy) and the slow but constant growth of LinkedIn (in Australia, Canada, UK). New entries since last June analysis highlighted in yellow.

World Map of Social Networks Poster /// LIKE – SHARE – BUY IT To put this infographic on your web site, just copy and paste the HTML code below: <br /> <a href=""><img src="" alt="World Map of Social Networks" title="World Map of Social Networks" width="100%" border="0"></a><br /> [ Versione italiana dell’analisi di dicembre ] /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// A map of the world, showing the most popular social networks by country, according to Alexa & Google Trends for Websites traffic data* (June 2010). Please share, like and help me to improve it with your comments ! The World Map of Social Networks - by Vincenzo Cosenza Grab the embedding code Some visible changes to highlight since December 09 map (see below): Month after month Facebook continues to gain users around the world (almost 500 millions). Since December 2009 Facebook has stolen new nations from its local competitors (in 111 out of 131 countries analyzed it is market leader).

In particular: – From Orkut (Google): Estonia and maybe India (Alexa gives India to FB, while Google Trends for Websites shows an head to head match with Orkut as winner. If you take a look at keywork searched graph you’ll se a growing interest towards the American social network. The same trend is visible in Paraguay). – From Hi5: Thailand, Romania, Peru, Portugal. Hi5 resists in Mongolia where the situation is unclear. – From One: Lithuania – From Wretch: Taiwan – From Friendster: Philippines Odnoklassniki and V Kontakte still remains the social networks preferred by Russian people In Europe: Hungary, Poland and Netherlands still love local providers. P.S. the situation is unclear in Armenia, Georgia, India, Mongolia, Paraguay. Top 3 Social Networking Sites (June 2010) One year after the previous ranking table (below) we can see the rise of Twitter against MySpace (in Australia and Canada) and Bebo (in UK) and the slow growth of Linkedin. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// A map of the world, showing the most popular social networks by country, according to Alexa & Google Trends for Websites traffic data* (December 2009).

Please share and help me to improve it with your comments ! The World Map of Social Networks – by Vincenzo Cosenza Grab the embedding code Some visible changes to highlight from June map (see below): – Facebook continues its colonization of the world with more than 350 millions users. Since June Facebook conquered new territories from its competitors (in 100 out of 127 countries analyzed it is market leader). In particular: – From Orkut (Google): India. Caution: data based on Alexa only, because Google doesn’t provide Orkut traffic data. It could be interesting to understand if these two social networks are mirroring social class divisions. – From Hi5: Cameroon, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua. Hi5 resists in Peru, Portugal, Romania, Thailand and Mongolia – From Odnoklassniki: Azerbaijan only. It seems that Facebook hasn’t found a good strategy to convince Russian people that still prefer Odnoklassniki and V Kontakte.

– From Maktoob: Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen – From Cyworld: South Korea – From Lidé: Czech Republic – From Skyrock: Guadeloupe and Martinique I’ve added to the map: Cuba, Qatar, Reunion I’ve deleted Iran because censorship situation doesn’t allow me to get reliable data. If you have any insight please help me. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// A map of the world, showing the most popular social networks by country, according to Alexa & Google Trends for Websites traffic data* (June 2009). Please share and help me to improve it with your comments !

The World Map of Social Networks - by Vincenzo Cosenza Top 3 Social Networking Sites: Some visible patterns to highlight: – Facebook has almost colonized Europe and it’s extending its domination with more than 200 millions users – QQ , leader in China, is the largest social network of the world (300 millions active accounts) – MySpace lost its leadership everywhere (except in Guam) – V Kontakte is the most popular in Russian territories – Orkut is strong in India and Brazil – Hi5 is still leading in Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and other scattered countries such as Portugal, Mongolia, Romania – Odnoklassniki is strong in some former territories of the Soviet Union – Maktoob is the most important Arab community/portal Other country specific social networks: ________ * Data based on Alexa & Google Trends for Website results: – “Alexa’s traffic rankings are based on the usage patterns of Alexa Toolbar users and data collected from other, diverse sources over a rolling 3 month period.

A site’s ranking is based on a combined measure of reach (unique Alexa users who visit a site on a given day) and pageviews (the total number of Alexa user URL requests for a site).” – “Google Trends for Websites shows you a graph reflecting the number of daily unique visitors” About The Site Vincos Blog è il blog di Vincenzo Cosenza su tecnologie, social media, marketing, e relazioni pubbliche. I contenuti di questo blog sono rilasciati sotto licenza Creative Commons by-nc-nd 2.0 salvo dove espressamente derogato. <a href="" target="_blank">Privacy Policy</a> Social Networks For Law Firms With International Offices 1 The latest trend amongst AmLaw 100 law firms and other professional services firms is to continue their growth by opening offices in countries outside the U.S. This strategy enables firm’s to enhance their ability to service clients anywhere around the world. Global expansion, however, presents a unique set of challenges to law firms and others who for the most part, have focused their marketing and business development initiatives within the U.S.

When it comes to digital marketing and social media strategy, marketers need to understand the various social networks that are popular with consumers and businesses outside the United States. Social networks vary around the world and in this age of global marketing, global law firms should keep this in mind. The global population is 7.18 billion people and of those 2.03 billion, or 28 percent of people participate on a social network. Facebook is the most popular social networks in the world with up to 1.3 billion monthly users. In fact, Facebook has become so successful that in some emerging markets such as Indonesia or Nigeria, individuals say they use Facebook, but not the Internet . A recent article suggests that the reason for this phenomenon is that in these countries many people access Facebook accounts on mobile phones and never follow links out to the open Internet. The use of mobile devices to access the Internet and social networks continues to grow exponentially. In fact, about half of the population owns a mobile device and 22 percent of the global population accesses social networks through their mobile devices. This has contributed to the rise of platforms like WhatsApp? , an instant messaging service acquired by Facebook in Feb. 2014 and WeChat , which is popular in China.

In China, marketers face unique challenges when trying to market via social networks because the Chinese government blocks Facebook and Twitter, so as a result, the large Chinese population turns elsewhere. QZone holds the title of the largest social network in China, with about 600 million active monthly users. It functions similarly to MySpace, with customizable pages for blogs and personal diaries. RenRen , which translates to “everyone’s website” is also very popular. In Twitter’s absence the Chinese use Sina Weibo as their micro-blogging platform of choice. In fact, the word Weibo means “microblog” in Chinese. It is one of the most popular sites in China, with more than 30 percent of Internet users actively participating on the network. About 100 million messages are posted on the site every day. Weibo contains a lot of the same features as Twitter: the 140 character limit, hashtags and shortened links and verifications for celebrities. In accordance with Chinese law, Weibo is heavily censored and posts containing blacklisted keywords or politically sensitive points are typically deleted within 30 minutes.

Lawyers are probably all too familiar with the legal ramifications of posting on the Internet and this knowledge can come in handy when navigating social media in other countries. LinkedIn and Google+ , business focused social networks that are commonly used by legal marketers, are also used around the world. However, in some countries, similar networks are now becoming popular for the business user. StayFriends , the third most popular social network in Germany helps users keep in touch with classmates from primary school to high school. Another competitor, Xing functions similarly to LinkedIn and is used by people in more than 200 countries. For those law firms looking to engage with Russian companies, VKontakte , or VK is the most popular social network in Russia. It’s actually the second most visited website in Russia after Yandex , a search engine and Russia’s alternative to Google. With about 300 million accounts, the site boasts an average of 70 million daily users. VK is basically the Russian equivalent of Facebook. Another network, Odnoklassniki functions similarly to LinkedIn and helps people connect with old friends and classmates.

Other country specific social networks that should be taken into consideration include: Draugiem , a Latvian social network that is used so frequently it often replaces email. Suomi24 is the most popular social media site in Finland. Netlog is popular in Belgium. Madrid-based .Tuenti is known as the “Spanish Facebook” and is also popular as a mobile app in Mexico, Peru and Argentina. Twitter is immensely popular in the United States and around large swaths of the globe and credited with starting the Arab Spring. The Muslim world also uses MyMFB , an alternative to Facebook. Legal marketers who are trying to engage with their clients and prospects around the globe need to be aware of country specific social networks and remember that the social media landscape is constantly changing. In 2008, Orkut was the most popular social network in India, but Google, the site’s operator, shut it down in September 2014. Now Facebook holds India’s number one spot. Meanwhile, Poolwo , a newcomer to the scene in 2014 launched by an Indian IT company is growing throughout India and the rest of the English-speaking world. So what are the world’s largest social networks?

Below is a chart that ranks the ten largest social networks by number of users courtesy of Statista . There are many country-specific social networks, but like the salesman in “The Music Man” said, “ya gotta know the territory.” With the continuing trend towards globalization, legal marketers need to stay on top of the use of social networks by their clients and prospects across the world. Translating your content into different languages is no longer enough. In order to enhance your firm’s reach and engage with a global audience, legal marketers need to understand each market and learn how to engage with their audience. Share this: Guide To Social Media Platforms For International Campaigns | Search Engine People Guide To Social Media Platforms For International Campaigns Home / Social Media Marketing /Guide To Social Media Platforms For International Campaigns Guide To Social Media Platforms For International Campaigns Lots of businesses are now seeing the power of international geo-targeting for their offerings, creating sub folders and designing landing pages for each market. Apple.com do a great job of this with a huge list of targeted subfolders, all created to market to that specific country.

brazil dubbed social media capital of the universeThough companies are getting to grips with international SEO , very few tend to set up international social accounts and are missing out on strong marketing channels. China and Russia are the obvious regions worth exploring, both having rapidly expanding internet user growth and social media penetration. While Brazil has been dubbed "the new social media capital of the universe" with an estimated 79 Million people actively using social media. Though Facebook is the largest network in the world (as seen below), many countries have their own social networks with millions of users and open to Western brands and social media advertising. Below is our guide to social media platforms in countries outside of the US with strong social media penetration. United Kingdom According to Office for National Statistics , Social networking is an increasingly popular activity in the UK with half the adult population actively using a social platform. This degree of popularity is illustrated by ONS' European survey results which reveal that the UK is one of the leading countries across the EU in terms of the take-up of social networking. The UK has the second highest proportion of social networkers in the EU - this is true for both social networking in general and social networking via a mobile device.

Below are the top social media platform in UK: Facebook - Its growth period has clearly come to an end, with Comscore reporting an end of december 2013 user base of just over 31M. Although there are still approximately 2.5 million 13-17 year olds using the site. The largest demographic remains the 25-34 year olds, with just under 26% of all users falling into this age bracket. Twitter - Twitters outgoing CEO announced a figure of 15m users in the UK last September. Growth remains steady with an estimated 15M users by the end of 2013. 80% of Twitter users in UK are active on mobiledevices , the majority of these likely to be Smartphone users. LinkedIn - LinkedIn, the business network had 10M+ active users in the UK by the end of 2013. Pinterest - One of the biggest growers. Pinterest's growth has been steady in the UK from 200,000 users 2011/early 2012 to over two million, at July 2013.

Instagram - Instagram also continues to show good growth, with 200 million global users in late 2013 . Instagram have not released any UK specific data. Snapchat and WhasApp are the newest platforms being talked about in 2014 - particularly amongst the youngest demographic (13-20). China In the recent social media infographics made by Go Globe , China has an estimated 597 million people active on social networks . The data also shows that the largest section of China's social media users are aged 26 to 30 (30%). As a whole, 91 percent of Chinese netizens have social accounts , which is way above the 67% in the US. China's social media platforms are all monitored by The Great Firewall, known as the ' The Golden Shield Project '. Each social media platform in China has to manually monitor every piece of content being uploaded to ensure it complies with Chinese internet regulations.

"the self-censorship by content providers, who must make judgment calls on what needs to be censored in order to stay in the governments good graces, and self-censorship by users, who face the threat of being detained and punished for anti-government posts" (Jason Q NG, Social Media Analyst) Here's are the most popular social networks in China: Tecent & Sina Weibo - In second and third place are the Twitter clones, Tencent Weibo and Sina Weibo . The latter gets most of the media attention, both in China and around the world. Facebook clones - Four of the sites are a lot like Facebook. Tencents QZone, Tencents Pengyou, Renren, and Kaixin are all focused around a mix of social profiles, albums, buddies, and social gaming. These platforms have seen a decline over the past year as mobile test apps become popular. Qzone is now thought to be the 3rd largest social network in the world after Facebook and Youtube. Wechat - The much talked about WeChat is like Whatsapp, and is one of a number of Asia-made messaging apps " like Line and KakaoTalk " that are battling to get onto the smartphones of young Chinese and Southeast Asian web users.

Youku Tudou - Video platform which now gets 500 millions uniques per month. The platform is similar to Youtube, but the content tends to be professionally produced. All the above platforms offer paid promotion opportunities once official accounts have been created. Russia Based on online reports, Russia's online population has steadily grown to 56 million visitors , with 85% of them using social media. The Kremlin is slowly getting a tighter grip on social media platforms as VK.com was used to arrange anti-Putin protests. Here are the top 5 Russian social media platforms: VKontakte (VK) - 49 Million active users and 239 Million accounts. VK is a Facebook like platform and is the second largest in Europe. VK.com is now owned by mail.ru and Putin friendly CEOs happy to give up user data. Odnoklassniki - 37+ Million active users and 148 Million accounts, Similar to classmates.com connecting school friends MoiMir - Brings together mail.ru custoners in one platform LiveJournal - Blogging platform with 3 million active accounts Rutube - The top video platform in Russia with and estimated 30 million unique visitors per month.

Facebook - 4th most used network. Russian parliament recently passed a bill to try and ban Tech firms from operating if they did not store their data in Russia. Once Putin took control of VK.com a huge amount of users shifted to Facebook, ironically for more privacy. Twitter - 10 million users and growing rapidly in the main cities. Lots of Western brands are doing well in Russia on Twitter as show by Socialbakers stats All the above platforms offer advertising to marketers. Contextual ads can be placed on these neworks via direct.Yandex Brazil Brazil was dubbed as "the social media capital of the universe" by the Wall Street Journal . Brazil is undoubtedly an enticing prospect for companies seeking to expand and broaden their audience and an exciting market to watch. 79% of Brazilian Internet users (some 78 million people) are now on social media, according to a newly released report from analysts eMarkeer. Facebook - Brazil already counts 65 million Facebook users , second only to the U.S. Its the worlds second-biggest user of Twitter (with 41.2 million tweeters and counting ) and the largest market outside the U.S. for YouTube .

Meanwhile, a range of homegrown and foreign networks - from Google-owned Orkut to Ask.fm - keep social media users logged in for 9.7 hours a month, according to a 2013 comScore report . Plus ll signs indicate Brazil is just hitting its social stride. Average time spent on Facebook among Brazilians increased 208 percent last year , to 535 minutes per month. By comparison, global use declined by 2 percent during the same period. LinkedIn- In October 2012 the professional networking site was reaching more than 10 million people in Brazil. In looking at the comScore numbers, LinkedIn went from 3.6 million total unique visitors in October 2011 to 9.6 million in October 2012, a gain of 166% in the Brazilian market Orkut - Although suffered a huge drops, Orkut still one of the most visited social media site in Brazil.

In October 2011, Okurt hits 39 millions views however in 2012 it only records 14.9m visits"thats 58% drop off while Facebook grew by 30% in Brazil between October 2011 and October 2012. Twitter - Also drops significantly but still in #4 spot in terms of social media rank in Brazil. In October 2012 and had 9.2 million unique visitors from Brazil in that month, its dropped quite a bit compared to October 2011, when it had 13.3 million. Ask.fm, Tumblr, Scribd and Pinterest Are Growing Strongly" Ask.fm has exploded in Brazil, with nearly 8 million unique visitors in October 2012. Its now the #5 social site in the country. Pinterest drew just 16,000 unique visitors from Brazil in October 2011 but has now pulling in 499,000 visitors a month. Overall it ranks at #21 among social sites in Brazil, but the growth is worth noting for social media marketers.

Micro blogging site Tumblr went from 4 million total unique visitors in Brazil in October 2011 to 5.6 million the following year. Finally, document-sharing website Scribd went from 740,000 unique Brazilian visitors in October 2011 to more than 2 million in October 2012 according to Latin Link reports. Japan Japan is one of the few countries that had managed to keep local social networks more popular than Facebook, but now this is changing. Unlike Linkedin who started their Japanese services in October last year, Facebook had their Japanese version online back in 2008. The local Market leader Mixi partnered Twitter in 2011 to compete against Facebook. The following list looks at the top 6 social networks in Japan: Mixi (25million). Launched in February 2004 is the biggest social networking site in Japan. Facebook (16 million).Facebook has shown strong growth in Japan, with active users increasing to 16.7 million, 300 percent up from last year. Facebook has made progress recently as a business network among Japanese - rather than LinkedIn, which is popular overseas. Gree (29 million).

Gree has 190M user accounts globally, with overseas operations in nine countries. The social-network operator will offer user-support services in 14 languages starting next year. Mobage 40 million. Mobage is a social mobile gaming platform with highly engaged users. It currently has three networks: Japan, China and West. Twitter (30 million). Twitter's new "Lifeline" feature was launched in September in Japan - the first region in the world to receive the service that suggests which official government Twitter accounts should be followed if a disaster hits. LINE (36 million). Launched in June 27, 2011, LINE is a cross-platform communication service and app, offered for free by Naver, from NHN Japan. The basic functionality allows users to send text messages and to make free calls with other users who have the app installed on their smartphones. Along with the above countries, here are a few more with strong social media penetration among online users. Spain Social Media networks are popular in Spain with 41% penetration as seen in wearesocial's infographic.

Of the 30 million people on the online in Spain, 69% of them use Facebook, followed by Youtube at 10% and Tuenti at 10% as well. As of June 2012 the Facebook users of Spain totalled over 16 million. Tuenti is also very popular in Spain, with their headquarters based in Madrid. Though a global network, Tuenti's main users are based in Spain with an estimated 10M+ active user base. Germany In December 2012, 46.4 million German internet users accessed a social networking site from a computer at least once during the month. The German Press Agency ( DPA ) recently published a snapshot of the social networking landscape in Germany using comScore MMX data and unsurprisingly, Facebook captures the majority of users with an audience of 38.6 million unique visitors. Google Plus is in second position with 5.6 million unique visitors, Xing is a close third with 4.2 million users and Stayfriends is fourth with 3.5 million unique users.

Twitter is 5th in the rankings with 3.1 million German users and LinkedIn comes in 8th place with an audience of 2.7 million. New Zealand 2.8 million people accessed a social media site in New Zealand during November 2013. This category reached 94.6 percent of the total Kiwi internet audience. Facebook was the clear leader with 1.95 million unique visitors; more than double that of LinkedIn who came in second place with an audience of 798,000 unique visitors. In the past 12 months, LinkedIn displayed a strong growth (53 percent) with its population growing from 520,000 in December 2012 to 798,000 in November 2013. Blogger ranked in third position with 559,000 unique visitors that month.

Analyzing the demographic profile of these social media sites in more detail shows that the professional networking platform, LinkedIn, attracted a large share of the older population with two thirds of their users over the age of 35 (68.6 percent), whilst more than half (55.3 percent) of Tumblr users are under 35. Facebook and Blogger share a similar audience composition, where the number of visitors aged 15-24 accounted for the largest segments of the Kiwi audience whereas people aged 55+ made up the biggest proportion of LinkedIn users in November 2013. This post is written by Gareth James (@SEO_Doctor) on behalf of Visor Media, check out their blog for more great posts. By Gareth James |2015-04-04T09:58:30+00:00October 6th, 2014| Social Media Marketing |Comments Off on Guide To Social Media Platforms For International Campaigns

Question: VK (VKontakte), QZone, Orkut, and XING are (at 2014) international competitors of?
Answer: Facebook