Mediaboss Marketing

Social networking stalwart Facebook claims one-billion users. Thats around a seventh of the population of the planet. Sometimes its easy to believe the internet is comprised solely of Google, Wikipedia and Facebook. But what about more regional social networks, mobile social networks and specifically those with a strong foothold in emerging markets? How do they stack up against the behemoth that is Facebook?

According to Italian social media strategist Vincenzo Cosenza although Facebooks star is still ascending around the world, there are pockets of the globe where the social networking giant does not claim number one position.

Cosenzas been tracking these stats and updating a world map of social networks for a number of years and he reports that at the end of 2012, Facebook dominated in 127 out of 137 countries, with a mere four other networks claiming poll position in the remainder.A year ago, according to his data that is based on Alexa rankings, there were six social networks in prime position; midway through 2010, 14; and, as many as 17 in 2009.

In addition to Facebook, the top social networks around the world are:

Tencents Qzone has 552-million users across Asia and has recently also gained number one spot in South Korea, according to the data. The network centres around blogging, photo sharing and music. Unusually, users pay for most services, including the mobile version.

Facebook-esque V Kontakte (VK) has finally ousted Odnokassniki in for top spot in Russia, with 190-million users there.

Odnokassniki, available in Russian and Ukranian, is hanging on to the number one social network position in Moldova according to Cosenzas map.

Persian-language Cloob has climbed the ranks in Iran, where Facebook is hard to access thanks to censorship, says Cosenza.

Other regional social networks you should know about:

The most significant social media plays that arent Facebook all seem to exist in China. According to Socialbakers, Facebook does have almost 600 000 users in China, making the country the 100th largest Facebook country by numbers. But if you look at the percentage of the population using Facebook, its a lowly 0.04% placing China stone last out of 212 countries.

Original post:
Defying Facebook: which emerging market social networks will stand tall?