Social Networking is 2x Bigger Internationally than in US - Rmail
Posted by elveston priory at 11:34 pm
ComScore analyst Gian Fulgoni has shared some interesting data on social networking abroad. Among the findings, Fulgoni notes that there are actually more social networking users (as measured by unique visitors) in Asia-Pacific (where Friendster leads) and Europe (where Bebo leads) than in North America. Meanwhile, while Latin America has a relatively small amount of social networking users (42 million uniques), they spend the most average amount of time on social networking sites of any region.
This data further illustrates why it was so important for Microsoft to lock up its international advertising deal with Facebook by stroking a check for $240 million earlier this week. The international market for social networking appears to be at least twice as large and growing faster than that of the US, and as Facebook rolls out foreign versions, the ad revenue generated could make the investment seem like a steal within the next few years, regardless of the equity value of Microsoft’s 1.6% stake in the company.
User comment: By: Adam OstrowTrue, but that will change over time. Look at Baidu's most recent quarter - $66 million of revenue in China. Brazil is a quickly growing economy, I imagine more ad dollars will start to flow online in coming years.
Visit here to subscribe to these commentsUser comment: By: WilMuch more important than the size of any given market is the ability to monetize it. Friendster's success in the Philippines and Orkut's huge userbase in Brazil are largely irrelevant because neither of those markets are known for their ecommerce or online ad spending.
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