Growth of social networking

Since the broadband connections in South-American region are becoming more and more standard, the social networking market is growing very fast. Social networks [1] are the foundation of the Web 2.0 [2] these can be traditional Web portals and where users can create a profile and contact other people. These users produce content that can be shared with other members within the network.



Over the last year people of South America have joined many different social networking websites like Orkut, Facebook, Hi5 and Sonico. The usage of the internet is growing rapidly and is giving wings to the marketers. The average internet user in South America spent 29 hours online; it is more than global average 25 hours. [3]

Brazil is the leader in region showing the largest social networking usage among its people. "For Internet users in Brazil, social networking continues to flourish as a hugely popular activity," said Alex Banks, managing director of Latin America for comScore. "One likely reason for social networking's success in Brazil is that its concept of online community closely aligns with the culture in Brazil, which is also centered on a strong sense of community and social activity."[4]

Sonico claims to be a social network for Argentineans and was founded in Argentina 2007. Sonico has the biggest popularity progress so far, it has claimed 25 millions registered users since the launch in July 2007. [5]

Google’s Orkut has taken a leader position in Brazil has more than 21 million unique visitors in September 2008. Brazil visitors of Orkut spent an average 496 minutes surfing the site with an average of 28 visits per visitor is making it the highest engagement social networking site in the world. [6]



Most of the countries in South America speak Spanish. [7]Hi5 took this as an advantage and launched Spanish version of it and is now one of the most popular social networks in South America. This year April Hi5 had 12, 8 million of unique visitors in South America which is about 20% raise compared to two moths earlier 10, 7 million unique visitors.[8]

Facebook is one of the biggest growing social networking website around the world over the past half year, becoming leader with 132 million worldwide users in June 2008. [9]It has booming effect also in Latin America. In March 2008 Facebook came out with Spanish-language version and showed 7, 7 millions of unique visitors in April. So it is Facebook, what appears to be growing even faster than Hi5, although Sonico has high claims to be the fastest-growing Latin American social network.

What is really driving these networks growth? Can it be Facebook tactics to make people to provide real factual information about them, not fake profiles that people tend to use in other networks? It still remains unclear what is driving Sonico’s growth. Hi5 continues with its market specific customizations and has recently introduced two new Spanish dialect versions the Argentinean and Castilian and promises more dialect translations to come. Hi5 also launched Brazilian Portuguese version in March to compete against Orkut popularity in Brazil. [10]

REFERENCES:

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0
[3] http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1531
[4] http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2592
[5] http://corporate.sonico.com/en/about_us.html
[6] http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2592
[7] http://www.spanishprograms.com/spanish-speaking-countries.htm
[8] http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2396
[9] http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2396
[10] http://venturebeat.com/2008/06/03/the-latin-american-social-networking-wars-market-leader-hi5-has-been-growing-but-so-has-facebook-and-sonico/

EXTERNAL LINKS:
http://crenk.com/location-breakdown-of-users-from-social-networking-sites/