Five Friday Facts #4
News
News
Easing you into Friday afternoon, here’s our weekly round-up of juicy social media-related trivia and statistics. Have a great weekend!
China surpasses U.S.
China has surpassed the U.S. to become the world’s largest smartphone market, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. Smartphone shipments in China reached 23.9 million units, an increase of 58% from Q2 2011, while the U.S. saw a 7% drop to 23.3 million units. Nokia leads with 28% of smartphone shipments in China last quarter, while Samsung was second with 18%.
China’s ‘Internet water army’
A research paper developed by Canada’s University of Victoria and China’s Beijing University provides insight into the behaviour of China’s ‘Internet water army’, a term for paid-to-post commenters who ‘flood’ the Internet with fake comments and reviews in China. It was discovered that paid users tend to post more new comments than reply other comments, and post more often with 50% of them posting every 2.5 minutes on average.
Social Gaming in India
MOL, Asia’s leading e-payment provider for games and social networks, claims that half of all Facebook users in India play social games, which amounts to roughly 10 million social gamers. This would indicate that India has 20 million Facebook users, although SocialBakers data shows that there are more than 38 million Facebook users in India currently. Despite the disparity in figures, this growth presents an opportunity for marketers to promote their brands through social games.
Friendster’s Revamp
Friendster, the pioneer social networking site, was re-launched as a social gaming platform back in June 2011, and has reportedly attracted more than 50,000 new users and included over 40 premium games within two months of its launch. More than 90% of new users are based in Asia, and Monthly Active Users and Daily Active Users have increased by 50%. Users can now login to Friendster using their Facebook accounts as well. Friendster has its focus set on Asia, and now operates mainly from the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore.
Thailand requests removal of ‘unlawful content’ on Facebook
The government of Thailand has requested Facebook to remove more than 10,000 Facebook pages that are deemed in breach of laws preventing the defamation of the Thai royal family. Facebook users in Thailand risk prosecution if they share, comment or even like messages that breach Thailand’s lese majeste laws.