Five Friday Facts #63

News
dhanuj.selvaraj

Google+ is no longer a ghost town
GlobalWebIndex(GWI) recently released its research results for Q4, 2012. The findings reveal that there are 343 million active users on Google+, making it the second largest social network in the world. Active users are defined as those who used or contributed to the site in the past month. Whilst Facebook tops the charts with close to 700 million active users, the numbers for Google+ have come across as a surprise to many. As shown in the chart inserted below, 25% of global netizens actively use Google+. However, others are positive that Google is on its way to integrating its social platform to its other services, which would bring about massive growth. This is also said to be key for the future of search and social coming together. Insights from GWI also show that there is a greater adoption of global platforms with usage shifting from localised social networks. Twitter experienced the largest growth in Q4, 2012 with a 40% increase in users across the 31 markets.

Fastest growing countries on Facebook in 2012
In our SDMW report on Asia, we shared that Asia has become Facebook’s biggest continent having surpassed North America and Europe. Currently, Asia accounts for more than 278 million Facebook users. Socialbakers have recently published the fastest growing countries on Facebook as of 2012 that supports the booming trend in Asia. Whilst Brazil tops the chart with almost 30 million new monthly active users in 2012, 6 in 10 of the fastest growing countries are in Asia. India, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, South Korea and Thailand. These have contributed to more than 58 million new Facebook users last year.

Social media landscape for China’s luxury brands
Last week we shared the growth of the top 10 luxury brands on Sina Weibo. This week, Resonance China has reported the year on year growth of luxury brands on the various Chinese social media platforms. The largest growth was on Youku and Tudou, two of China’s biggest. It showed a 33% growth in adoption by luxury brands. Sina Weibo has the highest penetration amongst all the platforms, with 88% of luxury brands having a presence on the platform.

Migg33’s growth over Q4 2012 
Migg33 is a social networking platform that focuses on social entertainment. It allows people to chat, game, organise online parties and send gifts. It has a strong consumer presence in Indonesia, with growth in South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Migg33 currently has over 65 million registered members around the world. The recent GlobalWebIndex  Q4 2012 report showed that it is the seventh fastest growing social platform in the world. It will be interesting to watch out for Koprol being revived and where it brings Indonesia to in terms of adoption of global platforms versus local ones.

Twitter finds an older niche in France
It is a known fact that social media is traditionally more popular with the younger people. comScore Media Metrix show that people above the age of 55 in France dominate the Twitter scene, accounting for 1.3 million visitors in November 2012. This is a unique trend that is not common in any other country in the world. The second largest age group is the 15 to 24 year olds with 1.2 Million visitors. It is a first for the millennials to take the second place on a social media platform.