SNATW: Facts & Figures Russia & Ukraine

Russia & Ukraine have 16 social networks of their own, of which the vast majority is purely social (friends communities).

More information on Russian & Ukranian SN, please read p343-348

To compare Russia & Ukraine to the rest of the world, check our previous blogpost.

SNATW: Facts & Figures Middle East

The Middle East has 27 local social networks, of which the friendship communities are by far most represented.

Interesting to see is that Video and Photo networks are the second most popular type of network (6).

Remark: If we look at social networks based on religion (part of Special Interest), we see that Jewish and Muslim SN are mostly created by Jews or Muslims living outside the Middle East.

More on social networking in the Middle East, p327-340

To compare the Middle East to the rest of the world, check our previous post.

SNATW: Facts & Figures India

As a technologically advanced country, India has adopted social networking in nearly all its aspects. Within the 24 Indian-based SN, we find friendship, dating, special interest, video/photo and mobile sites, although we only found 3 business communities.

Given the explosive growth of the country, especially within the IT industry, I am expecting to hear much more from the Indian networks in the coming years, possibly even a takeover of one of the larger American SN by one of India's giant IT consultancy companies?

To compare India to the rest of the world, check our previous post.

More information on p309-323

SNATW: Facts & Figures Asia

The last few years, Asia has constantly been in the news with regards to technological progress, international trade, etc. On the social networking front, special interest sites closely follow friendship communities, indicating that Asia has both advanced SN sites as well as older, more traditional communities.

Remark: The vast majority of Asian social networks, are focussed on the own community (Chinese, Korean,...) and usually in the local language only. Localisation (putting a website into different languages, targeting different cultures) doesn't seem a high priority for most of these sites so far, leaving the Western world outside.

More on Asian networks on p 285-307

To compare Asia to the rest of the world, read our previous post.

SNATW: Facts & Figures Africa

With the low level of Internet access, I was surprised to find that the African continent has 11 social networks of its own. SN to make friends are most popular at this time, but given the new technology where SN increasingly are accessible on mobile phones too, I wouldn't be surprised to see a rise in Mobile networks in Africa in the coming years. Mobile phones are popular, and would replace the need for a reliable Internet connection in order to get online.

Countries covered in the book include: Ghana, Kenia, South Africa and Zambia.

SNATW: Facts & Figures Latin America

Latin America counts only 19 social networks of its own, despite the fact that this region could potentially profit from an enormous market of millions of Spanish speakers (with the exception of Brazil where Portuguese is the offical language). Of these 19 SN, Friend communities list on top (10) whereas there are only two business networks. (*)

An interesting fact is that social networking doesn't seem to be as popular (yet) in Middle or South America, despite the many latinos living and working in the US, which you'd expect to work as a catalyst. Also, there are quite a few social networks out there which are targetting Latinos; but most of them are run by white Americans from the States.

Latin American countries that are commented on in the book include: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Nicaragua and Venzuela.

(*) For a global view on different types of networks and/or to compare where Latin America ranks compared to the rest of the world, check here.

SNATW: Facts & Figures USA

In the previous blogpost, you have noticed that the USA and Canada make up 51% of all social networks worldwide. In absolute figures, this means 503 SN are of American (or Canadian) descent.

Another noteworthy trend however, is that Special Interest Social Networks (*) - meaning SN that revolve around a particular topic or shared interest- are clearly taking the lead in terms of numbers: 278 networks are dedicated to topics such as books, food, parenting, religion, specific age groups, gaming,...the list seems endless.

Taking in mind how the United Stated have dominated the world of social networking so far, it gives an indication to those of you who are wondering where the future of social networking lies: users want to talk about their specific needs and interests, rather than to socialize online for the sake of socializing. We will probably see more specialist networks arrive in the next few months, as the possibilities are endless. Also, it gives the newcomers a better fighting chance to find followers and reach a critical mass; something which is a lot harder to do nowadays when launching a more general SN and having to compete with MySpace and Facebook .

(*) Some American examples include: Humblevoice, Goodreads, Infieldparking, Comicspace, Nirvanawoman, Spout, Bakespace, Warcraft, Zaadz, Patientslikeme, Vostu, ...
For a full list, see pages 69-161 (American special interest networks) and 249- 253 in the book.