Remember the days when all you ever used your computer and internet connection for was to check your email? Yeah, me too, and those days are officially over. Move over email, make way for social networking and blogs because they’ve 100% entered the limelight.
New reports are showing that social networks and blogs are now the 4th most popular online activity, and that is ahead of email. According to a new report by the Nielsen Company, titled “Global Faces and Networked Places:”
“Now visited by over two-thirds (67 percent) of the global* online population, “Member Communities,” which includes both social networks and blogs, has become the fourth most popular online category – ahead of personal email. It is growing twice as fast as any of the other four largest sectors (search, portals, PC software and email)…”
The report was actually filled with some interesting little tidbits, many of which were quite surprising. You probably knew that Facebook is the world’s most popular social networking site, visited by 3 out of every 10 people across the 9 markets Nielsen studied, but as far as largest domestic use, it’s not the winner. For the highest percentage of “domestic online reach” Orkut, out of Brazil, takes home the top prize with an impressive 70% reach. Wow.
Check out some of the other findings:
– ” One in every 11 minutes online globally is accounted for by social network and blogging sites.
– The social network and blogging audience is becoming more diverse in terms of age: the biggest increase in visitors during 2008 to “Member Community” Web sites globally came from the 35-49 year old age group (+11.3 million).
– Mobile is playing an increasingly important role in social networking. Nielsen found UK mobile Web users have the greatest propensity to visit a social network through their handset, with 23 percent (2 million people) doing so, compared to 19 percent in the US (10.6 million people). These numbers are a big increase over last year – up 249 percent in the UK and 156 percent in the US.”
Still have doubts that social networking and blogs have hit the big time? Yeah, didn’t think so. You’re probably not surprised though, as Jane mentioned Friday, bloggers just Know.
Recent Comments