SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS by AGE and COUNTRY

SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS: ABOUT THIS REPORT

This report outlines trends observed within social media by age and geography. The research was completed between June and July 2011.

Countries covered:

- Australia- Brazil- Canada- China- Denmark- France- Germany- India

- Italy- Ireland- Japan- Mexico- Spain- Sweden- UK- US

Kaixin001

Which social media sites do Under 18’s use?

MEDIA TRENDS: AGE

Engaging with Target Audiences – Under 18s

SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS: AGE

• HIDDEN - Young people can become ‘hidden’ in the statistics. For example, although Facebook is restricted to over 13’s, many younger children use the site by claiming that they are older

• SOCIAL GAMING - Younger people’s use of social media is often more focused on gaming

• BLOGGING – Blogging is not just an adult pursuit. A recent US study from PEW Research found that 35% of girls and 20% of boys aged 12-17 blogged

Which social media sites do 18-30 year olds use?

SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS: AGE

Tencent Weibo

Engaging with Target Audiences – 18-30 year olds MEDIA TRENDS: AGE

• WIDESPREAD - People aged between 18 and 30 years old are present on a huge range of social media sites.

• GLOBAL - The challenge for any company is to locate relevant communities of interest. Many of these communities of interest will cross national borders.

Figures are from Internet World Stats, March 31st 2011 (http://www.internetworldstats.com/)

How does the % of the population online vary by country?

SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS: GEOGRAPHY

Figures are from Global Web Index, March 31st 2011 (http://www.internetworldstats.com/)

Which countries use social networking the most?

SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS: GEOGRAPHY

These are the amalgamated figures for the top ten sites for each country by number of unique users

Which were the top sites across the 16 countries?

SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS: GEOGRAPHY

These are the amalgamated figures for the top ten sites for each country by number of unique users

How does the use of social media differ by culture?

SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS: GEOGRAPHY

Blogging and online video is popularMany social networks/forums are anonymous

Social gaming is key

Q&A sites are popularInformation sharing is prominent, with accuracy and

expertise viewed as important

Strong blog culture

Short updates and chat, via microblogs and social networks such as Facebook are most popular.

Blogging is less prominent

The chart above shows the top ten social media sites in Australia based on the total number of unique users as found using alexa.com and Goole Adplanner

What are the key social media platforms in Australia?

SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS: GEOGRAPHY

Top 10 Social Media Sites in Australia 60% of all internet users

in Australia use Facebook (bandt.com). In Australia 28% of the sites users are under the age of 17; 18% are aged 18-34 (socialmedianews.com.au)

Another more surprising site featured is DeviantArt, which showcases user generated art

Video and photo-sharing sites are prominent amongst the top social media sites for Australia, with YouTube, Flickr and Vimeo appearing amongst the top sites. According to Comscore, 79% of the internet population watches video online

The chart above shows the top ten social media sites in Brazil based on the total number of unique users using alexa.com and Google Adplanner. Figures for Facebook and Orkut have been sourced from socialbakers.com and Comscore respectively

What are the key social media platforms in Brazil?

SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS: GEOGRAPHY

Top 10 Social Media Sites in Brazil Facebook is used by 29% of the online population in Brazil, although this accounts for only 11% of the total population in the country, as internet penetration is fairly low (socialbakers.com)

Orkut is the most popular social networking site in Brazil, although the number of people using Facebook is increasing rapidly

According to recent figures from ComScore, 24% of Brazil’s internet population over the age of 15 use Twitter. The percentage of the population using Twitter is the third highest globally

The chart above shows the top ten social media sites in June 2011 as found using alexa.com and Google Adplanner

What are the key social media platforms in Canada?

SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS: GEOGRAPHY

Top Social Media Sites in the Canada

Older Canadians are becoming increasingly engaged with social media, with a 35% increase in unique visitors aged 55+ in 2010 (comscore.com).

In October 2010, 50% of people in Canada used Facebook. 29% of Canadian Facebook users were aged 18-24 years (socialbakers.com).

In February 2011, 67% of Canada’s total population viewed more than 5.1 billion videos online, with the average viewer watching 232 videos (comscore.com).

LinkedIn was one of Canada’s fastest growing social media platforms in 2010, with a 35% increase in unique visitors (comscore.com).

18% of people in Canada used Twitter in April 2011 (comscore.com), with English-speaking users averaging 33.4 hours online a week and Francophones 23.8 hours (bbm.ca).

The chart above shows the top ten social media sites in China based on the total number of unique users found using alexa.com and Google AdPlanner

What are the key social media platforms in China?SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS: GEOGRAPHY

Top 10 Social Media sites in China Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare and most recently, Google+, have been blocked in China. Chinese equivalents of these sites are favoured

Qzone is a hugely popular nick-name based social networking site. According to Bshare, members of this social network are more likely to share content than users of any other site (resonancechina.com)

51.com is one of the oldest Chinese social networking sites, which is popular outside of the major cities

PengYou, (meaning Friends in English), is a real-name social networking site. It competes with RenRen, another real-name network very similar to Facebook. Brands campaigns and Facebook pages are not free to companies wishing to use RenRen for PR and marketing

Tencent Weibo and Sina Weibo are microblogging sites. Whilst Tencent Weibo had more users on paper, Sina Weibo is seen to more popular, with higher account usage rates. Sina accounts for 87% of page views in the microblogging market (technode.com)

The chart above shows the top ten social media sites in Denmark based on the total number of unique users found using alexa.com and Google AdPlanner

What are the key social media platforms in Denmark?SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS: GEOGRAPHY

Top 10 Social Media Sites in Denmark

YouTube is the fourth most visited website in Denmark, however, no statistics could be found on the number of unique users for the site

Facebook is by far the most popular social media site in Denmark; almost 50% of the population use the site (socialbakers.com). 41% of users are between the ages of 18 and 34

Amino.dk is forum for entrepreneurs and the self-employed. Arto.dk is an online community where people can chat with friends, play games, and share photos and videos

The chart above shows the top ten social media sites in France based on the total number of unique users found using alexa.com and google adplanner.com

What are the key social media platforms in France?SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS: GEOGRAPHY

Top 10 Media Sites in France

French internet users spend an average of 4.1 hours per month on social networks (comscore.com)

Facebook is the top social network in terms of the number of unique users. At the beginning of June 2011 the site had 22.5 million users in France (insidefacebook.com)

Skyrock is the third most visited site; France accounts for more than half of Skyrock users globally (publicintelligence.net). Two of the top four sites are video sharing sites.

In March 2011 there were 2.4 million Twitter users in France (semiocast.com). There is a low level Twitter penetration in the internet population compared to other European countries such as the UK and the Netherlands (comscore.com)

49% of French internet users have an account with Copains d’Avant, a site where former school and university students can connect, but it has low daily traffic, indicating that many of the accounts are inactive

The chart above shows the top ten social media sites in June 2011 as found using alexa.com and Google Adplanner

What are the key social media platforms in Germany?SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS: GEOGRAPHY

Top Social Media Sites in Germany Germany has the tenth highest number of Facebook users in the world (socialbakers.com). 31% of the online population use the site. 17% of user are under 18 and 54% are aged 18-34

Gutefrage.net, an online advice site, where users can freely exchange tips and information, is very popular

Xing is the most popular professional network in Germany, in contrast to most of the other 16 countries, where Linkedin is preferred

The VZ networks (StudiVz, MeinVZ and SchulerVZ) dominated social networking in Germany until early 2010, when Facebook’s popularity began to increase

The chart above shows the top ten social media sites in June 2011 as found using alexa.com and Goggle AdPlanner

What are the key social media platforms in India?SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS: GEOGRAPHY

Top Social Media Sites in India Facebook is the top social network and is growing rapidly. The site’s membership increased by 166% between May 2010 and June 2011 (insidefacebook.com).

In May 2011, 40% of Orkut’s 100 million active users were based in India (theatlantic.com). Its popularity is waning, however, as Facebook becomes more prevalent

LinkedIn launched in India in 2009, and by June 2011 had grown its subscriber base to 10 million (business-standard.com). The site is particularly popular with younger professionals (average user age 31)

Bharatstudent.com, India’s largest student and youth community platform has recently joined forces with Facebook. Facebook accounts will be integrated into bharatstudent.com in an effort to boost the number of users

The chart above shows the top ten social media sites in Ireland based on the total number of unique users found using alexa.com and Google AdPlanner

What are the key social media platforms in Ireland?SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS: GEOGRAPHY

Top 10 Social Media sites in Ireland

Internet forum boards.ie is hugely popular, offering a place for people to discuss a multitude of topics from an Irish perspective

43% of the Irish population and 66% of the online population use Facebook (socialbakers.com). 55% of the site’s users site are aged between 18 and 34

Between February and May 2011, the number of Irish over 15s with a Twitter account increased from 7 to 11% (www.ipsosmrbi.com)

The chart above shows the top ten social media sites in Italy based on the total number of unique users as found using alexa.com and Google Adplanner

What are the key social media platforms in Italy?SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS: GEOGRAPHY

Top 10 Social Networks in Italy Facebook is the most popular social media site in Italy, with 66% of the online population using the site (socialbakers.com). 50% of users are between 18 and 34 years old.

Badoo is a free to use social network based around meeting new people, dating and flirting. It has 6 million members in Italy (badoo.com), although the recent unique users figures were found to be lower

Twitter is less popular in Italy than some other major European countries. Sysomos.com found that Twitter users in Italy contributed less than 0.5% of Tweets globally

The chart above shows the top ten social networks in Japan based on the total number of unique users using www.alexa.com ,www.google.com/adplanner and comscore.com

What are the key social media platforms in Japan?SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS: GEOGRAPHY

Top 10 Social Media Sites in Japan

Video sharing sites YouTube and Nico Nico Douga are the top two social media sites in Japan. A researcher from Nihon Gigei Inc. said ‘there are probably no other Japanese media that grab at the hearts of young people as firmly as Nico Nico Douga does’ (japantimes.co.jp).

Japanese was the second language to be added to Twitter. Around a fifth of of the internet population use the microblogging service (comscore.com)

Mixi is the most popular social networking site in Japan. Many people access the site via a mobile phone, as 84% of page impressions are delivered to mobile users (Morgan Stanley Research). Only those with a valid Japanese phone number may register.

2-Channel (2ch) is a huge Japanese forum which does not require registration and allows people to post anonymously.

The chart above shows the top ten social networks in Mexico based on the total number of unique users as found using alexa.com and Goolge Adplanner

What are the key social media platforms in Mexico?SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS: GEOGRAPHY

Top 10 Social Media Sites in Mexico Mexico was the third fastest growing country on Facebook in 2010, with the number of users increasing by 192% (socialbakers.com).

Twitter multiplied its reach in Mexico by nine times in the year leading up to August 2010 (comscore.com). In the same period, however, usage of Hi5 declined.

An October 2010 survey of several Latin American markets found that people in Mexico consume the most online video content, with each user viewing an average of 9.7 hours per month (comscore.com).

The chart above shows the top social media platforms in Spain based on the total number of unique users using www.alexa.com and www.google.com/adplanner

What are the key social media platforms in Spain?SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS: GEOGRAPHY

Almost 50% of the online population in Spain use Facebook (socialbakers.com). 54% of users are aged 18-34

According to Comscore, 82% of internet users in Spain watch online video, with both YouTube and Dailymotion appearing in the top ten sites

Tuenti, an invite-only social networking site, the top site in Spain until last year, when it was overtaken by Facebook. The site’s chat function is popular, but it is not as easy to share links and information as on Facebook

Top Social Media Platforms in Spain

The chart above shows the top ten social media sites in Sweden based on the total number of unique users found using alexa.com and Google AdPlanner

What are the key social media platforms in Sweden?SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS: GEOGRAPHY

Top 10 Social Media sites in Sweden

Some home-grown Swedish social media sites, such as lunarstorm, have shut down due to the rise of global sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin

48% of the population of Sweden use Facebook. 44% of the users are aged 18-34 (socialbakers.com)

Swedish site dayviews, previously known as bilddagboken, allows user to document their day in photos. It has around 420,000 unique users

75% of Swedish young people use YouTube at least once a week (Kairos Furture, 2011)

The chart above shows the top ten social media sites in June 2011 as found using alexa.com and Goggle Adplanner

What are the key social media platforms in UK?SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS: GEOGRAPHY

Top Social Media Sites in the United Kingdom

The UK has the fourth highest number of Facebook users in the world. 58% of the online population uses the site (socialbakers.com). 50% of users are aged between 18 and 34.

YouTube accounts for around 20% of visits to social networking sites in the UK (hitwise.com). The UK ranks third in Europe for the number of online videos watched per viewer (Comscore, April 2011)

Almost 15% of the online population (aged 15+) are on linkedin.com (Comscore, March 2011). The majority of users of the site are aged 25+ and they are more likely to be in the £30k+ income bracket (linkhumans.com)

The chart above shows the top ten social media sites in June 2011 as found using alexa.com and Google Adplanner

What are the key social media platforms in US?SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS: GEOGRAPHY

Top Social Media Sites in United States

Classmates.com (or Memory Lane, as it has been rebranded) is a site where people can find lost friends

Facebook is the top social network in terms of the number of unique users. 49% of the population, and 64% of the online population uses the site (socialbakers.com). 49% of Facebook users are aged between 18 and 34

According to recent figures from Pew Research Center, 13% of Americans online use Twitter. 18% of 18-29 year olds online use the microblogging service, up from 9% in November 2010