The global growth rates of Facebook and Hi5 have eclipsed that of entrenched social networking rivals MySpace and Bebo.
According to the latest statistics from ComScore, Facebook.com, which took over the global lead among social networking sites in April, has experienced 153% growth in the past year taking it from 52 million visitors to 132 million versus MySpace¹s 3% growth taking its base from 114 million to 117 million in the last year.
Facebook’s concerted effort to become more culturally relevant in markets outside the United States with the introduction of natural language interfaces in several markets bolstered its rapid international growth, ComScore suggest.
While Facebook¹s largest base remains North America at 49 million visitors, Europe is gaining pace with 35 million visitors in June, a 303% increase and a net addition of nearly 27 million monthly visitors.
The Asia-Pacific region has experienced a 458% surge in Facebook usage going from 3.7 million to 20.7 million visitors.
“While the social networking trend first took off in North America, it is beginning to reach a point of maturity in the region,” said Jack Flanagan, ComScore executive vice president. “However, the phenomenon is still growing rapidly in other regions around the world especially as the established American brands turn their focus to developing markets.”
The traditionally Euro-centric Hi5’s focus on a full-scale localisation strategy has helped the site double its visitor base to more than 56 million. Other social networking sites including Friendster.com up 50%, Orkut up 41% and Bebo.com up 32% have demonstrated particularly strong growth on a global basis.
Overall worldwide usage of social networking sites is growing exponentially in emerging markets such as the Middle East and Latin America, while the growth in new users in North America is beginning to level off.
During the past year, the total North American audience of social networkers has grown 9% compared to a much larger 25% growth for the world at large.
The Middle East-Africa region (up 66%), Europe (up 35%) and Latin America (up 33%) have each grown at above average rates.
