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Source 1: TUIK (Turkstat)
www.tuik.gov.tr
Source 2: Gartner
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=2092217
Gartner Says Worldwide Social Media Revenue Forecast to Reach $16.9 Billion in 2012
Analysts to Discuss Disruptive Technologies, including Social Media, at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, October 21-25, Orlando, Florida
STAMFORD, Conn., July 25, 2012— Global social media revenue is forecast to reach $16.9 billion in 2012, up 43.1 percent from 2011 revenue of $11.8 billion, according to Gartner, Inc.
Advertising is, and will continue to be, the largest contributor to overall social media revenue and is projected to total $8.8 billion in 2012. Social gaming revenue more than doubled between 2010 and 2011 and is expected to reach $6.2 billion in 2012, while revenue from subscriptions is expected to total $278 million this year.
"Usage of online social media has matured, and more than one billion people worldwide will use social networks this year," said Neha Gupta, senior research analyst at Gartner. "Although the number of social media users is large, and in some cases increasingly mature in their usage patterns, the market is still in its early stages from a revenue perspective."
Gartner expects the number of social media users will continue to increase at a moderate pace. New forms of media and entertainment will keep users engaged on social media sites and attract new ones. Rising competition among social media players, each vying for consumers' leisure time and attention, will lead to the rise of new forms of social media (Web based and mobile).
Marketers are allocating a higher percentage of their advertising budget to social networking sites. This is mainly driven by the fact that these sites offer a large pool of engaged users who spend considerable time on these sites — this increases the potential click-through rates (CTRs). Social media sites enable marketers to target ads to discrete consumer segments by unlocking the interconnected data structures of users that include lists of friends, their comments and messages, photos and all their social connections, contact information and associated media.
"Social media sites are becoming more innovative in their ad products to attract marketers," Ms. Gupta said. "Social networking sites should deploy data analytic technologies that interrogate social networks to give marketers a more accurate picture of trends in accordance with consumers' needs and preferences."
Gartner analysts said that social media sites will continue to incorporate gaming techniques on their networks, driven by the monetization opportunities that it presents. The sale of virtual goods will remain the primary source of revenue. Major console gaming publishers have recently entered the social gaming arena and are adding momentum to the social gaming industry by utilizing their intellectual properties. Gartner expects this trend to have a favorable impact on social gaming revenue as consumers are likely to be attracted to familiar gaming titles. Some of the big social developers such as Zynga, GREE and DeNA have moved to an open-platform strategy, enhancing user convenience and choice.
The growth in users paying for professional networking accounts will continue to grow. However, social sites are moving toward lower subscription fees and shifting focus to other sources of revenue, such as advertisement-based sales. This is corroborated by the fact that many of the professional sites (including LinkedIn and Xing) that charge for premium services observed a decline in the subscriptions revenue
ratio. Apart from a few exceptions, Gartner continues to see limited success with the premium subscription models.
The sale of virtual goods outside of social gaming is the largest revenue earner in the "other" category. The trend to sell high-value advisory services — such as public relations and reputation management) to brands so that they can better manage their presence on social networks is on the rise and is expected to continue. Payments on social media sites will increase, providing increased revenue opportunities to social media sites to serve as a payment platform for transactions of digital content (to pay for applications, such as part of Facebook), as part of social gaming (for example, FarmVille), or to make a person-to-person (P2P) payment to another user of the network site. New revenue opportunities for social media will also arise as both mobile and TV platforms integrate with social networking as a core service.
"New revenue opportunities will exist in social media, but no new services will be able to bring significant fresh revenue to social media by 2016," said Ms. Gupta. "The biggest impact of growth in social media is on the advertisers. In the short and medium terms, social media sites should deploy data analytic techniques that interrogate social networks to give marketers a more accurate picture of trends about consumers' needs and preferences on a customized basis. In the meantime, however, they should also continue to exploit other channels of revenue like mobile advertising and social commerce."
Additional information is available in the Gartner report "Forecast: Social Media Revenue, Worldwide, 2011-2016." The report is available on Gartner's website at http://www.gartner.com/resId=2061016.
Source 2.1: ITP
http://www.itp.net/590401-social-media-revenue-to-reach-169bn#.UMeW3GGREmA
By Mark SuttonPublished September 13, 2012
Revenue from social media is set to hit $16.9 billion this year, according to Gartner, up 43.1% from last year's global market total of $11.8 billion.
Advertising will continue to more than half of all revenue, a total of $8.8 billion in 2012, while social gaming revenue will reach $6.2 billion, while subscription revenue will be $278 million.
"Usage of online social media has matured, and more than one billion people worldwide will use social networks this year," said Neha Gupta, senior research analyst at Gartner. "Although the number of social media users is large, and in some cases increasingly mature in their usage patterns, the market is still in its early stages from a revenue perspective."
Gartner says that there will be moderate growth in users of social media sites, although new services and new forms of entertainment will help retain interest from existing users.
Growth areas for social revenue will be in social gaming, through the sale of virtual goods, while paid-for professional networking sites will see some increase in subscription revenues, but more efforts to monetize switching to other sources of revenue, such as advertisement-based sales.
Other sources of social media-related revenue will come from avenues such as sale of virtual goods outside of social gaming; high-value advisory services in areas like public relations and reputation management for companies to manage reputations online; payment platform services and mobile and TV integration with social networking.
"New revenue opportunities will exist in social media, but no new services will be able to bring significant fresh revenue to social media by 2016," said Gupta. "The biggest impact of growth in social media is on the advertisers. In the short and medium terms, social media sites should deploy data analytic techniques that interrogate social networks to give marketers a more accurate picture of trends about consumers' needs and preferences on a customized basis. In the meantime, however, they should also continue to exploit other channels of revenue like mobile advertising and social commerce."
Source 3: NY Post
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/app_loses_its_way_xvmmnHb7wdBvZQWe3iiNAI
Foursquare’s big overhaul falls flat with usersBy GARETT SLOANE
There’s no “check out” feature for Foursquare, but maybe it’s time.
Interest in the pioneering mobile “check in” app appears to be cooling despite a much-hyped overhaul earlier this summer.
The SoHo firm, once one of New York’s hottest start-ups, has barely moved the needle in active users since its June redesign. Meanwhile, the average time spent on the mobile app has declined, according to comScore data obtained by The Post.
Industry insiders called it an alarming trajectory for a company that has been hailed as the city’s great tech hope and has attracted more than $70 million from investors.
Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley, dubbed the “New King of Social Media,” seems to be losing his touch, as users spend less time with the app.
Foursquare, run by CEO Dennis Crowley, became all the rage by letting users share their location and exchange insights on restaurants, stores and other venues.
“Foursquare usage and engagement has topped out and has been flat,” said Sam Hamadeh, CEO of PrivCo.
Foursquare drew between 5 million and 6 million visitors from March to June, when its redesigned app launched. There was a small uptick in June to 5.9 million visitors, compared with 5.3 million in May, according to comScore, which only counts US visitors.
But the bump in users was met with less engagement in June, when people, on average, spent 143.5 minutes on Foursquare versus 150.3 minutes in May. By comparison, overall time spent using mobile apps has been rising.
Foursquare is also behind in the app popularity contest, according to AppData. It falls outside the top 200 free iPhone apps — its latest rank was 217 — while rivals for people’s app attention such as Pinterest and Instagram ranked in the Top 25.
For its part, Foursquare said the redesign has been a success. “Since launching the all-new Foursquare in June, we’ve set records in pretty much every metric we measure internally,” the company said.
The mobile network counts 25 million members, even though comScore’s data shows far fewer active ones.
A prominent venture capitalist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that Foursquare backers are pushing for progress.
After its last funding round valued the start-up at about $550 million, investors are feeling anxious, especially after the Facebook initial public offering debacle.
“Foursquare would be a bloodbath if you start having the hemorrhaging that could go around,” said the VC, who is not invested in the company but is familiar with its situation. “With Zynga and Groupon, there is a lot that continues to implode.”
Both Facebook and Groupon hit fresh lows yesterday as the social media bubble continues to deflate.
Last year’s big-money round was led by top VCs like Union Square Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Spark Capital.
“It’s great to raise money at a high price, but they have to start delivering the goods,” said one insider.
Foursquare’s revenue is estimated at less than $10 million a year. The company’s ultimate success would be a testament to New York’s tech cred but a failure would be a big setback.
“Foursquare is important psychologically,” one source said. “If anyone can figure it ou they can.”
Source 4: Techcrunch
http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/13/instagrams-user-count-now-at-40-million-saw-10-million-new-users-in-last-10-days/
Instagram received a fair amount of press over the last week. First, 10 days ago, the app launched on Android. Then news of Facebook buying the tiny startup for $1 billion was everywhere from the Drudge Report to The Daily Show. The attention resulted in explosive growth. Since the launch of its Android app, Instagram’s user base grew from 30 to 40 million. That’s over 1,000,000 new users a day.
Rakshith, the creator of gramfeed, pinged us this morning after noticing the milestone from Instagram’s API. The 40 millionth user is valentinoelbuti. It seems at the time of this post’s writing, Instagram has exactly 40,026,379 users — or rather, roughly 5% of Facebook’s active user base.
It took Facebook four years to hit 100 million users. Instagram is on track to beat that number. The photo sharing service launched in October 2010 and saw 1 million users by December. It passed 10 million users the following September. Now, in April 2012, Instagram is growing at an incredible pace with 10 million new users in essentially this month alone. If nothing else, it shows that Android’s massive user base cannot be ignored.
Sure, Instagram received a massive amount of press late last week, but it also just became available to Android’s 500 million users. The timing was perfect. The vast majority of the new users likely first heard about Instagram from the news of the Facebook acquisition and Instagram was available for download in Google Play as if it had always been there.
Facebook says Instagram will remain a standalone photo app, which is great news for its users fearing a hostile takeover. However, it’s hard to imagine Facebook not wanting to tap Instagram’s massive user base. After all, Facebook needs to recoup the $1 billion it spent buying the start-up somehow.
Source 5: Digital Buzz Blog
http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/facebook-statistics-stats-facts-2011/
Facebook Statistics, Stats and Facts for 2011 are starting to roll out, and here is the first infographic to wrap them all up thanks to Online Schools. With over 500 million users, Facebook is now used by 1 in every 13 people on earth, with over 250 million of them (over 50%) who log in every day. The average user still has about 130 friends, but that should expand in 2011.48% of 18-34 year olds check Facebook when they wake up, with 28% doing so before even getting out of bed. The 35+ demographic is growing rapidly, now with over 30% of the entire Facebook user base. The core 18-24 year old segment is now growing the fastest at 74% year on year. Almost 72% of all US internet users are on now Facebook, while 70% of the entire user base is located outside of the US.Over 700 Billion minutes a month are spent on Facebook, 20 million applications are installed per day and over 250 million people interact with Facebook from outside the official website on a monthly basis, across 2 million websites. Over 200 million people access Facebook via their mobile phone. 48% of young people said they now get their news through Facebook. Meanwhile, in just 20 minutes on Facebook over 1 million links are shared, 2 million friend requests are accepted and almost 3 million messages are sent.For more information on Facebook Statistics you can view another infographic here.
Source 6: Search Engine Watch
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2143126/Facebook-IPO-Show-Ad-Revenue-Increased-69-in-2011
Facebook's 2011 advertising revenues were $3.1 billion, up 69 percent from the year before, according to
the Menlo Park, CA-based firm's S-1 filing today for its initial public offering. Facebook, which has
increased its ad units per page from four to seven in the last two years, appears to have benefited greatly
from those particular moves. According to the filing, the primary reason for the jump in ad revenue was a
42 percent lift in the number of ads delivered, as well as an 18 percent hike in the average price per ad
delivered.
Total revenue for last year was $3.7 billion, Facebook's filing said, representing a near doubling of 2010's
revenue of $1.97 billion. Games developer Zynga helped generate 12 percent of Facebook's revenues
last year.
The much-anticipated financial disclosure by Facebook finally gave industry observers a look into the
digital giant's financial and operational life. At the end of 2011, according to the filing, the company had
3,200 employees - a doubling of its staff in one year. It took on investments from financiers of roughly
$1.2 billion last year, $781 million in 2010, and $243 million the year before.
The filing says there are 845 million Facebook users worldwide, with 483 million active daily. According to
the S-1, Faceook usage is fairly evenly distributed across the globe.
The rise of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's company - which turns eight years old on Saturday - has been
nothing short of staggering. For instance, only two years ago, Facebook was attempting to reach 500
million users. Now, according to the filing, it has 400 million mobile users alone. With its climb has come a
dedicated marketplace of Facebook ads vendors - firms such as Buddy Media, Vitrue, Context Optional,
and Syncapse, as well as game developers like Zynga and Playfish.
Rebecca Lieb, digital advertising analyst for Altimeter, commented that "the enormous ecosystem of
companies in the 'Facebook economy' agencies, technology providers, and API-dependent plays such as
Zynga, indicate that more than Facebook is threatened if Facebook were to fail."
The No. 1 threat to Facebook is Google, which has topped 90 million users for its young Google+ social
networking competitor. As James Lenz, a Rice University advertising professor, suggests, a lot can
change in the social space in a short amount of time.
He said, "Facebook does [have] several challenges including regulatory issues, privacy concerns,
competing with the likes of Google and Apple, and trying to perpetually monetize its consumer base while
at the same time not alienating them. In the end, Facebook will more than likely still be standing."
Catherine Tucker, an MIT marketing professor, weighed in on what Facebook's IPO means to companies
that lean on digital to sell products. "I think it reflects the power of social media to inspire customers to be
active on the platform," she said, "and the potential for social advertising to generate huge revenues from
these consumers."
Source 7: ETİD (Ecommerce Society) Board Member Üyesi Aslı Gökdere, Founder&CEO of Evmanya.com
http://www.slideshare.net/etiddernek/ecommerce-market-turkey
Source 8: Internet Retailer
http://www.internetretailer.com/2011/06/07/global-e-commerce-reach-14-trillion-2015
Global e-commerce to reach $1.4 trillion in 2015
Global e-commerce, including travel and auto purchases as well as online retail sales, will increase 13.5%
annually for the next four years and reach an estimated $1.4 trillion in 2015, according Cisco Systems
Inc.’s Economics & Research Practice. In anticipation of such growth, Cisco conducted interviews with 32
e-retailers that sell internationally to define the priorities, processes and individual market complexities
involved in international e-commerce.
First, an e-retailer has to decide which countries or regions it wants to sell or expand to. In picking a
market, Cisco says the most important consideration is the amount of company revenue already coming
from that market. Then retailers should take into account the sophistication of that country or region’s e-
commerce infrastructure, such as Internet connection capabilities, delivery services and payment
systems. “The level of existing popularity in a given country is always the best indicator of potential online
success, as long as that country is ready for e-commerce,” the report says.
E-retailers also have to consider how they’ll procure new or alter existing products to appeal to local
tastes and how they might have to merchandise those products differently to match local expectations.
These considerations also guide how an e-retailer will manage international sales. Cisco recommends
managing core functions, such as branding, technology platforms and site navigation, from company
headquarters, but letting in-country staff manage functions that require local expertise; those tasks
include local delivery contracts, payment and bank agreements, and online merchandising and marketing.
The differences among countries can be striking, Cisco notes. In France, for instance, consumers prefer
to pay for online purchases with debit cards and PayPal more often than credit cards, and to pick up their
purchases at neighborhood stores rather than have them delivered to their homes.
E-retailers should also consider enlisting local experts to ensure relevancy when it comes to
merchandising and marketing, Cisco says. “Percent-off sales may work in the U.S. but have negative
connotations abroad as distressed goods,” the report says. Instead, retailers might want to offer free
shipping or tax refunds instead of percent-off discounts.
E-retailers also need to deal with potential changes to their computer networks and software. Local e-
commerce sites need technology to handle foreign exchange rates, and e-retailers may have to contract
with local data centers or use application accelerators to make sure an e-commerce site loads and
responds quickly in other countries.
Although going global can cause headaches, Cisco says the potential gains from global
expansion justifies the risk and effort. Cisco estimates that while the United States, United Kingdom and
Japan will command more than half, or 53%, of e-commerce sales in 2015, e-commerce in countries such
as Spain, Brazil, China, Russia and Mexico each will grow at rates of 26% or more annually through
2015.
Angus Cormie, director of e-commerce, Western Europe, consumer and small business for Dell Inc., will
explain how the computer maker is handling international expansion at the Internet Retailer Conference &
Exhibition 2011 in San Diego on June 15 in a session titled “Dell goes global with language, content,
experience and more.”
Source 9: Direct Marketing Newshttp://www.dmnews.com/ebay-revenue-up-27-launching-paypal-in-store-purchase-pilot/article/223727/EBay revenue up 27%, launching Paypal in-store purchase pilot
EBay recorded $11.7 billion in net revenue for 2011, a 27% increase compared with the prior year. The
company's net income for the year also spiked, jumping 79% year-over-year to $3.2 billion.
During an earnings call, eBay Inc. president and CEO John Donahoe said that “2011 marked an inflection
point for shopping” as the divide between online and offline commerce eroded. EBay will launch a pilot
program later this week that will enable consumers to conduct purchases via PayPal in 51 Home Depot
stores, with most of those stores located in the Bay Area, he said, adding that the company began testing
the program with Home Depot during the fourth quarter.
The San Jose, Calif.-based company's marketplaces business generated $6.6 billion in revenue, a 16%
rise, to account for 57% of eBay's total 2011 net revenue. The segment had 100.4 active users as of Dec.
31.
Revenue from PayPal grew by 28% year-over-year to $4.4 billion. The payments business ended the year
with 106.3 million registered users and recorded 548.1 million payments during the fourth quarter. GSI
Commerce, which eBay acquired in March for roughly $2.4 billion, contributed $590 million in revenue.
EBay's fourth-quarter revenue of $3.38 billion surpassed analysts' expectations that eBay would report
$3.32 billion in revenue for the quarter.
EBay's operating expenses totaled $5.8 billion for 2011, up 28% from the prior year. The company's
spending on sales and marketing swelled 25% to $2.4 billion.
Earlier this month PayPal president Scott Thompson left the company to become Yahoo's CEO.
Source 10: Venture Beathttp://venturebeat.com/2012/01/18/ebay-q4-earnings/
eBay beats expectations with $11B in revenue in 2011
Fresh off hot holiday mobile sales, e-commerce conglomerate eBay is announcing that it increased
revenue by 25 percent and made $11.7 billion in 2011.
The company generated net income on a GAAP basis of $3.2 billion ($2.7 billion in non-GAAP net
income) for the full year. eBay closed out the year with $3.4 billion in revenue during the fourth
quarter, according to an earnings report released Wednesday.
The retail giant, which operates PayPal, GSI and X.commerce, saw its fourth quarter earnings jump 35
percent from the same quarter last year, in part by a gain on the sale of its remaining investment in
Skype.
“We had a strong fourth quarter finish to an excellent year, increasing our confidence in our three-year
outlook,” eBay president and CEO John Donahoe said. “We are a different eBay today, no longer just an
ecommerce leader but a stronger, more diverse global commerce company shaping the future of
shopping and payments.”
During an earnings call with analysts, Donahoe talked up eBay’s impressive holiday sales and the
success of its mobile applications, which helped the company rake in money faster than ever. On Cyber
Monday, eBay processed more than 10,000 transactions per second, a new transactions per second
milestone for the company. And altogether, eBay mobile payment volume reached $4 billion for the year,
up five times from the mobile payment volume of 2010, Donahoe said. eBay expects mobile payment
volume to reach $7 billion in 2012.
Donahoe also spoke of eBay’s ability to capitalize on an inflection point, driven by consumers and
enabled by new technologies, happening in the shopping space. He stressed that the company is no
longer just an e-commerce site but a full-service business with products that merge the online and offline
shopping experiences.
“We intend to make shopping more locally convenient and more globally accessible,” Donahoe said.
Source 11: How Many Are There
http://howmanyarethere.net/how-many-social-networking-websites-are-there/
How Many Social Networking Websites Are There?
How Many Social Networking Websites Are There?
Name Description/Focus
Date
launched
Registered
users
Registrati
on
GlobalAlexa P
age ranking
Academia.edu
Social networking
site for
academics/researc
hers
Septemb
er 2008 211,000 Open 6,053
Advogato
Free and open
source software
developers 1999 13,575 Open 144,599
aNobii Books 2006 Open 11,932
aSmallWorld
European jet set
and social elite
world-wide
March
2004 550,000 Invite-only6,192
AsianAvenue
A social network
for the Asian
American
community 1997 Open 75,854
Athlinks
Running,
Swimming 2001 139,458 Open 37,129
Audimated.com Independent music2010 Open 747,857
Avatars United Online games
March
2008 Open 22,686,225
Badoo
General, Meet new
people, Popular in
Europe and Latin
America 2006 86,000,000
Open to
people 18
and older 117
Bebo General
July
2005 117,000,000
Open to
people 13
and older 2,279
BIGADDA
Indian Social
Networking Site
August
2007 3,000,000
Open to
people 16
and older 12,903
Biip.no
Norwegian
community
June 1,
2005 430,000
Requires
Norwegia
n phone
number 42,468
BlackPlanet African-Americans
Septemb
er 1,
1999 20,000,000 Open 5,863
Blauk
Anyone who wants
to tell something
about a stranger or
acquaintance. 2010
Open to
people 13
and older. 463,796
Blogster
Blogging
community
Novemb
er 24,
2005 85,579 Open 10,144
Bolt.com General 1996 Open 111,069
Buzznet
Music and pop-
culture 2005 10,000,000 Open 1,227
CafeMom Mothers
Decemb
er 2006 1,250,000
Open to
moms and
moms-to-
be 1,492
Cake Financial Investing
Septemb
er 17,
2007 Open 481,922
Care2
Green living and
social activism 1998 9,961,947 Open 1,883
CaringBridge Not for profit
providing free
9,500,000 Open to
people 18
websites that
connect family and
friends during a
serious health
event, care and
recovery.[35] and older
Cellufun
Mobile social
game network,
Number 8 US
mobile website[39] 2007 3,000,000
Open to
people 14
and older 115,511
Classmates.com
School, college,
work and the
military 1995 50,000,000
Open to
people 18
and older 2,961
Cloob
General. Popular
in Iran 2004 Open 914
CouchSurfing
Worldwide network
for making
connections
between travelers
and the local
communities they
visit. 2003 2,967,421 Open 1,821
CozyCot
East Asian and
Southeast Asian
women 2001 150,000 Open 3,711
Cross.tv
Faith Based social
network for
Christian believers
from around the
world 2008 450,000 Open 31,716
Crunchyroll Anime and forums.2006 Open 5,153
Cyworld
General. Popular
in South Korea. 1999 24,000,000 Open 1,020
DailyBooth
Photo-blogging
site where users
upload a photo
every day
February
13, 2009 Open 5,014
DailyStrength Medical & Novemb Open 22,054
emotional support
community –
Physical health,
Mental health,
Support groups
er 4,
2007
Decayenne
European and
American social
elite 2001 Invite-only1,263,943
delicious
Social
bookmarking
allowing users to
locate and save
websites that
match their own
interests
Septemb
er 2003 8,822,921 Open 272
deviantART Art community
August
7, 2000 9,040,962 Open 126
Disaboom
People with
disabilities
(Amputee,
cerebral palsy,
MS, and other
disabilities) Open 275,698
Dol2day
Politic community,
Social network,
Internet radio
(German-speaking
countries) 40,200 Open 887,047
DontStayIn
Clubbing (primarily
UK) Open 54,095[64]
Draugiem.lv
General (primarily
LV, LT, HU) 2,600,466
Invitation
only 2,915
douban Chinese Web 2.0
website providing
user review and
recommendation
services for
movies, books,
2005 46,850,000 Open 119
and music. It is
also the largest
online Chinese
language book,
movie and music
database and one
of the largest
online
communities in
China.
DXY.cn
Chinese online
community for
physicians, health
care professionals,
pharmacies and
facilities 2000[68] 2,000,000 Open 14,005
Elftown
Community and
wiki around
Fantasy and sci-fi. 185,000
Open,
approval
needed 43,277
Epernicus
For research
scientists Open 528,083
Eons.com For baby boomers
Open to
people 13
and older 34,240
Experience
Project Life experiences Open 3,452
Exploroo
Travel Social
Networking. Open 209,868
Facebook General.
February
2004
640,000,000
+
Open to
people 13
and older 2
Faceparty
General. Popular
UK. 200,000
Invitation
only to
people 18
and older 28,760
Faces.com Adult Social
Network, Mainly
UK & USA
2011 700,000 Open to
people 18
and older
159,693
worldwide
Fetlife
People who are
into BDSM 500,000
Open to
people “of
[legal] age
to see
adult
content” 5,513
FilmAffinity
Movies and TV
Series 2002 250,000 Open 3,916
FledgeWing
Entrepreneural
community
targeted towards
worldwide
university students
Open to
university
students 1,793,990
Flixster Movies 2007 63,000,000
Open to
people 13
and older 1,018
Flickr
Photo sharing,
commenting,
photography
related networking,
worldwide
February
2004 32,000,000
Open to
people 13
and older
(Yahoo!
Login) 31
Focus.com
Business to
Business,
worldwide 2005 850,000
Open to
people 13
and older 11,495
Folkdirect General
June
2010 80,000
Open to
people 16
and older 19,932
Fotki
Photo sharing,
video hosting,
photo contests,
journals, forums,
flexible privacy
protection, friend’s
feed, audio
comments and
unlimited custom
design integration.
October
1998 1,632,565 Open 5,367
Fotolog
Photoblogging.
Popular in South
America and Spain 20,000,000 Open 1,194
Foursquare
Location based
mobile social
network 10,000,000 Open 625
Friends Reunited
UK based. School,
college, work,
sport and streets 19,000,000
Open to
people 13
and older 10,231
Friendster
General. Popular
in Southeast Asia.
No longer popular
in the western
world 2002 90,000,000
Open to
people 16
and older. 979
Frühstückstreff General
July
2001 14,800 Open 1,253,155
Fubar
dating, an “online
bar” for 18 and
older
October
2007 1,200,000
Open to
people
18+ 9,476
Gaia Online
Anime and games.
Popular in USA,
Canada and
Europe.
Moderately
popular around
Asia. 23,523,663
Open to
people 13
and older 1,071
GamerDNA
Computer and
video games
Septemb
er 21,
2006 310,000 Open 22,887
Gather.com
Article, picture,
and video sharing,
as well as group
discussions 465,000 Open 3,974
Gays.com
Social network for
LGBT community,
Guide for LGBT
bars, restaurants,
clubs, shopping
May 16,
2008 100,000
Open,
Global 74,664
Geni.com
Families,
genealogy
January
16, 2007 15,000,000 Open 5,815
Gogoyoko
Fair play in Music
– Social
networking site for
musicians and
music lovers
Invite only
while in
beta 119,272
Goodreads
Library cataloging,
book lovers
Decemb
er 2006 Open 2,543
Goodwizz
Social network
with matchmaking
and personality
games to find new
contacts. Global,
based in France.
October
2010 60,000 Open 214,214
Google+ General
June 28,
2011 20,000,000
Invite
only,
during
pre-
release
field-trial
NA (Alexa only
records data
for Second-
level domains)
Google Buzz General
February
9,
2010[12
4] Open
NA (Alexa only
records data
for second-
level domains)
GovLoop
for people in and
around
government 91,852
Grono.net Poland 2,000,000 Open 2,958
Habbo
General for teens.
Over 31
communities
worldwide. Chat
Room and user
profiles. 200,000,000
Open to
people 13
and older 6,545
hi5 General. Popular
in India, Mongolia,
Thailand,
2003 80,000,000 Open to
people 13
and older.
443
Romania,
Jamaica, Central
Africa, Portugal
and Latin America.
Not very popular in
the USA.
Hospitality Club Hospitality 328,629 Open 38,258
Hotlist
Geo-Social
Aggregator rooted
in the concept of
knowing where
your friends are,
were, and will be. 80,000 Open 28,241
HR.com
Social networking
site for Human
Resources
professionals 1999 194,000 Open 60,048
Hub Culture
Global influencers
focused on worth
creation
Novemb
er 2002 20,000 Invite-only515,308
Hyves
General, Most
popular in the
Netherlands. 10,097,000 Open 658
Ibibo
Talent based
social networking
site that allows to
promote one’s self
and also discover
new talent. Most
popular in India. 3,500,000 Open 695
Identi.ca
Twitter-like service
popular with
hackers and
software freedom
advocates. 395,695 Open 3,822
Indaba Music Online
collaboration for
musicians, remix
350,000 Open,
Global
55,062
contests, and
networking.
IRC-Galleria Finland 505,000
Open to
Finnish
speaking
people 12
and older 3,302
italki.com
Language learning
social network.
100+ languages. 500,000
Open,
Global 29,939
InterNations
International
community Invite-only25,604
Itsmy
Mobile community
worldwide,
blogging, friends,
personal TV-
shows 2,500,000 206,437
iWiW Hungary 4,000,000 Invite-only532
Jaiku
General.
Microblogging.
Owned by Google
February
2006
Open to
people 13
and older 15,661
kaioo General, nonprofit
Novemb
er 2007 30,000 386,200
Kaixin001
General. In
Simplified
Chinese; caters for
mainland China
users
Open to
the
General
Public 183
Kiwibox
General. For the
users, by the
users, a social
network that is
more than a
community. 1999 2,400,000
Open to
people 13
and older 104,563
Lafango
Talent-Focused
media sharing site
Open,
Global 151,301
LaiBhaari
Marathi social
networking 2010 100,000 Open 29,894
Last.fm Music 2002 30,000,000 Open 552
LibraryThing Book lovers
August
29, 2005 1,300,000
Open to
people 13
and older 8,243
Lifeknot
Shared interests,
hobbies
Open to
people 18
and older 602,117
Business and
professional
networking
May
2003 100,000,000
Open to
people 18
and older 13
LinkExpats
Social networking
website for
expatriates. 100+
countries.
Open,
Global 1,668,484
Listography
Lists.
Autobiography Open 197,009
LiveJournal
Blogging. Popular
in Russia and
among the
Russian-speaking
diaspora abroad.
April 15,
1999 17,564,977
Open
(OpenID) 76
Livemocha
Online language
learning – dynamic
online courses in
35 languages –
world’s largest
community of
native language
speakers. 5,000,000 Open 4,079
LunarStorm Sweden 1,200,000 Open 65,874
Makeoutclub General
August
9, 1999 Open 723,381
MEETin General Open 173,717
Meetup.com
General. Used to
plan offline
meetings for
people interested
in various activities
Open to
people 18
and older 739
Meettheboss
Business and
Finance
community,
worldwide. Open 107,180
Mixi Japan
October
25, 2000 24,323,160 Invite-only140
mobikade
mobile community,
UK only
Open to
people 18
and older 1,851,728
MocoSpace
mobile community,
worldwide 3,000,000
Open to
people 14
and older 3,685
MOG Music
Open to
people 14
and older 4,221
MouthShut.com
Social Network,
social media,
consumer reviews Open 2,545
Mubi (website) Auteur cinema 200,000 Open 25,648
Multiply
“Real world”
relationships.
Popular in
primarily in Asia. 10,000,000
Open to
people 13
and older. 382
Muxlim Muslim portal site 2006 50,000
Open to
people 13
and older 59,099
MyAnimeList
Anime themed
social community 160,000
Open to
people 13
and older 6,096
MyHeritage
family-oriented
social network
service 30,000,000 Open 2,953
MyLife
Locating friends
and family,
keeping in touch
(formerly
Reunion.com) 51,000,000 Open 1,481
My Opera Blogging, mobile 7,300,000 Open NA (Alexa only
blogging, photo
sharing,
connecting with
friends, Opera Link
and Opera Unite.
Global
records data
for second-
level domains)
Myspace General
August
2003
100,000,000
+
Open to
ages 13
and older. 86
myYearbook General, Charity 20,000,000
Open to
age 13
and up &
Grades 9
and up 851
Nasza-klasa.pl
School, college
and friends.
Popular in Poland 11,000,000 Open 40,961
Netlog
General. Popular
in Europe, Turkey,
the Arab World
and Canada’s
Québec province.
Formerly known as
Facebox and
Redbox.[210] 70,000,000
Open to
people 13
and older 296
Nettby
Norwegian
Community
Septemb
er 14,
2006 Open 2,719
Nexopia Canada 1,400,000
Open to
people 13
and
older[215] 24,071
NGO Post
Non-Profit news
sharing and
networking, mainly
in India 15,000 Open 70,134
Ning Users create their
own social
Open to
people 13
273
websites and
social networks and older
Odnoklassniki
Connect with old
classmates.
Popular in Russia
and former Soviet
republics 45,000,000 Open 104
OneClimate
Not for Profit
Social networking
and Climate
Change
Open to
People of
all ages
and
locations 307,773
OneWorldTV
Not for Profit Video
sharing and social
networking aimed
at people
interested in social
issues,
development,
environment, etc. Open 27,434,227
Open Diary
First online
blogging
community,
founded in 1998 1998 5,000,000
Open to
people 13
and older 39,290
Orkut
General. Owned
by Google Inc.
Popular in India
and Brazil.[226]
January
22, 2004 100,000,000
Open to
people 18
and older,
login) 106
OUTeverywhere
Gay/LGBTQ
Community Open 329,887
Passportstamp Travel Open 366,598
PatientsLikeMe Online community
for patients with
life-changing
illnesses to find
other patients like
them, share their
2006 109,587 Open to
people 13
years and
up
57,962
data with others,
and learn more
about their
condition to
improve their
outcome.
Partyflock
Dutch virtual
community for
people interested
in house music
and other
electronic dance
music. Since 2001,
Partyflock has
evolved into the
biggest online
community for the
dance scene in the
Netherlands
Novemb
er 10,
2001 321,125
Open to
people 18
years and
up 7,226
Pingsta
Collaborative
platform for the
world’s
Internetwork
Experts
Invite-
only, only
Internet
Experts 1,668,955
Plaxo Aggregator 15,000,000 Open 1,533
Playahead
Swedish, Danish
teenagers Closed 63,081
PureVolume
Connecting indie
music bands and
listeners, through
music sharing and
social networking 2003 Open 20,822
Playfire
Computer and
video games
Open to
people 13
and older 62,555
Playlist.com General, Music
Open to
people
over 13 4,340
Plurk
Micro-blogging,
RSS, updates.
Very popular in
Taiwan Open 1,072
Present.ly
Enterprise social
networking and
micro-blogging Open 4,893,711
Qapacity
A a business-
oriented social
networking site
and a business
directory
Open to
people 16
and older 96,847
Quechup
General,
friendship, dating 2007
Open to
those over
16 150,757
Qzone
General. In
Simplified
Chinese; caters for
mainland China
users 480,000,000
Open to
the
general
public
NA (Alexa only
records data
for second-
level domains)
Raptr Video games Open 25,664
Ravelry
Knitting and
crochet 743,930 Open 7,811
Renren
Significant site in
China. Was known
as 校内 (Xiaonei)
until August 2009. 160,000,000 Open 83
ResearchGate
Social network for
scientific
researchers 400,000 Open 23,095
ReverbNation.co
m
Social network for
musician and
bands 500,000
Open to
people 16
and older 4,422
Ryze Business 500,000 Open 19,839
ScienceStage Science-oriented
multimedia
platform and
network for
Open 26,804
scientists
Scispace.net
Collaborative
network site for
scientists
By
invitation,
but can
request
an
invitation 1,231,795
ShareTheMusic
Music Community.
Sharing and
listening to music
for free and legally Open 471,712
Shelfari Books
October
11, 2006 Open 19,681
Skyrock
Social Network in
French-speaking
world 22,000,000 Open 437
Social_Life_(web
site)
Brazilian jet set
and social elite
world-wide 2008 550,000 Invite-only154,533
SocialVibe
Social Network for
Charity
435,000[citat
ion needed] Open 41,927[265]
Sonico.com
General. Popular
in Latin America
and Spanish and
Portuguese
speaking regions. 17,000,000
Open to
people 13
and older 507
SoundCloud
Repository of
original music
pieces and
networking. 1,000,000 Open 374
Stickam
Live video
streaming and
chat. 2,000,000 Open 2,742
StudiVZ University
students, mostly in
the German-
speaking
countries. School
17,000,000 Open 1,318
students and those
out of education
sign up via its
partner sites
schülerVZ and
meinVZ.
StumbleUpon
Stumble through
websites that
match your
selected interests 10,600,000 Open 108
Tagged
General. Subject
to quite some
controversy about
its e-mail
marketing and
privacy policy 100,000,000 Open 281
TalentTrove
Online Talent
Network Open 21,177
Talkbiznow
Business
networking Open 283,770
Taltopia
Online artistic
community Open 52,759
Taringa! General 11,000,000
Open to
people 13
and older 137
TeachStreet
Education /
Learning /
Teaching – More
than 400 subjects Open 61,492
TermWiki
Learning /
Languages /
Translation – 1.2m
terms in more than
1300 subjects
May
2010 Open 16,182
TravBuddy.com Travel 2005 1,588,000
Open to
people 18
and older 11,789
Travellerspoint Travel 2002 310,000 Open 11,486
tribe.net General Open 5,706
Trombi.com
French subsidiary
of
Classmates.com 4,400,000 7,283
Tuenti
Spanish-based
university and
High School social
network. Very
Popular in Spain 4,500,000 Invite-only730
Tumblr
General. Micro-
blogging, RSS 2007 Open 46
General. Micro-
blogging, RSS,
updates
July 15,
2006 175,000,000 Open 9
Vkontakte
Social Network for
Russian-speaking
world including
former Soviet
republics. Biggest
site in Russia
Septemb
er 2006 110,578,500 Open 44
Vampirefreaks.co
m
Gothic and
industrial
subculture 1999 1,931,049
Open to
users 13
and over 7,577
Viadeo
Global Social
Networking and
Campus
Networking
available in
English, French,
German, Spanish,
Italian and
Portuguese 35,000,000 Open 710
Virb
Social network that
focuses heavily on
artists, including
musicians and
photographers 2007 Open 22,474
Vox Blogging Open 1,319
Wakoopa
For computer fans
that want to
discover new
software and
games
100,000[citat
ion needed] Open 9,420
Wattpad
For readers and
authors to interact
& e-book sharing Open 11,008
Wasabi
General. UK-
based. Open 95,188
WAYN Travel and lifestyle
May
2003 10,000,000
Open to
people 18
and older 2,974
WebBiographies
Genealogy and
biography Open 734,214
WeeWorld
Teenagers – 10 to
17 30,000,000
Open to
ages 13
and older. 8,729
WeOurFamily
General with
emphasis on
privacy and
security
Open,
subscripti
on-based 685,337
Wer-kennt-wen General General 441
weRead Books
June
2007 4,000,000 Open 80,233
Windows Live
Spaces
Blogging (formerly
MSN Spaces) 120,000,000 Open
NA (Alexa only
records data
for second-
level domains)
WiserEarth
Online community
space for the
social justice and
environmental
movement[318] 45,000
Open to
people 16
and older 77,143
WriteAPrisoner.c
om
Site networking
inmates, friends,
family
Septemb
er 2000 66,000
Open to
people 18
years and
older 252,188
Xanga
Blogs and “metro”
areas
Unknow
n 27,000,000 Open 768
Business (primarily
Europe (Germany,
Austria,
Switzerland) and
China) 8,000,000 Open 260
Xt3
Catholic social
networking,
created after
World Youth Day
2008 Open 136,804
Yammer
Social networking
for office
colleagues
Must have
company
email 3,769
Yelp, Inc.
Local Business
Review and Talk Open 182
Zoo.gr
Greek Web
Meeting point 2004 890,000 Open 8,057
Zooppa
Online Community
for Creative Talent
(host of brand
sponsored
advertising
contests)
