Serendipity35

In social media, Facebook dominates, but in 2012 (its ninth year), it lost users. It also hit the 1 billion monthly active user mark globally last year. The lost monthly active users dropped by 1.4 million which is a small but symbolic drop.

Other social networks also experienced a slowdown after a few years of steady expansion. 2012 was a time of leveling off. In America, it grew at about 7% rather than the 20 and 30% of previous years.

But outside the U.S., social media growth is quite different. In India, social media users grew by an estimated 51.7 %. China’s social media user base increased 19.9% and in Latin America it grew at a 16.3 percent clip. Russian use grew by about 11%.

You can find these statistics on several sites online, but I found them on sites like www.businessinsider.com because these international users are of great interest to sites like Facebook. (Facebook is estimated to be the most popular social network in all but 10 countries around the world.)

In China, QQ, an instant messaging platform started in 1999 now claims it has about 800 million monthly active users, although it is more of a jumping off point to access other popular networking sites like WeChat.

WeChat (AKA Weixin) is a mobile platform for instant messaging and video calls with photo sharing and status updates and has 190 million monthly making is as big as Twitter there. Business brands like Starbucks, Nike and Durex are testing these networks for their advertising.

So, while Facebook is still on top, when you turn your gaze beyond our shores, there is competition.