The keg seems to be kicked for social networks in the U.S. in terms of expanding their audience.
Compared to June 2007, the number of users visiting social networking sites has increased dramatically in countries outside of North America while nearly flatlining at home, according to a report released today from comScore. Both Facebook and Hi5 topped the list, respectively tripling and doubling their number of visitors as they make efforts to increase their cultural relevance across the globe. News Corp.-owned powerhouse, MySpace, only grew about three percent globally.
The first hurdle in becoming a global social network superpower? The language barrier.
Facebook and Hi5 both began translating the site and applications into numerous languages over the past year, and the hard work seems to be paying off. Facebook currently offers about 17 language translations of its site with a newly developed Translation application where members can assist and vote on a wishlist of additional languages.
Hi5, who claims over 80 percent of its users are outside the US, is available in 24 languages and was reported to be the fasting growing of the top ten last month in a June report.
“According to comScore, the popular site's monthly unique visitors increased from 31.4 million in December 2007 to 56.4 million in June 2008 - an increase of 25 million monthly visitors,” Hi5 states in a press release.
And the one site we thought had all but disappeared in the U.S. has been making strides in Asia.
Friendster users increased about 50% globally according to the report.
Marketing/PR Director Jeff Roberto claims that 90% of their current traffic now comes from Asian countries, and so it makes sense that this is where they’d be focusing their marketing.
“In the U.S. Friendster is bigger today than we have ever been," said Roberto. "But if you look at where the Internet’s growing -- not only social networks but just the Internet audience -- the major majority of that growth is all happening overseas.”
Friendster was one of the first major U.S networks to translate into Chinese. Prior to 2007 they have added nine new languages, as part of a four-step approach to improving their success in Asia (where they boast top-dog status), including new mobile features, fan profiles for celebrities, and open platform developer programs to add applications and services, not unlike the Facebook strategy.
In additon, Friendster recently hired Richard Kimber (who comes from Google as regional managing director of its South Asian location) as its new chief executive officer to lead Friendster’s global business and guide operations in Asia and the U.S. Roberto says 80 percent of their new hires will be in Asia.
It will be interesting to see which networks can successfully cross the cultural divide, which will remain as regional entities, and how much Chinese we can master before our inbox is flooded with friend requests...
Photo: Flickr/frenkieb
