Kristi Barrow

Facebook

Following on from my post on the Are Social Networks the new Portals? Friendster vs MySpace vs Bebo,  I wanted to find out more about Facebook, the obvious omission from the recent Online social networking and business collaboration conference.  Facebook is now the biggest social network in Australia*.  Currently Facebook has almost 2.5million users in the Australia network:

Facebook Australia Network Users in Dec 17, 2008

Not everyone is a member of the Australia network (I jump in and out myself) so you can safely say there are more members than this.  I was unable to find out the current membership of Myspace, Bebo and Friendster, however I asked my friends at Hitwise for some stats on the Social Networks in the APAC region.  They make interesting food for thought.

Facebook was number 2 in most countries in January 2008*

Hitwise Social Network Market Share Statistics, January 2008

Facebook now leads in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore*

Hitwise Social Network Market Share Statistics, September 2008

Facebook has gained market share in all markets, and at the expense of all their closest rivals.  It will be interesting to see if Facebook can maintain or even increase their lead, given their competitors have all shrunk over the last 9 months. 

Also, Facebook is now hiring for a sales team on the ground in Australia.  I wonder if  this will help or hinder their Aussie domination of the Social Networking space?

* Source: Hitwise, Period January 2008, September 2008: Hitwise Customer Categories of leading 40 Social Networking websites.  You can download  Asia Pacific Social Networking Report 2008 from the Hitwise website.

Interesting Related Posts:

• Banning Facebook in the Office – does it impact productivity?
• Facebook looks to hire Sydney ad sales team
• Australia OKs Facebook for serving lien notice

Update

I have done some research on Facebook users in the world, and in Australia.  Read about the Top 10 Facebook Countries | Top Australian Facebook Users 2008.