14 DAY TRIAL // There’s no question that Facebook has become a dominant force not only in social networking, but on the web as a whole. Facebook is well on its way to becoming the largest website on the planet and is the number-one social network in most of the countries in the world, with only a few holdouts. Vincenzo Cosenza, a public relations specialist from Italy, has put together a “World Map of Social Networks,” with data from sources like Alexa and Google Trends, and it shows a very clear image, Facebook is taking over the world.
Facebook is the top social network in most places, including most of Europe, North America, pretty much all of South America, Australia and the parts of Africa where data is available. Asia seems like the only continent with some diversity, but this is due to powerful local players that have become entrenched in their home markets.
Globally, there is no other social network to challenge Facebook. MySpace is quickly fading and, although Twitter keeps on growing, it’s nowhere near a position that would threat Facebook.
In the two Americas, Facebook reigns supreme, with the exception of Brazil. Here, Google’s Orkut is the dominant player, though Facebook is gaining. Orkut seems to have been overtaken in India, the other market where it was the top social network, based on Alexa numbers, though Google Trends still show Orkut as having a slight edge.
In China, a country where very few foreign web companies have seen successful, it’s safe to say that none have, the local QQ still dominates, with no sign of that changing anytime soon. The same is true for Russia, where VKontakte reigns and where Facebook is only third.
Whereas, last year, there was some diversity when it came to social networking, though Facebook was strong even then, the giant social network has managed to become the leader on most markets. Of the 131 countries where data was available, 111 belonged to Facebook. By next year, if the trends continue, Facebook will dominate even clearer. [via Read Write Web]
