14 DAY TRIAL // The fact that Facebook is dominating the social networking space worldwide is not really up for dispute. There are markets where Facebook isn't the top social network, yet, but their number is getting smaller. In the past six months, Facebook has risen to the top in several key markets, particularly important being India where it passed Google's Orkut.
Vincenzo Cosenza has been keeping track of Facebook's progress around the world. Using data from Alexa and Google Trends for Websites, admittedly not the most accurate sources out there, he tries to pinpoint the most popular social networks in many countries around the world.
Over time, Facebook's dominance has increased and only a few hold-out markets remain. Of those, there are perhaps four big markets, three of which are still out of reach for the US-based social network.
"Zuckerberg’s creature continues to gain users around the world (almost 600 millions). Since June 2010 Facebook has stolen new important nations from local, previously strong, competitors (in 115 out of 132 countries analyzed it is market leader) especially in Europe," Cosenza writes.
"In particular: from Iwiw - Hungary; from Nasza-Klasa - Poland; from Hi5 - Mongolia; from Orkut (Google) - Paraguay and India. Orkut remains the first social network in Brasil," he adds.
"In Japan Mixi is still the most used web-based social network... But if we look to mobile social networks usage the leader is Gree followeb by Mobage Town," he explains.
This distinction is important since Japan is one of the biggest users of the mobile web in the world and dominance in the mobile space is significantly more important than on the desktop.
The world map is slowly being painted blue, the color attributed to Facebook. Orkut still has a sizeable lead in Brazil, but Facebook is growing fast. It may be more than a year until Facebook is in a position to challenge Orkut in Brazil, but explosive growth is part of Facebook's DNA so it may be sooner.
In Russia, V. Kontakte still dominates and Facebook has a lot of catching up to do. Usage is on the rise for Facebook, but this may be a though market to conquer.
In Japan, Mixi is still in the lead and local products are usually chosen over import ones. Still, Twitter is huge in Japan so Facebook has a shot. The hardest market to crack though is China where even Google has had to pull out.