Profiling the Facebooks of the world
Social-networking sites thrive with millions logged in from Australia to Argentina
FACEBOOK IS RAPIDLY overtaking even the strongest
local social-media brands to become the first truly global brand in this space. In Europe, for instance, Facebook
is edging ahead of France’s Skyrock and Spain’s invitation-only Tuenti, which is still the cooler brand among
young Spaniards, crushing Italy’s Splinder, and leaving
the U.K.’s Bebo way behind.
But there are still holdouts, prompting Ad Age to
enlist ICOM, a global network of independent ad agencies, to answer the question, “Who’s your Facebook?”
Japan’s Mixi boasts
26. 7 billion page views
a day.
JAPAN
Mixi ( http://mixi.jp) has grown at lightning speed to become
Japan’s biggest social-networking site with 28.6 million users
and 26. 7 billion page views a day, mostly accessed by cellphones,
said Ryo Matsuzaki, account manager at Adex Nihon Keizai
Advertising/ICOM, Tokyo.
Popular apps include a virtual currency used to customize
avatars and group profiles, and buy virtual items. Besides buying
banner ads, marketers set up their own communities to interact
with members. Honda, for instance, attracted more than
630,000 entries with a simple app promotion for its CR-Z.
When users make entries in the app and include the letters
CR-Z in the user nickname, they’re entered in a contest to
win a free CR-Z.
POLAND
Social network Nasza-Klasa ( www.nasza-klasa.pl), meaning “Our
Class,” is way ahead of Facebook with more than 11 million users. But
Facebook, at 4. 8 million, is catching up fast due to a perception that
its users are younger, better educated, more successful urban
dwellers, and that Nasza-Klasa appeals to a different group of less-educated internet beginners, said Pawel Binkowski, managing
partner, BrandStorm/ICOM, Warsaw.
“Advertisers are crazy about Facebook right now, with all
companies launching fan pages—often without a clear idea what
they want to achieve,” said Mr. Binkowski. “Cost of entry is very
low (free) while it costs money to get on Nasza-Klasa.
Advertisers’ perception is that Facebook is currently the tops
while Nasza-Klasa is passé. It’s not entirely true. Nasza-Klasa is
still a great place for display ads and targeted advertising.”
Brazil’s Orkut caters
to 20million users.
Tencent notched 586.6
million accounts in
March 2010.
BRAZIL
Orkut ( www.orkut.com) has more than 20 million users in
Brazil compared to an estimated 5 million for Facebook,
says Rino Ferrari, president, Rinocom/ICOM, São Paulo.
Although Google owns the international site, named after the
Google software engineer Orkut Buyukkokten who developed it
in 2004, it has become such a popular Brazilian brand that Orkut
has been run from Brazil since 2008.
Orkut started as an invitation-only network, then was opened
to anyone with a Google e-mail account, and last year returned to
an invitation-only system.
Compared to Facebook, Orkut has fewer applications and has
focused mainly on text and images. But to keep from losing users
to Facebook, Orkut is updating and implementing new tools, Mr.
Ferrari said. Companies are setting up their own Orkut pages,
and buying banner ads to reach certain demographic targets.
ARGENTINA
Sonico was the biggest social-media site until Facebook surged
ahead in mid-2009, and now leads with 6 million users to
“Our partnership with Nokia [has] an application that allows
users to access their Sonico profiles through their phones, and
Nokia promotes Sonico’s applications in all their online/offline
communications,” said Tomas O’Farrell, Sonico’s co-founder.
Taiwanese computer peripherals marketer Genius is doing a
regional World Cup campaign, with sweepstake prizes for fans of
Genius’ Sonico page who upload World Cup-related pictures or
videos to the page. Other marketers like McDonald’s Corp. and
Unilever have created virtual gifts for users to send each other, like a
Triple Mac sandwich and Axe products.
Dating site RSVP is
changing Australians’
social behavior both
on and offline.
CHINA
Facebook, like Twitter, doesn’t really exist in China. But local
social-networking brands thrive. Tencent
( www.tencent.com) started out as the QQ instant-messaging service but has morphed into an enormous all-around social-networking site, claiming 586.6 million
accounts in March 2010. Baidu Space is the social-networking service of Baidu ( www.baidu.com), the site that
dominates online search in China, and home to many Chinese
bloggers.
Other leading social-networking sites are Renren
( www.renren.com) and Kaixin001 ( www.kaixin001.com), said
Cosima Wang, senior director-brand strategy, O&R
Communications Group/ICOM, Beijing. Renren, with daily page
views of 560 million, attracts members who are typically better
educated and have above-average income, Ms. Wang said.
Kaixin001 is known for the Kaixin farm, where members “pinch”
vegetables, participating in an interactive online game. Many
advertisers have used in-game ads on the site, she said.
Poland’s Nasza-Klasa
trumps Facebook with
11 million users.
Sonico is one of Latin
America’s leading
social-media sites.
AUSTRALIA
Facebook rules, but local dating site RSVP
( www.rsvp.com.au) is changing Aussies’ social behavior
both on and offline. The site is free, but paid subs with the
purchase of “stamps” allow more interactivity and contact
opportunities. Plus RSVP partnered with Cook Islands
Tourism and Pacific Blue airlines to launch reality-dating
show “Rules of Attraction,” although it’s yet to sign a deal
with a TV channel, said Lyn Bayliss, head of digital at
Odfellows Australia/ICOM, Sydney.
GupShup, with 30
million users, serves as
India’s Twitter.
INDIA
Lays potato chips has 1. 7 million GupShup followers, more
than the 500,000 it has on Facebook. Using the Indian social
network, the brand sent updates and quizzes direct to users’
phones via text message rather than to a website. GupShup
(Hindi for “chit chat”) has 30 million users, more than
GupShup is India’s Twitter—users create accounts and send text
messages to followers. The average person follows only two
people, and sends an average of five updates per day. This social
network has grown up on mobile phones because the country has
more than 600 million wireless subscribers and just 9 million
broadband subscribers, according to April data from Telecom
Regulatory Authority of India. The International
Telecommunication Union counts 52 million Indians with access to
the internet in 2008.
“In mobile text, the reach is there—it’s an American blindspot,”
said GupShup CEO Beerud Sheth. “We’re all so obsessed with
smartphones, but text messages reach more people than TV
in India.”
GupShup launched in mid 2007 and its user base so far
exceeds that of India’s leading internet-based social-media
network Orkut, at nearly 18 million, and Facebook (less than 16
million) and Twitter (about 2 million), according to ComScore.
This is how it works: Rather than a Facebook newsfeed or
tweet stream of running commentary, users subscribe to a feed
and get updates on that account via text message. Brands can
set up their own feeds and solicit followers and, subsequently,
can text consumers who have opted in for updates. They can
also buy text ads at the bottom of other GupShup texts. To date, 150
advertisers, from global brands like Pepsi and eBay to domestic
giants like ICICI Bank and Tata have run campaigns.
For eBay, GupShup is a way to reach India’s growing mobile user
base. In two recent campaigns, 20,000 subscribers joined eBay
India’s mobile community, and that response means the marketer
will increase commitments with GupShup moving forward.
“Just like it’s essential for every brand to have a website in
western markets, it’s essential for every brand to have a mobile
community in emerging markets,” said Mr. Sheth. “It is simply the
only way to engage with the billions of consumers.”
