Map of Social Networks Popularity (And Some Notes on Russian Networks)

At the first Social Media Cafe in Manchester Julian Tait has kindly pointed me to the Map of Social Networks Popularity. I include the November image of the map, but if you click through to the page on Oxyweb’s blog, you’ll be able to browse maps since August 2008. The map uses the data from Alexa, and social networks in each country are ranked by traffic, not by membership – which I think is somewhat of a downside.

World Map of Social Networks, November 2008

vKontakte.ru

Odnoklassniki.ru

For instance, in Russia there are two main social networks – vKontakte.ru (the Russian Facebook) and odnoklassniki.ru (akin to Bebo, aimed primarily at people who went to school together). Each network boasts over 20 millions of users (most of which, I suppose, have profiles on both networks, as I do), with over 21mln at vKontakte and over 25mln at Odnoklassniki. Despite the difference in member numbers,  vKontakte attracts more traffic than Odnoklassniki, according to Oxyweb’s map. This may or may not be true, however the rumour has it that Odnoklassniki now requires you to pay to register on the website. A wide range of additional services is also available for a certain amount of money, which has recently dismayed quite a few LiveJournal bloggers. If anything, this may certainly draw people away from using the site, and then Oxyweb’s map will be correct for many months to come. Or it may not… we’ll have to wait and see.

In Ireland, apparently, Bebo is much more popular than Facebook. The latter really seems to have taken all over the world, which is not surprising given the fact that a bunch of volunteer translators has been employed to translate the service into different foreign languages. The same, incidentally, did vKontakte: the creators appealed to users to offer their suggestions on better translation of the website into Ukranian, Belarusian, and English. As a result, there are now users from many countries, including Mexica and India. Most of them are either foreign students in Russia or the Russian language aficionados from distant lands. Odnoklassniki currently has Russian and Ukranian versions.

As for me, I certainly use Facebook and vKontakte more often than Odnoklassniki. As far as the Russian networks go, this in part has to do with the fact that the majority of people with whom I communicate regularly are registereted at vKontakte, rather than at Odnoklassniki. In addition, the entire interface and the opportunities of the network are much wider at vKontakte: e.g. you cannot have Notes in Odnoklassniki, there is no status field, limited opportunities for listing links, and no option to create separate albums, although you can upload up to 100 photos at once.