Social Networking Habits Vary Considerably Across Asia-Pacific Markets

comScore has released its latest report on social networking activity in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding China). The study found that 50.8 percent of the total online population in the Asia-Pacific region visited a social networking site in February 2010, reaching a total of 240.3 million visitors.

Facebook.com ranked as the top social network across the majority of individual markets in the region, while competing brands commanded the top position in certain markets, including Orkut in India, Mixi.jp in Japan, CyWorld in South Korea and Wretch.cc in Taiwan.

In February 2010, Internet users in the Asia-Pacific region averaged 2.5 hours on social networking sites during the month and visited the category an average of 15 times. Across these markets, the Philippines showed the highest penetration of social networking usage with more than 90 percent of its entire Web population visiting a social networking site during the month, followed by Australia with 89.6 percent penetration and Indonesia with 88.6 percent penetration.

Social networkers in the Philippines also showed the highest level of engagement on social networking sites averaging 5.5 hours per visitor in February, with visitors frequenting the social networking category an average of 26 times during the month. Strong engagement was also exhibited by Internet users in Indonesia with 5.4 hours per visitor and 22 visits per visitor, Australia with 3.8 hours per visitor and 20 visits per visitor, and Malaysia with nearly 3.8 hours per visitor and 22 visits per visitor.

An analysis of top social networks in each of the Asia-Pacific markets included in comScore's report revealed various brand preferences across markets.

Facebook.com was the social networking leader in eight of the markets - the Philippines, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Vietnam.

In other countries, competing brands captured the top position. Local players led in Japan (Mixi.jp) and South Korea (CyWorld), while Google-owned Orkut ranked as the top social networking site in India and Yahoo!'s Wretch.cc led in Taiwan.

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