Social Networking Stats: Facebook Growth Coming From Emerging Markets, #RLTM Scoreboard

The #RLTM Scoreboard:  Social Networking Stats for the Week

Facebook: 1 billion active users via Facebook
Twitter: over 500 million users via Twopcharts
Qzone: 599 million monthly active users via TechCrunch
Sina Weibo: over 400 million users via Yahoo
Renren: over 170 million users via iResearch iUser Tracker
VK: over 190 million users via VK
LinkedIn: 200 million active users via LinkedIn
Google Plus: 135 million monthly active users via Google
Tumblr: 106 million blogs via Tumblr
Instagram: 100 million users via Instagram
Tagged: 20 million unique monthly users via Tagged
Foursquare: nearly 30 million users via Adweek
Pinterest: over 25 million users via AdWeek
Reddit: 70 million monthly unique visitors via Reddit

Please email marissa@modernmedia.co if you have additional updates, or a social network that you feel should be on the list.

Facebook Growth Coming From Emerging Markets; Mature Markets Not In Decline

The latest estimates from eMarketer show that Facebook’s worldwide user base is seeing the biggest expansion in India, Brazil and Russia, as well as the Middle East and Africa.  Facebook will top one billion users worldwide in 2013, and reach 1.26 billion in 2014.

The highlights:

  • Facebook users will grow from 42.6% of internet users worldwide in 2013 to 54.7% in 2017
  • 63% of social network users worldwide will access Facebook at least once per month in 2013; by 2014, that number will be 69.5%
  • 46.6% of people in North America and over 30% of people in Latin America and Western Europe will use Facebook at least once a month in 2013
  • the Middle East and Africa and Asia-Pacific have much lower penetration rates

Facebook User Growth Worldwide via eMarketerFacebook’s growth is driven by the following regions, each of which will see a rise of 30% or more in 2013: Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America.  Asia-Pacific leads in Facebook user growth and in total number of Facebook users, with 616 million (nearly half of that number comes from India alone.)  Growth in the region is led by India, Japan and Indonesia.

Penetration rates are highest in the developed markets of North America and Western Europe, although eMarketer predicts that Facebook has still not reached saturation in these areas.  And while growth will be much slower in the US, UK and Western Europe, eMarketer’s research did not find a decline in Facebook use within these mature markets.  This finding is in contrast to several recent reports, many of which (according to eMarketer) examine desktop usage but don’t necessarily account for mobile Facebook use. However, eMarketer does note that some users are spending less time on Facebook and more on Instagram (which is owned by Facebook).

The data from eMarketer represents “individual monthly active users who access Facebook via any device at least once per month.” Facebook’s reported figures, in comparison, include all monthly active users (ex pets, brands and other types of accounts) in addition to individual users.