The #RLTM Scoreboard: Social Networking Stats for the Week
| Facebook: | 950 million active users | via Forbes |
| Twitter: | over 500 million users | via Twopcharts |
| Qzone: | 576 million active users | via TechCrunch |
| Sina Weibo: | over 300 million users | via Bloomberg Businessweek |
| Renren: | over 170 million users | via iResearch iUser Tracker |
| LinkedIn: | 160 million members | via LinkedIn |
| Google Plus: | 170 million “people who have upgraded” | via Google |
| Tumblr: | 66 million blogs | via Tumblr |
| Instagram: | 50 million users | via CNET |
| Tagged: | 20 million unique monthly users | via Tagged |
| Foursquare: | over 20 million users | via Foursquare |
| Pinterest: | over 11 million registered users | via Search Engine Land |
| Posterous: | 3.9 million members | via SF Gate |
Please email marissa@modernmediapartners.com if you have additional updates, or a social network that you feel should be on the list.
Global social media revenues will increase from $11.8 billion in 2011 to $16.9 billion in 2012 – that’s a 43% increase – according to a new report from Gartner. By 2016, social media revenues will increase to $34 billion, with advertising the biggest contributor by far.
Social media ad revenue will increase from $5.5 billion in 2011 to $8.8 billion in 2012, a year-over-year growth rate of 60%. According to the Gartner forecast, advertising’s share of global social media revenues will increase from 46.6% to 52%.
Social gaming is the other major source of revenue for social media, totaling $6.2 billion in 2012, or 36.7% of total social media revenues. Social gaming revenue more than doubled between 2010 and 2011, with the sale of virtual goods largely responsible for the revenue in this area.
Gartner is not the first to adjust social media revenue forecasts upward, according to MediaPost. How have the numbers changed? Gartner predicted last year that total social media revenues in 2011 would equal $10.3 billion, but the latest analysis has revised that number to $11.8 billion. For 2012, Gartner’s prediction has grown from $14.9 billion to the current estimate of $16.9 billion.
