Top Social Networks Here and Abroad 2008
June 25, 2008 – 10:09 pm by Griffin HammondI’ve compiled a large list of popular social networks in the U.S. and around the world, and using the most recent Alexa rankings, I’ve made a list of the most popular social networks here and abroad.
“Global rank” and “U.S. rank” represent web traffic compared to every other website (not just social networking sites). “Reach” is the percentage of worldwide users who access the site.
TOP 10 SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES IN THE UNITED STATES
| # | Social Network | Global Rank | U.S. Rank | Reach | Notes |
| 1 | MySpace |
7
|
3
|
7.33%
|
Still the biggest social network in the U.S. … |
| 2 |
5
|
5
|
8.77%
|
… but Facebook is gaining quickly. | |
| 3 | AdultFriendFinder |
21
|
25
|
3.40%
|
What a surprise! Sex is popular online! |
| 4 | Yahoo! 360 |
–*
|
–*
|
–*
|
Did you know? Yahoo also owns Flickr & Del.icio.us. |
| 5 | LiveJournal |
60
|
30
|
0.98%
|
Mostly a blogging site, but extremely popular. |
| 6 | imeem |
126
|
55
|
0.60%
|
Site for sharing music, video, & photos with friends. |
| 7 |
213
|
56
|
0.34%
|
Social network for business connections. | |
| 8 | Live Spaces |
–*
|
–*
|
–*
|
Social networking by Microsoft Windows. |
| 9 | Hi5 |
13
|
71
|
2.57%
|
Top social network in Thailand, Portugal, & Romania. |
| 10 | Orkut |
22
|
73
|
1.77%
|
#1 website in Brazil. Created by Google. |
Now look how the rankings change when you include users outside the U.S.
TOP 15 SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES WORLDWIDE
| # | Social Network | Global Rank | U.S. Rank | Reach | Notes |
| 1 |
5
|
5
|
8.77%
|
Facebook recently overtook MySpace in worldwide traffic. | |
| 2 | MySpace |
7
|
3
|
7.33%
|
MySpace is more popular in the U.S. than anywhere else. |
| 3 | Hi5 |
13
|
71
|
2.57%
|
#2 website, behind Google in Thailand & Portugal. |
| 4 | AdultFriendFinder |
21
|
25
|
3.40%
|
Slightly more popular worldwide than in the U.S. |
| 5 | Orkut |
22
|
73
|
1.77%
|
Top social network in Brazil, India, & Pakistan. |
| 6 | V Kontakte |
29
|
1,401
|
1.35%
|
Top social network in Russia, the Ukraine, & Belarus. |
| 7 | Friendster |
40
|
123
|
1.41%
|
#1 social network in Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia. |
| 8 | Skyrock |
43
|
2,887
|
–**
|
Top social network in France, Belgium, & Switzerland. |
| 9 | Yahoo! 360 |
–*
|
–*
|
–*
|
|
| 10 | LiveJournal |
60
|
30
|
0.98%
|
More popular in Russia & the Ukraine than in the U.S. |
| 11 | Mixi |
65
|
1,567
|
0.80%
|
Top social network in Japan. Not available in English. |
| 12 | metroFLOG |
69
|
1,341
|
0.74%
|
Popular in South America. Top social network in Mexico. |
| 13 | PerfSpot |
88
|
392
|
0.96%
|
2nd only to Facebook for social networking in Egypt. |
| 14 | Netlog |
94
|
3,121
|
0.56%
|
Very popular in Europe. |
| 15 | Bebo |
118
|
225
|
0.48%
|
Top social network in Ireland & New Zealand. |
continued from front page
Facebook, which is much more popular in the U.K. than MySpace, is also more popular worldwide. Hi5 and Orkut are much more popular abroad than here in the U.S. Check out this Le Monde article for a great visual representation of popular social networks around the world. Here are several other significant social networks and how they stack up:
OTHER SIGNIFICANT SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES
| Social Network | Global Rank | U.S. Rank | Reach | Notes |
| Tagged |
170
|
256
|
0.38%
|
#32 website in Iran. |
| Ning |
322
|
159
|
0.22%
|
Create your own social network. #45 website in Malaysia. |
| Sonico |
429
|
4190
|
0.21%
|
Very popular in South America. In Spanish & Portuguese only. |
| Gaia Online |
299
|
95
|
0.18%
|
Community role-playing site. #81 website in the Philippines. |
| Classmates |
788
|
218
|
0.11%
|
Remember Classmates? Yeah, it’s still around. |
|
993
|
417
|
0.09%
|
Quickly gaining popularity. Social network/micro-blogging. | |
| Reunion |
1601
|
411
|
0.07%
|
They should make websites to find people you know! |
| Plaxo |
2601
|
702
|
0.04%
|
A cool place to store lots of social media in one profile. |
Do you want to get in on the ground floor of the next big thing in social networking? Of all the social networks listed above, these 5 websites are growing the fastest: Reunion, metroFLOG, Twitter, Plaxo, and… you guessed it! V Kontakte! The following chart shows the speed of growth for each of these sites over the last 45 days.
As you can see, V Kontakte, the #1 website in Russia is also the fastest growing social network. So learn Russian! And check out the site. I think the reason it’s gaining popularity is because it looks EXACTLY like Facebook!
_________
*Yahoo! 360 and Windows Live Spaces are subdomains of more popular websites, so I used Compete data to speculate ranking.
**Skyrock recently changed domains, so not all data is available. Formerly “Skyblog.”
