Facebook dominates the social networking world

Average worldwide traffic of the search terms Facebook, Myspace, Orkut, Badoo and Bebo from Google trends

Even though MySpace had a head start in the global market for social networking, in the Spring of 2008 Facebook caught its main rival in terms of search traffic and was receiving over 100 million unique visitors per month.

Perhaps the secret to Facebook's rapid acceleration in customers was down to the decision to involve its users in translations for the foreign language versions of the site instead of setting up regional offices and employing teams of paid translators. The timing of this move was perfect in terms of beating off the opposition from other up and coming social networking sites such as Orkut, Badoo and Bebo. By the end of 2008 Facebook was increasing its lead over MySpace and with the launch of the Facebook Platform for developers and over 20 language translations, there was no looking back.

UK Trends - Facebook catches and passes Bebo and MySpace in mid-2007

In the UK, Facebook not only caught MySpace in terms of searches made via Google, but also passed Bebo ("Blog early, blog often"), a UK social networking site popular with younger users, currently the sixth most popular website in the UK receiving more visitors than the BBC. Facebook uptake in the UK seemed to be a year ahead of the USA where MySpace was more established and dominated social networking for a year longer.

The UK Google trends are also showing searches for Orkut gaining (slowly) on the declining MySpace and Bebo and may soon exceed them.

USA Trends - MySpace and Facebook dominate

Understandably there is always a spike in social networking searches before the holiday period and in the winter of 2008 it may have contributed to MySpace users signing up for a second account with Facebook. In the UK the same effect can be seen exactly a year earlier.

In February 2008 the Spanish translation of Facebook was launched which may have contributed to the steady rise in USA Facebook users throughout the year.

Brazil - Orkut Domination

Named after Google employee Orkut Büyükkökten, Orkut is one of the most visited sites in Brazil and India. Roughly 50% of Orkut users are Brazilian. Other up and coming social networking sites in Brazil include Sonico and Minglebox an Indian based education network

MySpace and Facebook still have no market share even though Facebook's Portuguese translation was launched in June 2008.

Ireland - Bebo Domination

MySpace has made little impact in Ireland as Bebo has dominated the Irish social networking scene for over 3 years. One Irish user told the Guardian website that 'before Bebo, the folks in his small town were not getting along. Then everyone independently joined Bebo, and got to know each other and now there's a community spirit in the town pub that wasn't there before.'

Only recently has Ireland seen a steady rise in the number of Facebook users, Google trends is showing searches for Facebook surpassing those of Bebo for the first time this month.

Japan - Facebook challenges Mixi

The Japanese market for social networking like Ireland has been dominated by one website, Mixi, although since the middle of 2008 Facebook has been increasing rapidly in popularity after the launch of their Japanese translation. If the take-up continues at the same pace, Facebook may pass Mixi in terms of searches made by the end of the year.

China - Facebook makes gains on Xiaonei

Social networking in China took off in 2007 and in mid-2008 Facebook launched the Chinese translation of their site, but unlike other markets, the rate of Facebook searches in China is holding steady. It is Xiaonei, a social networking site popular among college students, which is leading the market. Xiaonei is widely considered to be a Facebook imitation or clone and as such Facebook may find it difficult to gain a wide user base in the most populous country in the world.