Orkut beats Facebook in Indian market

SINGAPORE: Though Facebook has conquered the global online social networking landscape, Orkut is the leader in India, according to a recent study by US-based Internet audience measurement firm comScore, Inc.

According to the latest report on social networking activity in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding China) for the month of February, Facebook is the social networking leader in eight of the top 12 countries – Philippines, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Vietnam – with the highest social networking penetration.

India is the only country in this chart, where Orkut is ranked as the top social networking site. Local players led in Japan (Mixi.jp) and South Korea (CyWorld), while Yahoo!’s Wretch.cc led in Taiwan.

Indians spend less time on social networking sites

Though online social networking is said to be a passion for Indians, interestingly India comes only ninth in the chart when it comes to the usage of social media. Countries like Philippines, Indonesia and Australia, have the highest social networking penetration, said comScore.

The study said that 50.8 per cent 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. In India 68.5 per cent of the online population visited social networking sites. In Philippines the reach is 90.3 per cent, whereas Australia has 89.6 per cent and Indonesia 88.6.

Not just the number of users, India also lags behind in terms of the time spent by the users on the sites. While the average minutes per visitor is 130.1, the average visits per visitor per month is 13. In Philippines this is 332.2 minutes and 26.3 visits respectively, while in Australia it is 228.0 minutes and 20.9 visits. In Indonesia people spend on an average of 324.4 minutes on social networking sites, while the average visit is 22.6.

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. The study did not consider visits on social networking sites through public computers such as Internet cafes, mobile phones or PDAs.

“While social networking continues to be one of the most popular and fastest growing Web activities in the world, its dynamics in the Asia-Pacific region exhibit significantly more individual market differentiation than in other global regions,” said Will Hodgman, comScore executive vice president for Asia Pacific.

“In some markets, such as the Philippines, Australia and Indonesia, social networking is one of the most popular Web activities reaching nearly 90 percent of the entire Internet population, while other markets report less PC-based social networking penetration, which can often be attributed to the high propensity to engage in social networking via mobile devices in these markets.”

Since the survey has not taken the use of mobile into consideration, the actual picture of the social media engagement may vary, especially in a country like India where a smartphone is more like a body organ for an average user who eats and sleeps the mobile way!

And it still remains a mystery why Orkut is the favorite for Indian users while the world is after Facebook when it comes to social networking.