Research: Is Facebook a global player?
- Added:
- Dec 02, 2008
Can Facebook establish itself as a true global player? New research looks at the social network’s impact on different countries across the world.
The research was presented by Anne Kennedy, founder and Managing Partner of search agency, Beyond Ink, at the International Search Summit on 20th November at the British Library, London.
The research shows that social networking is extremely popular throughout the world with the number of users continuing to grow at a fast rate both on local and global sites.
The findings also reveal some surprising facts, for example, despite there being no Arabic version, Egypt is the fifth biggest user of Facebook after the US, Canada and the UK and it is very popular across the whole Arabic speaking world.
It indicates that Facebook is making progress in new markets with the site now available in 23 languages, and there are strong signs of growth in Latin America with the introduction of a Spanish version.
The research examines in detail in which countries Facebook is most popular; and where it is not in prime position, how far it is behind the leaders.
Its task was to evaluate the success of Facebook compared with local social networks. Specifically, it posed the questions: can Facebook’s success in the English-speaking world be replicated globally; and if not, what would it need to do to improve its global presence and prospects?
To view the research in full, download the PDF file at the foot of this page.
The event was hosted by multilingual search agency WebCertain. The event featured a line-up of experts from around the world who tackled some of the current ‘hot’ topics facing international marketers.
Speakers included: Stephanie Kidder of Avid Technology; Alex Burmaster of Nielsen Online; Eugene Lomize of Yandex; Ed Pushman of Microsoft; Christer Pettersson of Eniro; Shari Thurow, Omni Marketing Interactive; Michael Beck, Divolution; Anne Kennedy, Beyond Ink; and Andy Atkins- Krüger of WebCertain.
“This latest research has revealed some interesting trends with Facebook struggling to cope with language and cultural differences whilst facing strong competition from local sites,” explains Andy Atkins- Krüger, Managing Director of WebCertain.
“For example, many of Facebook’s language translations are inaccurate, thus grammar mistakes on the French site make it seem ‘un-French’. Furthermore, although the main site is translated, many of the applications aren’t; and non-English speakers have the problem that many Facebook terms simply cannot be translated such as the name ‘Facebook’.
WebCertain will stage another summit in London next May which will focus on global social networking and also has plans to host Search Summit in other countries. To find out more, visit www.internationalsearchsummit.com.