Asians muscling into social media world
Asians are muscling their way into traditionally western-dominated
social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Internet blogs,
prompting major players to sit up and take notice.
With more than 220 million bloggers in China alone and nearly three
out of five people in Singapore having a Facebook account, Asia is
presenting a huge commercial opportunity for online advertising.
In a file picture taken on February 17, 2010, Abdu Rauf, a
12-year-old Indonesian Facebook user, logs on at an internet
shop in Jakarta. Photo by AFP |
Social media guru Thomas Crampton, Asia-Pacific director of Ogilvy
Public Relations’ global social media team, said regional users were
jumping on the social media bandwagon at a faster rate than the rest of
the world.
“Asia is, the most exciting part of the world for what’s going on in
social media,” he told AFP on the sidelines of a social media forum in
Singapore.
Facebook launched an Asian sales office in Singapore this month in
order to be better placed to sell ads to companies aiming for the
region’s consumers.
“The Asian market’s a very, very big market for us,” said Blake
Chandlee, Facebook’s commercial director for regions outside North
America and western Europe.
“It’s an enormous opportunity for us.”
Chandlee said Asia was the fastest-growing among Facebook’s
geographical markets, or “theatres”, despite restrictions on access in
China.
Crampton said the growing number of Asians connected to the Internet
was a key driver behind the region’s social media craze.
A report in July by research firm Nielsen said that “while the US
pioneered much of the early Web 2.0 and social media innovation, Asia is
playing no small role in shaping - and in some cases leading - the new
social media landscape.” The report added that “Asian social media
adoption rates have surpassed Western adoption rates”.
As of December 2009, China had 221 million bloggers or more than
twice the number in the United States, it added.
Crampton noted that Facebook’s ranking of leading markets showed
Indonesia was already a close third behind the United States and Britain
in monthly active subscribers- and poised to take second spot within
months. Facebook refuses to give regional or country breakdowns, saying
only that it has more than 500 million users worldwide.
Data from market research firm Inside Network estimated that monthly
active Asia-Pacific users of Facebook numbered 117 million, or more than
20 per cent of the global figure.
In June this year Asians also ‘tweeted’ the most on micro-blogging
platform Twitter, outpacing the United States, according to data from
Internet research company Semiocast.
“Twitter users in Asia, mainly located in Japan, Indonesia and South
Korea, account for 37 percent of tweets,” said Semiocast, which studied
2.9 million tweets over a period of 24 hours on June 22. It said
US-generated tweets now account for only 25 percent of messages on
Twitter, down from 30 percent in March. The Dawn |