A Nielsen report on
Social Networking\u2019s
New Global Footprint

Social networks/
blogs now 4th
most popular online
category \u2013 ahead o\ue001
personal e-mail

Orkut in Brazil has the largest domestic
online reach (70%) o\ue001 any social network
anywhere in the world

Social Networking has been the global
consumer phenomenon o\ue001 2008.
Two-thirds o\ue001 the world\u2019s Internet
population1 visit a social network or
blogging site and the sector now
accounts \ue001or almost 10% o\ue001 all internet
time. \u2018Member Communities\u20192 has
overtaken personal Email to become the
world\u2019s \ue001ourth most popular online
sector a\ue001ter search, portals and PC
so\ue001tware applications.

The story is consistent across the world,
\u2018Member Communities\u2019 has taken a
\ue001oothold in every major market \ue001rom

50% o\ue001 the online population in Switzerland and Germany to 80% in Brazil. Facebook has become the largest player on the

global stage, dominant in many countries, yet localised o\ue001\ue001erings have won the day in many others.

However, the growth in popularity o\ue001
social networks \u2013 and the resultant
broadening audience \u2013 is only hal\ue001 the
story. The staggering increase in the
amount o\ue001 time people are spending on
these sites is changing the way people
spend their time online and has
rami\ue000cations \ue001or how people behave,
share and interact within their normal
daily lives.

Consequently, the global media and
advertising industries are \ue001aced with new
challenges around the opportunities and
risks this new consumer medium
creates. Social networks provide
competition to traditional publishers \ue001or
consumer attention and at the same
time, \ue001acilitate new ways \ue001or publishers

1.
networks \u2013 popularity and
engagement \u2013 into context

and advertisers to connect with their
audiences. So how do they need to
change their strategies accordingly?

Consumer engagement within social
networks has the potential to change
the way consumers are targeted, not
just through the digital medium, but
through all \ue001orms o\ue001 traditional media.
Whilst a \ue001ew billion dollars o\ue001 ad revenue
can\u2019t be wrong, the prevailing wisdom is
that the current level o\ue001 advertising
activity on social networks isn\u2019t
consummate with the size \u2013 and highly
engaged levels \u2013 o\ue001 the audience. The
social networks and advertising industry
haven\u2019t quite yet \ue001ound that magic
\ue001ormula to make this happen.

subscriber growth is due to a clean
design with little advertising clutter;
consequently, the audience growth
hasn\u2019t been accompanied by a similar
surge in advertising revenue. On the

entertainment and content-oriented
o\ue001\ue001ering \u2013 carrying more advertising \u2013
has been more success\ue001ul at attracting
advertising revenue, yet MySpace\u2019s

be watching very closely at which one o\ue001 these \ue001undamental di\ue001\ue001erences in strategy will prove the most success\ue001ul in

This report puts the global social
network phenomenon during 2008 into
context, providing insights and lessons
\ue001or the networks themselves, advertisers
and the media industry on how to take
advantage o\ue001 what\u2019s happening online
around \u201cGlobal Faces and Networked
Places\u201d.

has a NetView panel \u2013 USA, Brazil, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and
Australia. (Whilst Japan \ue000gures are shown in certain graphs, Japanese data isn\u2019t included in any global
\ue000gures.)

Social network and blogging sites
are now the \ue001ourth most popular
activity on the Internet

\u2018Member Communities\u2019 now reach over
5 percentage points more o\ue001 the Internet
population than it did a year ago \u2013 a
growth rate more than twice that o\ue001 any
o\ue001 the other \ue001our largest sectors.

Germany where the sector now reaches
51% o\ue001 Germans online compared to
39% a year ago \u2013 an actual increase o\ue001
over 12 percentage points.

Large growth has also occurred in the
UK, Spain, Italy and Switzerland \u2013 the
sector reaching 10% percentage points
more o\ue001 the online population in each o\ue001
these countries than it did a year ago.

Global1
Active
Reach
Dec 08

Global1
Active
Reach
Dec 07

% Point
Increase in
Active
Reach

Natural German reserve when it comes
to disclosing personal data resulted in
social networking taking o\ue001\ue001 later than in
most other countries. As in many

countries, younger people were the \ue000 rst
in Germany to embrace social networks.
However, the activity is starting to
spread to the wider online population
due to sites like \u201cWer-kennt-wen\u201d,
literally translated as \u201cWho Knows
Whom.\u201d Including neighbourhood
communities and job-related networks,
\u201cW-k-w\u201d addresses a more mainstream
audience than previous dominant players
such as StudiVZ, which targets students.

Takeovers by big traditional media
companies \u2013 bringing signi\ue000cant
investment and management
experience \u2013 have also helped bring
social networking to a wider audience.
Publisher Holtzbrinck bought StudiVZ
(within eight months its audience grew
by 168%) and a\ue001ter TV network RTL, a
subsidiary o\ue001 media giant Bertelsmann,
bought \u201cW-k-w\u201d, its reach tripled
within a year.

Facebook has started to make a bigger
impression since launching a German
language inter\ue001ace in March 2008 \u2013 the last
six months o\ue001 2008 saw the site triple its

local players already had a signi\ue000 cant head
start (MySpace, third, is the most popular
\u2018international\u2019 player). In \ue001act, StudiVZ,
started in 2006, was so similar to Facebook
that Facebook sued it in a Cali\ue001ornian court
in 2008, alleging that StudiVZ copied its
look, \ue001eel, \ue001eatures and services. StudiVZ
denied the claims.