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Social networking is bigger than e-mail, says Nielsen

Two-thirds of people who use the internet are members of online communities like Facebook, and Brazil's internet audience is the world's most socially networked.

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Computing | by Samuel Axon | Mon Mar 9, 2009 4:01PM | 1 comment

E-mail is so 2002 — that's what the Nielsen ratings group's latest survey reveals. Nielsen surveys consumers like us and you to to find out how they're spending their time in the media. For example, do you watch House or Gossip Girl on Mondays at 8:00? The internet is not spared from these surveys, and it turns out that in the United States 67% of all people who regularly use the internet participate in what the survey calls "member communities" like blogs and social networking sites.

Nearly 20% of time spent on the internet is used for communicating with friends, family, and colleagues on websites like Facebook. The numbers are similar in many places in the developed world, but one of the most interesting revelations in this study is that Brazil tops the list with 80% of its internet citizens plugged into social networking. The most popular network there is Google-owned Orkut, which runs out of Brazil, and which is also the most popular website of any kind in the country. It's the second most popular site in India, too.

The Guardian speculates that the increasing popularity of social networks is partly due to the spam problem with e-mail, but we're not so sure about it. Don't you get just as much spam on Facebook and MySpace as you do in Gmail?

This story around the web:

Trusted sources:
external link Social networking and blogs now more… [guardian.co.uk]
external link Techmeme: Social networking and blogs now… [techmeme.com]
external link Social Networking More Popular Than Email [Mashable!]
external link Social networking and blogs now more popular… [blog.socialmedia.com]

Get more information on topics relating to this story:


Related company news:
Google, Facebook
Related glossary terms:
Social networking
Related devices and services:
Facebook, MySpace, Gmail, Orkut

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Trend Tracker external link (5:09 PM on Mon Mar 9, 2009)

Social media has hit its "tipping point." In the process, it has created new communities and made existing ones more transparent. It is an evolution in the Information Age that insists that governments and businesses engage their constituencies and consumers. It gives lightening speed to news and information. It crosses boundaries of all sorts and shares information with few filters. It is a trend that will continue to grow. http://Twitter.com/TrendTracker

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