It may seem slightly childish to start a blog post in this fashion but… We Told You So! – Of course, it wasn’t just us, and I certainly took my clues (and data) from a lot of other sources except my gut, and looking at user comments, though few, it remains the general opinion of the populace that Facebook was destined to overtake Orkut in India. And so has it occurred.
ComScore has released a new report on traffic to Social Networking sites in India. Funnily, they seem to be quite interested in us; just earlier they’d published a report on finance websites and their growth. Facebook has grown by as astonishing 179% over the last one year. Orkut managed a commendable 16%
The data :
- Over 33 million Internet users age 15 and older in India visited social networking sites in July
- India now ranks as the seventh largest market worldwide for social networking,
- The total Indian social networking audience grew 43 percent in the past year, more than tripling the rate of growth of the total Internet audience in India.
| Growth of Top 10 Social Networking Markets Worldwide July 2010 vs. July 2009 Total Worldwide – Age 15+, Home & Work Locations* Source: comScore Media Metrix |
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| Social Networking Unique Visitors (000) | |||
| Jul-2009 | Jul-2010 | % Change | |
| Worldwide | 770,092 | 945,040 | 23% |
| United States | 131,088 | 174,429 | 33% |
| China | N/A | 97,151 | N/A |
| Germany | 25,743 | 37,938 | 47% |
| Russian Federation | 20,245 | 35,306 | 74% |
| Brazil | 23,966 | 35,221 | 47% |
| United Kingdom | 30,587 | 35,153 | 15% |
| India | 23,255 | 33,158 | 43% |
| France | 25,121 | 32,744 | 30% |
| Japan | 23,691 | 31,957 | 35% |
| South Korea | 15,910 | 24,962 | 57% |
*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.
The last disclaimer seems surprising – especially since that means that growth rates in USA and Europe might be much higher than those reported.
| Top Social Networking Sites in India July 2010 vs. July 2009 Total India – Age 15+, Home & Work Locations* Source: comScore Media Metrix |
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| India | Total Unique Visitors (000) | ||
| Jul-2009 | Jul-2010 | % Change | |
| Total Internet : Total Audience | 35,028 | 39,562 | 13 |
| Social Networking | 23,255 | 33,158 | 43 |
| Facebook.com | 7,472 | 20,873 | 179 |
| Orkut | 17,069 | 19,871 | 16 |
| Bharatstudent.com | 4,292 | 4,432 | 3 |
| Yahoo! Pulse | N/A | 3,507 | N/A |
| Twitter.com | 984 | 3,341 | 239 |
| LinkedIn.com | N/A | 3,267 | N/A |
| Zedge.net | 1,767 | 3,206 | 81 |
| Ibibo.com | 1,562 | 2,960 | 89 |
| Yahoo! Buzz | 542 | 1,807 | 233 |
| Shtyle.fm | 407 | 1,550 | 281 |
*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.
Though some of these were expected – LinkedIn, Twitter, Orkut,Facebook and ibibo, I, at least did not expect Bharatstudent to make it to the top. For that matter, I profess my hearty ignorance of Shtyle.fm and Zedge.net.
Where’s Google Buzz? I understand getting metrics for Buzz is close to impossible, but I quite like Buzz, and I think it has quite a lot of user-engagement (this I state with only my inbox as source, the number of ‘Buzzes’ I see are quite annoying at times)
Orkut, meanwhile has tried its best to come up with new features to lure people back. Here’s a link to their blog.
Key Features Introduced:
- Groups of Friends (with options to set different privacy settings for each group)
- Groups Formed Automatically: Suggested groups will be created automatically, with manual changes included of course. It will also recommend friends to be sorted into groups – seems a lot like Facebook’s Friend and Reconnect with X suggestions – which I find extremely annoying
- Multiple Scraps Option – (Group Scraps)
- Post Videos / Photos / Scraps – all from your home page – so no tedious navigation to different scrapbooks
- Improved Pages (apps, search, themes) + some improved speed cum functionality
Here’s a quick link to summarize the features.
I don’t need the growth rates or the numbers to realise where Orkut is heading. In a few years, its going to end up with Wave, Jaiku and other Google Products. The YoutTube Video has also got a lot of negative comments.
What about you? Do these new features seem tempting? Do you believe Orkut might regain some of its lost charm?
True that facebook grew and orkut marginally but its again the social factor which has given FB a upper hand. For example, even watblog has a like/recommend button which when clicked posts its links to My FB stream. Is it possible in orkut? Not as simple as in FB. Its again a branding exercise and also helping publishers get traffic from FB.
If Fb is growing it coz of its product strategy while if orkut is deprecating then its due to bad management of its features.
Last but not the least, when Wat blog publishes a story in its blog it gets published in its FB page but does it happen if wat blog has a orkut community? very Bad orkut you broke my heart! although you were the 1st to help me reconnect wid my frends but not helping me now to stay in touch with them.