Mark Zuckerberg’s 650 Million Friends (and counting)
Back in June 2009, the globe’s potpourri of social-networking sites was extremely diverse:
Google’s Orkut dominated India and Brazil; Central and South America preferred Hi5; Maktoob was
king in the Arab world. The Vietnamese liked Zing, the Czechs loved Lidé, South Koreans surfed
Cyworld. Two years after that, and Facebook has stolen users away from its rivals very fast. It’s
completely knocked Hi5 off the map in former strongholds such as Peru, Mexico, and Thailand.
After a tense back-and-forth with Orkut in India, Facebook has emerged victorious. And it’s becoming
more popular in Armenia, Georgia, and the Netherlands, where local providers are making a
desperate last stand.
There are some glaring exceptions to Facebook’s colonization kick. Russians continue to use
Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki, with Facebook a distant fourth in the rankings. China remains highly
committed to domestic sites such as Qzone and Renren. But for the rest of us, we’re living in
Zuckerberg’s world.
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