Date: Monday, August 6, 2007

Facebook success in Asia looks doubtful

Although Facebook continues to go from strength to strength in America and Europe, a plethora of other locally-produced sites in Asia look set to hinder the site’s success in the East.

In the last twelve months Facebook and other similar sites have become increasingly popular throughout the globe. Facebook’s membership has grown to 52.2 million, an increase of over 270%, with two-thirds of its users in the US alone. Bebo now has 18.2 million members, an increase of 172%, and MySpace has had an increase of 72% bringing its membership to 114.1 million. However this success has not been repeated in Asia where Facebook’s membership only numbers 3.7 million, just 7% of its overall community. Experts account for this by saying that many copycat websites have grown up in Asia that better cater for the local community’s needs than Facebook does. For example Friendster, which has 24.7 million users of which 87% live in the Asia Pacific, has a specific site for Asia which in Malaysia has become increasingly popular due to the site linking it with local pop stars. Global internet information provider comScore has said that if Facebook wishes to make it in the Asian market, it has to accommodate the local scene and cater for their specific tastes as other websites have done. They say this is the challenge that faces any international company, and that while a product is successful in one country it may not be in another.

Other social networking sites such as Bebo has had their membership increase by 172% to 18.2 million, and MySpace has increased by 72% to 114.1 million. But neither have had great success in Asia, and this is down to the many similar sites offering the same or better services with a more local feel. Tudou is a video-sharing site similar to YouTube which is very successful in China, with 40 million users viewing 1.2 billion videos a month. There are a number of other popular video-sharing sites in China include Mofile, 5show, and 56. One of the largest networking sites in China is Xiaonei and this is a direct competitior to Facebook becoming a dominating force in the continent.

Source: Times Online