Often it seems the world is a small place since Facebook feels like the beginning and end all of everything. But the web is a much bigger place with dozens of other social networks that still have millions upon millions of users that reminds us that there can be more than just Facebook. Clearly, Facebook is dominating in the US but Vincenzo Cosenza has mapped out a wonderful map of the world’s biggest social networks using ManyEyes to document the dominant social networks of each country.
The result is a color coded pangaea of Facebook with a splattering of social networks often unheard of in North America. China is dominated by QQ, a network of 300 million users making it the world’s largest and it uses wildly popular virtual currency that has taken hold in non-virtual transactions. Korea has Cyworld which has upwards of 90% of all South Koreans in their 20s. India and Brazil favor Orkut, a US social network that caught on like wildfire except in the US.
Regardless of dominance, the map helps remind us to consider the ethnographic and demographic data to further a marketer’s reach.



