After the launch and the rapid growth of the two most common social sites (Yes, I am talking about Twitter and facebook!), many have forgotten the existence of the senior social sites that had a major user attraction. Infact, they still do have the glam (for some atleast), and that’s the issue here! These sites have more user traffic is specific regions even more than the boastful facebook or twitter. I hope this article will put some sense in this issue and get the real perspective of the scene.
Orkut
Orkut is the commonly known social networking site which had its genesis in Jan 2004, witnessed a thriving period and has survived the onslaught of its rival social sites. The site still has over a hundred million active users taking its page rank to around 106 (source: Wiki). The Brazilians and the Indians are the largest crowd on this space and are veryactive over this particular social site, comprising to about 54% and 35% of its user database. That makes around 36 million users in Orkut compared to around 19.8 million users in facebook, in India. Inspite of all the controversies that Orkut faced in India, the site is still seeing action regionally and for marketers and digital professionals, this site can be more productive than even the famed facebook!
MySpace:
Before facebook came into existence, the most popular social site in US was the well known Myspace or graphically, my______. Though overtaken by its competitor, facebook (again) in the number of unique visits, the site still has over 43 million unique visitors globally! That’s a great figure which many tend to forget. Since the site has a lot of feature added periodically, the site manages to keep its users attracted and addicted. When your potential customers are from the US, then myspce is one site which ought to be on your targeted list!
Hi5:
Ever since hi5 was founded by the Indian entrepreneur, Ramu Yalamanchi, the site has hit a user database of over 46 million, who are still active. Just a couple of years back, hi5 was reported as the third most popular social networking site with unique visits. Though not so popular in the US, the site has a global rank of 198, which is an appreciable number. Hi5 is very popular in Latin American countries and the users are pretty active too.
Tagged:
Tagged boast of 100 million registered users and over 21 million unique monthly visits globally. Though the site faced a lot of legal issues, the site managed to sort them out and linger on. The site manages to keep the users longer on its pages and hence serves a great platform for digital professionals to work on.
I can’t deny that facebook and twitter are in the lead, with the large number of users. But the significant thing is that the other platforms are still in the space, atleast attracting users in those regions where they thrive. They could be the best platforms to target the regional customers.
