Information technology research and advisory firm Gartner Inc. said in its latest report on worldwide social media usage that that the Philippines leads Asia in terms of its adoption of "major global operators" of social media.
"While Asia's biggest economies have been slow to embrace the global social communities of Facebook, Yahoo and Twitter, many countries in the region have followed the adoption patterns of Europe and the US. The most avid social networkers are in the Philippines, where Facebook is the country's most visited Internet site," thereport said.
The report noted that countries in the Asia Pacific region —particularly China, Japan, South Korea, and India— have developed their own social network services and consumption habits that are distinct from North American and European markets. According to the report, this divergence from Western consumption patterns is spurred largely by high consumer interest in services such as online gaming and matchmaking.
Moreover, according to the report, such niche content has proven to be a lucrative growth driver for locally developed social sites, such as Cyworld, Mixi and Renren.
"Niche social sites serving the business and dating communities appear to have the greatest longevity in Asia Pacific. Building an early critical mass of local users, featuring local language and content provides a good basis for sustaining a long term and loyal user base," explained Gartner research director Nick Ingelbrecht.
However, the Philippines is at the forefront of a steady wave of change in the region as feature-rich —and free— platforms at Asian-developed pay sites.
"Some of the older social sites that were popular in Asia have begun to show a loss of momentum and in some cases subscribers. The willingness of Asian consumers to pay for social network service features is being eroded by the onslaught of the free feature-rich Google juggernaut and the range of Facebook’s platform," Ingelbrecht said.
Twitter, in particular, has seen increased adoption in Asia due to its adaptability to local cultures and languages, as well as its accessibility via mobile devices. The Gartner report noted that the Philippines, Indonesia, and Singapore are among the top ten countries with the highest penetration of Twitter in the world.
The results of the Gartner report seem to confirm the results of a ComScore studyearlier this year that placed the Philippines ahead of its neighbors in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of social networking penetration.
Source: GMANews.tv
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