You’ve probably heard people going “Everyone is on Facebook”.

But… is that really the case for Asia Pacific? I chanced upon this blog by Eric Baillargeon, and the Facebook numbers on it simply left me drooling. Eric obtained his global penetration figures from the the Facebook ad center and has been extremely generous to share it with the world.

So back to the topic of “Everyone is on Facebook”. I am part of the consultancy department in OgilvyOne Singapore and we are currently putting together a report on “Can Brands Have A Social Life in Asia Pacific”. The reason why we’re producing this report specifically on Asia Pacific is simply due to the lack of it around. Asia Pacific is an extremely diverse region and it is not fair to compare it against the world or the west.

To give you a preview of what to expect in the report, here are some figures I’ve compiled from Eric’s blog and Internet World Stats. Latest figures are dated 3 May 2008.

Top 5 Users in Asia Pacific (n)
1) Australia, (2 865 600)
2) Hong Kong, (753 300)
3) India, (589 600)
4) Singapore, (419 340)
5) Malaysia, (360 440)

Bottom 5 Users in Asia Pacific (n)
1) Vietnam, (25 715)
2) Sri Lanka, (53 639)
3) Taiwan, (56 500)
4) South Korea, (71 200)
5) Thailand, (97 240)

Top 5 Users in Asia Pacific (% of Internet Users)
1) Australia, (18.48%)
2) Hong Kong, (15.44%)
3) Sri Lanka, (12.53%)
4) New Zealand, (10.94%)
5) Singapore, (10.59%)

Top 5 Users in Asia Pacific (% of Population)
1) Australia, (14.02%)
2) Hong Kong, (10.79%)
3) Singapore, (9.21%)
4) New Zealand, (8.19%)
5) Malaysia, (1.45%)

Top 5 Growth (%) In Asia Pacific (8 Jan 08 - 3 May 08)
1) Indonesia, (+36.82%)
2) Sri Lanka, (+31.70%)
3) Vietnam, (+28.15%)
4) Australia, (+27.59%)
5) Malaysia, (+26.33%)

Top 5 Growth (n) In Asia Pacific (8 Jan 08 - 3 May 08)
1) Australia, (+790 700)
2) Malaysia, (+94 900)
3) India, (+87 260)
4) New Zealand, (+79 760)
5) Indonesia, (+55 740)

Top 5 Negative/Slow Growth (%) In Asia Pacific (8 Jan 08 - 3 May 08)
1) Thailand, (-18.16%)
2) Taiwan, (-10.10%)
3) South Korea, (-8.71%)
4) China, (+1.78%)
5) Japan, (+2.72%)

Top 5 Negative/Slow Growth (n) In Asia Pacific (8 Jan 08 - 3 May 08)
1) Thailand, (- 17 660)
2) South Korea, (-6 200)
3) Taiwan, (-5 706)
4) China, (+2 940)
5) Japan, (+3 600)

Hong Kong may be missing from some rankings because I could not obtain its data on 8 Jan 2008. Nevertheless, you get the gist of Facebook in the Asia Pacific Market. Facebook is naturally more popular in more english speaking countries like Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. But other social networks still give Facebook a fight in these countries.

However, many other major markets in Asia Pacific have certainly not gotten on the Facebook fever. South Korea has a drop out rate of 8.71% because they probably found Cyworld much more interesting. Japan has only 132,440 users with a growth rate of only 2.72%. Comparing these figures to local social networks like MIXI and Mobagetown is equivalent to comparing the size of a mouse to an elephant. China with its 1.3 Billion people and 210 Million internet users could only garner 165 120 Facebook users with a 1.78% growth rate. I guess they’re still loving their BBS and QQ more than Facebook.

Though India ranks 3rd in terms of number of users in Asia Pacific, Orkut is still the main social network for Indian Internet users. But I guess 589 600 with a 14.80% growth is still pretty decent to market to the Indian folks.

More statistics and insights coming your way in the report If you have any queries about the report, you can email me at nicholas.guan@ogilvy.com.

If you’ve been in Singapore for the past few years, you probably know who Mr Brown is.

The self proclaimed “L’infantile terrible of Singapore” does not hold back much on his views on current affairs and politics in Singapore. With Mr Brown’s unrivaled wit and humour, it is little wonder that his blog is one of the most widely read blogs in Singapore; his podcasts are so famous that Singapore Prime Minister Mr Lee Hsieng Loong mentioned about it in his National Day Rally Speech.

Having put up the perspectives of Media/ Brand Owners (Google, Yahoo!) and journalist (Jeremy Wagstaff) have on social media, we are glad to now present a blogger’s perspective on social media.

For marketers out there looking to reach out to bloggers and the social media community, these videos are a must watch!

Many people I meet ask me what exactly is Digital Influence? And why does it stem from Public Relations (PR)?

Well, to better understand what Digital Influence is, is to appreciate that Digital Influence is a communications discipline. Much like what Public Relations is. We can communicate on behalf of our client, or we give them counsel and how they should communicate, and where they should communicate.

Why do companies have to communicate? To inform the decisions that you make on a daily basis (whether you’re a concerned member of the public, consumer, stakeholder, employee, employer, policy maker… etc) What we consume, is what shapes our perceptions.

Originally, businesses would use the mass media to communicate with the wider audience, but as the media continued to evolve into multiple channels, audiences started fragmenting due to choice.

Then came Web 2.0, faster broadband speeds and the rise of Social Media (Or the media that users share with each other, a bit like a social transaction - i hate that word.) [Pat Law has an excellent post about social currency to help you understand what makes media, social. Link]

With the advent of Social Media, businesses, brands, corporations and finally, the public could communicate with each other using a wide variety of social tools:

Blogs
Forums
Twitter
Plurk
Facebook
Myspace
Wikis
Vodcats
Podcasts

And you could finally have a real two way dialogue, which was what communications was always about. Messages are conversations. What we tell someone isn’t always what that audience will perceive, they will interpret it, and Web 2.0 has enabled the interpretation to be published by that same audience. Thus forming a dialogue.

What’s changing is the way people communicate. We’re no longer content waiting for the 930pm news, or the music the radio wants us to hear, what the TV guides want to show us, when they want to show us. We’re not at the mercy of reading the news the publications deem worthy for us to read. No, we want information on demand.

As communicators, isn’t this the space you want to be? Where the messages you have aren’t forced at people, but accessed on demand by the public? While you’re still thinking about that, the power of information is now with the people, and we are all informing each other. That’s what social media has enabled us to do, inform each other on an amplified level.

Digital Influence, we’re communicators, we’re where the conversations are at and helping brands form bridges into their communities, people who use their products, who become passionate about them, and in turn, brands should also be passionate about their people. -)

“Social Media Vs. Traditional Media”

Not a new topic but some how causes a lot of debate whenever the two compare against each other.

We’ve been posting up videos of Dr. Vinton Cerf from Google and Ken Mandel from Yahoo! and it is no surprise that they are extremely supportive of social media… they are a technology firm after all! So to balance the opinions out, OgilvyOne Singapore decided to interview a journalist on his opinions about social media.

Jeremy Wagstaff is a Technology Commentator at the Wall Street Journal, BBC and Loosewireblog.com. With loads of experience writing on both traditional media and social media platforms, he is probably one of the best media neutral journalist to give us his honest opinions about social media and the effect it has on traditional media.

Key take outs from the videos:
1) Social media is starting to gain more respect and prominence among journalists.

2) Social media cannot be underestimated as a source of credible news.

The OgilvyOne Singapore team has been embarking on several video and audio interviews with social media and digital thought leaders in the industry. This time, we caught up with Ken Mandel, VP and MD of Yahoo! South East Asia.

Ken is a veteran in digital marketing and whatever advice he gives, I suggest you listen hard!

In this video snippet of his interview, there are 3 key points he made that I think brands should really consider….

1) You’ve got to jump into social media, get the key learnings and see what works, what doesn’t.

2) Its hard to dabble in social media, therefore you need to do your home work before you enter it.

3) In social media, you must have a sustainable strategy and commit a considerable amount of time or else the plan will fail.

Personally, I feel that this social media phenomenon will only get more complicated as technology and consumer behaviour evolves. If brands do not start engaging in social media properly now, I’m afraid they’ll have an even tougher time in future. Maybe then, it’ll all be too late.

Dear brands, the time is now. The time to do something about your future in social media.