To continue from my previous post “Facebook Penetration In Asia Pacific [2008]”, I’ve decided to do a small Google Insights test of how popular Facebook is searched on Google as compared to other social networking sites in Asia.

I’ve decided to compare it against just 1 other main competitor social networking site per country because the lines won’t be as messy as compared to a comparison with 3-4 other competitors.

Please also note that like Facebook, Google is not the number 1 search engine all around Asia as well… hence the data is not 100% accurate. This is especially so for countries like South Korea & China, where their local search engines (Naver & Baidu respectively) are utilised much more than Google. Yahoo! is also very widely used in Asia. This test is just a rough gauge of how popular Facebook and other social networks are.

The results starts from July 2007 and ends July 2008.

Here are the results:

China- Facebook Vs Xiaonei

Xiaonei is China’s version of Facebook and looks almost exactly like it. Though there’s a recent spike interest for Facebook in China, I doubt it’d have much impact on the chinese population as they are likely to stick to QQ, their Bulletin Board Systems and Xiaonei.

Hong Kong- Facebook Vs Xanga

Facebook appeals to the slightly older and western educated people in Hong Kong.

The motivation for Xanga, however, is far more reserved. For young Hong Kong secondary school students, it’s a way to express oneself and to passively share thoughts on things that matter to them amongst their inner circle – an evolution in some ways from personal blogging and instant messenging .

India- Facebook Vs Orkut

There are only 3.1m broadband users out of 60m internet users in India. My guess is that Facebook is probably too bandwidth heavy a social network site for the common Indian user as compared to Orkut. Unless Facebook comes up with a lite version for lower bandwidth countries like India, I guess the Indians will still be on Orkut for at least another year.

Indonesia- Facebook Vs Friendster

I think Indonesia faces similar issues with India in terms of broadband issues. Though Indonesia has 25m internet users, there are only 241k broadband users. In addition to this, Friendster has Bahasa Indonesia as a listed language. Therefore making Friendster a big draw for Indonesian users as english may be a problem for the common indonesian.

Japan- Facebook Vs Mixi

With great local social networking sites like Mixi, Gree and a very robust mobile social network site Mobagetown, it is no surprise why Facebook has not taken off in Japan. The Japanese are very interested in customizing their pages with skins, avatars and online items… something not available on Facebook. Most importantly, Facebook’s mobile version holds little to the mobile capabilities of japanese social networking site.

Malaysia- Facebook Vs Friendster

Although Facebook usage is increasing in Malaysia, this is only apparent for Malaysians and expats who are more westernized. Friendster’s dominance in Malaysia is due to its early market entry and more importantly, offers the Bahasa Malayu language which is the main language used in Malaysia.

Philippines- Facebook Vs Friendster

Friendster is so huge in Philippines that it accounts for 38.8% of Friendster users worldwide. Friendster, recognizing the low internet penetration in the country, decided to complement online advertising with a mobile phone text messaging service exclusively for Filipino users. Friendster also set up a Mobile Broadcast System, a chat application, between the web and mobile phones to extend the use of Friendster Mobile in the Philippines.

Singapore- Facebook Vs Friendster

No surprise that Facebook popularity is increasing in Singapore. For people who live in Singapore (that includes me), you’ve probably noticed Facebook appearing on the news and even on Prime Minister Lee’s national day rally speech. What surprises me is Friendster’s constantly strong results on the chart. I guess many people who moved on Facebook are still some what using Friendster as they still have a network of friends on it. In addition, there are also people who have yet to move on Facebook and are happily using Friendster still.

So don’t rule out Friendster just yet!

South Korea- Facebook Vs Cyworld

Like I explained earlier, Google is not the de facto search engine for a number of countries in Asia. This is especially so for South Korea. Google is probably only used by english speaking Koreans as Naver, Daum and Yahoo! Korea are top choices for Koreans to do their online searches. Therefore Facebook ranks higher than local social network king Cyworld in times of searches on Google.

To prove my point that Cyworld is THE social network for South Korea, over 44% of South Korea’s Population has a Cyworld account. Now beat that.

Thailand- Facebook Vs Hi5

Thai language availability plays a huge part for Hi5’s popularity in Thailand. As most Thais are not as fluent in English, their natural preference would be towards thai language sites. I also feel that Hi5 has a much easier to use interface as compared to Facebook and this could be another possibility why Thai residents on Hi5 would not want to switch to a more complicated interface on Facebook.

Vietnam- Facebook Vs Yahoo 360

The results here comparing Facebook and Yahoo 360 do not seem extremely far apart. In actual fact, they really are as Yahoo! is Vietnam’s top choice for online search, not Google. Also, why would you search for something Yahoo on Google?

The Vietnamese are very into blogging and hence Yahoo! 360 is far more attractive to them as it allows blogging. Currently, Yahoo! 360 is the top social network in Vietnam, followed by Cyworld Vietnam.

End Note:
For marketers who are looking to market on social networks in different parts of Asia, I hope my small test on social network search popularity on Google has enlighten you that Facebook is not the only social networking solution in Asia. Even in countries where Facebook is gaining huge popularity, the other players are still going strong and should not be left out completely.

And just in case people think I’m anti Facebook… I’m not! In fact, its my main choice for social networking. I’m just trying to debunk the myth that “Facebook is everything”

Not a client of ours here in Singapore, but very very impressive (to me at least!)

I love the way EA identified a user-posted glitch on their Tiger Woods’08 title, and instead of spending hundreds of thousands buying advertising space on television networks, promoting it in banner ads or even spamming you on facebook, simply posted a video response.

Posted just SIX DAYS ago, it’s been viewed 1.6 million times, and dare i say, counting, EA shows us it’s not too difficult to find the opportunity and use it to your advantage.

i believe this keen eye for the opportunity, and the execution of the response, the content behind it and the transmission methods were all due to keen insight into the audience they wished to connect with.

don’t believe me? i think this trailer for their upcoming game “Battlefield Heroes” demonstrates that they understand the changing consumer landscape in the way “inside jokes” or “culturally specific” references are used.

the product is another hint of genius in it’s entirety. making a high quality, credible game available for free online FOR the consumer / fan, is a gift of love to the people who love you already. check out their site to know what i mean http://www.battlefield-heroes.com

it reminds me of when Southpark made all their episodes free for public consumption. it’s a new business revenue model, they’ve almost become their own network.. a micro indie channel perhaps. maybe they’ll sell the content cheaply to other internet tv stations like Miro or Joost, and they retain their creative licenses as well. a lot to chew on, but i think these two ideas show us how nothing’s really set in stone these days. www.southparkstudios.com

I hate using the phrase “pitching bloggers” ‘cuz it sets my teeth on edge and I think creates a negative perception from the get-go…but for lack of a better phrase, here are 11 points straight from one horse’s mouth that every communications professional should hard-code into their heads. We need to stop propagating PR flackdom!

I sometimes don’t blame bloggers for sliming some of the more clueless folks in my industry because we sometimes get so lost in The Message and in trying to please our clients that we lose sight of what it is we’re really here to do. COMMUNICATE. And, as far as The Open Room is concerned, communication has got to be open and real. Remember how to talk to people? Like, really talk?

When I’ve spoken about Digital Influence…both internally as well as to clients and prospects…one of the things I always stress is the need to listen and understand. Blankanvas’ points #7 and #8 are your starting points. How can we ever know how bloggers tick if we’re not online in the space and using the tools? If you haven’t figured out RSS and the basics of Technorati yet, you need to NOW, otherwise chances are you’re going to get it all wrong.

To all our digerati friends, we hope you can join us for another Open Room chat ‘n chill session ‘cuz we’ve got Rohit coming to spend a couple of days with us. The face behind the award-winning Influential Marketing Blog needs little introduction, and will be coming to town fresh off a stint in Beijing, where he’s been busy for the last few days at the Olympics, doing some pretty neat stuff with Lenovo’s Olympic Blogger Program (I’m so envious).

When: Monday, August 18 @7pm (yes it’s happening real soon!)
Where: The Ogilvy Centre, 35 Robinson Road, Level 3
RSVP: Drop me an email ASAP so I can save a seat for you

Rohit recently launched his book, Personality Not Included, which is full of practical advice for brands looking to regain their human voice. PNI’s been steadily climbing the charts and was recently chosen by Soundview Book Summaries as their best business book for the month of August (a big honor considering the thousands of new books they evaluate a year). Join the PNI Facebook group for updates.

For the Twitter-mad, follow Rohit at Twitter (watch out for the mad chicken wallpaper!)