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Social Networks Best Proxy For Future
Published Sep 16, 2009
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Social networks are increasingly becoming the key platforms for content creation and content sharing as social media continue to thrive around the world.
A significant growth in the ways consumers are using the internet to create and share thoughts, pictures and videos indicates that social media is likely to become synonymous with social networking not too far in the future, according to a new global survey.
The 'Wave4 Power to the People' survey conducted by Universal Media (UM), which looks at the usage and uptake of social media platforms, trends and growth, said the tools of social media are starting to merge in to a single platform the social network.
"Our global research shows social media networks are the best proxy for the future. Over time all internet users will increase their usage and eventually everyone will become active users, just as consumers made the transition from occasional to regular TV watching in the 1950s and 1960s". said Paul Katrib, Regional Managing Director for UM7.
Almost two thirds of the total global active internet users estimated at 625 million have now joined a social network site with 64.1 per cent spending time managing their profile and 71 per cent visiting a friend's social network page.
This is the fourth consecutive survey by UM with findings based on the statistics collected from 22,729 active internet users in 38 countries between November 2008 and March 2009, making it the largest global analysis of social media usage.
UM social media surveys commenced in 2006 with 7,500 internet users increasing 101.95 per cent to 15,229 internet users in 2009.
After four surveys, UM research shows an impressive growth for all types of social media tools.
Consumers are starting to focus their digital life around the likes of Facebook, MySpace and Orkut.
This is not to say they are cutting back on blogging or sharing images, it's just that they are increasingly opting to do it via their social network page rather than the likes of Flickr and Blogger.
With a rising number of bloggers and social network users who have uploaded photos, videos, music and widgets, the social media platforms are becoming more multi media.
A significant number of active internet users are also watching audio visual content.
About 76 per cent of social network users, for example, upload photos, up from 45 per cent in Wave 3, and 33 per cent upload videos to their profiles compared to 16.9 per cent last time around.
Widgets continue to thrive with 34 per cent of social network users installing them for their own use and 24 per cent using them to impress visitors to their profile page.
Social media is going mobile. Mobile internet usage has now reached nearly a fifth of all active internet users and 17 per cent access internet on the move as well as at home, work or college.
Katrib said: "The remarkable growth of social media has attracted a lot of attention over the last few years, and our research, which began in 2006 gives us access to comparable data and the capacity to track actual usage and consumer uptake. Our clients benefit from our research based knowledge which combined with our regional insight will help them engage with consumers in these spaces. They will be able to understand how, where and why they are using the different platforms that enable content creation and sharing".
"Though we know these trends are representative of the global community of active internet users in general, we are keen on checking the pulse of the Middle East region through a similar survey we are conducting in cooperation with a leading regional online portal. The social media in the GCC is the first in depth social media tracker in the region and we are confident it will show fascinating findings," he said.
Posted by
VMD - [Virtual Marketing Department]
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