Brazil passes India to become Facebook's second biggest country

Summary: Brazil's Facebook user base has been growing rapidly over the last few months. In fact, the South American country has surpassed India in number of Facebook users. Only the U.S. has more users.

By Emil Protalinski for Friending Facebook | May 7, 2012 -- 09:57 GMT (02:57 PDT)

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Earlier this year, Facebook finally overtook Google Orkut in Brazil. Then last month, Facebook overtook Google to become the most visited site by Internet users in Brazil. Now, Brazil has passed India to become the world's second biggest country on Facebook.

Over the past few months, Brazil and India have been battling for silver, according to Socialbakers, which argues the South American country owes its success to brands building high awareness on the social network. While some Facebook Pages in India are bigger than the most successful Facebook Pages in Brazil, we have to remember India's population is six times greater than Brazil's. Of course, Internet penetration numbers are different (and estimates vary based on methodology used), but this milestone gives you an idea of Facebook's popularity in the two countries.

As you can see in the screenshot above, Brazil now has 46.34 million Facebook users (a 22 percent increase over the last few months) while India has 45.78 million Facebook users (a 5 percent increase). Again, these are just estimates. For example, Facebook said it has over 169 million monthly active users in the U.S. as of March 31, 2012, while Socialbakers claims that number is 157 million users. The news here is not in the raw numbers, but in the general trend.

"The practice of monitoring Facebook’s development across various geographies usually reveals interesting trends and ideas about new Facebook leaders based on their number of monthly active users (MAU)," a Socialbakers spokesperson said in a statement. "But what's even more important is how to take advantage of the data and create a successful and strong local Facebook brand. Our data show that businesses are naturally focusing their marketing activities at places with the highest customer concentration. This strong inclination towards higher customer reach and effective communication further validates the need for brands to have social media embedded in their online marketing strategies."

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