Facebook accounts for 1 in every 7 online minutes

By | December 27, 2011, 11:55am PST

Summary: Facebook reached 55 percent of the world’s global audience in October 2011 and accounted for 1 in every 7 minutes spent online around the world, according to a recent report.

We already know Facebook dominates the social networking space, but we often forget that the service is also still growing: not only in terms of users, but also in how much time the average user spends on the service. A recent report from comScore, titled It’s a Social World: Top 10 Need-to-Knows About Social Networking and Where It’s Headed, looked at the current state of social networking activity around the globe and shed some light on just how much the social networking giant controls the market.

The report found Facebook reached more than half (55 percent) of the world’s global audience in October 2011. Furthermore, Facebook accounted for 1 in every 7 minutes spent online around the world and 3 in every 4 social networking minutes.

While Facebook is the leading social networking site in the vast majority of countries, it is not the leader everywhere. In the beginning of 2010, Facebook was the category leader in 30 of the 43 markets that comScore reports on at the individual level. Since then, it has taken the lead in six additional countries, leaving just seven countries where it still isn’t dominating: Brazil, China, Japan, Poland, Russia, South Korea, and Vietnam. As you can see in the graphs pictured below, putting aside China and Vietnam, which Menlo Park is blocked in, Facebook is quickly gaining on its competitors in each respective country.

“The emergence and widespread global adoption of social networks has vastly influenced human interaction on an individual, community and larger societal level, and underscores the convergence of the online and offline worlds,” Linda Boland Abraham, comScore CMO and EVP of global development, said in a statement. “Regardless of geography, social networks are weaving themselves ever more intricately into the fabric of the digital experience, opening a world of new opportunity for business and technology.”

See also:

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Topics

Emil Protalinski has covered the tech industry for five years for multiple publications.

Disclosure

Emil Protalinski

Emil has nothing to disclose.

Biography

Emil Protalinski

Emil Protalinski has covered the tech industry for five years for multiple publications, including Neowin for two years and Ars Technica for three years. He has written 1,000s of articles for both, with a particular focus on scrutinizing Microsoft products and services. Recently, Emil has expanded his coverage to non-Microsoft technologies, including the social networking giant Facebook.

8
Comments

Join the conversation!

Just In

I still don't have a Facebook account, despite over 35 years of computers..
WinTard 29th Dec
What can you expect from a WinTard?

~~~~~~~~~~
The true barbarian is he who thinks everything barbarous but his own tastes and prejudices.
~ William Hazlitt
Which means that it is now Ubiquitous. More than likely it will peak soon and fall back to a more "normal" level of folks spending a little time/day on Facebook, but not as much.
@jkohut Not likely to happen. People are not actually on Facebook because of Facebook, but because they share things with each other, talk about those things and because they generally socialize on it. That means that they engage new content, new events every day. Facebook isn't their target - it's just a tool for them. None the less they are using Facebook's services. Much the same way people are using Google to search for stuff. And no, they're not getting bored with google-ing, because that's just a tool, a mediator, not their target and the purpose they're using Google search. Just the way more and more people are using Google search every day, more and more people will be using Facebook. At least until people stop conversing with each other, or till something better comes along, but that might take a looooong, loooong time....
0 Votes
+ -
0.
@jdakula
Yeah,
1 minute of 7 spent on Facebook, nope I have no account at facebook. How in the world did I spend one minute there. My browser has been for the last 7 on ZDNET. \Lucy
@jdakula Yep, me too. No account, no time spent there.
guess my 5 minutes a day on it has really spiked
What can you expect from a WinTard?

~~~~~~~~~~
The true barbarian is he who thinks everything barbarous but his own tastes and prejudices.
~ William Hazlitt

Join the conversation!

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]
ie8 fix

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources
ie8 fix