Social networking most engaging in Philippines

In the Asia-Pacific region, social networking is capturing user attention most effectively in the Philippines, according to ComScore's latest report.

The online analysis company said the Philippines had the highest penetration of social networking usage in the region, and users in the country also spent the most time on such sites.

Some 90 percent of the Philippine Web population visited a social networking site in the month of February. This was followed by Indonesia at 88.6 percent.

In terms of engagement, users in the Philippines averaged 5.5 hours per visitor, who visited social networks an average of 26 times in a month. This was again followed by Indonesia with 5.4 hours and 22 visits per visitor per month.

Visitors in Malaysia logged 3.8 hours and 22 visits each month, with 84.7 percent of the country's Web population using social networking sites.

In Singapore, penetration was at 83.7 percent, with 3.6 hours and 22 visits per month for each user.

Facebook was the top social network for these four countries, attracting 90 percent of the social networking audience.

The site, however, lost out to other social networking sites such as Wretch.cc in Taiwan and Orkut in India, ComScore noted.

Absent from the list was Friendster, which in 2008 claimed supremacy over Facebook in the region.

Friendster said last December it would rely on its Asian base for growth, noting that 80 percent of its users were based in the region.

Facebook also appears to be investing in Asia. It quietly put up an advertisement for job positions in Singapore in preparation to open a new office in the country.

If established, the Singapore office will be Facebook's second Asian office, following its recent announcement to open its first in Hyderabad, India.