Update: New Statistics On Social Media

Tuesday, 31 May 2011 02:06

Written by Resti Reyes. Jr.

Mind Wars was fortunate to have been invited last week to a presentation hosted by Microsoft at the New World Hotel in Makati. The topic was the rapidly emerging phenomenon of social media, and how it is changing (or will change) life as we know it. The main presentation was by Chay Mondejar-Saputil, Managing Director of Chimes Consulting, who was kind enough to share her data.

The most important points were the stats. Numbers have a way of speaking for themselves…

1. Internet reach – Nielsen Media Research reported that the following socio-economic classes now have access to the internet at these levels:

a. ABC1 is at 82% - these are your upper and upper middle classes
b. C2 is at 53% - this is your lower middle class
c. DE is at 15% - these are your lower classes
d. Total population average is 32%

2. 23.4 million Filipinos, or 93.7% of all who are actively online, are on Facebook. We are No. 7 worldwide in terms of our Facebook population, but No. 1 in terms of net reach over total internet population. Facebook has quickly overtaken all other forms of social media, almost doubling its Pinoy subscriber base in the past 12 months.

3. There are now 667 million people on Facebook worldwide. If FB were a country, it would be the 3rd most populous nation on earth, after China and India. It would be more than double the size of the U.S.

In terms of economic significance, it would be the single biggest consumer market, because unlike the population figures of China and India, the Facebook nation would have no children or babies under 10 years old, nor senior citizens over 65. Each and every single citizen of Facebook is a willing and able consumer of market goods and services.

With reference to the column last week where we talked about the failed attempt of Facebook to discredit Google via a PR agency-initiated demolition job, and given the astounding and continuous growth of Facebook in the past year, there really is not much reason for Mark Zuckerberg to feel threatened by Google.

In a separate report, we also found out that Google was recently dislodged from its pole position among the top brands in the world. It was overthrown by Apple. Reuters reports:

“Apple has overtaken Google as the world's most valuable brand, ending a four-year reign by the Internet search leader, according to a new study by global brands agency Millward Brown.”*

*more on this top brands report next week

1. Facebook is truly phenomenal. Did you know that one third of all women aged 18-34 check their Facebook account first thing in the morning, even before they go to the bathroom?

2. How busy is Facebook? 25 billion – that’s the amount of content (photos, updates, web links, stories, blog posts, etc.) that is uploaded to Facebook every month.

3. What about that other internet phenomenon, YouTube? 24 hours – that’s the amount of video material that is uploaded to YouTube every single minute of the day. YouTube has more video content than all the TV networks in the U.S. ever broadcast since television was invented.

4. Do people watch all these videos? Yes. Everyday, 2 billion YouTube videos are viewed by people all over the world. That’s a bigger audience than the Super Bowl.

5. How is the business community getting involved in social media?

95% of companies are using LinkedIn to attract new employees.
59% use Facebook
42% use Twitter
6. Are consumers actively using social media? Yes:
61% read online reviews before making a product purchase
70% used the internet to research on brands and products
83% indicated that online reviews influenced their purchase decisions

Marketing people take note: that last item is the most significant statistic in this entire article.

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