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Social Networking Sites

Global social networking brands are continuously gaining prominence in India, and this is quite evident from comScore’s recent report on India’s top social networking sites.
More than 33 million Internet users age 15 and older in India visited social networking sites in July, representing 84 percent of the total Internet audience. India now ranks as the seventh largest market worldwide for social networking, after the U.S., China, Germany, Russian Federation, Brazil and the U.K. The total Indian social networking audience grew 43 percent in the past year, more than tripling the rate of growth of the total Internet audience in India.
“The social networking phenomenon continues to gain steam worldwide, and India represents one of the fastest growing markets at the moment,” said Will Hodgman, comScore executive vice president for the Asia-Pacific region. “Though Facebook has tripled its audience in the past year to pace the growth for the category, several other social networking sites have posted their own sizeable gains.”
Top Social Networking Sites in India
July 2010 vs. July 2009
Total India – Age 15+, Home & Work Locations*
Source: comScore Media Metrix
India Total Unique Visitors (000)
Jul-2009 Jul-2010 % Change
Total Internet : Total Audience 35,028 39,562 13
Social Networking 23,255 33,158 43
Facebook.com 7,472 20,873 179
Orkut 17,069 19,871 16
Bharatstudent.com 4,292 4,432 3
Yahoo! Pulse N/A 3,507 N/A
Twitter.com 984 3,341 239
LinkedIn.com N/A 3,267 N/A
Zedge.net 1,767 3,206 81
Ibibo.com 1,562 2,960 89
Yahoo! Buzz 542 1,807 233
Shtyle.fm 407 1,550 281
Facebook.com captured the top spot  with 20.9 million visitors. Orkut ranked second with 19.9 million visitors (up 16 percent vs. year ago), followed by BharatStudent.com with 4.4 million visitors (up 3 percent). Twitter.com had the highest rate of growth among the top five social networking sites, increasing 239 percent to 3.3 million visitors. Yahoo! owned two of the top ten social networking sites: Yahoo! Pulse (3.5 million visitors) and Yahoo! Buzz (1.8 million visitors).
Source : comScore
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