The use of of social networks in 2012

The last report carried on by GWI.8 highlights, above all, the consolidation of three major global social networks (Facebook, Twitter and Google+) above the rest. By contrast, social networks considered more local such as MeinVZ, Hyves, Qzone or Tumblr lose strength while only Badoo, Pinterest or LinkedIn resist.

Facebook continues dominating the market enjoying the participation of more than 50% of Internet users. Surprisingly Facebook is growing again, after losing users by fatigue effect due to the maturity of this social network. In addition, Facebook users are more active than Google+ or Twitter in all registers.

Google+ is the next big social netword, it already ranks as the second most important social network in users terms, enjoying  the presence of 25% of Internet users. Its growth is driven by its integration with Google products like Gmail, YouTube and Android. South Korea, France and the United States are the three countries where Google+ has grown more in 2012.

Twitter remains as the third most important social network, as long as we do not consider YouTube as a social network. Twitter is currently used by 21% of the population with Internet access, multiplying this figure by 7 since July 2009. Twitter enjoys significant growth in 2012, in fact, the social network is the fastest growing social network, especially in the U.S. where its usage had stagnated. On the downside of Twitter, we found that half of its users do not post tweets and only read tweets. Besides that, there are still countries like Germany where the penetration rate is very low, with only 6% of Internet users.