The phenomenal popularity of Orkut, which made terms like 'social networking' part of common lingo, is well documented. However, in May this year, Facebook beat Orkut as the top social networking destination in India. Mumbai-based agency Komli Media's Vizisense, which tracks web audience measurement in India, has now come out with some answers to how Zuckerberg's creation triumphed over the Google-owned Orkut.
According to the latest data by Vizisense, social media 'apps' (short for 'applications') like Farmville, Mafia Wars, Cafe World have been the biggest contributors to Facebook's success in India. Farmville clearly leads the pack and other apps are now following suit.
The Vizisense data, which tracked online usage behaviour across a panel of over a lakh internet users in India, found that apps see the highest usage and the most time spent on Facebook, as against sections like photo albums. Men, specifically users aged between 15 and 24 years, spend a substantial amount of their time (52%) on apps.
Interestingly, despite being a minority on Facebook, women show a huge following for Cafe World -- an app which allows you to create your own virtual cafe -- making it the third most popular app in India.
The biggest learning from the findings seems to be that social media junkies are not merely voyeurs (checking profiles, browsing pictures), but are keenly engaging with interactive content. Apps satisfy this purpose, says Amit Bhartiya, business head, Vizisense, adding that apps have enabled Facebook in a major way to almost double its user base over the past seven months.
"Apps clearly have been the differentiating factor between Orkut and Facebook. Users currently spend an average time of 17 minutes daily on Facebook. Largely, it is apps that engage them," he says.
It was also observed that activity on social media websites increases post noon, peaking between 6 and 10pm. Users in the 25-35 years age group are most active around 3pm, indicating extensive use of social networks at the workplace and the desire to catch up with online friends post lunch hours.
What's more, television channels' fears that youngsters are not watching enough TV have been confirmed. The findings state that users in the 15-24 years age group have almost skipped watching prime time content, as they are most active on social media sites during those hours.
Men continue to dominate the web audience, with the male to female ratio being 80:20 across all social media sites, a trend that applies to the larger Indian online audience as well.
Amongst the most accessed websites, Orkut and Facebook together cater to about 90% of the users in the social media space. Delhi-based Ibibo.com ranks third at a distant 35.6 lakh users and Twitter has played catch-up in record time, thanks to adoption of the medium by celebrities and other newsmakers.
The rise of websites such as Ibibo.com could be explained by the finding that almost 60% social media usage is from outside the metros.
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