4 ms·

the lack of china is pretty interesting. russia is practically non-existent too, but it's much larger (especially with this map projection) with a much smaller

by treyp 16y ago

the lack of china is pretty interesting. russia is practically non-existent too, but it's much larger (especially with this map projection) with a much smaller population.

joshzayin 16y ago
I'd suspect it's because people in China use proxies to evade the filter, and hence have non-Chinese IPs.
- treyp 16y ago
  the data used is not based on IPs, but on user-submitted "current cities" instead, as mentioned in the blog post
  - joshzayin 16y ago
    Oh, huh. That's weird. I wonder if Chinese Internet users for some reason think they'd be caught evading the filter if they put their actual city in their profile? Or maybe his sampling method was just abysmal? ;)
    - spicyj 16y ago
      Or maybe Chinese people just don't use Facebook.
      - joshzayin 16y ago
        Yes, I made that post before I saw what smokinn said about QQ. (And what others said about other Chinese social networking companies, and American companies in China, in general.)
Yahivin 16y ago
The lack of China on the map was interesting to me as well. I believe that Facebook being blocked in China has quite a bit to do with it.
- smokinn 16y ago
  Not really. The real reason is 2 letters long: QQ EDIT: To explain and not be snarky, QQ is an IM/portal/social network/web mail/social game platform that is actually larger than Facebook. (Over 600 million active last I checked.) They completely dominate every aspect of Chinese web software.
  - mousa 16y ago
    There would be many more using Facebook if it wasn't blocked. I'm not sure how it's doing now but I remember lots of students last year were joining xiaonei which is just a facebook duplicate for Chinese students only. IMO many of these sites are blocked in China so Chinese companies can dominate the domestic market rather than for political reasons.
  - Charuru 16y ago
    Not at all true. QQ is more akin to MSN than to Facebook (even though it tried to do social networking features, it did them late and poorly). Facebook would be on this list if it weren't blocked in China: http://venturebeat.com/2010/04/07/china%E2%80%99s-top-4-social-networks-renren-kaixin001-qzone-and-51-com/ http://venturebeat.com/2010/04/07/china%E2%80%99s-top-4-soci...
- garply 16y ago
  China already has 2 indigenous Facebooks, Kaixin (targeted towards professional workers) and Renren (targeted towards college students). It also has QQ, which is more like MSN Messenger + MySpace + gaming. Filtered or not, US web companies don't tend to do well in China. Amazon and eBay aren't filtered, for example, but they both completely flopped here. A lot of it has to do with US tech companies not understanding how (or being unwilling) to do business like Chinese.
  - chunkbot 16y ago
    How do the Chinese do business? And how is it different from how U.S. Tech companies do business?
  - 16y ago
dmaz 16y ago
Russia primarily uses Vkontakte.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
sahaj 16y ago
also, brazil is still holding out for the most part. i wonder what the penetration rate of a social network needs to be in order for users to not jump ship to facebook?
- brandong 16y ago
  I believe Brazil is heavily invested into orkut.
- dasil003 16y ago
  I wouldn't say Brazil is holding out, it's just that population is heavily concentrated on the southern coast. The northern parts of the country have a smaller, poorer population. It would probably be brighter if Orkut didn't exist, but the Amazon basin would still be completely dark.

by treyp 16y ago

the lack of china is pretty interesting. russia is practically non-existent too, but it's much larger (especially with this map projection) with a much smaller population.

joshzayin 16y ago

I'd suspect it's because people in China use proxies to evade the filter, and hence have non-Chinese IPs.

treyp 16y ago
the data used is not based on IPs, but on user-submitted "current cities" instead, as mentioned in the blog post
- joshzayin 16y ago
  Oh, huh. That's weird. I wonder if Chinese Internet users for some reason think they'd be caught evading the filter if they put their actual city in their profile? Or maybe his sampling method was just abysmal? ;)
  - spicyj 16y ago
    Or maybe Chinese people just don't use Facebook.
    - joshzayin 16y ago
      Yes, I made that post before I saw what smokinn said about QQ. (And what others said about other Chinese social networking companies, and American companies in China, in general.)

Yahivin 16y ago

The lack of China on the map was interesting to me as well. I believe that Facebook being blocked in China has quite a bit to do with it.

smokinn 16y ago
Not really. The real reason is 2 letters long: QQ EDIT: To explain and not be snarky, QQ is an IM/portal/social network/web mail/social game platform that is actually larger than Facebook. (Over 600 million active last I checked.) They completely dominate every aspect of Chinese web software.
- mousa 16y ago
  There would be many more using Facebook if it wasn't blocked. I'm not sure how it's doing now but I remember lots of students last year were joining xiaonei which is just a facebook duplicate for Chinese students only. IMO many of these sites are blocked in China so Chinese companies can dominate the domestic market rather than for political reasons.
- Charuru 16y ago
  Not at all true. QQ is more akin to MSN than to Facebook (even though it tried to do social networking features, it did them late and poorly). Facebook would be on this list if it weren't blocked in China: http://venturebeat.com/2010/04/07/china%E2%80%99s-top-4-social-networks-renren-kaixin001-qzone-and-51-com/ http://venturebeat.com/2010/04/07/china%E2%80%99s-top-4-soci...
garply 16y ago
China already has 2 indigenous Facebooks, Kaixin (targeted towards professional workers) and Renren (targeted towards college students). It also has QQ, which is more like MSN Messenger + MySpace + gaming. Filtered or not, US web companies don't tend to do well in China. Amazon and eBay aren't filtered, for example, but they both completely flopped here. A lot of it has to do with US tech companies not understanding how (or being unwilling) to do business like Chinese.
- chunkbot 16y ago
  How do the Chinese do business? And how is it different from how U.S. Tech companies do business?
- 16y ago

dmaz 16y ago

Russia primarily uses Vkontakte.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

sahaj 16y ago

also, brazil is still holding out for the most part. i wonder what the penetration rate of a social network needs to be in order for users to not jump ship to facebook?

brandong 16y ago
I believe Brazil is heavily invested into orkut.
dasil003 16y ago
I wouldn't say Brazil is holding out, it's just that population is heavily concentrated on the southern coast. The northern parts of the country have a smaller, poorer population. It would probably be brighter if Orkut didn't exist, but the Amazon basin would still be completely dark.