Indonesia, Taiwan, Philippines and India Gained the Most Facebook Users In Asia Last Month
Among the 30 Asian countries we track in our Global Monitor, Facebook grew by 9.6 million monthly active users over the month of October, from 50 million to nearly 60 million people. This is still a small fraction of the region, but there are some key countries starting to see new users. The most notable is Taiwan, which increased more than 50%, or 1.72 million people, to reach 5.04 million people, or more than 20% of the island’s 23 million total.
Interestingly, even though Facebook is banned in China, it grew the most out of any Asian country we track, percentage-wise: 300%, or by 44,000 people, to reach to 58,000 monthly actives. Hong Kong, where Facebook is not blocked, grew slowly, but that’s because it has a 37.7% penetration rate already — there’s only so much room left to grow.
The country with the largest absolute gain was Indonesia, which saw 2.48 million new people, and reached 12.2 million monthly actives. India also saw a notable surge, relatively speaking: It grew from 4.23 million to 5.00 million, which is an increase of 33% but also a 0.4% penetration rate. Vietnam didn’t make the top ten list, but it hit a million monthly active users in only a little over a year of being available.
The region is clearly becoming a meaningful part of Facebook as a site and a company. For example, there are an increasing number of anecdotal reports about users loving social games. In any case, we’re seeing more and more regional developers building popular ones.
November 13th, 2009 at 12:11 am
I think you’re confused.
Facebook is banned in The People’s Republic of China (PRC), commonly known as China.
Facebook is not banned in The Republic of China (ROC), commonly known as Taiwan.
November 13th, 2009 at 12:58 am
Facebook was growing in Taiwan because a lot of TOP Taiwan Blogger addet the Facebook Fanpage APP to there Blogs and as well a hellof people got crazy playing farmville in Taiwan. Concerning China there are some ways yo use Facebook there as well, people with interntional connections use simple VPN solutions to get acces to Facebook even on there mobile phones. Yep and in Hongkong deffinitly there is a saturation of the market
November 13th, 2009 at 5:54 am
A lot of Taiwanese go to grad school in the US. Quite a few make it to Europe as well. There are also a lot of people like me, international students in TW. Also Taiwanese love to do anything but work at work,e.g. play Farmville.
November 13th, 2009 at 5:55 am
I would concur with this data and that some of the big facebook games may be driving this growth.
Following Google Trends Insights and searching for Farmville, or Pet Society, one will notice that on the location map layover the most active nations on in the pacific rim. Especially the Phillipeans.
I am not sure if something has changed in those countries or whether people are simply getting online for the first time. I can imagine would it would be like to get online for the first time today. It would be like landing on new planet with giant cities already built!
November 13th, 2009 at 7:54 am
Thanks, Juergen.
Interesting points, Laurent!
November 13th, 2009 at 8:08 am
Ronny, I am not at all confused. What I am doing is using the commonly-understood names for each country.
But, of course, if one is in the PRC, you might not recognize the ROC as a country in the first place.
It is beyond the scope of this site to explore these issues much further.
November 17th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
[...] Over 50 Million Asian inside FaceBooks accounting in October 18 11 2009 Courtesy of Inside Facebook [...]
November 20th, 2009 at 1:11 am
[...] Indonesia, Taiwan, Philippines and India Gained the Most Facebook Users in Asia Last Month Among the 30 Asian countries we track in our Global Monitor, Facebook grew by 9.6 million monthly active users over the month of October, from 50 million to nearly 60 million people. [...]
December 1st, 2009 at 8:01 am
come on now who doesnt love mafia wars & farmville. The facebook craze is everywhere in the Philippines can see them everywhere friends, tv, etc..
I think one of the biggest factors for the growth of this services are the way they can integrate to other sites.
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:30 pm
for Mr. Courtines…its because the middle class in the Philippines is increasing , thus more can avail laptop, and internet connection, every mall, bar , resto, even gas stations are Wifi ready, and all u need is a broadband, then u can surf the net, anywhere u are, even on the island of boracay..plus, Philippines is d no.1 & still d no.1 Friendster user in d world, just like me ,we are bored w/ FS, so we shift to facebook bec. of applications…esp. mafia, farmville, brain buddies..etc..this is not bec, were getting online for d first time..ok dude….peace bro!!!
December 20th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
wew,it’s good Indonesia is no1 :)
January 18th, 2011 at 9:57 pm
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