Facebook usage statistics by country - Sep 10 vs Sep 09 vs Sep 08

New - Facebook usage statistics 31st Dec 2011 here

The latest Facebook usage statistics by country show some interesting changes, particularly the growth in Asia with extraordinary increases recorded in places like Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Malaysia. There has also been strong growth in Eastern Europe and both India and Germany have grown from less than 1 million users to well over 10 million Facebook users across the 2 year time scale.

The table below shows the top 30 countries by number of active Facebook users with September 2010 Facebook user information compared to September 2009 and September 2008 Facebook usage statistics (leave a comment if you want to know statistics for other countries.)

Here are the Top 30 countries with highest number of Facebook users (30th Sep 2010 - data from Facebook):

Rank	Country	Number of Facebook users Sep 2008	Number of Facebook users Sep 2009	Number of Facebook users Sep 2010	12 month growth %	24 month growth %
1	USA	32,931,680	84,596,240	138,660,280	64%	321.1%
2	UK	12,637,540	20,228,480	27,279,920	34.9%	115.9%
3	Indonesia	322,840	8,786,920	26,870,640	205.8%	8223.2%
4	Turkey	4,566,660	13,996,380	22,689,280	62.1%	396.9%
5	France	3,381,220	12,032,020	18,875,380	56.9%	458.2%
6	Canada	9,991,260	12,667,220	17,050,280	34.6%	70.7%
7	Italy	1,035,920	10,903,620	16,589,460	52.1%	1501.4%
8	Philippines	233,020	4,832,040	16,492,880	241.3%	6977.8%
9	Mexico	1,174,920	4,731,700	15,132,080	219.8%	1187.9%
10	India	806,680	3,980,260	13,612,360	242%	1587.5%
11	Germany	815,840	3,875,800	11,119,240	186.9%	1262.9%
12	Argentina	939,080	6,036,060	11,118,120	84.2%	1083.9%
13	Spain	1,076,740	6,314,220	10,908,540	72.6%	913.1%
14	Colombia	3,227,760	6,488,200	10,725,740	65.3%	232.3%
15	Australia	3,655,680	6,591,640	9,169,220	39.1%	150.8%
16	Malaysia	592,740	2,619,040	8,187,460	212.6%	1281.3%
17	Taiwan	90,140	2,257,340	7,109,140	214.9%	7786.8%
18	Chile	3,491,200	5,465,740	7,060,020	29.2%	102.2%
19	Venezuela	1,462,500	4,223,740	6,857,980	62.4%	368.9%
20	Brazil	155,400	1,541,380	5,860,740	280.2%	3671.4%
21	Egypt	836,440	1,896,120	4,025,280	112.3%	381.2%
22	Sweden	1,358,460	2,587,300	3,835,160	48.2%	182.3%
23	Belgium	833,620	2,557,000	3,553,600	39%	326.3%
24	Hong Kong	1,109,200	2,350,460	3,383,440	44%	205%
25	Poland	113,920	732,000	3,348,980	357.5%	2839.8%
26	South Africa	1,022,000	1,899,600	3,123,260	64.4%	205.6%
27	Peru	208,200	1,206,620	3,089,100	156%	1383.7%
28	Israel	661,460	1,782,700	2,965,000	66.3%	348.3%
29	Greece	641,260	1,858,620	2,898,180	55.9%	352%
30	Netherlands	283,900	1,362,420	2,863,540	110.2%	908.6%

[*figures are taken from Facebook and then compared to Facebook usage statistics lists that I have previously compiled (allowing the 12 month and 24 month comparisons.)]

As always, if you want to know the latest Facebook usage statistics for another country (and data is now published for almost every country in the world), leave a comment in the post below and I will post the relevant Facebook user statistics data.

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Happy 12th Birthday Google!

Google is 12 today!

Quite an understated birthday celebration (so far) compared to years gone by (see previous Google birthday logo examples here.) The Google home page today shows a simple birthday cake image by Wayne Thiebaud.

Google Doodle - Happy 12th Birthday Google by Wayne Thiebaud

The Happy 12th Birthday Google image doesn't click through to anything specific, just Search results for 'Google.' The image also has an accreditation 'used with permission of VAGA NY.'

However, Google birthdays are normally the launch pad for some sort of announcement / development, I wonder what today holds in store..........?

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Panda Cheese - never say no to Panda!

Panda Cheese - apparently it's not made from Panda Milk, but a compilation of Panda Cheese TV ads from the Middle East is going viral after being picked up by Boing Boing and other blogs - 'Never Say No To Panda!'

'Never Say No To Panda' - still from TV ad

Another example of a broadcast TV ad moving online and becoming branded content as it's shared through conversation.......

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Spotify Mark Ronson interactive ad

A new ad format will be used on Spotify to promote the new Mark Ronson 'Record Collection' album. The interactive ad is built in Flash and allows viewers to interact with 3 different Mark Ronson tracks - 'Bang Bang Bang', 'The Bike Song' and 'Somebody To Love Me.'

Mark Ronson interactive Spotify ad unit

Different elements of the Mark Ronson tracks can be turned on and off, whilst links within the banner push to iTunes to 'Buy' or Facebook to Like. This is a nice way of turning an Paid Media execution into a piece of Owned Media and Spotify Premium users are rewarded by being able to hear a 5 track preview of the new Mark Ronson album in advance of the September 27th general release.

NB I have deliberately included an image here rather than the full interactive version of the Mark Ronson ad. If you want to play, then the Spotify blog has the full execution embedded here.

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Augmented Reality stamps - Royal Mail launch intelligent editions

The Royal Mail's latest UK stamps, celebrating Great British Railways are the world's first interactive stamps. In another example of how Augmented Reality is fusing the real world with the digital world, pointing a phone at this stamp edition will then open supplementary video content.

Viewing the Royal Mail interactive stamp through the Junaio viewer

Accessed through a viewer from Junaio, the Royal Mail interactive stamp triggers a video to play on the phone - in this case Bernhard Cribbins reading the famous WH Auden poem from 1936 'The Night Mail.'

More information can be seen in the video below:

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Halo: Reach - Trafalgar Square Jetpack flight!

Stunts create conversation, but with flashmobs and quirky gatherings seemingly everywhere, it's now got to be something special to really get people excited.

To build the hype and conversation around the XBox360 'Halo:Reach' game launch, an event in central London was created - with rocketman Dan Schlund, in character as a Spartan, taking a jetpack flight around Trafalgar Square! This brought a new feature of Halo:Reach into the real world and raised anticipation levels for the launch.

Result = lots of social conversation and people queuing for hours overnight to be the first to get their hands on the game.

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Lady Gaga meat dress 2010 is not a new concept - meat-based clothing has been on the web for years!

One of the earliest random / viral websites that I was sent a link to was www.hatsofmeat.com. Set up in 2005, the site shows a selection of meat habadashery with various meat-based head pieces and other fashion accessories. It's tongue in cheek and brought together under a supposed quote from Mark Twain "one always look neat in a hat made of meat."

TrendHunter then featured 'Carnivorous shorts' in February 2009 with material designed to look like raw meat:

and featured an article in June 2009 about JiaJem.com's 'most disgusting creation', a real meat dress:


I have thought about hatsofmeat.com from time to time, but never really found an excuse to highlight or talk about it. Suddenly, it becomes super relevant! Recently posing on the cover of Japanese Vogue in a beef bikini, and then showing up at the MTV Video music awards in a meat dress last night, Lady Gaga has got the world talking about meat fashion.

Will meat clothing, or clothing designed to look like raw meat, now turn up on the high street? Will the meat dress provide an alternative story to the Influencer driven propagation of Hush Puppies?

There are a few things here:

1) If you want to drive a lot of conversation in a short space of time, then mainstream media is still the most effective platform (look at how many duplicate videos of the Lady Gaga meat dress MTV appearance have been uploaded to YouTube, the volume of blog mentions and the number of comments it has generated)

2) Attention in one place can drive attention in another - how many people have become aware of Vogue Japan as a result of the Lady Gaga meat dress appearance at the MTV Video Music awards, how many people are hitting YouTube as a result of the TV show / subsequent discussion?

3) This is yet another illustration of content disaggregation - people aren't consuming the meat dress appearance from the official MTV show, they are consuming through the news stories, video clips, and comments of their friends. It's not the show in it's entireity that is travelling, it's just a piece of it that is spreading globally through social platforms (but all the while raising awareness of the main event)

4) Controversy drives conversation - if Lady Gaga had appeared wearing a 'normal' dress would anyone have been interested?

5) There is no such thing as a new idea, it's just old ideas remixed or old ideas re-combined / re-interpreted to form a new story

......and if you want to understand more about the Lady Gaga brand then this video from Newcast (a division of ZenithOptimedia / Vivaki) should help!

Brand Romance by Newcast from Newcast VivaKi on Vimeo

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Google Instant / Billy Joel - 'We Didn't Start The Fire'

Shortly after launching Google Instant a video was released on the Google YouTube channel fusing Bob Dylan lyrics with the new Google Instant service:

Other Google Instant music videos are starting to appear along similar lines, the latest Google Instant film based on the 1989 Billy Joel song 'We Didn't Start The Fire':

Just need a Rick Astley version now......

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Uniqlo 'more tweets, lower prices' group shopping promotion - #luckycounter

Lots of discussions recently about social shopping (we featured it in our August Trends video) and Uniqlo UK are running a Twitter based Group shopping promotion in the UK tomorrow.

The Uniqlo Lucky Counter promotion highlights 10 items of clothing through the Uniqlo Lucky Counter web page. Visitors are then encouraged to participate in the Lucky Counter promotion and 'tweet about any item on this page to save on the price' - each tweet sees the discount on the item tweeted about increased!

Uniqlo Lucky Counter promotion homepage (click for larger image)

Clicking on one of the Uniqlo items featured on the Lucky Counter page gives specific details, including starting price, current price and current level of discount. The page also provides information on the floor price for the item:

Uniqlo Lucky Counter promotion item specifics (click for larger image)

Clicking the 'Take Part Now' button opens a new window that links into Twitter. In the centre of the page is a pre-formatted Lucky Counter tweet ('Knock down UNIQLO's ULTRA LIGHT PARKA £43.03 #luckycounter http://bit.ly/aUdKC') and users can add further words to this if they want to:

Uniqlo Lucky Counter pre-formatted Twitter window (click for larger image)

The discount is awarded as a prize to people who tweet. 'One in six tweets wins' and 'if you win, a form appears on-screen into which information is entered for delivery of prize' - an email with the discount code. This gives a further boost to Uniqlo related tweeting - if you tweet and don't win, then you tweet again. Furthermore, the Uniqlo hashtag of #luckycounter enables the tweets to be tracked - and there are now pages and pages of tweets on Twitter Search that feature the Lucky Counter tag.

The Uniqlo Lucky Counter offer is not valid at stores, it is a web only promotion that is running on the Uniqlo UK site tomorrow. Rather than deploy Paid Media to drive traffic to the sale, the socialisation of discount is seeing the Uniqlo Owned Media site generate awareness through the conversation and Earned Media attention.

Nice example of the potential for collaborative buying / social shopping and another illustration of how an Owned site can drive conversation.

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Bienvenue, au revoir - Paris Gare De L'Est impromptu performances

French train company voyages-sncf claim to go 'further than you imagined' and to bring this to life staged a variety of different performances at Paris Gare De L'Est. The theatre around 3 departures and 2 arrivals meant that 5 customers had an experience that they won't forget.......

Another example of a stunt providing 'Earned Media' viral content - and nice embedded signposts at the end of the video inviting viewers to click to discover other videos on their YouTube channel.

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Social Shopping - new ZenithOptimedia Moxie trends video - August 2010

One of the hot topics at the moment is the development of social shopping. All manner of different services are appearing that allow group buying and shopping fuelled by social recommendation.

The August ZenithOptimedia Moxie trends video sees various presenters talking about developments in their part of the world including contributions from the US, Denmark, Spain, Asia and Russia.

Social media e-commerce and social shopping is really starting to take off and by Christmas we may start to wonder how we ever lived without it!

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ZenithOptimedia Moxie Trends video - July - The Amplified Present
ZenithOptimedia Moxie Trends video - June - 3D!
ZenithOptimedia Moxie Trends video - May - Location Based Services

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