Paid social networks. The largest social networks in Russia and the world - an overview of the most prominent representatives

Social networks and the Internet are inextricably linked with each other. Almost everyone is registered here. Moreover, these resources managed to conquer users of all ages, from young to old. There are more and more diverse social networks. There are favorites among them.

Statistics of social networks of the world

Currently, Facebook has the most users. Although the network has lost ground a little compared to the same. The network was founded by Mark Zuckerberg. Since its appearance, it has been in high demand and has held the first position in the ranking for a long time (62.18%). Pinterst takes second place (16.12%) and has actively begun to gain popularity, primarily due to its new feature. YouTube's third place (8.71%) over the past year has surpassed Twitter, which is now in 4th place (8.17%). They choose him for his mini-blogs. Many famous people have accounts here.

World statistics in % terms as of July 2018 by:

According to statistics from the site, which ranks social networks by the number of active monthly users, the list of the best social networks is as follows:

Let's look at the TOP 20 most popular social networks:

• Sina Weibo. Residents of the Middle Kingdom spend their leisure time here. The social network has been operating since 2009.
• Lenkedln. The audience numbers 106 million users. This includes mainly representatives of business structures. Here they look for a new job, make deals, share news and information.
• Badoo. This is a kind of place to meet people. It has 230 million users. The portal has similar functionality as social networks.
• Tumblr. Favorite place for bloggers. They maintain their own blogs, comment on and read others’. The resource was created in 2007 and has 115 million people.
• Classmates or in another way OK. The project has long been considered one of the leaders of the Russian Internet. To date, 210 million accounts have been registered. Russian social network statistics are strong.
• Instagram. Appeared in 2010. Quite quickly he took a leading position. Users liked the ability to share videos and photos.
• Pinterest. Here you can exchange ideas on different topics, recipes, projects.
• Flickr. The audience includes 112 million people. This project makes it possible to send a large number of photos.
• MySpace. It was founded in 2003 and includes 50 million accounts. Used for: sharing photos, videos, messages. This is where people meet and blog.
• Scribd. Considered a text copy of youtube. Used to exchange books.
• MeetUp. On this portal they form groups in order to communicate live. More than 40 million participants found friends here and began to spend time together without the virtual web.
• Tagged. Used for communication, dating.
• Askfm. It's easy to get answers to your questions here. 38 million accounts have been registered. One of them will definitely suggest the right solution.
• MeetMe. The social network was created for gadget lovers. It has already included 16 million people.
• ClassMates. Analogue of Russian OK. The project appeared in 1995, but failed to become as popular. The audience numbers only 15 million users.
• In contact with. It was created in Russia back in 2006. Since that moment, the portal has not lost its popularity. The number of accounts is about 300 million, although not all accounts are active. It is known that residents of Ukraine who do not have free access to this social network are registered on VK.
• Orkut. A Google development that is loved by residents of India and Latin America. Today the resource is closed and will be moved to the Hello social network platform.
• Snapchat. Here you can not be afraid to be as you are. There are no comments or likes, so there is no pressure. Everything is real, not faked.
• Yik Yak. There are also no friends, subscribers, or likes on this portal. This makes him attractive to American teenagers.
• Medium. Beginner bloggers register. They have the opportunity to leave comments near parts of the text, rather than at the very end.

This is what the statistics for the World look like, but each country has its own favorites.

What social networks are popular in the USA?

China also has its favorite resources

What is in demand in the Middle Kingdom.

In China, many of the listed projects are simply blocked, so many residents use exclusively their own sites. The most popular are:

• Qzone. The audience numbers 625 million people. The portal was developed by Tencent. Here you can write blogs, diaries online, watch videos, and distribute photos. Firms use the resource to promote their products and services.
• QQ. This is a kind of messaging service. Everything is provided for communication: video, voice chat, data exchange. There are about 300 million registered people.
• Pengyou. Portal for friends. The network is supplemented with applications and games.
• WeChat. The functionality is quite diverse. You can exchange information, photos, video content, change contacts.

This is not the entire list of Chinese resources. The Internet of the Celestial Empire, just like the European one, is vast. There are also: Weibo, Renren, Douban, etc. Each of the platforms is unique in its own way.

Social networks are the best way to keep in touch with your friends and/or relatives, look for new acquaintances, and share music, films, and photos. It's the end of two thousand sixteen and now there are several hundred platforms designed for building social relationships on the Internet. In this article we will look at some of the most popular ones in the world.

5 Tumblr

4 VKontakte

3 Twitter

2 Google+

1 Facebook

The number of social media users is growing exponentially. Some services are more popular, others less popular. However, everything is changing, and it is quite possible that while you are studying this rating, some previously unknown social network will take the lead.

Facebook with the number of accounts exceeding 1.2 billion. The network, founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, has held first place in the world TOPs since its inception.

Google+, the number of users of which is approaching the 600 million mark. The social network, founded in 2001 by Google, moves up and down in the rankings, however, it is invariably among the top ten most successful projects.

Twitter with half a billion users. The presence of a mini-blog on this social network has become a real trend, because the most influential people on the planet have accounts on Twitter.

Sina Weibo, the number of accounts exceeds 500 million. This is perhaps the only social network from our rating that does not have a Russian-language interface. However, it doesn’t need this, since it is designed for friendly residents of the Middle Kingdom who want to communicate exclusively with each other and have been doing this successfully since 2009.

In contact with is a social network created in Russia in 2006 and is one of the most successful domestic projects to date. The number of VKontakte users is rapidly approaching 300 million, which means that the social network is used not only in our country.

Badoo with an audience of almost 230 million, it is an international dating site with a full set of social network functions.

Tumblr– a social network for those who like to blog, as well as read and comment on the blogs of other users. Created in 2007, this social network today has about 220 million users.

Classmates- another well-known Russian project that has become a world leader. Since 2006, the number of Odnoklassniki users has increased from 0 to 210 million people.

Instagram is a social network that came out into the world in 2010 and quickly moved to the top of the rankings thanks to the ability to share photos and videos with many users.

Pinterest is a social network whose 200 million users can share a wide variety of ideas with each other, from innovative business solutions to holiday pie recipes.

Flickr. Almost 70 million users of this social network exchange a huge number of photos every day.

MySpace, created in 2003, it has about 50 million accounts and is a social network in its classic form. Exchange of messages, opinions, photos and videos, dating, blog platform, in a word, everything that is required for a pleasant pastime.

MeetUp is a social network whose purpose is to unite people in groups for real communication. More than 40 million users have found friends with similar interests here and have a great time with them without the Internet.

Tagged. Almost 40 million users of this social network can meet and communicate with each other.

Askfm– a place where you can get an answer to any question, because from more than 38 million answers you can definitely choose the right one.

ClassMates- the English-language prototype of the Russian Odnoklassniki, created back in 1995, but did not achieve equally impressive results. The project's audience is about 15 million people.

Orkut- another project from Google that did not become a hit in the USA and Europe, but is very popular among residents of Latin America, India and a number of other countries. The project is currently closed and is being relocated to the Hello social network platform.

Social networks with the largest number of users

• Created: October, 2010
• Founders: Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger (later joined by others)
• Number of accounts: 200,000,000

Brief Description: It is said that some normal people use this application to share their photos and videos with their friends. However, overextended guys with an inflated sense of self-importance were even more delighted with the new enticement, which allowed them to share with the whole world the appearance of their lunch, dinner, carpet, toilet and slippers.

9th place. Classmates

• Created: March, 2006
• Founders: Albert Popkov
• Number of accounts: 205,000,000

Brief description: they say that among domestic social networks, Odnoklassniki ranks first in terms of the amount of downloaded pornography. Odnoklassniki is also remembered for its paid registration from 2008 to 2010 (you could only create a stripped-down demo version of the account for free). Average age of users: about 30 years.

8th place. Tumblr

• Created: 2007
• Founders: David Karp
• Number of accounts: 210,000,000

Brief description: social network for bloggers. You write a blog, post pictures and reveal your amazing inner world to others. Your friends do the same. To encourage each other in this difficult task, you can like and comment on individual elements of revealing individuality.

7th place. Badoo

• Created: November, 2006
• Founders: Andrey Andreev
• Number of accounts: 220,000,000

Brief description: perhaps the most popular international dating site, which includes all the elements of a social network.

6th place. LinkedIn

• Created: May, 2003
• Founders: Reed Hoffman
• Number of accounts: 225,000,000

Brief description: business social business network. The site interface is available in 20 languages. Representatives of about 200 different countries are registered on the network. Users have the opportunity to leave a resume, find a job, publish lists of available vacancies, search for information about various enterprises, establish business contacts, share information about upcoming conferences, business meetings, visits, etc. In a word: boring. And no "Funny Farm".

5th place. In contact with

Brief description: of course, this social network is no worse than others. But it is annoying solely because of the meaning it plays in the minds of schoolchildren and teenagers: in the most clinical cases, you can admire real network addiction. Zhiza... Characteristically, the creator of the century, Pavel Durov, retired in the spring of 2013 and now has only a “historical” relationship with Vk.

4th place. Sina Weibo

Brief description: It’s easy to be a popular social network if your homeland is China. Sina Weibo combined the functions of Facebook and Twitter, targeting Chinese audiences. The Chinese said “Ni hao!” and since then they have been living together. By the way, this is the only social network from our rating that does not have a Russian interface.

3rd place. Twitter

2nd place. Google+

Number of accounts: 540,000,000

Brief description: the funny thing is that many of your opponents of social networks have become involved in the Google+ sect. And it all started harmlessly: with the acquisition of a tempting mailbox from Google. Its attractiveness lies in the following: firstly, it ends on kosher worldwide.com, and secondly, as a nice bonus, each user receives virtual storage on Google Drive.

And so you use your email, upload a couple of photos, +1 the posts of your friends and quietly laugh at the losers who have been sucked into social networks.

What’s interesting: Google named privacy as one of the main principles of its work (this is already funny). At the same time, the information that the user posts, sends/receives by mail, directly affects the results of search queries. Google says it's personalization, but George Orwell says big brother is watching you O.O

Social network- an interactive multi-user website, the content of which is filled by the network participants themselves. The site is an automated social environment that allows a group of users with a common interest to communicate. These include thematic forums, especially industry ones, which have been actively developing recently.

Communication is via a web-based internal mail service or instant messaging.

Structure

And if LinkedIn was created for the purpose of establishing/maintaining business contacts, then the owners of MySpace and Facebook relied primarily on satisfying the human need for self-expression. Indeed, according to Maslow's pyramid, self-expression is the highest human need, even ahead of recognition and communication. Social networks have become a kind of Internet haven where everyone can find the technical and social basis for creating their virtual “I”. At the same time, each user received the opportunity not only to communicate and create, but also to share the fruits of their creativity with a multi-million audience of one or another social network.

Largest networks

The popularity of different social networks varies in different regions of the world. Thus, the networks MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are more popular and widespread in North America;
Nexopia - in Canada;
Bebo - in the UK;
Facebook, Hi5, dol2day - in Germany;
Tagged.com ( English), XING and Skyrock - in different European countries;
Public Broadcasting Service, Orkut, Facebook and Hi5 - in South and Central America (55% of Brazilian network users prefer Orkut);
Friendster, Multiply, Orkut, Xiaonei and Cyworld - in Asia (Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore).

The leaders in the number of users are Facebook (750,000,000), MySpace (255,000,000), Twitter (200,000,000), VKontakte (150,000,000), Windows Live Spaces (120,000,000), Habbo Hotel (121,000,000), Friendster (90,000,000), Hi5 (80,000,000), Tagged.com (70,000,000).

English speaking Russian speaking

• My network

• Connect (there is a Russian-language interface)
• exSlife (there is a Russian-language interface)

• VNet (there is a Russian-language interface)

• Hayland (there is a Russian and English interface)
• Kuku (there is a Russian-language interface)

• Draugiem.lv
• ONE.LV

Subspecies

Service social networks allow users to unite online around their common interests, hobbies, or for various reasons. For example, some sites provide services that allow users to post personal information needed to find partners. Examples: LinkedIn, VKontakte.

Commercial social networks are focused on supporting business transactions and building people's trust in brands by taking into account their opinions about the product, how to make it better, etc., thereby allowing consumers to participate in the promotion of the product and increasing their awareness.

Advertising

For advertisers, social networks provide unique opportunities to reach consumers directly. Every day, millions of users conduct conversations about companies, their products and services, sharing their opinions and impressions. As a result, an individual member of the online community can ruin (or vice versa) the reputation of a company with a multimillion-dollar turnover.

The size of the advertising market on social networks is growing steadily. In 2007, according to estimates from the analytical company eMarketer, it reached $1.225 billion. When compiling the report, eMarketer experts took into account all types of advertising placed on social networks, including display, contextual and video advertising, as well as the costs of marketing projects in which marketers create profiles for their products and brands on social networks. In addition, the forecasts take into account the costs of creating widgets and applications for the first time. According to a recent eMarketer study, the total revenue of social networks from advertising in 2011 will reach $5.54 billion. According to eMarketer forecasts, the size of the advertising market in social networks will double by 2013.

Currently, companies in sectors such as consumer goods, liquor manufacturers, automakers, and entertainment companies are showing the greatest interest in social networks. Until recently, consumer brands have not pursued an aggressive advertising policy on the Internet, but for 2009 many of them have planned budgets for marketing on social networks.

The growth of advertising on social networks is leading to a squeeze on budgets. Such popular platforms for advertising as search networks, websites of large newspapers and magazines, and online media are now forced to reduce advertising budgets or adapt to the realities of Web 2.0, optimizing their sites for social media functionality.

Dangers

Many people do not understand that the information they post on social networks can be found and used by anyone, including those who may not have good intentions. Information about members of social networks can be found by their employers, parents, children, former or current wives or husbands, debt collectors, criminals, law enforcement agencies, and so on.

For example, there is a known case where a criminal looked for women who looked similar to herself, killed them and sold their apartments.

There is a known case of the manifestation of psychosomatic disorders due to addiction to communication on social networks. In Belgrade, user Svetlana Pavlović ended up in a psychiatric clinic after her post on the social network Facebook did not arouse interest among her friends. The clinic’s doctors called this case “Svetlana syndrome,” explaining the patient’s behavior as ordinary stress from the dissatisfaction of an individual’s social needs in the modern world.

Some employers prohibit the use of social networks - not only to save money, but also to prevent information leakage.

D. Boyd, based on survey materials in 16 US states, concluded that there are two main “fears” caused by social networks: sexual harassment and information confidentiality. Content analysis of periodicals in Denmark allowed M. Larsen to compile a list of the most frequently mentioned problems in connection with social networks, which include: sexual violence and pedophilia, intimidation and harassment, threats and violence, the spread of nationalist ideas. K. Fuchs, during an online survey of German and Austrian students, received the following list of risks: data confidentiality, the spread of spam, the possibility of losing personal information, creating a negative image, Internet addiction. S.V. Bondarenko, based on a study of virtual online communities in the south of Russia, concluded that there are the following forms of manifestation of deviant behavior: hacking, violation of secrecy, defamation, cyber terrorism, computer pedophilia. A survey conducted on the State University-Higher School of Economics portal showed that, according to respondents, networks are “delaying” and take up too much time,” crowd out real communication, and provide “redundancy of communication and information.” “Privacy issues,” the report mentions, “are less of a concern for social media users. Basically, these fears are related to the easy availability of contact information for spammers, and not to the work of intelligence services."

Applications

Social software is a wide range of software systems that allow users to interact and share data. This method of computer-mediated interaction has become popular with the advent of social sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Odnoklassniki.ru, media sites Flickr and YouTube, and commercial sites eBay.

Many of these applications share common characteristics such as open APIs, service-oriented design, and the ability to host data and media files remotely. Such applications are usually classified as Web 2.0 systems.

Within social software, two groups of software tools can be distinguished: communication and interactive.

Communication tools are used to record, store and present communication data, most often in text form, but increasingly in audio and video formats.

Interactive tools are used to support data-mediated (various media formats) interaction between individuals and their groups. In contrast to communication tools, the emphasis is on supporting the connectedness of users and the communication mechanisms between them. In contrast to communication tools, which are typically asynchronous, interactive tools are predominantly synchronous, allowing users to interact in real time (as in the case of Internet telephony, video chats, etc.) or almost synchronously (instant messaging services, text chats, etc.) . P.).

The following examples of software systems that belong to social software can be mentioned:

• Instant messaging systems (IM - Instant messaging) allow you to communicate with another user over the network in real time (in a relatively secure mode). The most popular of them include Skype, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, Miranda IM. Business-oriented systems include IBM Lotus Sametime, Microsoft Messenger and Jabber.
• Internet chats (IRC - Internet Relay Chat) allow several users to communicate simultaneously in real time.
• Internet forums have replaced electronic conferences (which arose before the advent of the WWW). A forum user can create a new "topic" that is accessible to others. Other users can view the topic and leave their comments in sequential recording mode.
• Web blogs, or blogs for short, can be thought of as personal online journals of individual users. The blog owner can post messages in his journal, while other users (readers) can leave comments on them.
• Wiki directories (wikis), or simply wikis, are essentially websites whose content can be edited by site visitors. The most famous example is Wikipedia.

IDC experts predict that the market for marketing and business applications for social networks will grow in the coming years. “Social media is becoming more popular and applications are emerging for a variety of purposes, which will continue to grow this market,” said Rachel Happe, research manager at IDC. “We expect applications for various marketing companies and firms, as well as enterprise applications, to become popular soon.”

In addition, the report states that the growth of the social networking applications market will slow down only by 2011.

see also

Notes