However, its quarterly growth has been sliding steadily in 2011, from 17% in Quarter 1 to 8% in Quarter 4. In Quarter 4 2010, it was growing at 21%.

2010 was the year when Facebook went on hyper-drive growth on users acquisition front in Asia. However, 2011 was the year when Facebook downshifted a gear or two. The decline is expected to continue as many Asian nations are reaching saturation level.

Total Facebook users in Asia increased from 168 million on October 1 2011 to 181 million on December 31 2011, a quarterly growth rate of 8%.

Indonesia continues to be the top Asian country on Facebook with 42 million users. But India will dethrone Indonesia soon.

Facebook users in India has been growing by the double digits throughout 2011. On January 1 2011, India has 17 million Facebook users. By the end of the year, the country has 41 million users!

Other than India, eight other countries registered double digits growth throughout 2011, namely Thailand, Japan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Cambodia, Mongolia, Afghanistan, and Laos (see Table 3). However, only three countries are growing at rates higher in Quarter 4 compared to Quarter 3, namely Japan, South Korea and Mongolia. And South Korea registered the highest single quarter growth of 82% in Quarter 1 2011.

How accurate are these estimations? Read here.

Facebook in Asia: A Growth Story (2011) originally appeared on GreyReview.com on January 1, 2012.

Facebook now has over 800 million users worldwide, with 168 million are from Asia. In Quarter 3 this year, Facebook added 16.8 million new users in Asia (compared to 19.5 million in Quarter 2 2011). So far this year, the social network has added some 56 million new users; it started the year with 111 million Asian users. Its latest quarter-on-quarter growth rate is 11%. However, the rate has been somewhat slowing since end of 2010 – from 24% in Quarter 4 2010 to 17% Q1’11 to 15% Q2’11 to 11% Q3’11.

1. 57% of Facebook users in Asia can be found in the Southeast Asia region.
2. Internet users in India continue to embrace Facebook. As of end of Quarter 3 this year, India has a total of 36.4 million Facebook users, which is 4 million less than Indonesia. India will very soon surpass Indonesia to become the top Facebook country in Asia (and third-largest in the world).
3. Thailand surpassed Malaysia to become the 4th largest Facebook nation in Asia.
4. Users growth in Malaysia continues to stuck at single-digit. And Taiwan is challenging Malaysia for No. 5 in the list.
5. Facebook users in Japan continue to show impressive growth rate at 26%. In Quarter 2, users population grew by 33%. On January 01 this year, there were 1.8 million Facebook users in Japan. By the end of Quarter 3, total users jumped to 4.8 million.
6. Vietnamese Facebook users grew by 51% in Quarter 3 2011 and will soon replace Singapore in 11th rank.

How accurate are these estimations? Read here.

Facebook in Asia: Latest Stats on Total Users by Country [Quarter 3 2011] originally appeared on GreyReview.com on October 1, 2011.

Here are some photos of iPad 2 queues at some of the Apple reseller stores today in Kuala Lumpur / Klang Valley areas.

Machines, Suria KLCC

photo by Daniel Riveong on Twitter.

photo by Machines on Facebook.

Machines, Sunway Pyramid

photo by Ramakrishnan CN on Facebook.

photo by Andrew Lee on Twitter.

Machines, Mid-Valley

photo by Machines on Facebook.

photo by Lowyat.NET on Twitter.

photo by Sharine L. on Twitter.

Machines, Lot 10

photo by YH Lim.

Switch, The Mines

photo by Muhammad Hijazi on Twitter.

Macstudio, Berjaya Times Square

photo by YH Lim.

Mac City, 1Utama

photo by Mei Ng on Facebook.

Macstudio, Low Yat Plaza

photo by YH Lim.

iPad 2 Sold Out notices

photo by YH Lim.

iPad 2 swarms in Malaysia: Launch Day [Photos] originally appeared on GreyReview.com on April 29, 2011.

Some observations:

• A total of 19 Asian countries in the 2010-2011 NRI list, out of 138 countries worldwide.
• 5 Asian countries are in the top 20 of this year’s NRI list – Singapore (2nd), Taiwan (5), South Korea (10), Hong Kong (12), and Japan (19).
• Singapore is the most networked nation in Asia. The Southeast Asian city-state ranked second in the world, behind Sweden.
• Singapore is also the only Asian country ranked higher than the United States (no. 5 worldwide).
• Malaysia ranked first among Upper-middle Income group of countries. Malaysia is also the only upper-middle income country in the top 30 overall. The country’s score increased from 4.65 in 2010 to 4.74 in 2011.
• According to the report, Malaysia “places 10th for ICT readiness of the society as a whole. Among the main stakeholders, the government is showing the way. ICT plays a critical role in its Wawasan 2020 (Vision 2020) plan for Malaysia to become high-income economy by 2020″ (p. 24; WEF, 2011).
• Indonesia leaped 14 places to 53 this year, with improvements across the three NRI components.

According to the WEF report, the underlying principles of the Networked Readiness Index are:

• An ICT-conducive environment is a key precondition of network readiness.
• Networked readiness requires a society-wide effort.
• ICT readiness leads to ICT usage and increased impact.

The Index comprises to three subindexes, namely:

1. Environment subindex:
   • Market environment
   • Political & regulatory environment
   • Infrastructure environment
2. Readiness subindex:
   • Individual readiness
   • Business readiness
   • Government readiness
3. Usage subindex:
   • Individual usage
   • Business usage
   • Government usage

The final NRI score is a simple average of the three composing subindex scores, while each subindex’s score is a simple average of those of the composing pillars. In doing this, we assume that all Index components give a similar contribution to national networked readiness. (p. 6, WEF, 2011)

The Global Information Technology Report 2010 – 2011: Transformation 2.0 (Full report)

2011 Networked Readiness Index by World Economic Forum: How Networked is Asia? originally appeared on GreyReview.com on April 13, 2011.

This is the latest edition of Facebook in Asia series. The followings are some interesting observations of Facebook growth in Asia in the first three months of 2011:

• The latest estimated number of Facebook users in Asia: 131.3 million.
• Total Facebook users grew by 17.3% in the Quarter 1 2011, which is slightly less than the 21.4% in the previous quarter (Quarter 4 2010).
• Indonesia continues to lead with 35.2 million users. Second-placed India with 23 million, followed by Philippines (22.4 million), Malaysia (10.1 million) and Taiwan (9.1 million)
• India grew by 35.7% in the first three months of 2011 and overtook the Philippines as the Asian nation with the second largest Facebook users. India is poised to overtake leader Indonesia by end of 2011, IF the nation continues with double-digit growth rates in the next three quarters.
• South Korea leapfrogged Singapore, Pakistan and Hong Kong to 7th place. The country’s Facebook users grew by a whopping 82% in Quarter 1 of 2011. Facebook users in South Korea are growing at blistering pace since Quarter 2 2010 (grew by 66% in Quarter 2 2010).
• Malaysia exceeds the 10 million users mark.
• The Japanese people are fast embracing Facebook. On October 1 2010, Japan has 1.4 million Facebook users. Six months later, the Land of the Rising Sun has over 2.8 million users. Of course, this is still pale in comparison to the 21 million users of Mixi, Japan’s home-grown social network.
• Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, and Macau are showing decline in estimated total Facebook users between January 01 2011 and April 01 2011. As with other countries, estimated Facebook users figures were extracted at the specified dates. So, I’m unsure why these countries are showing the declines.

Facebook in Asia, Estimated Total Users by Country – Quarter 1 2011

Latest Estimates for Facebook Users by Country – Asia (Quarter 1 2011) originally appeared on GreyReview.com on April 5, 2011.

In November 2010, Indonesia overtook the UK to become the world’s second largest market for Facebook (behind the United States.) In Quarter 4 2010, over 5 million new users from world’s fourth most populous nation joined Facebook. Indonesia also widened its gap with second-place Philippines over the last 3 months. In November 01 2010, the gap between Indonesia and second-place Philippines was 11,901,900 users. Now, the gap is 13,227,560.

Today, there are over 32 million Indonesians using Facebook. Philippines is behind Indonesia, with over 18 million, followed by India (16.9 million), Malaysia (9.5 million) and Taiwan (8.7 million).

Facebook Population in Asia
Total Users (as of January 01 2011 and October 01 2010) and Total New Users

In Quarter 4 2010, Facebook users in South Korea grew by 60%. South Korea is poised to overtake Singapore to rank 9th in the Facebook in Asia list. Second fastest growing Asian nation on Facebook is Cambodia at 51%, followed by Afghanistan (45%), Mongolia (44%) and Vietnam (42%). All countries experienced double-digit growth in Q4 2010, except Singapore (7.2%) and Macau (4.2%).

Top 10 Facebook Users Growth Rate in Asia
Between October 01 2010 and January 01 2011

Over 111 million Facebook users in Asia on New Year’s Day; Slowing growth, Indonesia widens lead and South Korea on hyper-growth originally appeared on GreyReview.com on January 1, 2011.

Indonesia continues to top the Facebook Population in Asia list with 29.8 million users. Although the country is fast approaching the 30 million user mark, the most populous Southeast Asian nation continues to show impressive 12.2% growth rate (the 10th highest among the Asian nations). During the month of October 2010, Indonesia registered the highest increase of % of Total Facebook Population in Asia, an increase of 0.3 percentage point, from 28.9% to 29.2% (India increased by 0.2 percentage point and Japan with 0.1).

Cambodia registered the highest growth rate at 24.6%, followed by Afghanistan (23.3%), Mongolia (19.7%), Japan (19.6%) and South Korea (18.9%). And Bangladesh joined the 1-million users group in October 2010. As of now, there are a total of 13 countries in Asia with over a million Facebook users.

Facebook Population in Asia
Total Users (as of October 01 2010 and November 01 2010) and % Month-on-Month Growth

(Image credits: Facebook Login Hut and Asia Maps)

Facebook exceeds 100 million users in Asia; added 10 million users in October 2010 originally appeared on GreyReview.com on November 3, 2010.

Between March and June this year, Thailand replaced Hong Kong as the sixth largest Facebook users in Asia, Pakistan replaced Singapore in no. 8 spot, and South Korea jumped from no. 13 to no. 11, replacing Vietnam. Also, Malaysia is fast approaching Taiwan to become the fourth largest Asian country on Facebook.

Fastest Growing Asian Countries on Facebook originally appeared on GreyReview.com on June 2, 2010.

comScore reported the total global unique users of Twitter.com has reached 60 million. However, Fred Wilson argued that “Twitter ecosystem is about 3x Twitter.com.” Twitter ecosystem refers to all interactions with Twitter APIs, via the plethora of third-party Twitter apps i.e. Tweetdeck, bit.ly, Facebook, iPhone apps, etc. Wilson went on to summarize:

You can talk about Twitter.com and then you can talk about the Twitter ecosystem. One is a web site. The other is a fundamental part of the Internet infrastructure. And the latter is 3-5x bigger than the former and that delta is likely to grow even larger.

Let’s assume that Twitter ecosystem is 3-times the size of Twitter.com. With comScore’s 60 million unique visitors worldwide at Twitter.com, the Twitter ecosystem is estimated at 180 million. The total Twitter users across the globe (Twitter.com + Twitter ecosystem) is 240 million!

The table below weaves together Sycomos’ report, comScore’s estimate and Fred Wilson’s Twitter ecosystem. The “% Twitter Users” is derived from Sycomos’ report and the total Twitter users is based on 240 million users worldwide. Indonesia with 5.6 million users, followed by Japan (3.5 million) and India (2.3 million). Malaysia with 6th largest Twitter population in Asia with estimated 1.1 million users (and this is far, far, far more than my previous estimate of Twitter population in Malaysia). And the estimated total Twitter users in Asia is 18.6 million.

Asian Countries, by % of Twitter Users and Total Users

Mashup of figures from different reports to derive estimates potentially lead to inaccurate conclusions (different reports with different sets of assumptions and methodologies). However, Sysocomos’ “% of Twitter users” gives us some ideas on Twitter use across Asia. With the percentage, at least we can derive Twitter population size by country, using the conservative comScore’s 60 million, plus-ecosystem’s 240 million or any other estimates out there. ¶ @zhiQ

UPDATE April 20 2010: See the latest estimates of Twitter users in Asia here.

UPDATE Feb 20 2010: Based on Google, the estimated, unduplicated number of people who visited Twitter.com over a 1-month period:
1. Japan: 9.9 million users
2. Indonesia: 5.1 million
3. India: 4.2 million
4. South Korea: 1.5 million
5. Philippines: 1.3 million
6. Thailand: 910k
7. Malaysia: 910k
8. China: 680k
9. Singapore: 240k

Image from textually.org.

Twitter in Asia: Total Users, by Country originally appeared on GreyReview.com on January 26, 2010.