By David Dizon, abs-cbnNEWS.com | 11/04/2009 6:48 PM
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MANILA - The number of Facebook users in the Philippines continues to surge with over 1.3 million Filipinos registering for new accounts in the social networking site in September alone.
Data from the Facebook Global Monitor showed that Facebook users in the Philippines grew by 31.25 percent or a total of 1,377,260 new users from September 1 to October 1, 2009. This made the Philippines the number one country in Asia in terms of growth in Facebook users for the month.
Taiwan registered the second highest number of new Facebook registrants in September, with 1,377,260 new users.
The total number of Facebook users in the Philippines as of October 1 now stands at 5,784,560. The Philippines has the third highest number of Facebook users in Asia, trailing top-ranked Indonesia (9,713,590 users) and Australia (6,926,620 users).
Facebook is also ranked as the number one most visited website in the Philippines, according to Alexa.com. (http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/PH)
Inside Facebook co-editor Eric Eldon said the rise in Facebook users in the region could be attributed to the popularity of Facebook gaming applications such as FarmVille, My Fishbowl, Restaurant City, and Pet Life.
"Developers active in the region have told us that many users are playing Facebook because of the games, and many don’t even realize that the games are not hosted and owned by Facebook," he said in an October 15 post.
RP is 13th highest Facebook user
Nick Burcher, head of the VNC UK and Products/Partnerships EMEA at VivaKi in London, said the Philippines is 13th in the world in terms of number of Facebook users.
In an e-mail interview, Burcher said Facebook was originally popular in English speaking markets like the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia as well as places like Sweden, Norway and Denmark where English is not a barrier to use.
He said the launch of Facebook's translation program in February 2008 allowed the site to grow its user base in non-English speaking countries.
"Facebook users translated the platform into different languages using the 'Translation Application.' The first languages were Spanish, German, French, Dutch and Italian. Growth in these countries was huge, with Italy increasing by 906 percent in just six months. Filipino is one of the languages that is now available and this has coincided with enormous growth," he told abs-cbnNEWS.com.
Burcher said Facebook growth tends to be viral, with new users inviting other friends to join. He said user numbers tend to grow exponentially once they have hit a certain critical mass.
He said the Philippines has a history of social networking due to the popularity of sites such as Friendster and Multiply. He added, however, that the functionality of Facebook, especially the Facebook Apps that are available "seems to have struck a chord and the rapid increase in Filipino users is impressive." David Dizon, abs-cbnNEWS.com
Well no wonder that so many Filipinos already migrates in Facebook,, coz it offers so many nice features,, just like sharing of thoughts, photo comments, games, and chat.. In facebook you can do lots of things sometimes you could get infos from your facebook friends and you can know their whereabouts.. You can also watch videos..
Submitted by cezbrstol on Wed, 11/04/2009 - 22:25.ces
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