Facebook blasts into top position in Brazilian social networking market

"Facebook's rapid ascent in the Brazilian market has certainly been one of the most interesting stories to develop during the course of 2011," said Alex Banks, comScore managing director for Brazil. "Brazil has always been a particularly social market and currently owns the fifth largest social networking population in the world. However, despite the cultural affinity for social media, Facebook adoption had traditionally lagged in the market. That has all changed in the past year, during which the site has tripled in audience size as engagement has grown sevenfold to assume the leadership position in the market."

Facebook.com, Orkut and Windows Live Profile Lead Social Networking Rankings

Results from the recent comScore study It's a Social World revealed that Brazil was one of just seven markets (including China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Poland and Russia) where Facebook did not lead the local social networking category according to October 2011 data. (For additional information, have a look at The power of like.)

In December 2011, however, Facebook.com finally secured the top position in Brazil's social networking ranking with 36.1 million visitors age 6 and older accessing the site from a home or work computer, nearly tripling in audience size in the past year. Orkut, which fell to the #2 position with 34.4 million visitors, still managed to grow its audience 5% in the past year despite Facebook's growing prominence. Windows Live Profile ranked third with 13.3 million visitors (up 13%), while Twitter.com ranked fourth with 12.5 million visitors (up 40%).

Vostu.com and Tumblr.com both achieved triple-digit audience increases with Vostu.com growing 338% to 4.9 million visitors and Tumblr.com growing 206% to 4 million visitors. New to the scene in 2011, Google Plus attracted 4.3 million visitors during December 2011, with Brazil ranking as one of the top global markets for the social network by audience size. The combined unduplicated audience of Google Plus and Orkut was 34.9 million visitors, still trailing Facebook.

*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs

Facebook.com visitors average nearly 5 hours on the site in December

Facebook.com saw impressive growth across all major metrics during the past year, including significant increases in audience engagement. In December 2011, an average visitor to Facebook.com spent 4.8 hours on the site, surging from just 37 minutes in December 2010. Visitors consumed an average of 500 pages of content on the site during December (up 655%), and visited the site an average of 27 times during the month (up nearly 163%).

*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs

Profile of a Facebook.com visitor in Brazil

A closer look at visitors to Facebook.com revealed that females averaged more time on the site at 5.3 hours compared to 4.1 hours for males, mirroring a broader global dynamic of females' heavier social networking engagement. People between the ages of 25-34 accounted for the largest share of visitors to Facebook.com at 30.6% of the total audience, while visitors age 15-24 averaged the most time on the site at 6.2 hours per visitor in December.

Geographically, visitors from Rio de Janeiro and Distrito Federal displayed the highest levels of engagement with the site averaging 5.1 hours on the site during the month. Visitors from São Paulo accounted for more than one-third of all Facebook.com visitors.

Banks continued, "We saw Facebook's audience surpass that of Orkut in Brazil's Southeast region before the site became the category leader for the entire country. While the Southeast was undoubtedly the region where Facebook's ascension to the top of the category began, we have seen that now only half of Facebook's Brazilian page views come from this region compared to more than 75% a year ago, demonstrating the widespread adoption of the site throughout the country."

*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs