Social Media in Europe
Since I’ve moved to the United States, social media has become a larger part of my life. Not just because I have to keep in touch with my friends and family at home, but because people in the U.S. are great at using social media for business purposes and to communicate. I found an article about social media in Europe and the first thing I thought was; I have to blog about this.
It’s commonly known that social media is the new tool to connect and reach your target group. You might even say that we have entered the social media era and platforms like Facebook and Twitter will play the lead part in future business, as well as our personal lives. In Europe, Facebook and Twitter are gaining more members every day, which allows the U.S. to globalize their social media strategy and focus their international marketing on European Facebook and Twitter members. The social media branch is growing in Europe and is becoming an increasingly beneficial marketing tool for companies.
The article says: “According to comScore Facebook is the most popular social network in 11 out of 17 European countries. Other social networks are feeling the pain of the Facebook growth but still play an important role.”
Despite the size and success of the United States’ most popular social network, local European social sites aren’t struggling as much as you’d think. So, what kind of social media sites should you target? Here are some facts about European based social media sites from the article to help you:
“Skyrock lost a lot of visitors to Facebook, but is still a dominant player. It has 22.6m French users. 30% of them also use Facebook, but the majority can be found on this French site.”
“In Spain Facebook has become the biggest social network in the past year. Two years ago Tuenti was the most popular. Tuenti has ‘only’ 6.8m users where Facebook has 10.5m- but why leave out 6.8m users?”
“In Germany StudiVZ Group is still market leader.”
“Holland, one of the smallest countries in Europe has the most loyal fans when it comes to their home based social network. Hyves still has twice as many users as Facebook in the Netherlands. A remarkable number which can be largely explained by the deep roots they have.”
According to the Financial Times, the Dutch based Network Hyves has made a profit over the past four years. I am a Dutch citizen and I am not surprised at all about these results. Almost every Dutch citizen is found on Hyves, despite age or occupation. If I wanted to search for Dutch people for information about businesses, or just looking for friends, I would start at Hyves.
In 2008, I worked as an intern at Myspace Holland and was very curious about the development of social media in Europe as Myspace was establishing offices throughout Europe, mainly to gain more members. But what was supposed to be a 5 month internship was cut down to a two month internship. What happened? Myspace Holland was supposed to beat Hyves in users, content, and advertisers. They pulled the plug on the Myspace Holland office since they only had 500,000 users after 2 years, while Hyves was still the leader with 7 million users, which amounts to about a third of the entire population of The Netherlands.
Facebook and Twitter are growing in popularity in Europe, but we should not forget that the home based social networks are still good functioning channels to reach your European audience.
By Mick van Est
Very interesting article! As a Dutch Interactive Media student, I still find it remarkable that the majority of people in Holland choose Hyves as their primary social media network. Besides the fact that I think Hyves has the crappiest usability, why do most people choose a national network over a global network like Facebook?
ChrisGreat summary. I would add a couple of things, ie that there is a similar effect going on with professional [as opposed to leisure] networks. In Germany, for example, Xing is often preferred to LinkedIn.
Also, I heard some research recently that gives you a fuller perspective on the Hyves sitation in Holland: over the same period, Hyves grew 30% while FB grew 300%. It appears to be going FB’s way, even though Hyves has a particularly strong national membership to start with.
My personal opinion is that it will balance out, as it always does. FB may well become the dominant global player [it is already] but as it reduces Hyves, Tuenti et al to niche players, they will become more attractive for it. They will address national and cultural issues more effectively and, of course, FB will always be seen as the US invader. Proud of your nation? Use your local social network. I believe that will always be a factor.
Interesting post – got me thinking. Thanks!
John
John BottomHi John and Chris – thanks for your comments! John – you’re absolutely right about Facebook taking over the local European networks, but I question whether using the local networks is really a matter of being ”proud of your nation” as every professional and internationally orientated person in Holland is already on Facebook. The power of Hyves is that it is for everybody. I know people 80 years old using Hyves. A lot of local sportclubs and other small organizations or clubs also have a Hyves account. Being a national network instead of a international network is far more attractive for the average Joe whose focus is purely on The Netherlands. He can find his local sport club, his local bar, and his local friends on Hyves, so what else does he need?
Myspace tried to take over the Dutch social media market and lost. While Myspace has a lot more to offer than Hyves as a networking site, Hyves connects the whole Netherlands. Like you said though, eventually it will all balance out. Facebook is the future and it’s hard to compete with a networking site of 7 million people!
Mick van Est