WORLDWIDE Opportunity on the net. If you and your friends are on Hi5.com...

This is PERFECT!!

www.Hi5.com is the fastest growing social networking site in South America. We find that www.hi5.com is probably the most fun of all the social networking sites. Often searched as www.HiFive.com or just HiFive.

The map on the right is a neat find by the Le Monde newspaper in France, originally created by the research firm Datamonitor. What it’s showing is the number of hours (in millions) users spend on social networks across five major worldwide regions, and which site reigns supreme within different countries. www.Hi5.com is a social networking site with huge growth in South and Latin America.

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While it re-confirms much of what we know (MySpace has a slight lead on Facebook in North America, Orkut is really popular in Brazil and India, etc.), it also brings into focus sites we rarely talk about in the US-centric media. For instance, Cyworld and Mixi are the #2 and #4 social networks in Asia-Pacific, while Netlog, Yonja, and Skyblog are #3, 4, and 5 in Africa, respectively. And, in addition to being really popular in Latin America, www.hi5.com is apparently #1 in Mongolia. We find many Latin American internet searchers looking for www.HiFive.com.

With international expansion as a top priority for the likes of Facebook and MySpace, the entrenched, highly localized competition they will be going up against will be an interesting battle to watch.

Note the great breakouts for regional usage by social networking sites. Let’s use those estimates to calculate aggregate global usage:

MySpace 299 million users / month

Facebook 228 million users / month

Orkut 221 million users / month

Friendster 90 million users / month

Bebo 87 million users / month

Cyworld 74 million users / month

HI5 49 million users / month - HIFIVE.com

So the top 7 social networking sits have just over ONE BILLION regular monthly users. We don’t have enough information to say how much duplication is happening with unique visitors between sites, but it’s looking like almost ¼ of the world’s population is now involved in some type of social network activity. Not that there’s not room for growth – take a look at the big “open” spaces in South Africa, almost all of Africa, much of Eastern Europe and Russia, as well as China.

I think we can rule out social networking as being a “fad” with this much usage taking place on a monthly basis.Especially at www.HiFive.com, growing fast. The big question remains – “How can my business use social networks to facilitate 1-to-many conversations?” After reviewing the map and statistics above, I believe there’s an even more elementary question that business leaders need to ask – “Knowing what I know now about global social network usage, which platforms should I look at on a regional level to speak with my potential customers where THEY are using social networks?” After that question is answered, the process of communication becomes infinitely more complex – not only do you need to focus your social networking marketing efforts in the applicable language, but on the applicable platforms as well.

The best advice I can provide you with is to research the social networking sites in regions that apply directly to your business. Learn what is acceptable and what is not from a business marketing perspective on these sites, and create a strategy for your company to embrace each opportunity just a little bit differently.

Watch HI5.com as it grows out of the mainly untapped South American social networking market.

www.Hi5.com or www.HiFive.com for a growing spanish speaking online social network.