Chapter 2

Understanding Global Social Media Use

You cannot effectively use something that you do not understand. Using social media to solve complex security problems requires understanding exactly what social media is and how people use it, especially in the developing world. This chapter should serve as a reference guide for all things social media as you think about how to construct and apply various analytical methods and crowdsourcing platforms. It defines social media technologies, explains its growth and appeal, shows the different types of social media technologies, and illustrates how they are used in every part of the world. We also sprinkle various tips and advice applicable to any relevant social media and security project throughout the chapter.

Defining Social Media

Social media is fast becoming a term that means everything to everyone, and thus does not really mean anything anymore. By defining social media, we want to focus the scope of this book and the resulting efforts, and to ensure you use only the most relevant and appropriate technologies. Also, the term “social media” tends to have a Western bias that should be overcome. News articles and books about social media likely discuss Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other platforms that Western users use heavily. However, they ignore social media platforms, such as Orkut, that are popular in only certain parts of the world, and platforms built around texting technology, such as South Africa's Motribe or MXit.

Social media is all the devices and platforms that allow users globally to virtually create and share information with each other. Platforms are the virtual spaces that allow users to come together, and create and share information. Devices are the computing technologies that enable users to access the platform.

Social media differs from traditional media such as newspapers in its ability to allow for spontaneous and easy two-way or multiple-way interaction. Using social media such as Twitter, the president of the United States can talk to you and you can talk back to him. When the president is on television, he can talk to you but you cannot talk back to him. You can try, but people around you will think you are crazy.

Based on the definition, social media technologies encompass a variety of devices and websites—everything from YouTube to cell phones to Twitter to the PlayStation 3. Also, all crowdsourcing platforms are by definition social media platforms. We discuss crowdsourcing in much greater detail in Part III of the book, but for now you should know that crowdsourcing is the act of influencing, incentivizing, and leveraging crowds through social media to provide you with information and help you solve problems. For now, references to building and running crowdsourcing platforms are comparable to building and running social media platforms. We explain why we do not consider all social media platforms to be crowdsourcing platforms when we discuss the different types of platforms.

Another big component inherent in the definition of social media involves the creation and sharing of information. Information on social media is meant to be promiscuous—it can be and often is created by numerous people at different times, and consumed by numerous people at different times. Some social media platforms such as Flickr, a picture-sharing site, broaden the scope of sharing. Users posting pictures on Flickr usually want others, which can include anyone on the Internet, to consume their pictures. Other social media platforms such as Pair focus the scope of sharing. Pair is a smartphone application that enables couples to share messages, pictures, videos, and sketches only with each other. Regardless of whether sharing is broadened or focused, every social media technology allows for the spontaneous creation and sharing of information. This ability has led to the creation and sharing of petabytes of data—more digital information is now created in a day than existed in the entire written works of mankind from the beginning of recorded history. See Figure 2.1 for a graphical representation of the definition of social media.

Figure 2.1 Definition of social media

Grasping Social Media's Popularity and Appeal

Social media's ability to enable people to communicate and share information with each other instantly and easily is the source of its rapid appeal and adoption. Grasping the source of this appeal will help you design crowdsourcing platforms that achieve similar adoption success, and help you identify key insights when analyzing social media data.

Growth of Social Media

Social media emerged out of the Web 2.0 revolution, which was a set of features and applications that promoted interoperability, sharing, and multiple-way communication. Social media existed before Facebook in the form of MySpace and other platforms, but it took off in a big way after 2004 when Facebook was launched. Since then, one out of every five people on earth has started using some form of social media regularly.¹

Statistics for major social media platform use testify to social media's popularity. YouTube receives half a billion visits every month. Half a million new users join Twitter every day. Almost 10 percent of the world's population uses Facebook, resulting in Facebook's membership being larger than the populations of every country except China and India.² Social media's popularity is especially pronounced among the youth, the under–30-year-olds. Young people, who tend to be more open to adopting new technologies, use social media more regularly. Considering that nearly 50 percent of the world's population is under 30, social media use will only continue to boom.³ In some places, social media is so popular that generations of youth do not realize other parts of the Internet exist. While launching a crowdsourcing platform in East Africa, we learned that many young people thought Facebook was synonymous with the Internet. We had to teach them that there was more to the Internet and even how to type in a URL, an unexpected obstacle.

Philosophy Behind Social Media

The reason social media's communication and sharing aspects are so appealing is because they tap into the fundamentals of human nature. They help humans be human. We are social animals and attracted to fostering relationships, communicating, and sharing with others.⁴ Tools that allow us to do that with more people and more easily will naturally be attractive to us.

The fundamental human tendency to share and communicate also helps us organize in a creative and spontaneous way. Two general modes of organization exist—top-down and bottom-up. Each way has its advantages and disadvantages. The top-down or centralized method, analogous to traditional media such as newspapers and television, involves a central authority providing rules, information, and norms that stipulate the behavior of individuals. The resulting behavior is reliable and easy to produce; however, it is rarely creative and truly influential. Many traditional information operations are designed with the top-down method in mind. For instance, news websites such as www.magharebia.com provide a limited set of information to a limited audience. The website creators are in total control of the information provided to visitors, but their ability to creatively engage with and influence visitors is limited. In an age where media consumers are increasingly becoming familiar with and expecting to help create and share media, the top-down method seems increasingly dull and outdated.

The bottom-up or decentralized method, analogous to social media, involves providing individuals with the ability and/or space to come together and organically generate and spread rules, information, and norms. Because no central authority is stipulating limits to individual behaviors, the individuals are free to come up with creative solutions and information at a rapid rate. The resulting behavior is thus risky and to an extent uncontrollable, but usually leads to groundbreaking insights. Social media platforms are the perfect avenue for allowing individuals to come together organically and adopt the bottom-up method. Crowdsourcing, explored in detail in Part III, taps into the ability of individuals to have the freedom to provide information and solutions at a flexible pace. Many of the most successful social media platforms such as LinkedIn use moderators to exercise some centralized control over their users' behaviors, but users still take the lead. When users feel empowered, they are more open to engagement. Applying the bottom-up method to conduct information and other types of operations requires giving up the mentality that you can control everything. You have to take on some risk, but you will receive great rewards for it. See Figure 2.2 for a graphical summary of top-down and bottom-up methods.

Figure 2.2 Top-down and bottom-up methods

Providing your users with freedom allows you to tap into their cognitive surplus, another concept underlying the success of social media. Cognitive surplus relates to the idea that as people globally gain more free time in their daily lives, they will use the time to not only consume but also create.⁵ Due to the spread and adoption of various technologies, people around the world spend less time toiling in fields and working in factories. They use their increased free time to watch television and surf the Internet, but to also create and share information using social media. As globalization continues to spread technologies that create free time, more people than ever before will have the time, energy, and desire to create and share things using social media. You have the opportunity to use social media to tap into people's free time and use the increasing cognitive surplus to solve your most pressing problems. For you, the cognitive surplus could result in your platform users creating discrete intelligence, solutions, and insights relevant to security issues. Also, the existing cognitive surplus harnessed by other platforms could provide you with the data to complete your analysis of countless issues.

Social Media Technologies

The decentralized, creative engine powering the spread and growth of social media has resulted in a proliferation of social media technologies. Understanding the different types of technologies will help you appreciate which type of technology is most relevant to your needs. This section explores the different types of platforms and devices. We provide many more examples in the Appendix.

Platform Types

A platform, as defined earlier, is a virtual meeting ground for social media users. They exist in physical and cloud servers, and may also include a website. A platform provides the ability to create information, process, manage, and store the information, and display all or some of the information. Currently, hundreds of active social media platforms exist, some of which have millions of users, many of which have thousands, and a few of which have hundreds. We have many ways of categorizing and exploring the different types. We have chosen the way that is most relevant to an operator and thus categorized platforms by their main feature and functionality. Most successful platforms combine numerous features and functionalities, and span the categories.

Social Networking

Social networking platforms emphasize and enable users to create relationships and foster their personal and/or business networks—to meet and get to know others. They put the social in social media. Table 2.1 lists examples of social networking platforms and their name for the functionality that allows users to network with others. The most popular social media platforms employ some sort of social networking functionality because, as discussed, humans crave the ability to network with others. This craving and tendency to maintain relationships seduces users and keeps them coming back regularly over a long period of time.

Table 2.1: Social Networking Examples

In many cases, such as Facebook and Google+, the social networks built on the platform reflect the social networks of people offline. In a few cases, such as Second Life, users build largely virtual social networks that do not reflect their social networks offline. Such platforms allow users to remain anonymous and indulge in behaviors they may find embarrassing or lacking in the physical space around them. However, they still allow users to build meaningful virtual relationships with other anonymous users. Social media platforms that do not employ or emphasize a social networking functionality usually focus on acquiring discrete data from populations at irregular intervals.

Twitter is one of the most popular social networking sites in the world and a great source of data. We will rely on it heavily to provide data for social media analysis. If you are not already, you should become familiar with Twitter. See Figure 2.3 for a screenshot of one of our Twitter accounts.

Figure 2.3 Screenshot of Twitter account

Media Platforms

Media platforms emphasize and enable users to create (including upload) and share media with others. Media includes video, pictures, audio, and text. Due to the widespread use of substantial computing power in even the most simple social media devices, multimedia creation and sharing has become commonplace and expected. Table 2.2 lists examples of media platforms and the type(s) of media they allow users to create and/or share. All social media platforms employ some sort of media creation and sharing—it is inherent in the definition of social media. Media is information and social media requires the sharing of information. Many platforms enable users to create and share different types of media simultaneously. The most popular social media platforms employ a mix of media creation and sharing because individuals on the Internet like to engage with different types of media. A variety of media provides users with different types of entertainment and keeps their attention.

Many popular media platforms, such as Flickr, enable users to both create and share media. Some platforms, such as Digg, enable both but emphasize the re-creation of media. The re-creation of media is where the line between creating and sharing a product breaks down and involves mostly informing others about an existing media product. In Digg, users can share with others online news articles, pictures, and videos they find on the Internet. The media these users create are mostly the textual comments that accompany the sharing of the product. News aggregators such as the Huffington Post are also examples of such platforms.

Table 2.2 Media Platforms Examples

Many media platforms enable users to interact with different types of media but become known primarily for one type. For example, YouTube is known for its video-sharing feature but users can also create and share textual information through video comments and profile pages. Some media platforms feature a specific form of one type of media. For example, blogs are generally known to feature the creation and sharing of text. Blogs can feature large textual entries or small textual entries. The former are colloquially called blogs and hosted by services such as WordPress and Blogger, whereas the latter are called microblogs and hosted by services such as Twitter and Tumblr. Some blogs such as Adam Curtis' BBC blog feature essay-length textual entries about complex political issues, whereas Kim Kardashian's Twitter page features 140-character-length textual entries about topics that are definitely not complex political issues.

Location-Based

Location-based platforms emphasize and provide users with various features and functions based on their location in physical, real-world space. Such platforms, popular on smartphones, usually use GPS technology to triangulate a user's approximate physical location. They then either share the location with others openly, use it to provide the user with specific media, and/or use it to geo-tag the media the user shares with others. Table 2.3 lists examples of location-based platforms and why they use your location. Due to the proliferation of smartphones globally and demand for social media that increasingly blends our virtual and real worlds, location-based functionalities are becoming more widespread.

Table 2.3 Location-Based Platform Examples

Currently, location-based platforms are used primarily to help users share their location with their social networks and local businesses. Foursquare is the most prominent example of such a platform. Increasingly, location-based features are being integrated into other social media platforms for the sake of the platform owners. Any interaction users have with these platforms is geo-tagged with their physical location, which allows the platform owners to collect more detailed and sensitive data about their user base. They then sell the data to third parties or use it to tweak the services they deliver to the platform users so it is more relevant and useful to them.

Greater reliance on location-based platforms and features is generating privacy concerns. Some users are concerned that their privacy is being invaded for unscrupulous reasons, and they are wary of further combining their virtual and physical worlds. However, the popularity of location-based platforms and features suggest that privacy concerns are not yet a major issue. Still, remain cautious when implementing location-based features into your platform in case privacy policies and/or norms concerning collecting and leveraging the physical location of users change.

Crowdsourcing is the act of sourcing media from the crowd. It involves incentivizing users through a variety of means to provide the platform owners and others with intelligence and solutions. Whereas other social media platforms focus on enriching the experience of the user, crowdsourcing platforms focus on enriching the collective user base, other individuals, and/or the platform owners by distributing knowledge from one user to others. Crowdsourcing platforms are used to solve a variety of problems, from helping organizations design T-shirts to collecting information from hard-to-reach areas. Table 2.4 lists a few examples of crowdsourcing platforms and what they crowdsource.

Table 2.4 Crowdsourcing Platform Examples

Through a platform and given the right incentive structure, you can crowdsource any and all types of media and knowledge. Most crowdsourcing platforms collect information from users in a variety of formats and also display it and share it in a variety of formats. For instance, Ushahidi's crowdmaps collect textual reports and pictures, and display the information on an interactive map interface.

Crowdsourcing platforms are relative newcomers to the social media world, yet the concept has existed since social media's inception. For instance, Facebook crowdsources information about you and your network and then shares that knowledge with others on Facebook and with advertisers. Increasingly, platforms are making crowdsourcing a specific solution or information set the distinct feature of their platform. For example, the U.S. government's challenge.gov website specifically crowdsources solutions to U.S. government problems, and largely lacks other social media features. Indeed, one of the most popular websites on the Internet, Wikipedia, is simply a giant crowdsourcing platform.

Crowdsourcing platforms are popular because they are explicit in leveraging user expertise and knowledge to solve problems. Many users like feeling important and/or contributing to a cause or someone. They will gladly let others tap into their free time and cognitive surplus. The spread of crowdsourcing platforms to all parts of the world offers exciting opportunities to utilize a diversity of expertise and voices. The applications of crowdsourcing are endless, but can be roughly broken down into eight areas: collective knowledge, collective creativity, community building, open innovation, crowdfunding, crowd tools, cloud labor, and crowd civic engagement.

Combination Platforms

Combination platforms provide users with various combinations of the features available in the aforementioned social media platforms. The most popular social media platforms are combination platforms, and offer users numerous functionalities. It is rare to find a social media platform that is not a combination platform. Some, however, emphasize the combination more than others. Additionally, numerous social media platforms are inter-connected and share information with each other. The content a user creates on one platform can often be found on other platforms. Table 2.5 lists examples of combination platforms and the features they provide.

Table 2.5 Combination Platform Examples

Device Types

People use numerous devices to access social media platforms. Powerful computer devices that can access the Internet have proliferated due to Moore's law. The law is named after Intel co-founder Gordon Moore and is the observation that the number of transistors on integrated circuits or simply computer power seems to double roughly every 18-24 months. Figure 2.4 shows Moore's law in graph form.

Figure 2.4 Moore's Law

Increasingly, every single device has a powerful computer built in, and increasingly that device can talk to the Internet and connect to a social media platform. We will briefly explore the various devices populations use to access social media platforms. You should be familiar with most of the devices we mention, but a few may surprise you.

Desktop Computers and Laptops

The most obvious and traditional computing devices, desktop computers and laptops are the primary means in Western countries to access social media platforms. Traditional computer devices offer increased functionality, which has spurned platform providers to offer more features and integrate their services across software platforms. For example, the Google suite of software platforms enables the user to use his or her Google account to connect to numerous social networking platforms automatically, share connections across the platforms, and share and coordinate media. Laptops have long since beat out desktops as the most commonly used and sold devices.⁶ They increase the appeal of the mobile nature of social media, and therefore encourage social media platforms to focus on offering location-based features and audio-video chatting over wireless. Users favor laptops and desktops for lengthy content creation, suggesting that users in parts of the world where laptop and desktop use is large are more likely to engage in social media platforms that encourage the creation of complex or lengthy content.

The popularity of these devices is limited in the developing world where the relatively high cost of a desktop or laptop is a prohibitive barrier to use. Thus, social media platforms targeted toward the developing world focus more offering access and features that leverage mobile phone technologies. Many developing countries currently make access to desktops available through Internet cafés where access is cheap. However, the prevalence of more powerful mobile technologies will likely stunt the growth and use of Internet cafés.

Gaming Devices and Smart Televisions

In Western countries and in wealthier parts of the developing world, young people are increasingly using gaming consoles with Internet connectivity, such as the X-Box 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii, to access social media platforms. Apart from providing access to third-party social media platforms such as Facebook, the creators of these platforms are also increasingly offering some form of in-house social networking platform for their users. However, these social networking platforms are not very popular. They tend to be overwhelmingly focused on helping gamers connect with each other to play games together, and often lack common features available on mainstream social networking platforms, such as the ability to share pictures with others. Additionally, accessing these platforms is difficult. Gaming devices come with controllers that are designed for mimicking virtual guns and not for typing.

However, the rapid advancements and spread of wireless keyboard, voice recognition and dictation, and movement recognition technology may make it easier to use gaming devices to access game-centric social networking platforms and eventually increase their popularity. Also, smart televisions are emerging and may eventually replace all televisions. They are devices that enable users to easily access the Internet using voice control and motion sensor devices such as the X-Box 360's Kinect system. Because practically every household in the Western world and increasingly in the developing world has a television, the eventual adoption of smart televisions will increase overall connectivity to the Internet. The growth in access, not only in numbers but also in terms of overall time spent connected to the Internet, increases the opportunities to tap into the emerging cognitive surplus.

Tablets

Tablet computers, including the iPad, Samsung's Galaxy Tab, Barnes and Noble's Nook Tablets, Kindle, and a number of other devices have rocked the computing world in recent years. These devices feature elegant touch interfaces, impressive computing power, wireless Internet connectivity, often some kind of 3G or 4G connectivity, and are incredibly light and portable. Most of these devices enable users to access third-party social media platforms such as Twitter through integrated applications. Due to their popularity and portability, they are rapidly becoming the primary means of connecting to social media and the Internet. The tablet revolution is not limited to the Western world. Low-cost and durable tablets such as the Ubi-Slate and Aakash Tablet (manufactured in India and sold at a price of $35-$60 USD) are enabling poor people in rural areas to participate in the wider social media world. The cheap tablets are creating a leveling effect where children and youth in rural Indonesia will be able to connect and share at the same level as a spoiled teenager in the suburbs of Beverly Hills.

Smartphones

Ever since Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone in 2007, the smartphone has revolutionized mobile technology and made people ever more dependent on computers. Smartphones are the powerful, feature-rich cell phones that enable users to access the Internet, make phone calls, and play games. In the Western world, the smartphone is becoming the main access point to the Internet, especially to social media. Because of reduced design and manufacturing costs, the smartphone is quickly finding a foothold in even the poorest areas of the world, and in about a decade will likely be ubiquitous globally. Google is currently dedicated to creating a smartphone specifically for the developing world.⁷

Due to the popularity and spread of smartphones and of other cell phones, many developing countries are leap-frogging traditional land-line infrastructure and wired connectivity, and going directly to mobile technology. Some parts of the developing world have powerful 4G wireless networks that put the United States' mobile networks to shame. Mobile networks in the developing world will soon host much of the world's social media traffic. In the developing world, the youngest generation today will likely grow up using smartphones, and will use them to access social media at unprecedented rates. Most will not own a smart television or gaming system, nor will they have the inclination to do so. They will be mobile, active, and opinionated—and ready to express themselves through their phones. Additionally, they will primarily use their phones to access and share imagery and text. Voice data plans will likely remain expensive but data and texting plans will remain inexpensive. Increasingly, the social media data you collect and analyze will come from smartphones, and will likely consist of various types of media and contain location information, because smartphone users are more likely to share their location with others.

The number and variety of smartphones and corresponding operation systems will continue to grow. Although the interfaces and applications will vary, access to social media platforms including messaging systems will be omnipresent and device agnostic.

“Dumb phones”

“Dumb phones” are cell phones that have less computing power, memory, functionality, and Internet accessibility than smartphones. Before the iPhone and Android phones came along, you were probably using a dumb phone. Dumb phones are arguably the most widely used device globally. They are more popular than other devices because they are inexpensive, easy to use, require access to only mobile networks and not the Internet, and are widely available.

Dumb phones are extremely popular in the non-Western world, and in some cases essential for people to do everything from keeping in touch with friends to banking. People primarily use dumb phones for texting (sending short messages to either other individuals or organizations), also known as SMS (short messaging service). Many service providers provide inexpensive texting plans that include group messaging and social network messaging. GroupOn is an example of a popular group texting platform. Organizations are also creating forms and polls for dumb phones that users can fill out using only texts. Some countries such as Kenya use dumb phones to make mobile payments (M-Pesa) or provide and collect data on market prices (M-Farm).

Vehicles and Augmented Reality Devices

Predicting which technology will be widespread in the future is difficult, but we can say with some certainty that social media will become integrated with motor vehicles and augmented reality devices. Many new cars contain impressive internal computers that enable users to control the cars through mobile devices such as smartphones, and connect to the Internet through an interface built into the car's dashboard. Despite the dangers, people like to text and surf the Internet while driving. To minimize the danger, automakers have started building in systems that enable drivers to post to social media platforms or have their Facebook and Twitter feeds and incoming text messages read to them and accessed hands-free. Airlines have also realized that they can keep their passengers docile and the kid behind you from kicking your seat by offering Internet access during flights, which increases overall social media connectivity.

Augmented reality devices are an indication that emerging technologies will continue to alter the way in which the virtual world and reality intersect. Augmented reality devices generally overlay the virtual world over reality, and enable users to access information in virtual space while still fully engaging in physical space. One of the most buzz-worthy prototypes thus far, Google's Glasses, enables users to access and interact with their social networks and the rest of the virtual world through a small screen positioned close to the eye, which is partially controlled through eye movement or brain waves. The screen, the lens of the glasses, is also one-way transparent, which keeps others from seeing what the user is seeing. This device and similar objects push information to users based on their location and many pre-programmable cues (for example, they can read reviews of stores and restaurants as they walk by), or even potentially identify passersby through face recognition software that connects to Facebook.⁸ Augmented reality will be a game changer for social media in the future, and should be watched carefully. Apple hired a pioneer of the heads-up display only to have him poached by Google, so we can expect some competition to drive this area forward.⁹

Social Media Use Differences Globally

Social media platforms differ in terms of access and popularity globally. Because we intend to use social media to solve security problems around the world, it is imperative to look beyond Western-dominated uses of social media and corresponding social media platforms. Many existing and emerging security problems arise out of parts of the world that are very different from the West such as Somalia, where prevalence and use of social media is unique. Therefore, to adequately analyze social media data coming from disparate parts of the world and to build platforms that appeal to disparate population sets, understanding how different regions use social media is essential. For instance, although Facebook has more than half a billion users worldwide and is popular throughout, some social media platforms such as Odnoklassniki are far more popular than even Facebook in certain regions of the world. Additionally, in many parts of Africa and the Middle East, the rapid rise of sophisticated 3G and 4G networks has disproportionately spurned the growth of SMS-based social media networks as opposed to those that rely on laptops.

This section provides a small slice of the global differences concerning social media use. Technologies and adoption rates will change, probably rapidly, so refer to our website to get the most updated information. Regardless, keep this section in mind when analyzing data or deploying a crowdsourcing platform. Look past your natural and biased way of using social media and find ways to integrate local information and platforms into your efforts.

North America (U.S. and Canada)

The launching pad of social media, North America is home to the most famous and feature-rich social media platforms. Most users access the platforms through laptops, smartphones, and tablets. Facebook and Twitter dominate, and new platforms pop up rapidly. Numerous platforms are competing for users, so do not expect users to flock to your crowdsourcing platform. However, the widespread social media use produces enormous data for analysis. Privacy issues are also a major concern, although most users do not hesitate to post private information. While many are concerned about privacy, few actually exercise their concern. As the U.S. and Canadian governments increase oversight of social media, privacy rules and norms surrounding social media will likely change in the future. (See Table 2.6 for the top three platforms in the region. Estimates for this and subsequent tables come from a variety of sources, which are detailed in the Appendix are listed on the companion website.)

Table 2.6 Top Platforms in North America as of May 2012

Latin America

Latin American countries rank among the top countries most engaged in social networking platforms. In fact, Latin American countries are adopting social media at the fastest rates. Most Latin American users access the platforms through computers. Orkut, a feature-rich social media platform created by a Google employee, is very popular in Latin America, and is surpassed in popularity only by Facebook. Other popular platforms include hi5, a feature-rich social networking platform, Badoo, an online dating/flirting platform, and Skyrock, a blogging platform. Twitter is becoming more popular because it is easy to post to (tweet) using SMS and dumb phones, a popular technology in Latin America. (See Table 2.7 for the top three platforms in the region.)

Table 2.7 Top Platforms in Latin America as of May 2012

Europe

Europe has the most social media users in the world. The social media activity of Europeans is generally similar to their North American counterparts. Overall Facebook, blogs, and Twitter are very popular in Europe, but some country differences within Europe are discernible.

Germans are very interested in social networking sites focused on connecting with classmates. Examples include Wer-Kennt-Wen (translates to “who knows whom”), Stayfriends, and Studivz, a Facebook-clone for college students. The North American counterpart to such sites is classmates.com.

Russians and former Soviets are far more interested in Odnoklassniki, also a classmate networking site, and V Kontakte, a Facebook clone (including similar layout, color scheme, and usability). Russia has a “hacker culture,” and they look for ways to distinguish themselves and replace Western sites.

The Francophones prefer Facebook but also frequent sites popular in Latin America including Badoo and Skyrock. Their Anglophone neighbors to the north prefer Facebook and Twitter. Due to heavy use, London is considered the Twitter capital of the world. The British also use location-based platforms such as BlackBerry Messenger heavily, which the youth used extensively during the London riots.

The Spanish and Portuguese have more in common with their Latin American counterparts and favor Orkut, Badoo, and Tuenti, an invitation-only private social networking site. (See Table 2.8 for the top three platforms in the region.)

Table 2.8 Top Platforms in Europe as of May 2012

East Asia

Asians are tech-savvy and heavy users of social media, primarily through computers in Internet cafés and mobile devices. The Chinese government censors Internet use, actively filters content on major platforms such as Twitter and YouTube, and encourages its citizens to use home-grown social media platforms. Qzone, a feature-rich platform, allegedly has 500 million users, whereas an instant message or a more private Twitter-like service known as QQ allegedly has more than 700 million users. Other sites include the Facebook-like RenRen, with 100 million mostly student users, and Sina-Weibo, a microblogging platform with more than 300 million users. The government, platform managers, and users censor much of the content on these sites.

The Japanese prefer Twitter over Facebook, with each having 30 million and 8.5 million users, respectively. During the Japanese tsunami, many Japanese used Twitter and SMS capabilities to ask for help and share disaster information. Other popular platforms include Gree, a gaming and social networking platform that is popular among the youth.

The Taiwanese and South Koreans prefer Facebook and blogging sites such as Plurk (Taiwanese) and Cyworld (South Korean). (See Table 2.9 for the top three platforms in the region.)

Table 2.9 Top Platforms in East Asia as of May 2012

Southeast Asia

Due to the growth of mobile networks and the spread of dumb phones, many Southeast Asians prefer to use Twitter. Instant messaging applications such as Whatsapp are popular throughout Southeast Asia, whereas in Vietnam, Zing Me and Go.vn are far more popular among youth with dumb phones. In some countries such as Malaysia and Thailand, citizens are using social media to organize protests and rallies. Therefore, Southeast Asian governments are increasingly monitoring social media use. (See Table 2.10 for the top three platforms in the region.)

Table 2.10 Top Platforms in Southeast Asia as of May 2012

South Asia

Like the rest of the world, India and Pakistan have enthusiastically jumped on the Facebook bandwagon, upsetting previous giant Orkut. LinkedIn is increasingly popular among the rising professional and middle class. Due to the widespread use of dumb phones, microblogging and Twitter are also gaining a foothold. (See Table 2.11 for the top three platforms in the region.)

Table 2.11 Top Platforms in South Asia as of May 2012

Middle East

Facebook and Twitter use is fairly common throughout the Middle East, and helped sparked the Arab Spring. Middle Easterners access social media via computers in Internet cafés and mobile devices. As in China, censorship is a critical issue in much of the Middle East. Governments often filter content and harshly prosecute those who post offensive material. Governments are cracking down on dating/flirting platforms such as Badoo. The Iranian government is going further and developing its own platforms, likely leading to a ban of Western platforms. Despite the encroaching censorship, Facebook and Twitter remain popular. Other popular platforms include Cloob and Velayatmadaran, a virtual meeting point for supporters of the Ayatollah. To get around restrictions, the youth increasingly use BlackBerry Messenger to communicate secretly among themselves. (See Table 2.12 for the top three platforms in the region.)

Table 2.12 Top Platforms in the Middle East as of May 2012

Africa

Due to widespread cell phone use and the availability of numerous inexpensive SMS plans, social media platforms accessible by smartphones and dumb phones, also known as mobile apps, are very popular across Africa. Popular mobile apps include Whatsapp, Motribe, and Mxit. Other methods of accessing social media include Internet cafés. As described before, in many places, Facebook is synonymous with the Internet.

Several non-governmental organizations are building crowdsourcing platforms across Africa to collect via dumb phones information concerning health, agriculture, conflict, and education. Examples include M-Farm, Ushahidi, and Esoko. As smartphones become cheaper and more widely available, and fiber optic cables connect more African countries, social media use will become more and more popular. Africa holds many exciting opportunities for collecting data and engaging with populations using social media. This book came about largely in part due to what we have learned doing social media projects in Africa. (See Table 2.13 for the top three platforms in the region.)

We realize that we have thrown a lot of information at you. However, knowing it is essential to analyzing data on social media. Chapter 3 will begin teaching you how to analyze social media data by detailing what analysis is and how you can use it.

Table 2.13 Top Platforms in Africa as of May 2012

Summary

• Social media are the virtual platforms that enable multiple people to spontaneously create and share information with each other through a variety of computer devices.
• Social media use is growing rapidly around the world, especially among those under 30 years old.
• Social media allows for bottom-up organization, which is unreliable but creative and engaging.
• Five types of social media platforms exist: social networking, media, location-based, crowdsourcing, and combination.
• Six major device categories are used to access social media platforms: desktop computers and laptops, gaming devices and smart televisions, tablets, smartphones, dumb phones, and vehicles and augmented reality devices.
• Social media use differs globally. Although Facebook is generally popular everywhere, specific platforms are more popular in certain regions primarily because of cultural reasons and the type of device technology available in those areas.
• Recognizing and appreciating how social media is used globally will help you improve your analysis and build more attractive crowdsourcing platforms.

Notes

1. eMarketer (2012) “Worldwide Social Network Usage: Market Size and Growth Forecast.” Accessed 14 May 2012. http://www.emarketer.com/Mobile/Article.aspx?R=1008903

2. Henrikson, J.U. (2011) “The Growth of Social Media: An Infographic.” Search Engine Journal.com. Accessed: 13 May 2012. http://www.searchenginejournal.com/the-growth-of-social-media-an-infographic/32788/

3. Qualman, E. (2010) “Over 50% of the World's Population is Under 30—Social Media on the Rise.” Socialnomics.net. Accessed: 13 May 2012. http://www.socialnomics.net/2010/04/13/over-50-of-the-worlds-population-is-under-30-social-media-on-the-rise/

4. Brooks, D. (2011) The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement. Random House, New York.

5. Shirky, C. (2010) Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age. Penguin, New York.

6. Eddy, N. (2008) “Notebook Sales Outpace Desktop Sales.” eWeek.com. Accessed: 13 May 2012. http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Midmarket/Notebook-Sales-Outpace-Desktop-Sales/

7. Lee, T.B. (2011) “Android Poised to Dominate the Developing World.” Forbes.com. Accessed: 13 May 2012. http://www.forbes.com/sites/timothylee/2011/08/16/android-poised-to-dominate-the-developing-world/

8. Freeman, K. (2012) “Facial Recognition App IDs Your Friends Using Facebook.” Mashable.com. Accessed: 12 May 2012. http://mashable.com/2012/05/10/facial-recognition-app/

9. Weintraub, S. (2010) “Apple Hires ‘Senior Prototype Engineer' for work on wearable computing.” Computerworld.com. Accessed: 13 May 2012. http://blogs.computerworld.com/15750/apple_hires_senior_prototype_engineer_for_work_on_wearable_computers?source=rss_weintraub