Tags: Facebook, President of China Xi JinPing, US, China, Social Networks, Mark Zuckerberg, Communication Applications
It wasn’t long ago when Facebook first launched in 2004 and drove up the engagement of users and later more social communities. Personally, I credit Facebook’s initial pull to its smart features like media sharing with tagging and personalized news feed satisfying the human curiosity and need to connect. These features have since become the critical inlays for many social networks worldwide, that content sharing became more possible and made easy. Since having a social network profile has become ubiquitous for both consumers and businesses, social networks have become information highways in which we can learn, share, and connect at great speed (but also with great clutter).
It is not shocking that Facebook has the most number of active users worldwide. Incredible that as of August this year, about 20% of the world are active Facebook users. With about double the number of users over the next service competitor, Mark Zuckerberg tirelessly continues to make headway in potential new markets as well as introducing new features and user experiences. Recently Mark Zuckerberg was spotted in China, where Facebook remains banned but perhaps not forever, meeting twice directly with China’s President Xi JinPing. We couldn’t help but wonder what the next move would be for Facebook.
The US and China are currently the headquarters to the top 10 social networks ranked by active users worldwide. Though Facebook is number one, three Chinese apps made it in the top 10 list. What is interesting about the Chinese apps is unlike Facebook, these are not social networks where we check into to see new posts. For instance, rather than displaying posts on the “wall,” WeChat allows rich format communications to go directly to individuals, creating more selective and intimate engagement between consumers and brands, not to mention amongst your friends.
Now communication applications are on the rise (already top in China), international brands and superstars are using direct messaging to reach and engage with their social network. Social network is evolving beyond a platform that we check into, it is now expanding into direct rich format communication where content goes directly into our hands. These platforms, powered by people, have allowed for the smallest of voices to be heard across the world. Imagine what it could do for your message in the right hands. And, what could this mean where social networks may be heading?
