Social Media in Asia Pacific is Different

While Asia's biggest economies have been slow to embrace the global social communities of Facebook, Yahoo and Twitter, many countries in the region have followed the adoption patterns of Europe and the United States, says Gartner.

The most avid social networkers are in the Philippines, where Facebook is the country's most visited Internet site.

Twitter also is one global platform that does cross cultural boundaries more readily than the major social platforms due to its adaptability to local cultures, languages and its ubiquitous availability on mobile devices. Indonesia, for example, has seen strong growth in microblogging and in mid-2010 became the country recording the highest penetration of Twitter users as a proportion of Internet users worldwide.

The Philippines and Singapore also joined Indonesia in the top 10 countries with the highest penetration of Twitter worldwide, ranked sixth and ninth respectively.

Gartner Says Social Media in Asia Pacific is Developing in Different Directions to the U.S. and Europe