Last year marked a turning point for Facebook’s popularity in Brazil, which has until now failed to surpass that of Google’s Orkut, the latest figures from comScore, the online measurement company, show.In December 2011, Facebook attracted 36.10 million visitors – representing an increase of 192 percent in the past twelve months, according to comScore. Orkut took second by attracting 34.42 million visitors (growing just 5 percent in the past year).
Windows Live Profile was in third with 13.30 million (up 13 percent), Twitter was fourth with 12.50 million (up 40 percent), and Vostu was fifth with 4.90 million (up 338 percent). New to the scene last year, Google+ attracted 4.3 million visitors during December 2011, taking sixth place ahead of Tumblr and LinkedIn. Facebook is not only growing when it comes to its Brazilian user base, but the country’s users are becoming more engaged. In December 2010, an average visitor spent 37 minutes on the site. In December 2011, that number had surged to 285 minutes (up 667 percent). Visitors consumed an average of 500 pages of content on the site during December 2011 (up 655 percent), and visited the site an average of 27 times during the month (up 163 percent).
The figures indicate rapid growth for Facebook, a 192% year-on-year rise in visitors. Comscore’s Alex Banks said Brazil had the fifth largest social networking population in the world. “Facebook’s rapid ascent in the Brazilian market has certainly been one of the most interesting stories to develop during the course of 2011,” said Alex Banks, comScore’s managing director for Brazil. “Brazil has always been a particularly social market and currently owns the fifth largest social networking population in the world. The shift in power between Facebook and Orkut, is significant as Google has always been able to boast of its social network success and dominance in Brazil. As Google tries to compete with Facebook in the form of Google+, it will be interesting to see how Orkut’s popularity adapts over the next 12 months.
