As per recent statistics of August 2013, below are top 10 popular social networking websites:
1. Facebook
It was 2004 when Mark Zuckerberg started asking his fellow
Harvard University students to try out his new idea known as "the
facebook." The online community allowed his peers to create personal
profiles, search for profiles and invite others from the university to join. It
was a smashing success almost immediately. In 2006, Facebook opened its virtual
doors to anyone with a registered e-mail address. Not content to rest upon his
accomplishments, Zuckerberg continued to push for new features. One of the most
revolutionary was creating an application programming interface (API) for
third-party developers. Suddenly, programmers could design applications that
could tap into Facebook's massive population. Applications range from simple
games and diversions to clever marketing campaigns. In 2009, Facebook acquired
FriendFeed and began to incorporate its aggregation services into Facebook
profiles. Facebook is still a private company -- in early 2010, two major
investors announced that Facebook would not seek an initial public offering
(IPO) in 2010. Looks like you'll have to wait a while longer to get your hands
on Facebook stock. In short: Facebook has become the most visited social
networking site in the world, receiving more than 10 million unique visitors
than MySpace in January 2009, making it the No. 1 social networking site on our
list.
2. Twitter
Part Web site, part Web service – Twitter is an online
environment where users can create profiles, fill them with information and
then build a network of people they "follow" (and a band of others
who follow them). Twitter sends messages between users via the Short Message
Service (SMS), better known as text messaging. Members send their texts through
Twitter to those they allow to follow them. The messages, called Tweets, are
super short: only 140 charters or shorter (there are technically 160 characters
for use, but the first 20 are there to make room for user names in messages.)
The new phenomenon is called microblogging and it's incredibly popular.
"Even the president of the United States has a Facebook fan page and uses
Twitter to reach the American public where he has over 262,000 followers,"
says Brenda Powell, president and founder of the company Social Networking
Girls. All sorts of famous people are on Twitter. If you sign up for an
account, you can follow astronauts, scientists, athletes, musicians, actors and
writers. Or you can ignore the celebrities and focus on your friends. Some
Twitterers use the service to arrange parties or other events. Others just like
to keep their friends up to speed on what's going on in their lives. The
messages can be sent via phone, through the Twitter Web site or one of hundreds
new desktop or smart phone widgets.
3. Google Plus
Google+ has more than 400 million
registered users, largely thanks to its integration with other Google services
such as Google Mail. At least 100 million of these users actively use the
service, using the +1 button to recommend the best pages on the Web to their
friends and colleagues. Bloggers should pay particular attention to Google+ as
the Google Authorship service can protect their content from copycats and
increase their visibility.
LinkedIn is a social networking site designed for
professionals. It boasts a membership of more than 35 million people and claims
that executives from every Fortune 500 company have member profiles on the
site. The profiles focus on members' professional experience and skills. But
does everyone use it to their full potential? Maybe. Maybe not. "I'm sure
there are people who have an account and profile on LinkedIn, and do nothing
more than accept the occasional introduction to connect, and have been
prospected as a candidate,” says Jason Alba, CEO of the job search organizer
site JibberJobber.com. "If it were me," he continues, "I'd be
much more aggressive, however, and have a more proactive LinkedIn strategy,
which would include growing my network, searching for people in my target
companies, using LinkedIn Answers, participating in groups, etc." The site
also supports activities beyond networking with potential employers, employees
or clients. For example, LinkedIn provides a platform that allows members to
collaborate on projects -- a virtual meeting room of sorts.
YouTube isn't what you'd traditionally call a social
networking site. Its purpose is to provide a place where people can upload and
view videos, most of which are user-generated. But it's one of the most popular
places on the Web to interact -- and react -- via text or video comments: just
one more way to keep people coming back. Anyone can view most YouTube videos,
but to post one you need to create a member account. As a member, you can
create user profiles and include as much or as little information about
yourself as you like. Each member's page is customizable and hosts the videos
that member has uploaded to YouTube. The hippest thing to do on YouTube these
days may be video logging, or vlogging. It's similar to blogging -- members
post videos in which they talk about a subject that interests or concerns them.
Other users can comment on the video and conversations develop as a result.
While YouTube has always featured a user comments option, the social networking
aspect of the site really took off when the site introduced video comments in
May 2006. Instead of leaving a text-based comment in response to a video,
members can now record short videos in responses.
Website: http://www.youtube.com
6. Hi5
As the fastest-growing social networking site in the world
for the first half of 2008, Hi5 is the largest site of its kind that you may
have never heard of. The site grew 78 percent in the first half of 2008 alone.
Based in San Francisco, Hi5 launched in 2003 and was turning a profit by 2004.
By 2005, the site had 10 million members. While sites like Facebook and MySpace
began to dominate the U.S. social networking scene, Hi5 began to look at other
opportunities internationally. In 2006, it launched a Spanish version of the
site to great success. Versions of the site in other languages soon followed.
This new focus paid off. Hi5 became the most popular social networking site in
Mexico and many Latin American countries. Like many other social networking
sites, members create profiles, share photos, play games and post messages.
Website: http://www.hi5.com
7. MySpace
MySpace isn't the oldest online social network, but it
helped define them -- and it incorporates many different Web services into a
comprehensive package. Every MySpace profile comes with the ability to post
blogs, news items and status updates and create rich, detailed user profiles.
Members can post and share pictures, videos and music, plus can create groups
and invite other members to join. But what makes MySpace stand out from the
crowd is the sweet sound of free marketing. For bands and unsigned performers,
MySpace is a sort of virtual audition stage to debut new tracks, share
information or arrange special shows for their fans. In late 2009, the news
broke that MySpace would begin to use Facebook Connect, an API developed by the
site's largest rival in the social community market. Could this mean MySpace
will shift more toward being a content site for musicians than a social
networking site?
Website: http://www.myspace.com
Agryd is India’s top most social networking website which was
developed by young technocrats. Within a short time of merely one year this
social networking website becomes as popular as a bomb blast among Indian
youth. It is not only well accepted among Indian Communities but also the most
prominent social networking website among Chinese. Covering all features of
Facebook, Agryd has its own unique features which are currently not available
in any other social networking website. The key features of this Indian Social
Networking Website are chatting, blogging, forum discussion, free gift sending,
polling, event invitation, image sharing, music listening, video watching, etc.
The key reason behind popularity of this website is its fastest growing blog.
As per the official stats of Aug 2013, website has 47 million registered users.
Majority of these users are form India and China.
Website: http://www.agryd.com
9. Orkut
Orkut is an online social network owned by Google.
Originally based in California, the site now calls Brazil home. While 17
percent of its traffic is from the United States, it never really took off in
the U.S. But Brazilians adopted the site as their preferred online social
network -- more than 50 percent of all traffic to Orkut comes from Brazil.
According to the analytics firm comScore, more than 20 million Brazilians
visited Orkut in September 2008, making it the most popular Web site in Brazil.
In that same month, only 893,000 Brazilians visited MySpace. Why has Orkut
become so popular in Brazil? One theory is that the site's name is easy for
Portuguese speakers to pronounce, though they pronounce it
"or-KOO-chee." Another is that there are no ads on Orkut pages. Orkut
is also popular in India, which supplies another 17 percent of the site's
traffic. While it may never gain a firm standing in the United States, it's
still a success story.
Website: http://www.orkut.com
10. Friendster
Friendster was one of the first sites to introduce the
concept of online social networking to the Web. Jonathan Abrams conceived of
the site and launched it in 2002, just two years after the infamous dotcom
crash. Abrams saw untapped potential on the World Wide Web -- you could get to
know the people your friends know and expand your social network. Abrams' goal
was to create a site that anyone could use. One of his inspirations for
Friendster came from the way his friends networked in the real world. He wanted
to create an equally organic experience using the Web. That meant designing a
streamlined design and interface. Friendster gained popularity quickly. In
2003, the Internet search giant Google offered to purchase Friendster but a
deal couldn't be reached. Years later, the two companies would sign a $20
million deal that would incorporate Google search services on the Friendster
Web site. Alas, Friendster lost its dominant position in the U.S. social
networking site market when MySpace's popularity skyrocketed, though it still
has a strong user base in the U.S. and continues to be very popular in Asia.
Website: http://www.friendster.com
