Facebook

If you live in Toronto, chances are you're spending way too much time on Facebook right now (waaaay too much time).  Don't worry, you're not alone.  Toronto has over the last month become a huge hub for the expansion of the social networking site du jour into the adult market.  Sometime this Saturday morning, the Toronto user group passed 500,000 members.  This is a startling statistic for two reasons.

One is Toronto's a city of 3 million (or as much as 5 million if you count all the extended suburbs).  Factor out all of the under-12, and over-50 population (although there are a handful over 50s on there), people without internet access, and non-english speakers, and 500,000 means that somewhere between a third and half of Facebook's target audience are on it in Toronto right now.

The other reason is that Toronto far surpasses other cities for membership.  As Arieh over at OneDegree points out, all of California has around 350,000 members.  NYC has 200,000.  London has 345,000.

This is really fascinating to me.  We're used to talking about how new technologies and services can appeal more to certain demographics (eg young adults) or to certain psychographics (eg trend-setters, urban hipsters, etc).  But we often think of them as borderless - transcending physical space.  So a social networking service appealing more to certain cities or regions is interesting and unexpected (to me, anyway).

Anyone care to hazard a guess at why there are such disparities in its local, physical usage?  Anyone ever seen this with other technologies or services?

Comments

[Michael]

One reason is that facebook launched in the US being exclusive to college students. They grew a following and everyone that couldn't register with facebook, signed up on myspace instead. You still see the seperation today.

In London, facebook and myspace are sharing the market with about a dozen other social networking sites. Also, the college culture is different from the US.

Toronto, on the other hand, doesn't have the facebook/myspace split. By facebook launching 'open to everyone' has taken away that superior feel it has in the US

[Julien Coulter]

Michael makes some good points. But I also think there is a tipping point of sorts going on. And if you apply some the rationale of the recent NY Times article on the popularity of certain TV shows over others, it is another example of people following the herd. They want to be part of something that is popular. I had a recent friend who joined only because another friend found it hard to invite her to a party because she was the only one not on Facebook. Or maybe people from Toronto are just so trusting - when you register you enter your email and PASSWORD. Your address book is then accessed and invites are pushed out (it also then lets you know which of your friends in your email contact list are on facebood - so its not just to there benefit that you have given them your email password).

[Harsh]

Here's my conjuncture.. I think Julien is right about this being a case of tipping point. US & UK saw facebook coming far back. Newyork and London have more universities/schools than Toronto, so facebook came, gathered attention, moved steadily for sometime and became yet another social network when it opened to public.

Toronto's student community didn't catch on it in the early days so it was relatively obscure - the idea of it being a novelty was still intact. And in the recent days, it generated a sudden wave. Everyone wants to be on the wagon. MySpace is passe and facebook becomes the 'new' thing.

I still have to give it a roll but I believe the interface is cleaner and better than myspace. That gives it an edge. It suggests a common ground for network as opposed to your 'own' space for others to see..

[Sarah Johnson]

We were in Sears the other day looking at high chairs and a woman came up to us and said: "I recognize that baby from Facebook". Turns out she actually did.

[Ari]

I actually just wrote a blog post about this subject this morning.

Orkut in Brazil is a similar story - one country's usage greatly outweighs that of the rest of the world.

I think the reason Facebook is so popular in Toronto is because a) Toronto has a huge student community b) The student community doesn't tend to leave Toronto once they graduate, hence Facebook maintains its value as a fairly geographic-centric social networking tool.

[Elad]

maybe there are more temptations OUT of the house in NYC, CAL and London?