A global insight study of online consumer behaviour by GlobalWebIndex reveals that Facebook has reached significant saturation amongst online users in multiple markets and "Facebook Fatigue" is now growing across Facebook users.
The analysis by GlobalWebIndex researched changes in consumer behaviour within internet platforms by interviewing more than 122,000 individuals over six waves of research across 27 internet markets.
In markets like China, India, Indonesia, and Brazil, growth of Facebook is restricted due to censorship of certain social media websites.
Research from 2011 shows that Facebook users across the globe have been reducing the frequency of signature Facebook activities like sending messages to friends, searching for new people, and sending digital gifts.
Sending messaging to friends fell 12% among Facebook users, joining a group fell 19% and searching for new contacts fell 17%across users in the United States.
Emerging markets are growing rapidly and contributing significantly to online creating more localised internet use. This behaviour is causing the global internet to increasingly become fragmented. Internet perception is viewed differently across different markets, taking into account attitudes towards online usage and relationships with brands.
China stands as the most social engaged market in the world with 84% of internet users participating at least once a month with social networking, blogging, forums, or video uploading. Russia, India, Brazil follow closely behind China in dominating the social world.
The future of the internet is turning more and more away from the idea of being a whole global entity. Those wanting to penetrate emerging markets will have to change their strategies to cater to certain markets. Twitter and Google perhaps have this in mind as they have recently adapted their companies to cooperate with online censorship policies in other countries.
"The concept that the internet would drive a singular global culture is false. Brands and content producers will need ever more localised strategies, said Managing Director of GlobalWebIndex, Tom Smith.
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