5 Social Networks That Are Growing Worldwide

A recent study from comScore has reported that more people are adopting social networks worldwide. The familiar networks like Facebook and MySpace are gaining users. But there are other social networks that continue to pick up traction and attract users from around the world. Growth in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East highlight how integral social networking has become to the daily life of millions of people. Check out the year-over-year growth for these social networks and consider joining one you haven't heard of before.

According to comScore, Facebook jumped from 52 million users to 132 million users from June 2007 to June 2008. The majority of that growth didn't even occur in North America, which saw a 38 percent increase in users. Users in Europe jumped 303 percent. The Asia Pacific region grew 303 percent and the Middle East/Africa region grew 458 percent. But the most amazing growth took place in Latin America. Last year, Facebook counted just over 1 million users. In 2008 there are 11.9 million Facebook users in Latin America for a staggering 1055 percent increase.

MySpace, it could be argued, brought social networking to the mainstream. Even though there were predecessors, MySpace has been a stand out, although its year over year growth doesn't compare with some of its competitors. In 2007, MySpace counted 114 million users. In 2008 that number increased only slightly to 117.5 million for a modest growth rate of 3 percent.

Launched in 2003, hi5 is a social network that has started to take off. The social network's user base has grown by 100 percent from 2007 to 2008, going from 28 million users to over 56 million. Keep an eye on this up and coming social network.

Before MySpace and Facebook, Friendster was the social network du jour. Unfortunately, with the advent of MySpace, Friendster mostly became irrelevant, at least to North American Users. Recently, Friendster has been enjoying a renaissance in Asia. Friendster has landed $20 million in venture capital and brought on a former Googler to be the CEO of the company which would probably breathe life into nearly any struggling venture. Of course, that new money and leadership could be a reflection of its year-over-year growth, which is up 50 percent from 24 million to 37 million users.

Orkut is Google's foray into social networking. In the past year it went from 24 million users to 34 million, for a 41 percent rate of growth. Not bad for a social network that has been mostly unheralded and overlooked.