Research firm eMarketer found that India will surpass US by 2016, to become the world's largest Facebook population.
India has recorded the highest social networking growth of 37.3 percent this year and will soon become the world's largest Facebook population, according to a recent report by research firm eMarketer.
The report stated that India has had the highest growth this year, an increase of 37.4 percent, Indonesia had a growth of 28.7 percent and Mexico has a social network user base of 21.1 percent. The report added that the growth in developed countries has stagnated due to saturation.
All of these three countries are high-growth areas for Facebook and eMarketer estimates that they will reach a worldwide monthly user base of 1.026 billion this year combined. US still has the greatest number of Facebook users, with 146.8 million this year.
But eMarketer believes India's large population and high expected growth rate will lead the country to have the largest Facebook population of any country in the world by 2016. Research firm eMarketer estimates that nearly 1.61 billion people log in to social networking sites at least monthly, from various electronic devices.
The report added that there has been a growth of 14.2 percent in social networker numbers from 2012, and the double-digit growth is expected to continue for another year. The research also found that by 2017, 2.33 billion people will use social networks.
Currently, Netherlands has the highest penetration of social network users as a share of total population with 63.5 percent of all residents are social network users followed by Norway with 63.3 percent.
According to a recent report by IAMAI, India will become the world's second largest Internet population with nearly 243 million users by June 2014. India currently has 205 million active users, US has 207 million users and China retains the number one spot with 300 million Internet users.
Source: Hindu Business Line
