Believe it or not - Malaysians have the most friends and are also the heaviest users of social networking sites on the planet.This is according to the latest survey by global market research firm TNS in its largest ever study into people's online activities and behaviour.Malaysians have an average of 233 digital friends, followed by 231 in Brazil and 217 in Norway.On the other end of the spectrum, Japanese have the fewest with 29, followed by 38 in Tanzania and 50 in South Korea.TNS chief development officer Matthew Froggatt said that the results could suggest "a culture that embraces fewer but closer friendships" in some countries.

“Chinese consumers only have an average of 68 friends in their networks despite being heavy users of social networking sites,” said Froggatt. In addition to having the most friends, Malaysians are also the heaviest users, spending an average of nine hours per week on social networking sites.Russians ranked second with an average 8.1 hours per week online, followed by Turkey where 7.7 hours a week are spent on social networks.Malaysiakini, the country's top news portal, has to-date a total of 72,954 Facebook fans, with its Chinese section garnering the most with 36,022, followed by the Malay section (22,131) and English section (13,901).

Mobile phones increase access

The study also found that consumers are now spending more time on social networking sites than using e-mail, in part fuelled by the rise in Internet access through mobile phones. “In rapid growth markets such as Latin America, the Middle East and China, the average time spent per week on social networking is 5.2 hours compared to only four hours on email.“Online consumers in mature markets remain more reliant on e-mail, spending 5.1 hours checking their inboxes compared to just 3.8 hours on social networking.”

The TNS survey covers nearly 90 percent of the world's online population through 50,000 interviews with consumers in 46 countries.Froggatt also said that digital sources are overtaking TV, radio and newspapers as the media channel of choice.“Sixty-one percent of online users use the Internet daily against 54% for TV, 36% for radio and 32% for newspapers.”

Third World leapfrogs technology

It also found that Internet users in growth markets have overtaken mature markets in terms of engaging with digital activities.For example, Egypt (56%) and China (54%) have much higher levels of digital engagement than mature markets such as Japan (20%), Denmark (25%) or Finland (26%) despite better Internet infrastructure in more advanced countries.The TNS study, which the researchers hope will become an annual project, also found that countries newer to the digital world are embracing online activities at a faster rate to those in more mature markets.

In China, four out of five users have written their own blog while half in Egypt have similarly done so, compared to only 32% in the United States.Malaysia also ranked high in photo sharing on social networks. “The number of online consumers who have ever uploaded photos to social networks or photo sharing sites is 92% in Thailand, 88% in Malaysia and 87% in Vietnam, whilst developed markets are more conservative.
“Less than a third of online consumers in Japan (28%) and under half of those in Germany (48%) have uploaded photos to such sites,” said Froggatt.
 
Source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/145078