Index of Paper Presentations for the Parallel Sessions - Academy of ...

1.1 Social Networking Sites and IndiaThe virtual community represents one of the most interesting developments of the information age(Balasubramanian & Mahajan, 2001). India‘s internet user base of 81 million is the fourth largest in the world(Narasimhan, 2011). According to a 2010 study by Nielsen Company, 70 per cent of all social networking site (SNS)users in India access a SNS every day (Mishra, 2011). The popularity and essence of social media across the globe iswell established and businesses are realizing the need to have experts handle their social media campaigns. To meetthis demand for education in social media strategy, many global top business schools are also incorporating courseson social networks into their curriculums (Mackay, 2010). In India, as of July, 2010, Facebook became the mostused social networking site with a total audience of more than 20 million users (see table 1) with growth ofapproximately 179 per cent.Top Social Networking Sites in India Total Unique Visitors (000)Jul-09 Jul-10 % ChangeTotal Internet : Total Audience 35,028 39,562 13Social Networking 23,255 33,158 43Facebook.com 7,472 20,873 179Orkut 17,069 19,871 16Bharatstudent.com 4,292 4,432 3Yahoo! Pulse N/A 3,507 N/ATwitter.com 984 3,341 239LinkedIn.com N/A 3,267 N/AZedge.net 1,767 3,206 81Ibibo.com 1,562 2,960 89Yahoo! Buzz 542 1,807 233Shtyle.fm 407 1,550 281Table 1: Statistics for Indian social networking site users (Comscore press release, 2010)The presence of India with respect to global usage of Facebook also stands out with India being the seventh largestin terms of Facebook user base as of July, 2010.Growth of Top 10 Social Networking MarketsWorldwideSocial Networking Unique Visitors(000)Jul-09 Jul-10 % ChangeWorldwide 7,70,092 9,45,040 23%United States 1,31,088 1,74,429 33%China N/A 97,151 N/AGermany 25,743 37,938 47%Russian Federation 20,245 35,306 74%Brazil 23,966 35,221 47%United Kingdom 30,587 35,153 15%India 23,255 33,158 43%France 25,121 32,744 30%Japan 23,691 31,957 35%South Korea 15,910 24,962 57%Table 1: Growth of Top 10 Social Networking Markets (Comscore press release, 2010)