Okay, maybe
not so much bad and ugly – but there are so many social networking sites in
existence right now that it’s sometimes tough to navigate and know which ones
are worth your time and which ones aren’t going to be of any benefit to you at
all! You’ve got your Google+, Facebook and Twitter, but have you ever heard of Plaxo
or Xanga (with a healthy 50 million and 30 million registered users
respectively)? There’s a social platform for almost anything you need today,
and to know which ones are going to be of interest to you is to know what your
purpose is. If you’re going to be using social media for business networking,
you’re going to benefit immensely from Facebook and LinkedIn, but
VampireFreaks.com, probably not so much.
Just for
interest’s sake, below is a list of a plethora of social sites arranged by the number
of registered users – from the most to the fewest- and each includes a brief
description. Which ones are you going to
try?
|
Name
|
Registered users
|
Description
|
|
Google+
|
1,600,000,000
|
General Business promotion
|
|
Facebook
|
1,280,000,000
|
General: Photos, Videos, Blogs, Apps.
|
|
Youtube
|
1,000,000,000
|
video sharing
|
|
Qzone
|
480,000,000
|
General.
In Simplified Chinese; caters for mainland China users
|
|
Sina Weibo
|
300,000,000
|
Social
microblogging site in Mainland China.
|
|
Habbo
|
268,000,000
|
General
for teens. Over 31 communities worldwide. Chat room and user profiles.
|
|
Vkontakte
|
249,409,900
|
General,
including music upload, listening and search. Popular in Russia and former
Soviet republics.
|
|
LinkedIn
|
200,000,000
|
Business
and professional networking
|
|
Renren
|
160,000,000
|
Significant
site in China. Was known as 校内 (Xiaonei) until August 2009.
|
|
Instagram
|
150,000,000
|
A photo and video sharing site
|
|
Bebo
|
117,000,000
|
General
|
|
Orkut
|
100,000,000
|
General.
Owned by Google Inc. Popular in India and Brazil.[225]
|
|
Tagged
|
100,000,000
|
General.
|
|
Netlog
|
95,000,000
|
General.
Popular in Europe, Turkey, the Arab World and Canada's Québec province.
Formerly known as Facebox and Redbox.[212]
|
|
Twitter
|
93,800,000
|
General. Micro-blogging, RSS, updates
|
|
Friendster
|
90,000,000
|
General.
Popular in Southeast Asia. No longer popular in the western world
|
|
hi5
|
80,000,000
|
General.
Popular in Nepal, Mongolia, Thailand, Romania, Jamaica, Central
Africa, Portugal andLatin America. Not very popular in
the USA.
|
|
Pinterest
|
70,000,000
|
photo sharing
|
|
Flixster
|
63,000,000
|
Movies
|
|
MyLife
|
51,000,000
|
Locating
friends and family, keeping in touch (formerly Reunion.com)
|
|
Classmates.com
|
50,000,000
|
School, college, work and the military
|
|
Plaxo
|
50,000,000
|
Aggregator
|
|
Sonico.com
|
50,000,000
|
General.
Popular in Latin America and Spanish and Portuguese speaking regions.
|
|
douban
|
46,850,000
|
Chinese
Web 2.0 website providing user review and recommendation services for movies,
books, and music.
|
|
Odnoklassniki
|
45,000,000
|
Connect
with old classmates. Popular in Russia and former Soviet republics
|
|
Viadeo
|
35,000,000
|
Global
Social Networking and Campus Networking available in English, French, German,
Spanish, Italian and Portuguese
|
|
Flickr
|
32,000,000
|
Photo sharing, commenting, photography related
networking, worldwide
|
|
Last.fm
|
30,000,000
|
Music
|
|
MyHeritage
|
30,000,000
|
family-oriented
social network service
|
|
Myspace
|
30,000,000
|
General
|
|
WeeWorld
|
30,000,000
|
Teenagers
- 9 to 17
|
|
Xanga
|
27,000,000
|
Blogs
and "metro" areas
|
|
mixi
|
24,323,160
|
Japan
|
|
Cyworld
|
24,000,000
|
General.
Popular in South Korea.
|
|
Gaia Online
|
23,523,663
|
Anime and
games. Popular in USA, Canada and Europe. Moderately popular around Asia.
|
|
deviantART
|
22,000,000
|
Art
community
|
|
Skyrock
|
22,000,000
|
Social
Network in French-speaking world
|
|
BlackPlanet
|
20,000,000
|
Black
Americans
|
|
Fotolog
|
20,000,000
|
Photoblogging.
Popular in South America and Spain
|
|
Foursquare
|
20,000,000
|
Location based mobile social network
|
|
StumbleUpon
|
20,000,000
|
Stumble through websites that match users'
selected interests
|
|
We Heart It
|
20,000,000
|
Image-based
social network focused on inspiration, expression and creativity
|
|
Friends Reunited
|
19,000,000
|
UK
based. School, college, work, sport and streets
|
|
Reddit
|
17,500,000
|
submit content, such as text posts or direct
links
|
|
LiveJournal
|
17,564,977
|
Blogging.
Popular in Russia and among the Russian-speaking diaspora abroad.
|
|
StudiVZ
|
17,000,000
|
University
students, mostly in the German-speaking countries. School students and those
out of education sign up via its partner sites schülerVZ and meinVZ.
|
|
Geni.com
|
15,000,000
|
Families,
genealogy
|
|
Goodreads
|
13,000,000
|
Library
cataloging, book lovers
|
|
Busuu
|
12,000,000
|
Language
learning community (headquartered in Madrid, Spain)
|
|
Tuenti
|
12,000,000
|
Spanish-based university
and High School social network.
|
|
XING
|
11,100,000
|
Business
(primarily Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland))
|
|
Nasza-klasa.pl
|
11,000,000
|
School,
college and friends. Popular in Poland
|
|
Taringa!
|
11,000,000
|
General
(primarily Argentina)
|
|
Hyves
|
10,097,000
|
General,
mostly popular in the Netherlands.
|
|
Buzznet
|
10,000,000
|
Music
and pop-culture
|
|
SoundCloud
|
10,000,000
|
Repository
of original music pieces and networking.
|
|
WAYN
|
10,000,000
|
Travel
and lifestyle
|
|
Care2
|
9,961,947
|
Green living
and social activism
|
|
CaringBridge
|
9,500,000
|
Not for
profit providing free websites that connect family and friends during a
serious health event, care and recovery.[34]
|
|
Stickam
|
9,000,000
|
Live
video streaming and chat.
|
|
delicious
|
8,822,921
|
Social
bookmarking allowing users to locate and save websites that match their own
interests
|
|
My Opera
|
7,300,000
|
Blogging,
mobile blogging, photo sharing, connecting with friends, Opera
Link and Opera Unite. Global
|
|
About.me
|
5,000,000
|
Social
networking site
|
|
Livemocha
|
5,000,000
|
Online
language learning
|
|
Open Diary
|
5,000,000
|
First
online blogging community, founded in 1998
|
|
Trombi.com
|
4,400,000
|
French
subsidiary of Classmates.com
|
|
iWiW
|
4,000,000
|
Hungary
|
|
weRead
|
4,000,000
|
Books
|
|
Ibibo
|
3,500,000
|
Talent
based social networking site that allows to promote one's self and also
discover new talent. Most popular in India.
|
|
43 Things
|
3,000,000
|
Goal
setting and achievement
|
|
Jiepang
|
3,000,000
|
Location
based mobile social network. In Chinese language
|
|
MocoSpace
|
3,000,000
|
mobile
community, worldwide
|
|
Ravelry
|
3,000,000
|
Knitting
and crochet
|
|
Tylted
|
3,000,000
|
Mobile
social game network[303]
|
|
CouchSurfing
|
2,967,421
|
Worldwide
network for making connections between travelers and the communities they
visit.
|
|
Fetlife
|
2,701,715
|
People
who are into BDSM
|
|
Draugiem.lv
|
2,600,466
|
General
(primarily LV, LT, HU)
|
|
eToro
|
2,500,000
|
Social
Investing, Finance
|
|
Itsmy
|
2,500,000
|
Mobile
community worldwide, blogging, friends, personal TV-shows
|
|
Kiwibox
|
2,400,000
|
General.
|
|
DXY.cn
|
2,000,000
|
Chinese
online community for physicians, health care professionals, pharmacies and
facilities
|
|
GetGlue
|
2,000,000
|
Social
network for entertainment
|
|
Grono.net
|
2,000,000
|
Poland
|
|
Vampirefreaks.com
|
1,931,049
|
Gothic
and industrial subculture
|
|
Fotki
|
1,632,565
|
Photo
sharing, video hosting, photo contests, journals, forums, flexible privacy
protection, friend's feed, audio comments and unlimited custom design integration.
|
|
English, baby!
|
1,600,000
|
Students
and teachers of English as a second language
|
|
TravBuddy.com
|
1,588,000
|
Travel
|
|
Nexopia
|
1,400,000
|
Canada
|
|
LibraryThing
|
1,300,000
|
Book
lovers
|
|
CafeMom
|
1,250,000
|
Mothers
|
|
Zoo.gr
|
890,000
|
Greek
Web Meeting point
|
|
Focus.com
|
850,000
|
Business
to Business, worldwide
|
|
aSmallWorld
|
550,000
|
European jet
set and social elite world-wide
|
|
IRC-Galleria
|
505,000
|
Finland
|
|
italki.com
|
500,000
|
Language
learning social network. 100+ languages.
|
|
ReverbNation.com
|
500,000
|
Social
network for musician and bands
|
|
Ryze
|
500,000
|
Business
|
|
Gather.com
|
465,000
|
Article,
picture, and video sharing, as well as group discussions
|
|
MillatFacebook
|
461,200
|
General,
Created in Response to Facebook [192]
|
|
Cross.tv
|
450,000
|
Faith
Based social network for Christian believers from around the world
|
|
SocialVibe
|
435,000
|
Social
Network for Charity
|
|
Biip.no
|
430,000
|
Norwegian
community
|
|
Skoob
|
420,000
|
Collaborative
social network for Brazilian readers
|
|
Identi.ca
|
395,695
|
Twitter-like
service popular with hackers and software freedom advocates.
|
|
Diaspora*
|
370,000
|
Decentralized,
privacy aware, general (open source)
|
|
Indaba Music
|
350,000
|
Online
collaboration for musicians, remix contests, and networking.
|
|
Hospitality Club
|
328,629
|
Hospitality
|
|
Partyflock
|
321,125
|
Dutch virtual
community for people interested in house music and other electronic dance
music
|
|
GamerDNA
|
310,000
|
Computer
and video games
|
|
Travellerspoint
|
310,000
|
Travel
|
|
FilmAffinity
|
250,000
|
Movies
and TV Series
|
|
LaiBhaari
|
250,000
|
Marathi
social networking
|
|
Academia.edu
|
211,000
|
Social
networking site for academics/researchers
|
|
didlr
|
204,515
|
Drawing
service
|
|
Faceparty
|
200,000
|
General.
Popular UK.
|
|
Mubi
|
200,000
|
Auteur
cinema
|
|
HR.com
|
194,000
|
Social
networking site for Human Resources professionals
|
|
Elftown
|
185,000
|
Community
and wiki around Fantasy and sci-fi.
|
|
Stage 32
|
175,000
|
US-based
social network and educational site for creative professionals in film,
television and theater
|
|
CozyCot
|
150,000
|
East
Asian and Southeast Asian women
|
|
Athlinks
|
139,458
|
Running,
Swimming
|
|
Goodwizz
|
110,000
|
Social
network with matchmaking and personality games to find new contacts. Global,
based in France.
|
|
PatientsLikeMe
|
109,587
|
Online
community for patients with life-changing illnesses to find other patients
like them, share their data with others, and learn more about their condition
to improve their outcome.
|
|
Gays.com
|
100,000
|
Social
network for LGBT community, Guide for LGBT bars,
restaurants, clubs, shopping
|
|
Blogster
|
85,579
|
Blogging community
|
|
Elixio
|
80,000
|
Business
executives jet set and global elite.
|
|
Hotlist
|
80,000
|
Geo-Social
Aggregator rooted in the concept of knowing where users' friends are, were,
and will be.
|
|
Wiser.org
|
71,600
|
Online
community space for the social justice and environmental movement[326]
|
|
WriteAPrisoner.com
|
66,000
|
Site
networking inmates, friends, family
|
|
Zooppa
|
60,000
|
Online
Community for Creative Talent (host of brand sponsored advertising contests)
|
|
Fuelmyblog
|
50,000
|
Blogging community
|
|
Dol2day
|
40,200
|
Politic
community, Social network, Internet radio (German-speaking countries)
|
|
Hub Culture
|
20,000
|
Global
influencers focused on worth creation
|
|
NGO Post
|
15,000
|
Non-Profit
news sharing and networking, mainly in India
|
|
Frühstückstreff
|
14,800
|
General
|
|
Advogato
|
13,575
|
Free and open
source software developers
|
|
Poolwo
|
12,350
|
Social
networking site from India
|
|
The Sphere
|
1,300
|
A
Private Online Social Luxury Network with Exclusive Personalized Services
|
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