12 biggest social-media websites in the world

Image: Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg delivers a keynote address at Facebook's "fMC" global event.
Photographs: Mike Segar/Reuters

Internet users spend more time on social-media sites than on any other site, according to market researcher Nielsen. With more people accessing Internet and with the rise of mobile phones, these services are witnessing big growth.

Let's take a look at 12 biggest social-media sites in the world.

Source: Morgan Stanley

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Tags: Morgan Stanley , Nielsen

12 biggest social-media websites in the world

Image: Employees work in the international user operations area at the headquarters of Facebook in Menlo Park, California.
Photographs: Robert Galbraith/Reuters

Facebook

Industry: Internet

Founded: 2004

Headquarters: Menlo Park, California

Monthly active users: 1.16 billion (October 2013)

Year-on-year change: 33 per cent

Overall rank in monthly users: 1

Facebook, which was created by Mark Zuckerberg and others at Harvard University in 2004, is now a Fortune 500 company.

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Tags: Mark Zuckerberg , Harvard University , Menlo Park , California

12 biggest social-media websites in the world

Image: A man walks past a booth of Tencent Games during the China International Digital Content Expo in Beijing.
Photographs: China Daily/Reuters

Tencent

Industry: Media, Internet

Founded: 1998

Headquarters: Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

Monthly active users: 623 million (October 2013)

Year-on-year change: 5 per cent

Overall rank in monthly users: 2

Tencent, whose services include social networks, web portals, e-commerce and online games, is one of the biggest Internet companies in the world.

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Tags: Shenzhen , China , Guangdong

12 biggest social-media websites in the world

Image: Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, right, celebrates the Twitter IPO with founders Jack Dorsey, left, Biz Stone, second left, and Evan Williams on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Photographs: Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Twitter

Industry: Internet

Founded: 2006

Headquarters: San Francisco, California

Monthly active users: 232 million (October 2013)

Year-on-year change: 45 per cent

Overall rank in monthly users: 3

Twitter, which has been described more as an information network than a social network, is now one of the most visited websites in the world.

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Tags: San Francisco , California

12 biggest social-media websites in the world

Image: Founder of Linkedin Reid Garrett Hoffman, centre, applauds with CEO Jeffrey Weiner, secoond right, from the bell balcony at the New York Stock Exchange.
Photographs: Mike Segar/Reuters

Linkedin

Industry: Internet

Founded: 2003

Headquarters: Mountain View, California

Monthly active users: 198 million (October 2013)

Year-on-year change: 22 per cent

Overall rank in monthly users: 4

Linkedin, which is mainly used for professional networking, has more than 260 million users in 200 nations.

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Tags: Linkedin , Mountain View , California

12 biggest social-media websites in the world

Image: Kevin Systrom, CEO, Instagram, the popular photo-sharing app now owned by Facebook, displays his photo on a mobile phone at the LeWeb technology conference in Aubervilliers, near Paris, France.
Photographs: Philippe Wojazer/Reuters

Instagram

Industry: Photo and video sharing

Founded: 2010

Headquarters: San Francisco, California

Monthly active users: 150 million (October 2013)

Year-on-year change: N/A

Overall rank in monthly users: 5

Instagram, which allows users to take photos and videos and share them with others on Facebook, Twitter, etc., is distributed through the Apple App Store and Google Play.

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Tags: Instagram , Apple App Store , San Francisco , California

12 biggest social-media websites in the world

Image: A man holds an iPhone as he visits Sina's Weibo microblogging site in Shanghai.
Photographs: Carlos Barria/Reuters

Sina

Industry: Internet

Founded: 1998

Headquarters: Shanghai, China

Monthly active users: 107 million (October 2013)

Year-on-year change: 40 per cent

Overall rank in monthly users: 6

Sina, which operates Sina Weibo, Sina Mobile, Sina Online and Sina.net, is the biggest Chinese-language infotainment web portal in the world.

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Tags: Sina Weibo , Sina Online , Sina Mobile , China , Shanghai

12 biggest social-media websites in the world

Image: A man looks at a computer screen showing logos of Russian social network VKontakte in Moscow.
Photographs: Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters

VKontakte

Industry: Social networking service

Founded: 2006

Headquarters: St Petersburg, Russia

Monthly active users: 100 million (October 2013)

Year-on-year change: N/A

Overall rank in monthly users: 7

VKontakte, which is the second-biggest social network service in Europe after Facebook, dominates the Russian-speaking market.

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Tags: St Petersburg , Europe , Russia

12 biggest social-media websites in the world

Image: Homepage of Odnoklassniki.
Photographs: Source, odnoklassniki.ru

Odnoklassniki

Industry: Social networking

Founded: 2006

Headquarters: Moscow, Russia

Monthly active users: 66 million (October 2013)

Year-on-year change: 19 per cent

Overall rank in monthly users: 8

Odnoklassniki, which is one of the most visited sites in Russia and former Soviet Republics, is available in eight languages.

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Tags: Odnoklassniki , Russia , Moscow

12 biggest social-media websites in the world

Image: China's Renren Chairman and CEO, Joseph Chen, centre, is joined by executives and guests as he rings the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
Photographs: Euronext/Handout/Reuters

Renren

Industry: Social networking

Founded: 2005

Headquarters: Beijing, China

Monthly active users: 56 million (October 2013)

Year-on-year change: Minus 20 per cent

Overall rank in monthly users: 9

Renren, which is called the Facebook of China, mainly caters to college students.

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Tags: Renren , China , Beijing