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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12 biggest social-media websites in the world
Photographs: Robert Galbraith/Reuters
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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12 biggest social-media websites in the world
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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12 biggest social-media websites in the world
Photographs: Brendan McDermid/Reuters
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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12 biggest social-media websites in the world
Photographs: Mike Segar/Reuters
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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12 biggest social-media websites in the world
Photographs: Philippe Wojazer/Reuters
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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12 biggest social-media websites in the world
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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12 biggest social-media websites in the world
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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12 biggest social-media websites in the world
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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12 biggest social-media websites in the world
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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12 biggest social-media websites in the world
Photographs: Source, pinterest.com
Industry: Photo sharing
Founded: 2010
Headquarters: San Francisco, California
Monthly active users: 49 million (October 2013)
Year-on-year change: 14 per cent
Overall rank in monthly users: 10
Pinterest, which allows users to create photo collections based on themes, is one of the most visited websites in the world.
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12 biggest social-media websites in the world
Photographs: Source, eu1.badoo.com
Badoo
Industry: Social networking service
Founded: 2006
Headquarters: London, United Kingdom
Monthly active users: 25 million (October 2013)
Year-on-year change: 1 per cent
Overall rank in monthly users: 11
Badoo, a website that focuses on dating and hooking users up, operates in 180 countries in several languages.
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12 biggest social-media websites in the world
Orkut
Industry: Social networking service
Founded: 2004
Headquarters: Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Monthly active users: 9 million (October 2013)
Year-on-year change: Minus 109 per cent
Overall rank in monthly users: 12
Orkut, which has huge user base in Brazil, India and Japan, was created by Google employee Orkut Buyukkokten in 2004.
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