The fastest growing Facebook nations in Asia (first quarter 2012)

A version of this article was first published on Grey Review.

Facebook has over 850 million users worldwide. Out of that, a total of 194 million users are from Asia at the end of March 2012. Most of these users from the Southeast Asia region – 97 million or 54% of the total Facebook users in Asia. Some other observations on the latest Facebook in Asia statistics:

1. In early February 2012, India surpassed Indonesia to become Facebook No. 1 Nation in Asia. Back in January 2011, India has 16.9 million Facebook users. Now, the country has over 45.9 million Facebook users.
2. In addition to India, Japan has been growing impressively in the past 1 year or so. Japan started the year 2011 with 1.8 million Facebook users. Today, there are over 8 million users in Japan.
3. South Korea has been growing with double digits figure. The country is now ahead of Pakistan in the Facebook in Asia list.
4. Among the top ten countries, India, Japan, and South Korea has been the high-growth Facebook nations since early 2011. Throughout 2012, Facebook will be focusing on these three countries for users acquisition, as the Big Blue of the social web aims to reach the 1 billion users mark.
5. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Mongolia, and Laos also posted double-digit growth in Quarter 1 of 2012.
6. Growth in countries like Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and Taiwan are growing at slower pace, likely due to saturation effect. For example, Facebook penetration in Malaysia is over 70%.
7. Between January and March this year, the total Facebook Asian users grew by 7%. However, the quarter-to-quarter growth rate has been on a downward trend since Quarter 1 of 2011. Facebook is expected to grow with single digit figure throughout 2012.
8. Total Facebook users in Asia will sail pass 200 million in Quarter 2 this year.

Images: Grey Review

About the author

Yung Hui Lim is the founder of the Grey Review, a blog focusing on tech startups, web application reviews, and social media in Asia and product manager at MOL, one of Southeast Asia’s largest Internet companies.