More than 600,000 Filipinos logon to Facebook daily

[Janette Toral]

I often get asked how many Filipinos are there in Facebook. Checking out AllFacebook of Philippines-based users yields around 611,000 to 612,000 logon everyday since March 1.

Majority of that are women at 353,000. Majority of that are in the age group - 18 to 34 years old (around 260,000). Dominant are college students or yuppies at 18-24 years old (around 150,000++).

The same age group dominates on the male segment as well.

The growth of Facebook users in the Philippines is still low in comparison to Friendster which has an estimated 13 million active users. Although it is growing noting that there were 489,420 users as of February 4 from 353,740 last November 27, 2008.

Of course, there are more Filipinos in Facebook if we will factor those who live abroad and are active in using the service.

[Janette Toral]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

@digitalenvironmentalist - I also still enjoy Friendster and continue to discover new folks with its "who viewed me" feature. I didn't play around with my template too much. I'm bothered though with their testimonials section. Mine is moderated and surprised when I get ones with adult content. The same challenge I encountered with the groups feature where adult content gets posted in the announcement section. Although I haven't seen such occurrence this year so far.

Facebook - I like the simplicity of the homepage and its consistency. It doesn't alienate a newbie or advance user since everyone has the same look. I like their chat, events, photos and videos feature. They took friends tagging to a different level.

Multiply - I think my network in Multiply is almost the same as elsewhere and that is why I don't see my friends updating much there. I tend to not accept invites from stores unless I know the person who owns it.

@Meikah - yes it is faster to connect in Facebook. I don't take those tests but do send gifts through Fluff and their "gift" application. I don't feel compelled though to return the favor as I don't expect those I give to do the same.

@Maita - I got feedback that there are 900k Filipinos in total at Facebook. No geographical data breakdown info at this point. I stay away from those supposedly gift applications that require you to "accept" in order to view them.

[Maita Siquijor]

Hi Ms. Janette. Very interesting figures here. You say "Facebook users in the Philippines". But how many Filipinos in total are using Facebook, regardless of what country they're based? Are there FB statistics that identify their geographic location? Also interesting would be to know what first prompted those in older age groups (35-44) to use FB, and why they continue to use it. I first got on it because of an invite from my alumni homecoming batchmates (to get organized for a project). Others got on it with specific interest to use it for business networking and are quite overt about it.

But personally, it thinks it's fun to use to link up with friends. I also just don't like the random gifts given--not so much the act, but what clicking on the 'accept button' entails. The application gets to access your personal details, which I don't like.

[Meikah Delid]

These are very interesting figures, Janette! What I like about Facebook is that it lets users become more interactive and get connected faster with each other. One think I don't like though is when you take some tests or given gifts by friends, you need to return the effort. :) It's good to "give back" or "return the favor" virtually but not the point of spamming. :) Here's the latest news on Facebook's privacy setting. :)

[digitalenvironmentalist]

I think Multiply is getting popular nowadays - 30% of the users are Pinoys! So far, it is mostly used by photo hobbyists/professionals/amateurs and online product marketing. I got my premium membership for a year to remove ads on my homepage. It is easy to upload photos and videos and provides updates thru emails which sometimes annoying.

[digitalenvironmentalist]

One more thing, you can play/change with the stylish template skin in Friendster, including background music. In Facebook, the homepage is the same with the rest of the members, only the lay-out and contents differ, depending on your interest! So far, I made it simple for easy navigation. By the way, you can chat with Facebook as well. For the first time, I watched the LIVE inaugural celebration of the newly elected US Pres, Barack Obama thru Facebook...

[digitalenvironmentalist]

My first social network is Friendster because it is more popular few years ago and the templates (especially for the blog section) is quite manageable, including posting of albums within the blog section. Editing and updating are easy to perform. Friendster is only popular in Asia, including Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. However, they made some changes especially the blog lay-out - quite pattern to blogger. What happened was that my original lay-out totally changed which really annoyed me - to the extent of reformatting my entries! To date I did not bother to revise it... There are free applications that are easy to install and display in the account. I think now Friendster has came up with the Tagalog version. Unlike Facebook, Friendster account does not really show the real identity of the person and the whole profile can be set for public viewing.

When I arrived UK in 2005 and visited US, Europe and Canada I found out that Facebook is quite popular especially with students. Since Im establishing networks here with friends and relatives, I decided to open an account in Aug 2007. I agree, it is more on Pinoys living abroad and it is the a legitimate social network to find the real identity of the person. It is only recent that brief facebook profile (with photo) could be searched thru google, but still you need to send a message to be accepted as friends. Then last year, Facebook changed it template again and the country network is also removed, but it is easy to create or join groups. Facebook has so much applications to choose from and it is tempting to apply them and have it visible in our main page. And now, I found out that there is another version of the homepage!!!!

Well, I think Facebook is more reliable source of information and much things to explore. I love the applications such as favourite movies, tv series, and books which are easy to apply and share with friends. If you have alot of interest and share with your friends or with other members, then Facebook is effective. This is the links of one of the photo albums

[Janette Toral]

Hi Azrael. I think because most Friendster users are in the younger ages versus Facebook. At the end of the day, it is really about where your friends are - is where you stay and spend time more.

[Azrael]

I think the usability of the interface is the reason why it can't top Friendster's active user.. hmmm but im not sure, maybe a good stats directly from facebook will sure get the precise number.