Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is more than just a site which allows old friends to reconnect. It’s also the top dating site in many emerging markets, according to Jana, a market intelligence firm. The firm surveyed 1,500 Internet users between the ages of 18 and 30 in nine different emerging markets.
Facebook leads in multiple countries
Of course while Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is global, most other dating sites are regional in nature. Nonetheless, when breaking it down according to country, Facebook made the top of the list in numerous countries, including India, Nigeria, Mexico, Brazil and others. In Vietnam, 85% of those surveyed actually said Facebook was the site they used most for dating. Indonesia was close behind with 82%.
Match.com, which is a dedicated dating site many in the Western world are familiar with, did manage to make it toward the top of the list in some countries, landing in second place after Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) in South Africa and third place in the Philippines.
Twitter, MySpace also dominate in dating
Other big names which showed up on the list were Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) and MySpace. At least one of those two appeared in the lists of the top three dating sites for all nine of the countries which Jana surveyed. Both of them filled the second and third positions in four of the nine countries, with Twitter holding the second place and MySpace holding third.
So why were social networks like Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) rather than dedicated dating sites at the top of the list in a survey about dating sites? According to Jana’s blog post, many people perceive “specialized online dating services as being “untrustworthy.” However, they aren’t too shy about dating people they met online, as more than a third of those surveyed in each of the nine markets said they did date someone they met online. In Vietnam, that percentage is actually 67%, while Kenya follows close behind with 62%.
